Class Dojo (http://www.classdojo.com) is a realtime behaviour management system for teachers who have an internet-enabled computer and a projector (connected classroom)or IWB.

You start by creating an account and setting up a class by typing in the names of your students. Avatars for each student are automatically generated during this process.

In class, you select a student and award a positive point for behaviour such as creativity, hard work, presentation, etc.

You can also award negative points for bad behaviour, when a student doesn’t bring homework or if he/she arrives late, etc.

Think of it like a digital star chart with added extras. The points can be awarded individually or, by selecting all students, you can give everyone a point. On the board, you can show only the positive or only the negative points the students get.

You can also undo if you make a mistake or change your mind, and it’s possible to reset all points to zero too. So far so good, but what makes Class Dojo really interesting is that once the class has ended, the programme displays a pie chart with the results of all student behaviour.

If you use Class Dojo every class, then you can select periods of time (days of the week, terms, etc) to display records of. You can also choose individual students and display their progress.

These are report cards that you can print off (on paper or PDF) for your own records or to give to the students or parents. You can also add and change the behaviour categories when you select ‘edit class’. This way you can tailor make the programme to suit the behaviour you want to reward or stop in your own class.

All in all, Class Dojo looks like it is a great way of gamifying the behaviour of your class and could work well for many teachers. A great find! Please let us know here if you find it useful.

Topic: Discussing a sequence of events

Language Focus: Linkers and sequencers, (first of all, then, after that, finally, etc)

Location: Classroom/ Computer room

Game: War Bears: Mission 1

I like this game because well, it’s fun first and foremost.  It’s also very easy to keep an eye on learner’s progress in the game as 90% of the game takes place in the screenshot you can see below.  It’s one of the longest walkthroughs you’ll have seen to date on the Digital Play Blog with a word count just shy of 300, so lots of language to process..  You may have to show learners how to fight in the game – place the cursor over the Bear in the Bandana on the roof and then click on one of the fight options that appear in the mini drop down window.  You also have to stress that they have to restart the mission (by pressing the button in the top right hand corner) if any of the War Bears or hostages get killed.  Have fun!

Screenshot of the game ‘War Bears’

Preparation

Print out a copy of the cut up War Bears Walkthrough one copy for each group of 3 or 4 learners. Cut the sections up and shuffle them.

Pre-Play

1. Write ‘game walkthrough‘ on the board and ask learners what they think it means.
2. Tell learners they are going to play a game but first they have to order the game walkthrough in the correct order.
3. Hand out a copy of the War Bears Walkthrough to each group of leaners and set a time limit of 5 minutes.  Learners should be encouraged to use the target language (language focus above).
4. Feedback and ask learners to compare and justify their order.  Learners should again be encouraged to use the target language (language focus above).
5. Read out the headings in the correct order to give the answer.

Play

1. In the computer room tell learners they are going to play the game competitively.
2. They should use the game walkthrough and the pair who has got the furthest through the game at the end of the computer room session is the winner.
3. For help with language they may ask you or use an online dictionary.
4. Monitor to make sure the walkthrough is being used.
5. Stop the activity and declare a winner.

Post Play

• Set the remainder of the walkthrough as a reading activity for homework.
• Learners extract the nouns and organise them in a ‘gamers dictionary’ and write a definition/ translation.
• Write a short story based on the game starting with the sentence:

“When the War Bears arrived they found that the Brown Bears had taken several hostages. It looked like an impossible mission for the WB team.”

• Write a newsflash news report that covers the events in the game.
  

Level: Intermediate

Location: Classroom

Skills Focus: Speaking / writing about a robbery

Language Focus: Past simple, sequencers

Game: Heist

This online game involves passing through four rooms solving puzzles so you can finally steal secret plans.  In this classroom activity you can download the floor plan of the game with the puzzles and obstacles fully described for your learners to discuss in a speaking activity.

Preparation

Download a copy of the Heist Layout for each pair.

Pre-task

1. Divide the class into pairs and tell them to draw two columns Present & Past
2. Dictate the present tense forms of the verbs below and learners write the past tense.
3. 
4. Feedback to make sure the past tenses are correct.
5. Write a list of sequencers on the board e.g. first of all, then, after that, as soon as, when, finally, etc

Speaking activity

1. Explain that there was a robbery last night in the school and one of the students stole the answers to a test.
2. Hand out the the Heist Layout picture.
3. Ask learners where in the picture the test answers are (answer: on the table in the fourth room).
4. Ask learners how they think the student got into the school (answer: they hid in the box in room 1)
5. Pick or ask for a volunteer to read the information about the four rooms aloud.  Check understanding.
6. Tell learners to take it in turns to tell their partner how they think the student the tests answers.  Use the information about the rooms, the verbs above in the past tense and as many sequencers as they like.

Post activity

Learners write down a report on how they think the heist was done.

Homework

Tell Learners the game tutorial shows them exactly what happened.  For homework they play the game at home and correct their Heist Report to make what happened like how the game plays.

