Samorost 2 for F.U.N. and Language Play Lesson Plans in Multiple Stages Chapter 1 of the game is free ---->   Inspiration for this activity draws from Graham Stanley's blog Game to Learn http://game-efl.blogspot.com/   with accompanying slide show http://www.slideshare.net/bcgstanley/digital-play-escape-the-room

 

These lessons develop:

Vocabulary and Discussion Reading Interactive vocabulary practice  Speaking Writing and Grammar

 

Vocabulary and Discussion

• Ideally, on a computer projected at the front of the room, present and disciss with students the vocabulary in the walkthrough for the Samorost 2 game: http://samorost2.blogspot.com/
• Toward the end of the period, start exploring the game itself - http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/
• Discuss how the game begins 
• What happens when we click on the kennel
• What will the story be about?
• What can we understand is the goal of the game? 
• Show students how to play the game in one window while keeping the walkthrough visible in a separate window

 

 

Reading

while playing the game

• Students can play the game in the ILC
• They are encouraged to get the game and walkthrough in two windows on their computers

 

Interactive vocabulary practice 

• Here is a text manipulation exercise for POKLOP generated at http://learnclick.com ($25 annually for pro version)
• Interactive online pull-down version: http://www.learnclick.com/cloze/show/1537
• You can download this PDF gap fill exercise with words arrayed at top, generated from the above link 
• Here is a set of exercises for SOPOUCH generated at http://vocabtest.com (free)
• http://www.vocabtest.com/vocabulary_word_test.php?tid=131591 

 

Speaking

• In the classroom, we split into two teams that will compete against one another
• Each team gets a copy (or more) of the a vocabulary list from the walkthrough 
• If anyone will develop one it would be nice to post it here
• The list should contain both nouns and verbs needed to push through the game 
• Someone from one team comes to the screen and gets 3 minutes to push the buttons
• It helps if there can be a countdown timer on the screen; e.g.
• Gives tenths of seconds: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/countdown-timer/
• Less distracting: http://www.classtools.net/education-games-php/timer 
• More: http://www.crickweb.co.uk/countdown-timers.html 
• Anyone in the class can give instructions to the one at the front. 
• If anyone speaks in native language that team loses 2 points
• If someone on that team rephrases in target language a point is restored
• After 3 minutes someone from the other team gets a turn
• A team that moves the game to the next level in the 3 minutes gets 10 points

 

Writing and Grammar

• Everyone writes on a piece of paper at least one complete sentence about something that happened in the game
• Students check each other's grammar in pairs
• Each student produces a unique contribution
• Iif two students work together they must produce 2 sentences
• Teacher checks grammar as students read their work aloud 
• Students and teachers mentally  organize where in the narrative contributions occur
• Contributions then physically pieced together into a narrative

 

Each student is then provided with a copy of the walkthrough or better, with some exercises for the level(s) to focus on

• Students add descriptive material to the narrative or write their own 
• Student teams compete to produce paragraphs 

 

If students have their own computers and are able to get Google accounts, they could write collaboratively in Google Docs.

Alternatively I've set up a way from them to write collaboratively at MoPad, but this is a little messy for teachers and students:

http://tinyurl.com/kbz-samorost

 

This risks corruption of the collaboration files (though everything is recoverable).  Still, it means that copy/paste will be required to set up more such files, a job to keep up with.  Google Docs would require students to log on and share with one another, and integrity of the work there is thus much enhanced (and even more easily recovered in case of corruption).