1 Christmas facts

Test your learners knowledge of Christmas with these ten questions.  You can either get them to write down their answer and pass it to the next person to mark (before returning it) and then take a class poll on what they think the right answer is.  I always throw out a few bonus points as they come to me.  After the question on the left I asked them to write down the names of the other reindeers, then looked them up online and gave out bonus points for each – it kept the game a little more exciting.

2 Around the World

If you liked the last Christmas Quiz then give this one a go too.  I think the questions are a little harder but if you think your learners are up for it then why not give it a go.  You can always play this quiz straight on the end of the last one if you are looking for a quiz with more than just 10 questions.  Play these two and you’ve doubled the amount of questions to 20.

3 Q’wick Q’westion Q’west

I don’t know how your multiple computer access situation is but when my learners are on a computer in pairs I’m lucky enough to have a large screen connected to a computer at the front of the class.  Learners told me where to click (moving from the reindeer towards the candy cane) and when they saw the question I gave them until the first pair said “next” to find the answer on the internet.  I then took the direction the pair that said next told me to take in the game.  This continued until we had finished.  If you want to be extra sneaky (and give slower ones a little more of a chance) then get learners to write the answer down.  You can then (sneakily) get them to write out questions to the answers they have written down at the end of the game.

4 CBBC Christmas Quizzes

The CBBC website has a few fun christmas quizzes up.  The nice thing about this page is that there are a few quizzes there for learners to work through autonomously on computers.  You can monitor and help with language (or even set an online dictionary for them to use) while learners take each quiz in turn.  Encourage them to make a note of how many points they score in each so that you can declare a winner at the end of the activity.

5 IWB Christmas Quiz

A downloadable interactive PowerPoint Quiz for Christmas from the people at tes. No searching questions here – just 15 multiple choice questions based around Santa, The Nativity and Traditions. Click on the correct answer and you’ll get a ‘Well Done’, but click on the incorrect answer and you’ll get a ‘Try Again’ for the opportunity to go back and have another go.

6 DIY Quizzes

Well sometimes it’s best just to do your own quiz so you can grade the language, add your own images and effects or simply so that it can be saved on a network computer for other teachers to use.  If this is the case then check out this website for a large list of Christmas questions and answers.  The site invites you to cut and paste but I find it’s a good idea to check their spelling and grade some of the language there for your own purposes.

7 More Merry Christmas Resources

This site has a mix of all the above.  There are interactive quizzes, ideas for questions with answers and explanations as well as video quizzes with audio.  It’s a bit like going to Santa’s grotto and having a lucky dip grab – you might be lucky and find something you really like here.

 8  Christmas Carols

If you are feeling extra adventurous then one idea might be to have a Christmas quiz that goes with Christmas Carols.  This quiz focusses on just that.  What would be great now is if you can find all these carols online on a video sharing site and play them while the question is up there.  Hey Presto!  You have a listening and reading activity.  Would be a great one to do but sadly I have two more ideas to come up with for this post so I’ll leave this one for you.

9 Triviapark Christmas Quiz

If you are not feeling so inspired to make your own Christmas Quizzes and you are simply looking for more to use in the connected classroom then here’s a nice little website.  There’s a novice level quiz as well as a regular level quiz, which is a little trickier, and also a more challenging expert level.  It’s worth making a note of the website too as there are a load of quizzes on all sorts of topics here.

10 PowerPoint Quizzes

There is some demand for downloadable PowerPoint quizzes that have already been made for you.  Here are some more.  A word of warning though – these have not been made with English language learners in mind so a little tweeking here and there may be needed.  Good luck!

1  Make Your Monster

In a computer room get young learners (7 – 9 yrs) to make their own monsters and write the description for their monster. e.g.

My monster has got green ears and green hands.  He’s got a square blue body.  He’s got red eyes, a big grey nose and sharp yellow teeth.

Collect their descriptions in and correct them.  If you can save their monsters (screen capture) too that’s great.  Then next class you can hand out the descriptions randomly to other students (making sure no-one gets the one they wrote) and students reproduce the monster from the description.  Compare with the original monster picture if possible.

2  Goose Bumps

Again in a computer room with young learners (7 – 9 yrs), another way to use the language from the previous activity is to make a monster yourself, write out the description for it and dictate it to your learners.  They have to listen and reproduce the monster you are describing. e.g.

He’s got an orange head. He’s wearing a grey suit with a red bow tie.  He’s got big strong green arms.  He’s got very short legs and they are yellow.  He’s very ugly.

