Last week, I had the pleasure of talking to a group of teachers that Shelly Terrell was training in Brazil. I answered questions about using computer games in the classroom and introduced them to the Digital Play blog and book.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Location: Connected Classroom

Language Focus: 3rd Conditional

Skills Focus: Reading, Speaking

Game: An Interactive Story

Can you help the girl get home through the woods before it gets dark?

This is a nice little game presented as a moving story book.  That is, it looks like a book upon which the drawings of the characters move.  ok, they move in a limited way but it’s got text for reading practice and it looks kind of cute.  At the beginning of the game you get a bit of the background story and some information on what you have to do.  A few pages into the story the game starts in earnest as the girl meets a strange creature and has to decide how to react.  This is where you the reader get to choose what the character does and in effect dictate the course of the story.  I did this on an interactive whiteboard allowing time on each page for my learners to read the story, discuss any difficult language elements, answer some questions (sort of spontaneous comprehension questions) and finally talk about and reach a consensus on what course of action to take in the story.

Preparation

I played the game first and prepared a set of questions to ask my learners.  Having played the game I realised that by asking certain questions I could ‘guide’ my class to make the choices that would bring out the more interesting elements of the story (it was also the longest version).  Here are those questions:

• What time of year does the story take place?
• Where was she going?
• What was the matter with the strange creature?
• What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t stopped to help?
• Why do you think it’s a bad idea to stop and play in the park?
• What would have happened if you had stopped?
• What does the old man drop?
• What reward does he give her for returning his wallet?
• What would have happened if she’s kept it?
• What does the girl get if she arrives late?
• What does the girl get when she arrives just in time?
• What does the girl do after dinner?

Pre-play

Play

Post Play

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!

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.

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!

Similar in concept to a Tamagotchi, but on the Web, it can be used in the young learner language classroom successfully, but the teacher has to be careful because not everything in the game lends itself to language learning or practice. When I started using the site I also found that Moshi Monsters quickly became the only thing my 9-10 year-olds would ask for, so I decided to limit our use to ten minutes and during a specific section of the class (just after the break).

Moshi Monsters works well in the Primary language class, especially if you have a connected classroom (i.e. a computer with Internet and a projector) and is best used if it forms a regular part of the class routine.

You can set up the account with the class, choose from one of four monsters and give the creature a name – all of this works very well when done with the class as it helps create a sense of ownership and it’s a great way to promote a spoken discussion.

Just like the Tamagotchi, your Moshi monster needs regular attention or the mood will turn sour (as in the picture above – now the class is over, nobody is looking after poor Panchito!) and so be warned. When I first started using the site, I only logged in during classtime and this meant our mosnter was always sad or grumpy, which affected the mood of the class, and meant that it was difficult to increase his level. I fixed this by giving the password to the learners, so they were able to look after the monster during the week. This went well for a while until most of the learners ended up creating their own Moshi monster.

The Moshi monsters world (left) is full of interesting places to visit, with shops where you can buy food, furniture and clothes. Most of the places you can visit with your learners, but there are a few areas that are only open to premium (i.e. paid) members. However, these can easily be avoided.

Apart from talking about the monster, making sure he/she is happy, buying food, eating, shopping, and visiting places, there are a number of activities that are worth doing and which include language practice.

The first of these involves making new friends. You can ask anyone you meet for friendship, visit their house and leave notes on their pinboard. This means you can involve the learners in writing as in the example (left).

If the learners in the class end up getting their own monsters, then you can make friends with them, visit their homes and send notes to them, which is what I ended up doing in my class.

It is worth mentioning that You may have to talk to the parents of the students to explain why you are doing this.

Moshi Monsters offers an interesting combination of games and education.  The best of the games is found at the Hall of Puzzles (below), where you can choose from a variety of puzzle games to play. Winning puzzles earns virtual rewards called Rox, which you can use in the shops. It’s also a way of increasing the good mood of the virtual monster.

Most of the puzzles of the day require knowledge of language to complete (such as the one on the left), and apart from the puzzle of the day, you can choose other ones to play too, which allow for more practice about colours, numbers, the alphabet, shapes, etc.