NOTE – They can find the game by googling – “free world group” heist

Language: Prepositions of place

Skills Focus: Listening/ speaking

Location: Classroom room

Game: Happy Christmas Escape

Father Christmas wants to deliver his presents but he is locked in a house and he can’t get out.  Help him to find the keys that will help him escape.

Preparation

Familiarise yourself with the walkthrough to this game.  Also make a list of useful vocabulary.  The vocabulary that is necessary to complete the game is listed below but you may want to preteach others or deal with them as you play.

Play

1. Sit your learners in front of the screen with a clear view of the game.
2. Explain the problem – that father Christmas needs to escape form the house in order to deliver all the Christmas presents he’s got for all the good children.
3. Elicit vocabulary by asking ‘What’s this (called)? or ‘Where’s the X?’
4. Elicit from your learners what you need to do and where you need to look/ go.
5. You can give hints by saying ‘you’re getting closer/ warmer’ or ‘you’re getting further away/ colder’.

To keep the pace moving shift between letting them direct you as an open class, calling on volunteers, giving clues etc

Post Activity

There are a number of activities but here are a few suggestions:

• Learners write the walkthrough using vocabulary only.
• Draw a picture of one of the rooms and label it.
• Write a letter to Father Christmas.
• Write a description of where the keys are.
• Write where they would hide the keys (in a better place).

Location: Classroom

Skills focus: Relay picture dictation

Language focus: There is / are . . . , colours, bedroom furniture, prepositions of place.

Game: Tucoga’s room

Preparation

1. Download and print a copy of the Game Picture Dictation.
2. Put it on the wall in a fairly central position or make four copies and put each copy on the four walls of the classroom.
3. Hand out a blank piece of paper to each pair of learners.

Reading Activity

1. Tell the class it’s a dictation but they don’t copy the words.  They should draw the picture.
2. Learners work in pairs and take it in turns to go and read the text.
3. They then go back to their partner, relay the text information.
4. Their partner listens and draws the picture.
5. They then swap roles and repeat from step 1.

Post Activity

A – Connected classroom

Put the game on the board for learners to compare their pictures with the game.  Talk about the differences e.g. in the game the carpet is big, in my picture it is small etc.  Give points to pairs if they can spot a difference and tell you and two points if they can spot a similarity.  Don’t allow repetitions on the sentences.

B – Computer room

Learners play the game by listening to you describe how to play the game using the walkthrough.  i.e. a live listening.

OR

Learners use two internet explorer pages.  One to play the game, the other to read the walkthrough.

NOTE

There is a mistake in the Game Picture Dictation.  It should read ‘wardrobe’ and NOT ‘cupboard’

Location: Computer room

Language Focus: Has got/ is wearing/ colours/ clothes/ parts of the body

Game: Halloween dressing up game

Preparation

1.  Go to the site yourself and create a character.  Take a screenshot of your character and print off a copy.

2.  Write the character description out .  e.g.

He is a green zombie.  He has got red hair and red eyes.  He is wearing a vampire costume with a pirate’s hat.  He is wearing black boots and round red-rimmed glasses.

3.  Print a copy of the description for each table of learners in your class.

Relay dictation

1. Put the descriptions up on the wall near each table.
2. Learners take it in turns to get up and relay dictate the text to the rest of their table.

Reading

1. Learners take their dictation text to the computer room.
2. Using the text they reproduce the character from the description.
3. Compare the original (screenshot) with the learner produced characters.

Writing

1. Learners make their own character and use the dictation text as a model to write their own description.
2. Print off the descriptions and pictures (from screenshots) and put the pictures on the wall.  Read out the descriptions and learners point to the right character.  Put the description up on the wall with each character.

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.

Level: Primary

Location: Computer room

Language focus:  Has got/ is wearing/ colours/ clothes vocabulary/ physical descriptions/ parts of the body

Game: Hero machine

Preparation

1. Either play with heromachine  yourself and both write a physical description of the hero you produce and take a screenshot and print the hero OR download and print a copy of the Superhero Relay Play material (relay dictation text and superhero picture).
2. Read the set up at the bottom of this post.

Preplay

1. Play hangman with ‘s u p e r h e r o’
2. Brainstorm some superheroes
3. Elicit some physical descriptions of some of the superheroes on the board (focus on some of the language focus items for this game)
4. Write the name of the superhero you have a picture of up on the board and elicit possible physical descriptions.
5. Learners do a relay dictation of the written description.

Play

1. In the computer room learners use the written description fro the relay dictation to reproduce the superhero.
2. When they have finished learners stand up and compare each superhero on each screen with the printed picture of the superhero.
3. Learners make their own superhero and write a description using the relay dictation text as a model.

Post play

1. Learners print their superheroes out (screen capture at school or at home) and put them on the classroom wall.
2. Taking it in turns they read out the description and others identify the picture.
3. Alternatively learners look at the pictures and predict the description.

How to play with Heromachine

You need to familiarise your learners with hero machine a little so you may either want to present the game in a connected classroom or direct learners through it in the computer room.