Check to see if any of the student’s monsters are different and ask students if they can say what is wrong using the target language.  Praise them if they get it right.

3 Make a Monster

Drag the body parts on the left onto the create area and manipulate each part with the controls below.  The controls here are a little more complicated and the game a little more complex so I use this game with older learners (9 – 11 yrs).  You can use the game to stimulate a writing a description activity.  Language can be a little more complicated and have a greater range. e.g.

My monster likes eating small children.  He doesn’t like tidying his room and on Saturdays he likes to watch horror films.  He sleeps in the day and goes out at night to scare people.

If you can’t save the monster using screen capture then get your learners to copy the monster into their notebooks.  Give them 5-10 minutes to do this copying from the computer screen.  they can colour it in or add other details at home.

4 Halloween Monster

Play the game yourself and write/ type it out and print a single copy of the description out.  Then go to the computer room and ask students to sit in pairs.  direct them to the website and tell them they have to make this picture and show them the printed description.  Put the description on a wall (blu-tac) and tell one student in the pair they have to come up, read and go and tell their partner the description.  When they can’t remember any more they have to come back and read the next part and go back to their partner and repeat.  After 5 minutes the pair change roles.  Here’s an example of a description:

There is a brown path leading to a very tall scary house.  There are five lights on in the house.  The monster is on the right of the house. He’s standing to the right of the path in the middle.  He’s got a pumpkin’s head.  He’s got two grey arms that are reaching out towards the path.  He’s wearing some very old brown trousers and old brown shoes.

When they’ve finished they can look at other pairs’ monsters and spot any differences.

5 Zombie Creator

This is good for a bit of collaborative gaming and speaking in a connected classroom.  Display the game on a central screen and choose the create-a-scene option.  Then encourage learners to dictate to you what to put in the scene.  You input language as it’s needed and encourage learners to repeat the language.  There is some quite select language that comes up so it may help to make a note of the language you expect to elicit and for learners to use. e.g. (see image on the left)

The skulls are flashing.           There is a ghost on the left.          They are in a wood with a moon.           There is a birthday cake.

The zombie on the left is coming out of the ground

As a follow up put learners in teams and they have to write down the scene remembering as much of the language as possible.  Encourage them to ask you how to spell words.

6 Halloween Fright Site

If you want a template for a halloween card then use this site.  There are a few designs using various costumes associated with halloween (skeleton, ghost, and a witch) along with a selection of different backgrounds.  You can choose to have the design coloured in by default or left in black or white.  Once learners have a finished design they can print it off.

• If it’s in black and white do a collaborative open class colouring in dictation.

• If you print off coloured in designs then get your learners to write a halloween recipe, story or poem.

7 Trick or Treat Dress Up

8 Ghost Dress Up

9 Halloween Dress Up

This computer room relay dictation activity has a lesson plan for it posted on this blog already.  Just click on the link or picture to read all about it.  The language covered includes:

has got / is wearing

colour / clothes/ parts of the body

10 Funny Halloween

 Learners open up two internet explorer pages.  On the first one they have 5 minutes to create their character.  When the time limit is up pair two computers together.  Computer A goes to their second internet explorer page which is set to the beginning of the game. Computer B describes their character for Computer A to listen to and reproduce.  When they have finished they should compare and discuss the differences and count them up.  They then repeat but swap roles.  At the end decide which of the pair had the least differences.  Then decide which team in the whole class had the least differences.  Ask them if this is the result of them being good listeners or the others being the best describers.

10 more days to Halloween!

1 Gaming For Education

A presentation on the why, which and how games can be used in the language learning classroom.  Several games are looked at including materials adapted specifically for skills and language work to be used in conjunction with the game.  If a few of the slides look familiar it’s because Graham Stanley is one of the authors of this blog.

2 Digital Educational Game: pedagogical design and development

This slideshow looks at the educational design of games as well as their value as educational tools.  They also outline a seven stage rapid game development model for anyone out there interested in developing their own educational game.

3  Creating Contexts for Language Learning in Gavinburn Primary School  

A look at how this Primary Class is hoping to increase pupil interest in computing science through project work on video games.  This is an attempt to introduce cross curricular ICT projects that are more fun and engaging.

4 3D Virtual Worlds for Language Learning

Avatar Languages is a language academy based and teaching within the virtual world called Second Life, which has the look and feel of a video game but without the goals and rules governing a video game.  in fact, the rules, aims and objectives have been very much left to people who populate the world.

