Digital Play » listening

A Collaborative Written Walkthrough

kylemawer — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 04:30:35 +0000

Level: Upper Intermediate

Location: Connected Classroom

Skills Focus: Peer Dictation

Language focus: Separable Phrasal Verbs

Game: Droppy

This is a guided peer dictation using the game shown above. There are actually 10 stages of this game (stage 1 is shown above) although I only generally go through the first four in class which takes about half an hour.

Preparation

There’s a walkthrough here if you want to know how to play the game and get an idea of the range and complexity of the language. Use it to play the game before hand to get familiar with the game or print a copy off to take it into the class to help you play the game.

Pre-Play

There is also an advert that plays before the game. Usually I present separable phrasal verbs on an IWB and then get learners to copy an explanation, examples I’ve given and some I’ve elicited from them. Meanwhile I use the freeze function on the projectors remote control to keep the text learners are copying on the board, open an internet browser, turn the volume down and navigate to the game. The advert plays silently out of sight while learners are finishing their copying.

When learners have finished I ask them to draw a line at the top of a new page and then to write 1 to 5 down the page.

Play

1. I show learners the game. Tell them we are going to play four stages of the game and that I want them to tell me the name of each stage of the game.I click on stage 1 and ask for the name of this stage of the game (usually ‘The Desert” (or possibly dessert)).

2. I then elicit vocabulary items that they can see on the screen by asking “What’s this?” several times, “Who is this?”, “How does he feel?” and “Why?”

3. I then either pick the stone up or cut the top of the cactus off. You can do either in this stage of the game although at other points in play you have to follow a set order. I then ask learners what I did.

4. I guide learners towards a grammatically correct sentence using the target language using a degree of meta language such as:

“Who did the action?”

“What is the name of the object?”

“Which part of the object?” (in the case of the cactus)

“What’s the verb?” “What’s the preposition?”

Usually the last two questions are or can be accompanied by some mime to guide learners towards the answer. I try to recognise learners who give an answer by moving my open hand towards them, frowning or shaking my head if it’s wrong and giving some positive words if they get it right. This keeps what essentially can become a verb and preposition brainstorming session quite quick paced.

5. When I can elicit a complete sentence from a learner (a sentence that is grammatically correct using a separated phrasal verb and encapsulates the full game play that’s taken place) I ask them to dictate it to the class for everyone to write down.

6. I continue in this way for the first four stages of the game.

Post Play

I then ask learners to play the game at home. They should use the sentences they’ve written down to get through the four stages we played in class as quickly as possible and then write down the sentences for the next two stages. I collected the homework in the next class and used code correction to indicate the mistakes for learners to self/peer correct.

Xbox – What We Want to See

kylemawer — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 01:33:57 +0000

Level: Upper Intermediate/ Advanced

Location: Connected Classroom

Language Focus: Words connected with gaming

Skills Focus: Listening

Video: Xbox – What We Want to See

Preparation

Download and print a copy of the ‘What We Want To See worksheet’ (see downloads below) for each learner in your class.

Pre-watch

Write the words ‘Xbox – What We Want To See’ on the board.
Tell learners they are going to watch a video with this title and ask them to predict the content of the video in pairs for a few minutes.
Hand out the worksheet and get learners to do exercise 1 in open class.
Learners then work individually to complete the ‘Word Bingo’ grid with nouns, adjectives or adverbs (exercise 2).

Watch

Learners watch and listen to the video and cross off any of their words in the ‘Word Bingo’ grid as they hear them.
When the video finishes learners compare.
Learners watch and listen to the video again and complete the sentences (exercise 3).
Hand out the script and let learners check their answers before/ while playing the video a last time (exercise 4).

Post Watch

Learners look at the words underlined in the script and guess their meaning from context (exercise 5).
Learners identify useful/ interesting language in the script to scaffold the production of their own text (written or spoken presentation).
Learners prepare and produce their own news report on gaming.

A news report could be a PowerPoint presentation, a video recording on their mobile phones or use a free online movie tool.

Some Questions to ask your learners about the video:

Did they guess any of the predictions made in the video? Which ones?
What different predictions did they make to the video?
Did they think the predictions in the video were good/ the best changes?
When do they think the next generation of consoles will come out?

Rumour has it that the next generation of consoles will be released for Christmas 2013 or very soon in the new year.