1 Choose a body template.  You could do this in the connected classroom by asking the class what you should choose.  e.g. a man or a woman?  Short or tall?

2 As soon as you choose one of the four templates you are given a few loading options.  For the full range of clothes, objects, weapons, companions and body parts etc choose the complete option (the one I usually choose).

3 When your option has loaded click on the little arrow to the right of the lower small window (the one on the bottom) on the right just below where it says ‘component and genre’.  This allows you to open up the different body parts, clothing etc.  Just click on one to add it to your superhero.  Use the slide bar underneath to see more.

4 Use the palette below to add details to the physical appearance of your superhero, access more details by using the slidebar and colour your superhero.  Usually each single detail you have has two aspects to it so you can have two or one colour for each detail you add to your superhero.  For example, you could have green trousers with red stripes.

5 Finally if you learners make any mistakes they just have to click on the item they want to change and then make the change.  This could be changing a hairstyle, clothing or the colour.  Have fun!

Level: Advanced

Location: Computer room

Topic: Global Warming

Language Focus: Modals of obligation

Game: Global Warming Interactive

“CO2FX is a web based multi-user educational game which explores the relationship of global warming to economic, political and science policy decisions. The game is driven by a systems dynamics model and is presented in a user friendly interface intended for the high school user.”

Preparation

Download and print off enough copies of the CO2FX Global Warming Simulation role cards and print a copy for each 3 learners in your class and cut each card out.

Pre Play

1. If you are in a connected classroom its a nice idea to have the game on the board to help you illustrate the situation.  If you don’t, don’t worry.
2. Explain to your class that Brazil has decided to deal with the global warming issue and brainstorm in open class a few ideas how they might do this.
3. Divide your class into 3 groups or 3 tables (blue, orange and green) of advisors together (see right).  Give out the science advisor (blue) cards to one table, the Policy advisor (orange) cards to the other and the Economic advisor (green) cards to the last table.  Ask them to read the cards then turn them over and summarize the card to the person next to them.
4. Now they make notes on what arguements they might use to achieve the challenge they have been set.

Play #1

1. Ask your learners to stand up and form a group of 3 consisting of one person from each table (see left) and then go to the computer room.
2. Learners sit in their groups of three at a computer.  Because the game itself is not very intuitive it’s a very good idea to get your learners to read the gameguide. It may be a good idea to explain before hand that because of the serious nature of this game that they may not get a chance to play it until next time.  This time is dedicated to understanding how the game works.
3. Learners take notes from the game guide on parts of the game that are relevant to their role.

Play #2

1. Learners sit in the groups they were in when they read the game guide in the computer room (see advisors gaming diagram above) and compare their ideas on how the game is played.  They may use any notes they took from last class.
2. In their groups you return to the computer room and play the game.

Post Play

1. The advisors all sit together on three separate tables (see Advisors Together diagram above).
2. They compare their success at the game and try and establish the best way to play the game.  This will involve feedback on not only their role in the game but those of the other advisors.
3. Each table makes a ‘strategy guide’ consisting of a list of tips on how best to play the game.
4. Learners return to their computer game teams (see advisors gaming diagram above) and compare their ‘strategy guides’.
5. In open class decide on the best tips and write them on the board and learners copy it down. (You could do this as a relay dictation).

Extra Activity

Return to the classroom and play the game using the ‘strategy guide’ from step 5 in Post Play.

OR

Learners use the ‘strategy guide’ from step 5 in Post Play to play the game at home.  They could then report to the class and find out who did the best.  That person then tells the class what it was that they that made them do so well.

Useful Language

We should . . .

It has to be . . .             lowered                    raised                      kept the same

We must . . .

Level: Intermediate & above

Location: Computer room

Topic: Reading and dictionary work

Language Focus: Non defining relative clauses

Game: Anika’s Odyssey

This is a fun walkthrough reading activity for the computer room followed by a writing activity using non defining relative clauses.  You may also choose to do some recording vocabulary work during the game so that they have some language to work on when they return to the classroom.

Pre Play

Once you have done a presentation on non defining relative clauses (yawn!) tell your learners they have worked very well and that they are now going to go to the computer room to play a game (hooray!).  Good news is they will enjoy it a lot and there is a walkthrough to help them.  Bad news is that they have to make a note of any words in blue that they don’t know.  For this reason they need a pen/ pencil and notebook.

Play

1 Tell learners to open up two internet explorer pages.

2 In one internet explorer page direct learners to this site.

3 Learners copy and paste the address into the other internet explorer page.

4 Learners play the game on one page and read the walkthrough in the other.

5 Monitor to make sure they are playing taking notes of difficult language.

6 Stop the game when one team finishes playing and has got ten words noted down (slow them down by getting them to write down more and with a translation).

Post Play

Learners write ten non-defining relative clause sentences using words from the game.

Learners take it in turns to read out their non-defining relative clause sentences but NOT the word from the game.

The first learner to put their hand up and say the correct word from the game gets a point.

When you feel the activity has gone on long enough declare a winner.