In summary, Moshi Monsters makes for a fun addition to any Primary classroom and offers a safe environment for your young learners to interact with each other (if you encourage them to open their own accounts), allowing for a fun and interesting extension of the classroom.

The look and feel of this community is cute and will appeal to young learners from about 4 or 5 years old up to 10 or 11. Pre-teens will probably find the look and feel too childish.

Location:  Connected Classroom

Skills Focus:  Writing

Language Focus:  Narrative Tenses

Game:  The First Hero

A game set in the times of ancient greek with a nice shadow puppet look and feel to it.

Preparation

Either play the game using a walkthrough to familiarise yourself with the game or print a copy of the First Hero Walkthrough off.  Also have some dice ready, enough for each group or pair of students.

Pre-Play

1. Introduce the area of narrative tenses as it comes up in the course book.
2. Do some controlled writing activities from the course book or work book.
3. Write 1-6 on the board and write some of the grammar areas next to them.

e.g.

1  Past simple

2  Past continuous

3  Past perfect

4  You can choose

5 Choose two of the tenses.

6 Write three sentences.

Play

1. Explain the game and encourage students to suggest what you have to do.
2. Listen to the students and follow their instructions until the last instruction for that stage of the game.  Stop before you do it so that students can see the stage of the game just before it is finished.
3. Tell students to roll the dice and write the story.  They can write what they like but they have to use the tenses according to their dice role but they can write more if they want.  Each student needs to write so they each/ all have a copy of the story.
4. Monitor and help with language.
5. Repeat the above steps until the game has finished.

Post Play

Also when starting the game you have to click continue, watch a brief storm sequence and then an advert for the game site.  Be a little patient and wait until the game title screen appears again and you can click PLAY.

Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Speaking.

Game: Dot-to-dot

This is a nice little warmer that practices numbers and vocabulary.

Preparation

Choose one of the dot to dots pictures and have it up on the board before your learners come into the class.  It’s a good idea to remember what the picture title is but keep it secret from the class so if you make a note of it remember to keep it out of sight.

I usually play this after the register and at times after I’d checked the homework.  I then chose a student from the class and explained why I’d chosen them e.g.

They have done the homework very well.

They were paying attention when I took the register.

They were very quiet.

They got a difficult question right.

They are being very helpful.

It’s great if you can catch some of the less likely candidates being good and give them a chance to play first too.

Play

1. The play rules get more complicated each time we play dot to dot.  In fact a new rule gets introduced each class.  So, the first time we play rule 1 is in effect.  The next time rule 1 and 2 is in effect and the next day 1, 2 and 3 etc.
2. The volunteer calls out the numbers and you connect them up.
3. The first person to put their hand up and correctly identifies the dot to dot object calls out the number next time (make a note in your register).
4. The first person to put their hand up and say a word / item of vocabulary that is in the picture, takes over saying the numbers. e.g. in the ‘Jerry’ dot to dot someone might say ‘eye’ and then ‘nose’ and ‘animal’.
5. The person who guesses the name of the dot to dot picture can choose the next dot to dot picture (make a note in your register). e.g. ‘jerry’

Post Play

There are a few options here:

• Copy the picture and colour it in.
• Hand out a screen shot of the uncoloured dot to dot picture (take a screenshot after you’ve clicked on all the numbers except the last number).  Learners colour it in.
• Hand out a copy of the finished dot to dot picture and learners write down words associated with the picture.
• If learners can bring in their own dot to dot pictures they can play the dot to dot game (using the rules above) in groups of 4.

Location: Connected Classroom

Language Focus: going to, modals of deduction (present & past).

Game: The Magician

A nice little game with plenty of language opportunities.  First you see the magician’s stage with the trick ready to go.  You can then watch the trick performed.  You then get the chance to see how the trick is really done as you point and click the screen in the order each part of the trick is done.  Here’s the beginning and end of the first trick:

Play

1. Open the game and show learners the first screen.
2. Get learners to predict what the magician’s trick is (left above).
3. Then ‘show the trick’ (short video sequence to image above right).
4. Learner’s then guess how the trick was done (speaking or writing).
5. They then direct someone at the keyboard to repeat it.  This is done by pointing the mouse cursor and clicking parts of the magician in the correct order.

