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!

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:  Computer Room

Langauge: 1st conditional/ will

Skills focus:  Writing

Game:  Quest For The Rest

If you’ve used Samorost 2 with a class then the graphics in this game will look familiar as both were made by Amanita designs.  In Quest For The rest you have to help a group of people solve puzzles and pass obstacles to get back to their community.  This is a visually attractive game that takes place over three screens.

Preparation

Download a copy of the Quest For The Rest worksheet enough for each learner or pair of learners.

Pre-gaming

1. As a pre-gaming activity hand out the gap fill walkthrough.
2. Ask Students to read the first screen and guess the answers in pairs.
3. They can write the answer they think it is in pencil.
4. Put the game on at the front of the class (data projector or and IWB) and play the game and elicit the language to put in the gaps.
5. Complete the first screen so you are happy that the gaps are filled with language that is accurate both in grammar and as an explanation on how to complete the game.
6. Show the students the next screen and discuss how they think the gaps will be filled for the next screen. Correct language but tell them that you don’t know how to do this screen. tell them that they are going to play the game and complete the gaps themselves.

Gaming

1. Take the students to a computer room where there is one computer for two students.
2. One student plays the game (the gamer) and the other completes the gap fill (secretary). In pairs the students play the game and complete the gaps.
3. Students swap roles as gamer and secretary every sentence. Use the secretaries reluctance to write and eagerness to play the game as a means to slow the game down and ensure they complete the gaps as they play the game.

Post Gaming

Location: Computer room

Skills focus: reading and writing.

Language Focus: 3rd Conditional

Game: A Zombie Story

If you ever played any of the fighting fantasy choose your own adventure books (a single-player adventure game book) then you might like to introduce learners to the concept too.  If you are unfamiliar with them then playing the game above gives you a rudimentary idea of their form.  You read a story, at some point made a decision and then turned to a page that the particular decision you made was linked to and then continued the story.  Incidentally, this activity is graded upper-intermediate because of the high level of language in the game.  There’s no reason why the later activities could not be adapted to lower levels.

Preplay

1. Tell the class they are going to play a game called ‘A Zombie Story’ that has 8 possible endings.
2. Ask them to draw 8 columns and two rows and dictate the name of each ending so learners have this in their note books:

4.  Below that get them to reproduce this:

Play the game on a computer in the classroom and as you play get learners to fill in the ‘What do you do?’, ‘What happens?’ and ‘Useful Language’ categories until you reach an ending.  Learners can then tick the box below the name of the ending.

Play

If you’ve followed the steps above your learners are now orientated towards the language task and you can take them to the computer room.

1. Get learners to play the game and find the 8 possible endings.  They should tick the boxes as they finish them.
2. They then choose the best ending and play again but take notes on the actions (what they do) and their consequences (what happens) as well as useful language
3. Monitor and help with difficult language and ensure they are making notes on ‘useful language’.
4. Fast finishers should sit behind a player and give oral instructions on how to find the missing endings for the player.

Post Play

Choose your own post activity:

• Now that learners have a familiarity with the various story lines and they have chosen one as ‘their story’ you can guide them to writing third conditional sentences.  For example:

If I hadn’t / had got out bed, I would/ wouldn’t have . . . .

If I had slept more, I would/ wouldn’t have . . . .

• Learners create your own story like the one you have played. They should remember to give options in your story with different choices.  The best way to do this is to write each part of the story on a separate piece of paper with the title of the decision made last at the top.  Next class they can read their story to another who decides on a course of action until they reach the end of the story.
• Learners imagine they find another survivor. They think about would you say to them and then and then find someone with a different story and tell them their stories.

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: 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.

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.

*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:

1. Tenses (past simple, past continuous and past perfect)
2. Sequencers (First of all, after that, then, etc)
3. Direct & reported speech
4. Grammar (adverbs, adjectives, phrasal verbs etc)
5. 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.

1. They play the game
2. They read the walkthrough
3. 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.

Level: Upper intermediate

Location: Connected classroom/ Home

Language focus:  Vocabulary of games / Formal language in an application letter

Skills Practice: Listening / Reading / Writing

Maybe you have looked at formal language for writing a job application letter and you would like to set a writing task but the post in the coursebook doesn’t sound very interesting or stimulating.  Being a Game Tester might appeal to your learners and also give you some insight into how involved they are with gaming.

Preparation

• Make some Bingo cards by using tables (3 by 3) in a word document.  Print enough copies for each learner in your class.  Alternatively get them to draw one in their notebooks.
• Print off a copy of the Kygra Game Tester job advert.

Pre-watching task

1. Write ‘Game Tester’ on the board and ask your learners what this job might involve.  Answer – Playing video games.
2. Tell them they are going to watch a short News report on Game Testers and you want them to predict what words they will hear.
3. Hand out the Bingo cards and tell your learners to write their word predictions down (I told my class nouns only to prevent them writing a, and as well as other high frequency words).
4. The rules are that if a learner finishes their card they raise their hand and you collect their card (try not to let the activity interupt the video watching).
5. Play the video

Reading task

Games Tester Job

1. Tell your learners they are going to read a job advert to be a Games Tester.  In pairs they brainstorm qualities they think would be good for a Game Tester to have.
2. They read the advert to see if any of the qualities they mentioned are mentioned in the advert.
3. Check learners understand all the language in the job advert before asking them to highlight interesting language elements (game vocabulary, areas they have abilities or experience in, etc).

Writing task

1. Learners make notes on what language they will use (including formal letter language from the coursebook).
2. Learners then write their job application letter out either in class or for homework.

Post Activity

Learners read a selection of job application letters and decide which three would be asked to come to a job interview.  Ask them to explain their reasons.

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

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.