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.

Level: Upper-Intermediate

Location: Connected classroom with IWB

Language focus: Defining and non-defining relative clauses

Game: Eyemaze GROW games

Top left to right – Grow ver .3, Grow cube, Grow tower

Bottom left to right – Grow ver .2, Grow RPG,  Grow ver .1

The secret to finishing these games is finding the correct order in which to add the objects and make the game grow.  If you get the right order the game grows to its fullest potential.  A bit unclear?  Then find a walkthrough and play one of the games.  By the way, the number of icons at the side is a good indication of how many stages to the game there are.  After each stage finishes the game usually pauses until you click something – use this to your advantage (students can produce language in this pause).

Preparation

1 Choose one of the games and find and make a copy of its walkthrough online by using a search engine and typing in:

“name of the game” +walkthrough

2 Play the game and decide what language is going to scaffold the writing activity.  Think about using a conditional, sequencers, narrative tenses or how you can adapt the game to a grammar point you have recently covered in class.

3 Make a note of how many different ‘game stages’ there are to the game and think about how to scaffold the language with each ‘game stage’.  How will you use a different language item at each ‘game stage’. e.g. stage 1 = first of all, stage 2 = then, stage 3 = after that (sequencers).

4 Do you need to make a worksheet/ presentation?

Play

1 Connect to the internet in class and have the game ready to play on the IWB.

2 Have a flipchart ready or word processing document open to write the text you aim to produce.

3 Orientate learners towards the language (via worksheet, learners looking in notebooks or coursebooks).

4 In pairs learners write down a sentence for each stage of the game (you play it and pause to allow them enough time to wrote it down) using the target language.

5 Learners compare and decide on the best and dictate it to a volunteer who types it into the word document on the IWB.

6 Learners discuss in pairs where a relative clause may go in the text and take it in turns to come up, place a dot where they would place the relative clause and then tell the class the relative clause they would place there.

7 Try and encourage a wide range of relative pronouns (that/which, who, where, when, whose etc) by pointing out the opportunities to use them in the text and eliciting them.

Post Activity

Learners copy the text from the board and include relative clauses where the circles are. Encourage them to try and remember the original relative clause said by the person who put the dot there but stress that the exact same words are not necessary.

Language: descriptions of people, relative clauses and the difference between first and second conditionals. This game is also a very rich source of vocabulary that you can either pre-teach the learners or deal with as you go along.

Preparing to Play

1) Ask the learners if they like travelling by public transport – what disadvantages are there?

2) Write this on the board:

What would you do if you found yourself crammed into a particularly busy tube train carriage?

Next, show the learners the following image (the easiest way is to start the game)

Ask them to describe the people and identify the potential problems they might cause

Game Plan:

The carriage is too busy – it would be better if someone left. But who would you like to get rid of first? And why? The options are:

• The man blowing the party blower who is carrying the ghetto blaster
• The bald-headed man who has the sweaty armpits
• The backpacker who’s carrying the heavy rucksack
• The small child who is holding the fizzy drink
• The tall man in the suit with the red nose who’s got a cold
• The plump ginger-haired man who’s carrying lots of food
• The goth with the red sun-glasses who has a pigeon on his head

Once the learners have given their ideas, ask them to guess the answer to the following questions

• What would happen if I hit the balloon? (correct answer: it would bounce off the wall)
• What would happen if I nudge the backpacker?

After their ideas for each action, carry it out and then check with them what they saw. Now, once they know what happens, ask the students to confirm what they have seen? (So, what happened when I nudged the backpacker?)

• What’s in the backpacker’s trouser pocket? (bubble gum)
  
• What would happen if I gave some to the little boy?
• What would happen if I gave more to the boy?
  

Now, which person is bothering me the most? (The man eating the crisps)

And what happened when the boy left? (a little dog came in)

• What would happen if I gave the dog one of the man’s crisps? (it would want more)
• What would happen if I continue feeding the dog? (It would try to eat them all and the man with the crisps would have to leave)

Now who’s the problem? (the bald man with the sweaty armpits)

And what happened when the door opened? (a spider came in)

• What should I do now? Why? (Push the spider. Because the bald man is afraid of spiders)
• What would happen if I hit the balloon now?

What happened when the bald man left screaming from the carriage? Who came in? ( A nun, a strange man wearing a hat and a bat) What is sticking out of the man’s hat and jacket? (twigs)

• What would happen if the pigeon took the twigs? (it would start to build a nest)
• What’s going to happen when the bird finishes building a nest?

What happened when the pigeon finished building a nest? What’s left of the pigeon? (a feather)

Who’s the most irritating person in the carriage now? Why?

• What would happen if I tickled the man’s nose with a feather?

Now, what’s different?

• What has the man in the hat got in his pocket? (a cricket bat)
• What would happen if the goth had a music cassette?
• What would happen if I hit the bat while the goth was singing?
• What would happen if I hit the ghetto blaster out of the carriage at the next station?

Now who’s the most annoying person?

• What would happen if the two men really saw each other? (tug on the trouser pocket of the man with the cold to find out)

Now, who’s the last person I have to deal with? (a health fanatic)

What’s that on the floor of the carriage? (a lunchbox)

• What would happen if the health fanatic were given some sandwiches?

THE END

Follow-up

After the game has finished, restart it and ask the learners to remember and write as many of the questions you asked them earlier, but to write them using the first conditional (e.g. What happens if I hit the balloon? etc.) – you can tell them that you have to use the first conditional now because they know the answers and this is what happens every time you do this (= now there’s no hypothesis).

Once they have finished, you can get them to ask their partner and see how many of them they can answer. Finally, check the answers by going through the game again.

Extension / Homework

Ask them to write what happened in the game as a narrative: Last Thursday I was on my way home and decided to take the Tube…