5 Epic Win – Why Gaming is the Future of Learning

Jane McGonigal presents her argument for how the phenomena and popularity of gaming is quite natural and should be seen as quite positive if we are to move forward and achieve life’s goals in the modern connected world.

6 Computer Game Based Learning in Secondary Schools

A look at a video game based learning project conducted in Scotland.  The presentation makes the message that the methods they use are more relevant to the pupil’s worlds than other strategies employed within the traditional state educational system.

7 Video Games, Virtual Environments & Higher Education

A presentation on the pros and cons of adapting video games and virtual environments into higher education.  As well as promoting the benefits the presentation seeks to provide a balance by also considering the negative aspects associated with video games before reaching a conclusion.

8 How Games Mesh with Formal Education.

This Danish perspective presents the argument that we should use video games in education purely because of their monumentous presence within modern culture and their influence on other mainstream media.

9 Gamify Learning: Learning & Teaching Through Having Fun 

An asian viewpoint this time from Hong Kong University.  This looks at how video games have such a great appeal to young learners, the challenges inherent within video games and a closer look at how specific games can be used within the school curriculum to enhance learning.

10 Games in School Teacher Survey

A presentation form the Games in Schools Conference held in 2009 for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.  This slideshow looks at the results of a survey amongst 528 teachers who were either using video games already or had not used them at all.  Expectations, obstacles and educational impact were just some of the areas looked at.

1  Point and click

These games rely on you moving the cursor around the screen and clicking the mouse.  By printing off a written walkthrough or by using a video walkthrough, a large variety of language activities can be generated.   Try a relay dictation using either a written or video walkthrough or simply use either of them yourself to dictate game play.  Alternatively check out these games – the anti-bullying Dixie the Nerd, a selection of ten point-and-click games and their walkthroughs or Windosill.

2 Escape the room

A sub genre of point and click games where typically you have to find and possibly combine objects in a room or house to get out through a locked door.  As previously mentioned above, with a written walkthrough or a video walkthrough a large variety of language activities can be generated.  You could also get learners to write out their own walkthroughs as they play.  Alternatively check out these games – MOTAS, Kitchen Escape or the scary reader for the the zombie game I Remain.

3 Arcade

Arcade games generally rely on reaction speeds rather than logic or puzzle solving skills. Passing to the next stage usually means completing a simple task within a specific time limit. The next stage and subsequent stages usually require the player to complete the same task but with an increasing complexity or in a faster time. Language generated tends to be quite simple and repetitive.  Some of these games are great for drilling the language of directions (pacman), colours (sveerz) and spelling (Alphaattack and Type ‘em up).

4. Puzzle Games

These games tend to be quite abstract and typically involve arranging geometric forms to achieve a goal (e.g. Tetris). Puzzles usually involve solving rather simple problems. Problem solving games generally test a players awareness of patterns and/ or short term memory.  Language generated tends to be isolated to individual language items such as object vocabulary, instructions and prepositions.  Puzzle games include spookymatch or Orbox.  They are great games to play as a reward for good work or behaviour as they are generally over very quickly or can be paused and returned to later.

5 Strategy Games

This is a game in which the gamer is presented with a number of possible choices in game play which will effect how they progress in the game. Try the games stop disasters, 3rd world farmer or Age of Empires.  The first two provide a context for some interesting discussions when used in a classroom while the last one takes place over a longer time frame and provides writing practice and an opportunity for learners to report on the game and progress in class time.

6 Adventure Games

Adventure games are a sub genre of point and click games but usually differ in that the game has got strong narrative elements.  There is usually a central character, a storyline, objectives to be achieved, an enemy and an outcome at the end.  Games covered in this genre on this blog include Morningstar (a sci-fi story), The Miller Estate (a spooky mystery), Hetherdale ( a jungle adventure) and Avalon (a fantasy text based adventure game) to name just four.

7 Casual Games

These games are aimed at a mass audience of people who tend to play games on a casual basis.  These games have been brought into the news recently with their rise in popularity on social network sites such as facebook.  Games such as farmville, mafia wars, scrabble like game, word games and puzzles can all be included in this genre.  Why not ask your learners if they play any and if they play any in common then get them to describe and compare their game playing.  Here’s a list of 10 casual games on facebook.

8 Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs)

Is a computer role playing genre in which a massive number of players interact with one another within a fictional virtual world.  The player assumes the role and takes control of the actions of a fictional character.  There are a lot of MMORPGs out there but one we have looked at already on this blog is Astro Empires.  The most famous MMORPG is probably World of Warcraft.