Downloads

Xbox What We Want To See Worksheet

Panda’s Bigger Adventure

kylemawer — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:09:51 +0000

Level: Intermediate

Location: Computer Classroom

Skills Focus: Speaking/ Listening

Language focus: Connectors and Sequencers

Game: Panda’s Bigger Adventure

This game is about a time travelling Panda. Panda has to first fix his time machine and then travel between various time zones in order to beat his arch enemy – the Pirate Robot.

Preparation

Download a copy of Panda’s Bigger Adventure Flashcards (see Downloads below) for each pair of learners. The flashcards were taken from the Panda’s Bigger Adventure Walkthrough. Present and practice some of the language of connectors and sequencers:

Pre-play

Hand out the Panda’s Bigger Adventure Flashcards and tell learners to put them in order and to make a note of it.
They then have to use connectors and sequencers to work on the story of Panda’s Bigger Adventure.
Monitor and input language as learners make a rough plan of the story.
In new pairs, learners take it in turns to tell their story of Panda’s bigger adventure.

Play

In the computer room learners play the game in pairs.
Either play the game with the walkthrough open on another page.

OR

Have the walkthrough open on a central computer and get learners to take turns (every 5 minutes) to read the walkthrough and relay it to their partner who uses the information to play the game.
Encourage learners to use their own words and not to just repeat the words from the walkthrough.

Post Play

Learner’s finish the game for homework using the walkthrough.
Learners use the flashcards to tell the story of Panda’s Bigger Adventure (now that they’ve finished the game) using the target language.
Allocate a different flashcard to a different learner and ask them to write out that part of the game using as many connectors and sequencers as they can. Next class collect them in and give them to pairs to discuss if they think any information/ instructions to play the game are missing. Feedback.

Downloads

Panda’s Big Adventure 1

Panda’s Big Adventure 2

Panda’s Big Adventure 3

Halloween Horror – Pirates of The Undead Sea

kylemawer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:14:17 +0000

Level: Upper Intermediate

Location: Computer room

Skills Focus: Listening

Game: Pirates of the undead sea

This game is not as gory and bloody as it gets by a long stretch but it is just about as far as we go here at Digital Play. The story is of a zombie pirate who is trying to solve the mystery of how he ended up being a zombie and how he can get back to being a pirate. Nice thing about this game is that there is lots of in-game text that builds the characters and moves the plot/ game forward.

It’s worth telling the class that it is important to read what the characters in the game say because they provide clues that will help them to not only solve the mystery but also play the game.

Preparation.

Download a copy of the Pirates of The Undead Sea walkthrough (see Downloads below). Or alternatively use the Video Walkthrough to be a bit more spontaneous with your dictation. You’ll need one of these in the computer room to run your dictation off.

Pre-play

Explain that they are going to play a fun online game but that it is very important to pay attention to all the details.
“It’s very important to pay attention in this game. What the characters say in the game will help you solve the mystery. In fact, it is so important that they pay attention to everything that even the title of the game is important. Now watch and listen carefully.”
In a connected classroom get learners attention and open the game for the whole class to see. The sequence it the title page of the game shows a pirate’s ship going backwards making the reverse ‘peep’, ‘peep’ sound that lorries can make when reversing.
Ask learners about what they saw and heard and what conclusions they can make from this.

Play

Take learners to the computer room and get them onto the game. As they are finding the game tell them that they have to get the pirate’s boots on first. This gives them a task to do from the beginning and allows you time to make sure everyone gets into the game. If some are faster than others ask them to tell the class how they did it.
Start the dictation as soon as possible even if it is confirming what some people have done. this let’s the ones behind catch up.
Try and ask as many questions about the game as possible, such as “What can you see?”, “What have you done?”, “What do you think you need to do now?”, “Where are you?”, “Can you describe the object using English?” etc
Also encourage learners to ask both you and classmates questions about the game, especially “What do you call this (description?”, “What do I do next?”, “How do I do that?”
Use the walkthrough to guide your learners through the game.
Continue the activity until you see fit. If there is not enough time to finish it in class time set it for homework.

Post Play

Learners complete the game at home using the written walkthrough if they have to. There is an online walkthough that they can use.
Next class learners who completed the game answer questions from those who didn’t e.g. “what happened?” etc
Learners produce a description of the story and what happened.

It’s interesting to note that if you set tasks within the game for them ahead of time and encourage them to ask questions they become more dependent on you the teacher. They see your role as key in providing guidance. They may in fact be learning a form of dependence on listening to the information that you give them. In terms of listening and communication skills this is great!