Example language:

As learners guessed how each trick was done I monitored and input language as necessary.  It’s also quite fun – especially if you haven’t watched the trick before yourself – to join in with the guessing.  Great way to model the target language yourself and possibly inject a little humour into the process.  I thought my suggestion that ‘it might be a projected image of a bird – look at the circle of light around it’ was quite good.  After a or two minute I interrupted and in feedback I wrote any new language as well as the best suggestions on the board. For this I reduced the window the game was in so it wasn’t visible but was still ready to continue with.  New language was highlighted so as to draw learners’ attention to it and also make it easier for them to see and use later.

The Magic Tricks

There are about half a dozen tricks in total but I’ve never really got past the first few.  The first three are enough to practice the language with and, to be honest, some of the later tricks get quite fantastical and could prove to be too challenging linguistically.  Take a look at the screenshot on the left here to see how complicated things can get.  Both red levers on the left and right, the two guys, the chains, the pendulum, hidden keys, a screen, the cage and the candle (a red herring by the way) all make this quite a difficult task.  The first few tricks involve:

1. Disappearing bird
2. Levitating woman
3. Escape the water tank

These are quite well-known magic tricks and so learners should have a good idea about what happens in the trick, remember the trick once it has happened and have some good ideas over  how the trick was actually done.  The added bonus is that it’s quite fun discovering how they are actually done.  Hope none of you are too disillusioned by finding out it isn’t actually magic after all.

Post Play

• At home learners play the game and choose one trick to describe to the class.  They make notes and in the next class they describe what the audience sees when the trick is performed and then how the trick is done.
• Learners write up how a trick of their choosing is presented and done.
• If you or your learners can research a card trick or a coin trick to perform for the next class then get learners to use the target language to guess how it might have been done.

Location: Connected classroom

Skills focus: Writing

Language Focus: Relative clauses

This is a nice little activity to stimulate a little writing in class.  I have used it to practice relative clauses but there’s no reason that you can’t just forget a language focus and just get learners to write.  I’ve done this activity a few times and I either :

1. Let them see the titles of the game and ask them if they know the game.  If they do if they know the music.  If they don’t know the game I ask them to predict what the music might sound like.
2. Don’t let them see the titles and simply play the music following the instructions below.

Pre-play

Brainstorm the titles to a few video games on to the board.

Ask the following questions about each game and elicit some sentences using relative clauses.

When is it?          Where is it?          Who is it about?

e.g. Mario brother olympics

I elicited the following:

“In a time when Mario and his friends went to the olympics”

“In a land where Mario and his friends live”

“About people who compete to win the olympics”

Play

• Put learners in pairs and tell them they are going to listen to some music from a video game.
• After they hear each piece of music they should write three sentences about what they think the video game is about.
• You can get them either to number the sentences in order or ask them to write them out of sequence on a piece of paper.  Tell them not to worry if they don’t know which video game it is.  This is not important.  What is important is that they listen to the music and imagine what they think the game is about and write the sentences.

1. Age of empires intro
2. Call of duty 4 intro
3. Farmville
4. Full metal gear intro
5. Grow cube intro
6. Half life intro
7. Spore intro
8. Sims 3 intro
9. Pacman intro
10. Mario intro

Post Play

• If learners have numbered their sentences in order then they can compare their sentences and decide which are the best for each piece of music.
• Play the music again if necessary to help learners decide.

OR

• If learners have written their sentences out of sequence on a piece of paper you can collect them in and hand them out randomly.
• Learners then read them, listen to the music again and match each three sentences to each piece of music.

Homework

• Dictate the names of the games and ask learners to find out online about the game.  They can then rewrite their sentences to compare the following class.

OR

• Learners go home and choose three games (one’s they’ve got if possible) and write three sentences about them.  They then read the sentences out next class to see if their classmates can guess the name of the game.