9 Alternate Reality Games

Sometimes abbreviated to an ARG.  These games consist of an interactive narrative that is based in the real world.  Typically they often use multiple media and game elements, to establish a narrative that the gamer can affect by either contributing ideas or taking actions.  Two ARGs we’ve already looked at on this blog were Smokescreen and Urgent Evoke.  We have also done a spotlight on ARG developer Jane McGonigal.

10 Virtual Worlds

This is a computer based simulated environment which has a strong online community element.  A virtual world such as second life has generated a lot of interest in education.   Here is a post we did on a Robin Hood learning Quest in Second Life.

1 Escape The Room Games

A lot of the escape games here take place in rooms within a house and so target a lot of vocabulary sets associated with furniture and household objects.  You can find walkthroughs for a lot of the games here by typing in:

“the name of the game” +walkthrough

in an online search engine.

Choose a fairly simple game for your learners to play. They can also open a word document and write down the instructions on how to complete the game.

2. Casual Girl Gamer

This is a blog that describes, reviews and links to free online games.  There are also articles about game developers.  This is a great site for finding not only fun games but also a great source for reading material.  Get learners to design their own scan reading activity.  Here are just three questions as an example:

What do you have to gain control of in ‘My little army’? (Myth balls)

How much does the Nintendo 3DS cost?($249 / £220)

Which Platformer game mentions a dessert? (Robot wants ice cream)

3. Jay Is Games

A nice website offering lots of different online games to play online and download.  Again lots of language in each games review for learners to read and extract gaming vocabulary, adjectives or just language they find interesting.  Use the navigation bar at the top to find your way around – don’t forget to bookmark the games you really like.

4. Daily Dress Up

A website dedicated to all manner of dress up games.  It’s also a great springboard to other sites if you can get round to checking out some of the links running down the left hand side.  Play one yourself and write the description for your learners to read and reproduce in the game.  Alternatively learners make their own, write a physical description, daily routines or a short story.

5.  Social Impact Games

If you would like to use games that aim to educate as well as entertain then this site is as good as any as a place to start looking.  We’ve posted a few of the games you’ll find here on the Digital Play blog (such as Third World Farmer) and no doubt continue to do so.  Using games with a real world message behind them are great for extracting vocabulary and then using as a discussion platform.

6. ks3Bitesize

The BBC are aiming games at schools here and many of them cover subjects such as English, maths and science.  The nice thing about this ks3 Bitesize is that you can be sure that both the site and the game content is young learner friendly.  Check them out and you may be in for a pleasant surprise.

7.  Gamershood

One of the earliest gaming websites I started using to find games to use in the classroom.  There’s certainly a lot of choice here and the games have been conveniently organised into genres such as room escape, point and click, adventure and over a dozen more.  There’s even a star rating for each so you can see before hand which are the most popular and the most fun.

8. Free Online GamesI’ve just looked up ‘online games’ on a search engine and this came up as the first link.  On first appearances it looks like there are a lot of games just calling for quick reflexes and not a lot of language but if you look a little further you’ll find a lot more games using the tags running down the right hand side of the page.  Interestingly enough I had this page up on an IWB and got quite a lot of language production from learners talking about what they could see, predicting the game content, discussing what kind of games they liked and so on.

9. Minijuegos

Unless you speak spanish or Italian then I wouldn’t go here as this site doesn’t have an English language option.  Why is it here then?  Well, you have to remember that for all the online searching you do you are probably forgetting your most valuable online tool – your learners.  If they play any online games then find out what they like (speaking practice) and maybe write a description down of what they’d like to see in class (writing).  You can tell them yourself what games you prefer to use (listening) and maybe even write a description down for them to take away with (reading) and find.  Get them to adapt a walkthrough to a game they like and bring it in to use in a future class.

10. Whitestick

A no frills website specialising in online text adventures.  There might be very little in the way of graphics but what is lacking in visuals in the selection here is more than made up for.  In text adventures the gamer reads the story and interacts with the narrative by typing in text commands.  There’s even a text to speech converter you can download so that the written text gets converted into spoken text.  Reading or listening practice – it’s your choice!