Downloads

Pirates Of The Undead Sea

Top Ten Halloween Dress Up Games

kylemawer — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:00:00 +0000

Here’s a brief description of ten Halloween themed dress up/ monster creator games and a few suggestions on how to use them. All these games were chosen to tie in with the Halloween theme of trick or treat and dressing up in costumes. You can access them by either following the links or clicking on the image.

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

This is one for the pre-teen girls. Sometimes some of the other monster halloween dress up games don’t really have great appeal to the girls. That’s not to say they don’t like playing dress up games – it’s just that they are not playing one which engages them. This dress up game is an alternative to use if you are doing a dress up activity that is being played to stimulate a writing activity. Some of the language that occurs includes:

Short/ long stripey shoulder length hair wings necklace wand

8 Ghost Dress Up

Question forms anyone? Play the game yourself so all your ghosts are dressed up in a variety of clothing. In the classroom teach the necessary vocabulary by telling the class you have a picture of three ghosts wearing different colour clothes. I then dictate the following:

There’s a green ghost, a baby ghost and a purple ghost. They are wearing a hat and a cape. They have got different coloured eyes and one of them is carrying a broom stick.

You could ask them to underline the subject and the auxiliary and point out that inverting the two makes the question form. They then have to ask questions about the ghosts. When they’ve got the hang of this take them to a computer room, put them on the website and get them to continue but when they have an answer they should reproduce the scene on the computers.

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!

You drive like an old man

grahamstanley — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:01:54 +0000

Driving games can be fun and useful for practising directions with students, but most driving games are not suitable for class because they are too fast. Driver Seat game by the insurance company Liberty Mutual, however is different. It’s the first ‘senior driving simulator’ aimed at raising awareness of what it’s like to drive a car as you get older.

Level: Beginner->Intermediate

Location: Connected classroom (i.e. one computer with an Internet connection)

Language: Directions and driving language (turn left/turn right/go forward/go back / stop – more complicated directions can be used if the level is higher: take the first right / go straight ahead / slow down / speed up / etc.)

Skills focus: Listening/Speaking

Game: Driver Seat

Preparation

Make sure the game works in your classroom and play the game to get a feel for it.

Pre-gaming

Tell the learners you are going to give them a test, and then after the groans, say that it’s going to be a driving test! Elicit or tell them the basic vocabulary and write this on the board.

Gaming

1. Show the learners the game and the first task (see image below), which is to drive through town and make a few errands. Check understanding and then you’re ready to start.

2. When you can see the car, start driving and pause, asking the learners to tell you what to do (turn left / go straight on / etc) until you get to the first task – Parking (see screenshot below).

3. Ask a volunteer to continue to tell you what you should do to be able to park correctly. If you crash, then you need to start again, and ask for another volunteer. If a learner manages to do it, you can ask another to try to park in less time, giving practice to a number of the students.

4. The next task is to drive to meet a friend for lunch (see screenshot below). Proceed in the same way as you did with the parking section. This time, you have to be careful not to knock anyone down.

5. You can always let the learners have a go at driving too (try some of the other mini games for variation), but tell the person in the driving seat to follow the instructions given by the others rather than drive where they want to go.

Post Gaming

Review the language with the learners and (if appropriate), talk about driving (what makes a good driver? Do people drive well where you live? etc. )

Xtranormal Movie Maker

kylemawer — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 02:01:06 +0000

Level: All

Location: Computer room

Language Focus: Any

Game: Xtranormal

Xtranormal is a text to speech movie maker that’s free and easy to join. It might be a bit heavy to run but it’s a definite hit with learners.

On the right here you can see a screen shot of the movie maker editor. The instructions are at the top followed by the set, actor, sound and story folders. The story folder is where all language production begins.

The Story

Simply click on an actor and start writing what you want them to say in the text box. Once you’ve finished switch to the next actor.

For fast finishers there are the effects running down the left hand side. Why not customize your movie to:

Change the camera angle during shots.
Get the actors to perform actions.
Get the actors to point to objects.
Get the actors to make some facial expressions.

. . . and more.

At any time you can hear how Xtranormal converts the text that has been written to speech. It may not be the most authentic sounding speech but it serves the purpose.

The free account is more limited than the options open to those that pay but the free account does offer a good range of sets, actors, sounds and stories. If you did decide to go pro and get the better upgraded options then its worth bearing in mind that learners on multiple computers can access, work and save on a single account - at least they can on the free one.

Why not watch an example of two actors discussing how an Xtranormal movie can be used with a class. That way you can judge for yourself if you think its worth turning your language learners into movie makers.

Level: I’ve used this site with language learners as young as 8 to adults. You just have to make sure the activity task is appropriate and to their level.

