Level: Advanced

Location: Computer room

Skills focus: Reading

Game: Inside the Haiti Earthquake

This is a very serious and hard hitting game with a very strong message.  After you have chosen your character (survivor, aid worker and journalist) you hear an extended account of their situation before you get a chance to read the same account as a summary.  You also get presented with a choice over a course of action to take which in turn decides the characters future in the game.

You can read more information about the game Inside the Haiti Earthquake here or play the game itself by clicking the link above.  This is a great way to encourage learners to read while raising awareness of Haiti’s plight in the aftermath of the earthquake.  How can you use it?  Here are some ideas:

1 Playing for pleasure

Either with the help of an online dictionary (or a teacher if the game is played on-site) learners play the game by choosing the character they would be most interested in playing.  The play for pleasure with skills practice being supplied by both the audio elements and the written text as well as using an online dictionary.  This could also be encouraged for homework though a short presentation of the game in class helps to introduce the game to learners.

2 Playing to discuss

1. Divide the three in-game roles (survivor, journalist and aid worker) equally amongst your learners.   In same role groups learners predict what their characters experience will be like (what they may suffer, obstacles they may face and emotions they may feel.
2. They then play the game.
3. After the game they return to their groups and compare their predictions with the actual gaming experience.  It’s a good idea at this stage to encourage learners to makes some notes on common group findings.  You can then give the groups the task of discussing how their character may wish to interact with the two other characters from the game.  Finally place learners into groups of survivor , aid worker and journalist.  They can then role play the scenario where all three of them meet thinking about what they want from each character, how they could best get what they want and in what way they would get it.

3 Playing to write

Once learners have played the game ask them to write about their experience.  The writing could be from the view of the in-game character though it is equally interesting to find out about the learners’ own personal reaction to the game.  This could in turn reflect what they have learnt, how it emotionally effected them and what they thought of it from a gaming experience.

4 Language focus

If your learners are using an online dictionary to help with the language used within the game then get them to record some of this language.  Vocabulary items (nouns) can be recorded in isolation and translated but it’s a good idea to note more complex language structures in chunks both to record the context and to raise awareness of collocations and more complex language structures.  If learners can do this then it presents a great opportunity to look at some of that language in the classroom.  Learners can teach each other the language, create their own sentences (personal questions, true/ false statements etc) using the language they have recorded from the game.

Remember too that by playing the game yourself you can also become part of the tasks and activities that take place outside of the game.  Learners can be just as interested in your opinions and on an interaction level the discussion or writing can become more authentic and personalized.  ’Real people talking about real things’.

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 . . .

Whitesmoke is an online free to play Alternate Reality Game (ARG).  Commissioned by Channel 4 Education and aimed at teens, Whitesmoke hopes to educate by providing a personal taster (through a fictional game) of what it would be like to experience some of the dangers of social networking.

WEBSITE SCREENSHOT

INTERESTED?

Read more about this ARG in a Guardian article or visit the Whitesmoke official website.

MY EXPERIENCE

This ARG has been great with an advanced class.  We started up the game during a computer room session where learners were fed up with doing online exam practice and wanted a game that was a bit more mature and serious than a point-and-click game.  For homework I asked them to prepare a short talk on what they had learnt while playing the game.  Next class I was surprised at how involved they’d become in the game and how greater their awareness of internet dangers were.  In fact, they were teaching me.  Subsequently, each time we encounter a new grammar point in the book I am asking them to ‘smokescreen-erize’ the examples.  As a result my teen learners are not only personalizing the grammar and continuing to learn language but also have a platform to discuss such serious issues as identity theft, online stalking and freedom of online information.  It has also provided a long term reading project for the computer room where I can not only assist them with language items but also engage them in mutually interesting and authentic dialogue on elements of the game, issues and the game characters.  It has almost become a class soap opera.

YOUR COMMENTS WELCOME

If any one else is interested enough to try this out in class I would be interested in how they use it.  At the moment, for me, it is a means to use computer time, encourage reading outside the English class context and it is a platform for discussing issues, experiences, opinions and stories.

Topic: Border Country

Speaking Focus: Expressing opinions

Time: 30 – 45 minutes

Game: Against all odds

Preparation

You also need to go through a few steps after entering the site before you can get to play the game. The steps are:

1) Click on Open in full screen.

2) Click on Play against all odds.

3) Choose your game characters identity. i.e one of the characters (use the left right arrow to move between the characters) and write in a name before clicking on No! Play without registering.

4) Click on the number 1 in the A New Life box.

Playing

Learners can play this game in a computer room or a connected classroom . In the computer room it acts as an interactive reader though you may wish to incorporate some of the ideas below as note taking activities.

1 Learners read the job letters and agree on one explaining why.

2 They then choose the best clothes to wear to the interview.

3 In the reception there are three other candidates for the job.  Ask learners to note down what they say and what they would say to them in return and who they would most like to sit by and why.

4 Finally the job interview consists of a few questions.  learners should say which is the worst answer to the questions and explain why.

Learners visit each of the shops looking to buy a mobile phone.  A pre play activity could be for learners to discuss what phones they have, which is the best and why.  They then play the game:

1 Take notes on who says what in the shops.  i.e. age, gender, looks etc and what opinion they express.  Later learners can discuss what sort of views they have on immigrants and how these opinions may be true/ false and what affect they may have on an immigrant who hears them.

Quickly drag objects into origin categories of either the USA or Other Countries.

1 Start the game and as the objects go past one learner watches and dictates the objects to a partner.  Play the game until they have all objects.

2 Learners discuss the country of origin for each country.   (pyramid discussion).

3 Ask a volunteer to come to the front to play the game as the rest of the class shouts out where each one goes.

4 If they get it wrong click on web facts and tell learners they have 2 minutes to find the answers on that page.  Scroll down/ up every 30 seconds so that learners can read all the text.

5 Repeat steps 3 & 4 until the game has been finished.

Post Play

Learners write up their reflections on what some of the emotions and feelings an immigrant may feel.

To research and write about an invention from their own country, any other country or a predetermined country (England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales).

Debate with half the class presenting and anti-immigration view point and the other half a pro-immigration view point.

Role play the situation in the reception between them and the three other candidates.  First brainstorm the characters and personality to establish character roles.

Suggestions on how to use it

• Ask your learners to think about games they know and their stories – Are the stories important? Could they be better?
• Get the learners to tell each other a story from a game to see how easy it is
• Play the video and ask the learners to write down any comments that people say they think are interesting
• You do the same and then write these comments on the board and continue the discussion
• Finally, ask them if they think things will change in the future (i.e stories will become more important to games)