I’m sure you’ve all done it/ do it.  Tired?  Need some time to think?  Is it maybe a nice ‘quiet down’ activity?  Do your learners need to focus on a little writing and controlled practice? Are they learning? Peer teaching maybe?  Problem is learners tend to find these activities a bit boring and sometimes lack the motivation to do them or do them well.  Offering a little digital bribery can work wonders.  How?  I’ll tell you.  Offering the first student to finish a chance to have a go at a digital game can be a great way to get them focused on producing language and completing ‘book’ like exercises.  In this way ‘dong the book’ becomes a game in itself.

I’ve posted below a selection of ten online ‘incentive’ games (in no particular order) and a brief description on how to use them.

Rocket Escape is a simple arcade game where you have to control the direction and power of a jet pack to move your jumping rocket traveller from platform to platform.  Have this game open on a computer in the classroom.   Tell learners that the first one to bring you the correct answers to exercise 2B, for example, gets to move the rocket man to the next platform.  As learners come up tick the sentences that are right and tell them to go and sit down and look at and correct the sentences you haven’t ticked.  When a learner gets all the sentences right ask them to read them out to the class before having their go on the game.

Orbox is a puzzle game where you have to move the flashing light around the squares to the red exit without falling off the screen.  This is a great incentive for young learners to write out directions (turn left/ right, go up/down). Ask learners to work in pairs to write out the directions/ instructions for the game on the screen.  The first pair to finish shouts stop and reads out the instructions. As they read them out you play the game.  If they get it right go to the next screen and repeat.  If they get it wrong the flashing light falls off the screen and starts from the beginning.

Skyscraper parcours In this game you run across roof tops jumping from one to the other.  The more roofs you clear the faster you run.  This is a great incentive game for getting learners to write short sentences or produce short but complex sentences orally.  The game itself gets very difficult very quickly so its best that any language exercise you ask learners to do is fairly short to mirror the pace and duration of this addictive and adrenaline fuelled incentive game.

Solipskier is an unusual game in that you have to draw the ski course under the skiers feet as he goes along (using the mouse).  I’ve used this game after activities from the book that took a while to finish.  No other criteria other than that.  ”Ok you’ve finished the exercise.  We’ve done the corrections.  Now I think X did very well so they can play the game.”  I then try and spread my choices (over several classes) between the high achievers and the high tryers.  In this way I can reward effort as much as achievement.

Bowman is one the boys like, especially when it’s played between two players or the computer.  Why is it popular?  It involves a little gore (as much as stick man can be gory – i.e. there’s blood).  You click on the mouse to place an arrow, drag back on the mouse to draw the bow and release the mouse button to fire.  Hit the other bowman and see the blood flow.  This is a great activity to encourage short bursts of writing in between goes on the game.  It takes a few goes in the game to get some accuracy so make sure you get the most out of your learners in the meantime.

Fylde sounds simple enough, use the keyboard to move left and right to avoid the black squares.  It’s when the coloured squares appear that you start to get teleported up then down that it gets difficult.  I use this at the beginning of the class and let the two learners who have done the best homework play against each other.  Don’t forget to keep a record of the score for the next time you play. If they start to get too good you know they are practicing outside the class room and it’s time to change the game.

Grammar Ninja is my incentive to get my learners quiet, things tidied away and ready to leave at the end of the class.  If they don’t listen, mess about or take too long they just don’t get to play this.  the great thing is that the game is about identifying language elements in a sentence but in a fun way.  That means they enjoy it enough to want to play it but not that into it that if I want to interrupt it and send them on their way there aren’t too many complaints.  Great!

I live and work in Spain so it was nice to find a game such as Extreme Pamplona for my learners to play.  Run from the bull and jump over the obstacles in the fastest time possible.  Keep a note of learners’ best times in a book.  There are actually other stages to this game but I just stick to the first one (set in Spain) and challenge learners to beat the record of the the fastest to date.  When to play this?  well just for fun if the class has been good and a change in focus is required.

Shopping Cart Hero is short, sweet and fun.  To encourage learners more in pair work speaking activities I set up the activity and tell them I’ll walk by listening and let the two who do the best play the game.  Learners are more motivated in their speaking activities and I sometimes choose the weaker learners basing my choice on effort rather than attainment.  It’s nice to let learners know that effort is just as rewardable and a part of ‘doing well’ as attainment.

Guess how long and what you have to do in 10 second escape.  You have 10 seconds to find objects, solve the puzzle and escape the room.  I use this with higher levels after typical workbook fill the gaps exercises.  Only one thing – the game gets played by the learner who finishes exercises correctly first but so that the class doesn’t see the game the screen is turned away from the class.  When a learner finishes a stage they have twenty seconds to describe the game to the class.  This is so that the next learner who plays has an advantage in the game.