Language focus: The first time I use this with learners I generally just let them get on with it. As I monitor I’ll help on correction, input language and ask them about the direction they are moving in. Then, in later classes I like to return and get learners to open their movie projects and expand on the text using recent language we’ve covered in class. This generally means the final product contains a range and complexity of language that they can be proud of.

If learners feel inspired enough to start a new project this is also fine but I always encourage them to review some of the language we’ve done over the course and encourage them to recycle it.

Have fun and maybe see your language learners at the oscars one day.

Playing At Pirates With ‘The Ballad of Kinetto’

kylemawer — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:09:24 +0000

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean‘ has proved such a successful movie franchise that we’ve decided to get in on the act at Digital Play. The Ballad of Kinetto is a series of online pirate adventure games involving strong narrative features, some great puzzles and its own pirate heroes – Kinetto and Amber. ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean‘ is on its 4th installment and Kinetto has doubled that and is now on its 8th. Here are some screen shots from each chapter (Chapter 1-8 clockwise from top left):

*Oops! 1 and 2 are the wrong way round!*

As the movie franchise is on its 4th release we’ve decided to give you some ideas on how to use the game with the 4 skills of writing, reading, listening and speaking.

Writing

Use a walkthrough to play the game yourself on a screen in a connected classroom. Ask learners to predict what you have to do or identify language elements (such as vocabulary) as you play but use the walkthrough to move the activity forward. At intervals pause the game and ask learners to write the storyline as it unfolds. To encourage some range and complexity of language you could either brainstorm narrative language elements onto the board or list them yourself. Here’s one I prepared earlier:

Tenses (past simple, past continuous and past perfect)
Sequencers (First of all, after that, then, etc)
Direct & reported speech
Grammar (adverbs, adjectives, phrasal verbs etc)
Typical pirate vocabulary (galleon, skull & crossbones, cutlass, deck, mast, flag, desert island etc)

Encourage learners to use the list regularly tin their writing.

Reading

Learners open three internet explorer windows.

They play the game
They read the walkthrough
They use an online dictionary.

Of course, if you have copies of learner produced stories from the game from say a different class then there is no reason why you can’t use these with another class playing the game. If they are reading the story they can get a good idea of how to play the game. This in fact generates a lot of discussion as they translate the story into actions within the game so encourage speaking in English as much as possible.

Listening

There are a number of ways to do this:

Pairs or group dictation – Print off a copy of a walkthrough for each computer in the computer room. In the computer room put learners in pairs. One sits at the computer and plays the game while the other sits behind them with the walkthrough. The learner with the walkthrough dictates to the gamer (in their own words if possible) how to progress in the game. The gamer listens and plays the game. If computer room dynamics means that there are more than two to a computer set up a ‘chinese whisper’ activity with one learner at the computer and learners sitting directly behind in a line. The last learner in the line has the walkthrough and whispers it to the learner in front. The instructions then get relayed down the line to the gamer. Whichever one you choose to do make sure to get learners to change positions regularly so they all have a chance to play the game.

Relay dictation - Place a copy of the walkthrough on thw wall and get learners to take it in turns to read the walkthrough and then return to their partner/ group and dictate how to play the game. Get learners to swap roles (gamer and dictator) every 5 minutes or so).

Teacher dictation – With a walkthrough in your hand dictate to your learners how to progress in the game. Encourage them to describe what they can see on their screens as you monitor to encourage peer help. Also some of the language may be new to your learners so encourage them to ask you for definitions.

Speaking

Play the game in a connected classroom using a walkthrough. Learners work in groups to discuss what happens next in the game and a spokesperson reports their conclusions to the class. The class then votes on the best idea and you tell them how close their ideas are to the game storyline. Give clues so they can guess what happens next if they are off the mark by referring to the walkthrough and then move the game on further and repeat. For lower levels they can direct you to vocabulary items on the screen to click on. Higher levels can describe what to do on the screen while the highest levels can predict what events in the story happens next.

You can find links to each game and their walkthroughs on a single page by clicking on the link below:

The Ballad of Kinetto

Let us know how you get on by posting a comment.

A Fun Adventure For Eyes And Ears

kylemawer — Fri, 27 May 2011 02:22:52 +0000

Stage 07 is a fun and engaging adventure game where you play the part of young woman called Ms Webb who is on an assignment for her job. As you play the game you begin to understand that things are not as simple as they at first appear. At the heart of the game there is a mystery that unfolds as you journey to different locations and talk to different in-game characters.

