ESL etc. » video games

Spent

Dave — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:42:20 +0000

Spent is an educational game that attempts to give users the experience of living on the edge of poverty. You make a series of choices, trying to keep your head above water financially. It is text-based, providing lots of reading opportunities with plenty of life-skills-related vocabulary. I particularly like how they demonstrate that financial pressures can lead to moral dilemmas. For example, the decision to drive away from a fender bender with a parked car is much more tempting with a low bank account balance. There are also interesting compromises that have to be made in terms of opportunities that you are able to offer to your child. After many of the decisions, additional facts and opinions are given about the relevant issues.

I think this game is an engaging way for students to learn about many of the issues that poor families struggle with. I would certainly consider using it in a unit on poverty and wealth. It doesn’t take very long, and could serve either as an introductory or review activity. It also touches on a number of other issues, including education, health and nutrition.

Global Issues Activities for K-12 ESL Classes

Dave — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:20:52 +0000

I was recently asked for suggestions for materials that could be used with younger learners. Here are a few of my favorites.

Facing the Future has a collection of activity-based, global issues lesson plans for students of all ages. In addition to the great stuff they offer for sale, they have a ton of materials available as free downloads. I especially like the lesson plans from Engaging Students Through Global Issues, and the Climate Change curricula. Finally, don’t miss their collection of graphs and other graphics. They cover a range of issues and could readily be used for discussion activities.

The International School Studies Association at the University of Denver has a large collection of links to lesson plans that deal with global issues. They break them down thematically (Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Economics, etc.) and by grade level.

My collection of links to global issues-themed video games might also work well with K-12 students.

Larry Ferlazzo’s blog has a ton of K-12 materials, and his “Best of” series includes ideas for teaching about social justice issues, environmental issues, Darfur, the recession, and many other issues.

For America-centric lesson plans, the Library of Congress and National Archives both have collections of lesson plans on race, war, gender and other topics. One great thing about these sites is the inclusion of primary sources — documents and images from history that can convey these issues more powerfully to students. The National Archives site also has a series of worksheets to use for analyzing documents, pictures, maps and so on.

Finally, I invite you to look at lesson plans from the Patel Center’s Global Schools Project. These lessons are not made specifically for ESL students, but they could certainly be adapted for them. I am currently working on a Patel Center program for teachers from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and my students will be adding their lesson plans to this resource.

Please feel free to share other good K-12 resources in the comments!

Virtual Forest Challenge

Dave — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:33:41 +0000

Virtual Forest Challenge is a video game from Scholastic that takes students through a variety of daily life situations and asks them to make environmentally responsible choices. It doesn’t take that long to play through, and it’s got a good variety of daily behaviors for students to think about. There are also some teaching materials, but they looked pretty basic. I would probably use the game at the end of a unit on how our actions impacted environmental issues as a means of review.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

The Best “Cause-Related” Online Learning Games

Dave — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:48:19 +0000

Larry Ferlazzo recently posted a brief summary of a variety of cause-related online games. I’ve posted about free rice and free poverty before, but a bunch of the other ones are new to me. I’m not sure how reliable the claims of charitable donations from the various sites are, but they are worth checking out.

Peace Corps Challenge Online Game

Dave — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:33:54 +0000

I just came across a Flash-based game that simulates what it’s like to be a Peace Corps volunteer. I haven’t played it a great deal, but it seems like a decent game for language learners. You start out in a village, trying to solve a problem with their water supply. The bulk of the game seems to be talking to the different villagers (via text bubbles) so there is a good amount of reading, and a lot of good vocabulary.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

Some Eco-Themed Videogames

Dave — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:50:56 +0000

Low Impact Living just profiled several environmentally-themed video games, some of which look like they would be good to use with language learners.

In Climate Challenge, the player is president of the European Union, and the goal is to balance green policy with keeping the populace happy.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life gives students the chance to manage the lives of a Haitian family, attempting to balance their educational and economic needs.

Check them out, and let us know in the comments if (and how) you end up using them.

New and Improved FreeRice.com

Dave — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:02:02 +0000

I first mentioned FreeRice last year. In brief, it was a website that raised money via advertising to make donations of rice while visitors to the site went through a vocabulary quiz. Now, they have added quizzes on a variety of other subjects, including grammar, art, geography and chemistry. They have also doubled their donation rate from 10 to 20 grains of rice per correct answer.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

FreePoverty.com

Dave — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:32:11 +0000

FreePoverty is a new site similar to FreeRice. Students go through a geography quiz, with correct answers raising money for water donations to developing countries. Currently, I haven’t seen any third party validation of the site, so I’m not sure if it is legit or not. The quiz is pretty fun, though. They give you the name of a city or landmark, and you try to place it onto a world map. The closer you are, the more cups of water are donated. If it’s for real, I would certainly recommend it to my students as a way to practice country names.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

Sim Sweatshop

Dave — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:48:55 +0000

My interest in videogames as tools for teaching global issues has been waning a bit, but I just saw Sim Sweatshop, a game that attempts to let players experience life in a sneaker sweatshop. Throughout the game, the player is presented with options and situations via pop-up windows. These require reading, and refer to a variety of sweatshop related issues. Unfortunately, the majority of the gameplay consists of dragging and dropping shoe pieces onto a template and does not really contribute to any learning.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

Harpooned: Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator

Dave — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:02:02 +0000

A while back, I posted a bit about Japanese whale “research” that results in the slaughter and consumption of large numbers of whales. Harpooned is a new videogame simulating this. You play the part of a whaler and try to kill as many whales as possible, while avoiding the legal fees associated with injuring protesters. It seems interesting, and could certainly be used as part of a discussion on whaling. I haven’t actually played it, though, as my current laptop is running WinME.