What makes a good ‘incentive to work game?  Games that:

1. are turn based.
2. have got no time limit.
3. require quick reaction times.
4. have a quickly increasing skill level.
5. need only the mouse to interact with.
6. are challenging to play.
7. are fun to play and simple to look at.
8. have easy to understand instructions and rules.
9. can be paused and returned to with ease.
10. have content appropriate for your learners.

1 Il Destino

The game

The walkthrough

Explore the car show room and find objects which interact with each other and solve puzzles in order to get the sports car out.  The game can be played in tandem with the walkthrough as a reading activity (along with an online dictionary to hand) or as a relay dictation in a computer room.  A popular game with juniors.

2 Chronon

The game

The walkthrough

A complex game in which you have to pay particular attention to what time you set the clock.  You are a pet to a strange creature that lives underground.  You have to escape before the the creature gets home.

Works very well as a computer room activity with juniors working in pairs at a computer where one plays the game and the other oversees their playing with a copy of the walkthrough.

3 Nesquik Quest

The game

The walkthrough

The style of graphics here make this a very suitable game for primaries.  Language content here focuses on both the vocabulary items that appear in the game and imperatives and prepositions.  This works well as a live listening in the computer room with the teacher using a single copy of the walkthrough to dictate the game play to learners .

4 Evolver

The game

The walkthrough

Visually fun looking game in which you have to solve puzzles in order for your monkey to pass through various stages of evolution until he becomes a primitive man.  Though this can be a little complicated at times, with the use of a walkthrough its possible to play this game in a connected classroom with learners suggesting possible courses of action to take in the game.  By using the walkthrough its possible for the teacher to know what comes yet and ‘guide’ the class towards the correct solution using hints and clues.

5 A bark in the dark

The game

The walkthrough

Point and click game where you collect items, solve the problems and feed the dog.  A short game for the computer room.  Either conducted as a gaming dictation with the teacher using a walkthrough, a reading with the learners using two internet explorer windows to play the game and read the walkthrough on or as a relay dictation with a single copy of a walkthrough stuck up on the wall.

6  The Blue Room

The game

The walkthrough

A short escape the room game that can either be done as a connected classroom activity.  Very good for generating basic vocabulary of the objects that appear in the game and prepositions of place.  Due to the simplicity of the game it can be used to stimulate a ‘write the walkthrough’ activity in open class.  Alternatively use it as a fast finishers activity in the computer room.

7 Bodilies

The game

The walkthrough

Bodilies is a graphic adventure that features an elaborate audio-visual production and an engaging story.  Present this as a visual reader rather than a point and click game because although there is some interaction and puzzle solving elements this game’s strength lies in its written text.  Use with higher level teens as a computer room quiet reading activity.

8 The Covert Front

The game

The walkthrough

Covert Front is a point and click spy game, where you become an agent code-named Kara and investigate the disappearance of general Karl.  Great used as a reading activity in the computer room for juniors or a relay dictation.

9 Detective Grimoire

The game

The walkthrough

You play as Private Detective Grimoire himself in the game and you have to figure out who killed Hugh Everton. There is lots of reading practice in this game but also extensive elements of a point and click game with solving clues, discovering evidence, talking to witnesses and eventually solving the mystery.  Use with higher levels in the computer room with the walkthrough as something to use if learners get stuck in the game.

10 Hapland II

The game

The walkthrough

This is one of the sequels to the point and click game Hapland which appeared in a post in this blog some time ago.  This version has a walkthrough  which uses screenshots which can be used to generate language.  Use this game in a connected classroom to elicit conditional phrases about what happens in the game.

1  Dark wood

Level Low Level Primary learners in a connected classroom

Play Read the story in your best scary voice and encourage your learners to join in.  When it comes to the ‘spot the cat’ bits in the game  get your learners to describe where the cat is or build dialogues between you and the class:

“Is it under the tree?”              “No!”

“Is it behind the tree?”            “No!”

“Is it in the tree?”                   “YEAH!”

2     Pumpkin carving

Level Low Level Primary learners in a connected classroom

Play Why not drill the language of giving directions (“up, down,  left,  right and stop”) in a fun way.  Carve an online pumpkin blind man’s bluff style.  Blind fold a learner who listens to their classmates instruct them on how to carve the pumpkin.  The class can rate their classmates pumpkins out of ten after each learner has taken their turn.   Declare the winner/s at the end of the activity.