The main reason I like this game is that you can listen to the characters speak while reading what they say in the speech bubbles. This provides learners with some nice listening and reading practice. The dialogue is delivered a little slower than natural speech but this is probably a good thing when using it with English language learners.

This game is also a favourite of mine because you have to engage with the language content. At times you will start a conversation with someone and you will then be given a choice of possible things you could say. Depending on what you decide to say affects how the story of the game unfolds. This provides some great opportunities to discuss in open class what you should say and why. Then, once the decisions have been made and the dialogue in the game has been completed, you can discuss how good or effective the choices were.

I’ve used this game in both the classroom, presenting the game to the whole class on one computer, and a computer room, with learners playing the game in pairs. In the latter, I simply get learners to open 3 internet explorer windows for the game, the walkthrough and an online dictionary. Either way you use the game it definitely helps if you have a copy of the stage 07 walkthrough to hand. I also found it useful to play the game myself before using it with the class. There’s one point where the character is walking round the streets and has to talk a couple of times to a man on a bench. If I hadn’t played the game before nor had I had the walkthrough I think the game would have ground to a halt here.

As we played the game I would ask ‘wh’ questions to ensure learners both understood what was happening, to guide them along the lines of the walkthrough and also just to generate language. Common questions would be:

“Who is this person?” and “How do you think they can help us?” The singular use of ‘they’ proved of interest to some learners.

“What do we know so far?” and “Where do we do next?” An opportunity to recap on and then predict the storyline

Generally if I play the game using the walkthrough I don’t have to think about much other than language issues. This can be as simple as just helping learners to reach a greater understanding of the game or/and, as opportunities arise, to recycle grammar and vocabulary we’ve covered in the term.

Play the Stage 07 game

Read the walkthrough

I ‘Adam & Eve’ it!

kylemawer — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:08:44 +0000

Level: Primary

Language: Narrative devices

Skills Focus: Reading or Listening

Location: Computer room or Connected classroom

Game: Adam & Eve

This is a simple point and click game with a simple story and basic repetitive language elements.

Preparation

Either:

Download a copy of Adam & Eve Narrative Walkthrough

or use and

Online electronic version of the Adam & Eve story

Be Warned – there are 5 pages.

A lot of simple point and click games have a nice little narrative story running through them. In this case our hero, Adam, leaves the safety of his cave and heads out on a journey to go and see his girlfriend, Eve. On the way he meets various creatures, faces numerous obstacles and has to solve a few tricky puzzles and all in a day’s work. I decided to play the game and instead of writing a walkthrough I wrote the story of Adam’s journey to Eve.

I don’t consider myself a great story writer but I thought if I could identify a few rules for writing based on my own experience of what kids generally enjoy reading I could write something that would be enjoyable, understandable, challenging and doable. What I came up with was this list. Feel free to suggest any other points in ‘comments’. I can’t say i’ve identified all the one’s I’ve used nor ones which I’m sure would have made the story better if I’d included them. Anyway,

Graded language – that learners understand (colours, prepositions, animals, clothes etc where possible).
Recycled language – see above (but also prepositions, directions etc)
Language elements that are higher than the readers language level – to challenge them.
Repetitive language elements (Particularly at the beginning and end of each stage) – to provide a little structure.
Some examples of direct speech – for opportunities to put on those theatrical voices.

Once I’d written the story of ‘Adam & Eve’ sI thought about using it in a number of ways:

Writing - That is, a group of learners who I judged would understand the majority of the written text. Learners read the story and identified nouns. They then made their own dictionary for the words they identified. They then took the story and their dictionaries to the computer room where they played the game. Because there was quite a bit of intensive reading and writing here I divided the complete text into different sections – enough for groups of two learners to work on (writer and researcher) – and also did it with a more mature level of low level language learners learners (mid teens).

Listening – Play the game at the front of the class and read the story and get learners to raise their hand when they identify the part of the story that tells them what to do in the game (how to play it). That learner can then come up and do that action. Repeat part of the story if they get it wrong and continue the story if they get it right. Continue until interest wanes (yours or your learners).

Reading – In the computer room learners play the game using three internet explorer windows. They have the ‘Adam & Eve’ story open on the first one, an online dictionary/ translator on the second and the game itself is played on the third. You could think about using an online image search engine (say Google images) but be careful when doing this and make sure you use ‘advance search’ options and set it to ‘strict filter’. I could regale you with stories of teachers who didn’t and have yet to live it down but I won’t. Hopefully you won’t be adding to those anecdotes.