3 Ghost Hunter

Level Any Level Primary or Juniors in a connected classroom.

Play Do you award points in class as a way of maintaining discipline?  Well what do points make? Prizes?  How about points make seconds  which they play a game?  In one really difficult class I  gave points for everything – the person who opens their books on the right page, whoever completed the exercise first and whoever got the answers right.  Points for just using basic classroom language.  I took points away just as quickly – last to open their book, not listening and not working on their exercises.  At the end of the class, count up individual’s points, convert into seconds and let the highest scorers play first.  The learners to score the highest in the game get to leave the class first.

4 Funny Halloween

Level Intermediate Juniors in a computer room

Play Done that unit from the book on clothes?  Then why not set a writing activity using a game.  As learners play this game they write down the description of what their character is wearing.  Each Learner then swaps descriptions with another learner and try to reproduce the character’s costume.  The learner who wrote the description can then judge the reproduction saying what differences there are between the reproduction and the original.

5 Garfield Scavenger Hunt

Level Intermediate and above Juniors in a computer room.

Preparation Print a copy of the walkthrough

Play Do a relay dictation using the game’s walkthrough and the game itself.  Blu-tac the walkthrough to the door in the computer room.  Learners can now take it in turns to go to the walkthrough, read and return to their ‘ game playing’ partner and relay the walkthrough information that they remember.    Learners  swap after 3 minutes.  Encourage them to ask you to define difficult vocabulary.

6 Halloween wordsearch

Level Any Level Primary or Junior learners in a computer room.

Play This is a fun vocabulary activity.  Learners note down the vocabulary and when they return to the classroom they can make a Halloween poster using the new vocabulary items for inspiration.  Ask about what they are drawing as you monitor and take an interest in what they are doing. Finally, Learners label the objects they drew on the poster.

7 Trick or Treat Bear

Level Upper Intermediate Juniors or seniors in a classroom

Preparation Print a copy of the ‘Too many clicks spoil the walkthrough‘ for each  learner.

Pre-Play Learners read the walkthrough and ask teacher about/ look up in a dictionary any of the difficult language.  Learners work in pairs to identify and cross out the repetitive language (verbs) and add a range of different verbs.   They should also expand on any of the text (e.g adding articles) when possible.

Play Learners play the game for homework using their expanded walkthrough.  They should make any changes they feel is appropriate or that makes the walkthrough better.  Next class discuss and compare the changes they made to their walkthroughs at home.

8 Halloween Escape

Level Intermediate and above Seniors in a computer room

Preparation Play the game yourself using the walkthrough to assess whether the content of this game is appropriate for your learners.

Play Learners play the game in order to create and write down their own walkthrough.  As they play they should write down where and what they did in each location.  Monitor, input language and make sure that walkthrough is being written.  If learners are playing the game and not doing the activity then they have to start the game again.

9  Trick or Treat Adventure Quest

Level Upper Intermediate Seniors in a computer room.

Preparation Print a copy of the walkthrough for yourself.

Play This is like a ‘picture dictation’ but more a ‘play dictation’.  Using the walkthrough dictate to your class how to do the game.  Monitor their screens to check on their progress and encourage them to ask questions to clarify any difficult language points.

10 Spelloween

Level Advanced Seniors in a computer room

Play Looking for a quick word building activity for your advanced learners? Then this is a nice little warmer.  Learners play individually or in pairs and when they have finished they compare their score with other the groups.  The highest scorer wins.  As a follow up activity in the classroom, how many can they remember and write down?  Check their spelling and can they describe the meaning of the words to the class?

Notes

Primaries are aged between 7 – 11 years old, Juniors 11 – 14 and Senior 14+.

Computer room = a room with enough computers stations (with an internet connection) for two learners to a computer.

Connected classroom = A classroom equipped with a computer station (with an internet connection and possibly a data projector  or electronic whiteboard).

Classroom = You, your learners, writing materials and printed worksheets and a Whiteboard/ blackboard.

376          1 million       24.84 million      2,468        214       156        379,552,748       200 million    45.7 million    161,600   100 million

1 Most people dressed as a videogame character.

On May the 29th 2009 the MCM (Movie Comic Media) expo was held in London and _______ enthusiastic participants got dressed up as their favourite video game character.   If you could dress up as a videogame character, which one would you be?

2  The Fastest selling DS title

When the Nintendo DS (dual screen) version of Pokémon Platinum went on sale in Japan in September of 2008, it sold over _____________ copies in the first two days that it went on sale.  Pokémon is a combination of the words ‘pocket’ and ‘monster’.  How many can you name?

3  The best-selling FPS franchise

HALO has sold over _____________ copies world wide making it the best-selling FPS (First Person Shooter) in history.  At the moment the fourth in the series HALO: REACH is set for release in September this year.  Do you know the name of the main character pictured on the left?

4  The most money taken by a single arcade machine

The most income generated by a single arcade machine in just one week was $____________ in the states in 1993.  The arcade machine played the game NBA Jam which is a basketball game.  Have you ever played an arcade machine?

5 The game with the largest in-game soundtrack

The highly rated GTA (Grand Theft Auto) IV has ___________ licensed music tracks that can be heard while playing the game.  The previous record holder was, in fact, GTA: San Andreas with _________ tracks.  Did you know that Burt Reynolds, Chris Penn, Ice T, Kyle Maclachlan, Michael Madsen, Phil Collins, Ray Liotta, Ricky Gervais, Samuel L. Jackson and many more actors have appeared or provided their voices in the game.

6  The most successful movie franchise based on a videogame

The series of Resident evil films have all together generated revenue greater than $_________________ and with a fourth called Resident Evil: Afterlife due for release later this year, it looks like that figure will increase.  The story follows the outbreak of a biological weapon that causes monstrous mutations in evryone and everything that it comes into contact with.

7  The most successful game franchise

The honour of this title goes to a short fat character with a black moustache.  That’s right, Mario.  The Mario series have sold over __________________ copies worldwide.  Did you know he first appeared in a game called Donkey Kong?  at this time though, he wasn’t called Mario yet.  He was called jumpman.

8 The best selling videogame

Wii sports sold over ________________ copies from between the time it was launched in 2006 to May of 2009.  With this game you can play a physical game of Tennis, Bowling or Boxing in the comfort of your own living room.  Do you know anyone who has played one of these games?

9  The largest environment in a videogame

In the PC and Xbox role playing game called The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall it is possible to explore over ______________ km² of in-game land.  This area contains villages, towns, cities and dungeons.

10  The best selling PC series

The very popular life-simulation game called The Sims has proved to be the best selling PC series in the world with over _______________ sold around the world.  Did you know that Lily Allen, The Black-eyed Peas and the Pussycat Dolls (and other bands) have all re-recorded songs in Simlish – the official language of the Sims.

Answers:  They are in the right order at the top

1 Computer games make maths fun in school.

An article from the online UK Guardian newsgroup about how a school in nottinghamshire is developing lesson plans and activities for the wii sport.  The console game is being used as a platform to enrichstudents learning experience in a maths class and seems to be proving very popular with students.

2. Using ICT to inspire a creative approach to writing

Homepage for the MYST writing project which sees a visually stimulating adventure video game called MYST to stimulate writing.  It is being used in over 200 schools in Kent, England.

3 .Video games valid learning tools

BBC article that talks about a study stating that video games may be more effective than reading written text.  Looks at a video game set in Victorian England and how pupils retain facts from the game.

4. Research shows video games lead to fewer mistakes on the operating table

Article by the American newsgroup USATODAY on how viddeo games are being used to improve hand eye coordination skills in surgeons.  Playing video games before going into surgery increases a surgeon’s success rate.

5 Consolarium on BBC News – Gaming in Education

Scotland’s Derek Robertson explains how gaming education projects with the Nintendo DS are motivating and improving attainment in Scottish Students.

6 Unlocking learning through video games with Clasemovil

Online technology article by Techcrunch about a South American fun learning community project that seeks to target a wide range of the curriculum using educational games.

7 Free online games develop ESL students’ language skills

Tech and learning article by Larry Ferlazzo, an teacher, blogger and materials developer.  He talks on how he has successfully incorporated gaming into the English language learning classroom with young learners..

8 How Video games changed a generation of athletes

Wired article on how an American football game win owed its winning strategy to a video game inspired move.

9. Using World of Warcraft to Teach English?

Gaming website Gamasutra interviews Edd Schneider and Kai Zeng who presented their idea for ‘ English Speaking Players as In-Game Content: New Ideas for Marketing to Youth in Asia at a Game Developer’s Conference.

10 Fast ForWord program designed to improve literacy skills

This is a reading intervention program based in the United States that claims to not only improve literacy skills but also leads to stronger memory and greater self esteem.  Have a look at some of the sample games they have.