Making homework fun! How gaming can educate our students.

It is important that students stay engaged in content after school in order to ensure learning is meaningful and impacting our students. Most students do not enjoy doing homework, so why don't we go beyond boring worksheets and make homework "fun"? One way teachers can make learning English for ESL students "fun" is through gaming! The game Trace Effects is a great game for incorporating language and culture learning! This game provides a video at the beginning with photos and written instructions. This will help students with their reading and comprehension skills. Throughout the game the students will interact visually, through listening and reading. A feature of this game I really like is the dictionary that is included with the game so students can look up unfamiliar words. 

The language learning objective for this game would be for students to recognize features of an American campus. This learning objective can be assessed by putting objects from the game on a piece of paper and saying the names of vocabulary and having the students circle the appropriate picture to answer the question.

Another language learning objective would be for students to comprehend the conversations and instructions throughout the game. These learning objectives can be assessed by the completion of each Chapter (the Chapters or "levels" cannot be completed if the student is not comprehending the conversations and instructions they need to follow). 

I played this game up to Chapter 3 on two separate occasions and I really enjoyed it which I hope means my students will enjoy it too!

Here is a picture of what the dictionary feature looks like!

Using games in the classroom

According to the gamification wiki, gamification can be defined as "the use of game design techniques and game mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences." Games can be used in language learning because it can motivate students to learn. Games are fun and enjoyable to most students so it is a great way to "mask learning" so students may not necessarily feel like they are being "forced to learn". According to the blog post on Escape the room games, these types of games can be used for language learning through listening and reading. Escape the room games will include instructions that need to be heard and understood by the students in order to successfully complete the game. The teacher can provide a walkthrough on how to play the game which can be written, spoken, or visual which helps student utilize their listening, reading and/or comprehension skills.

A game that can be used for ESL learners is The Great Kitchen Escape. The first time I tried to play this game I tried to do it without a walkthrough leaving me very confused. Once I watched the walkthrough I played the game several times (3). It took me a few times to refer back to the walkthrough to understand what I had to do in order to beat the game. I think that when using this game in the classroom the walkthrough video on youtube is necessary for students to watch.

The language learning objective for students playing this game would be to be able to recognize kitchen vocabulary words. The students would be actively involved in the game because they would be watching the walkthrough in order to comprehend how to complete the game. They will be looking at vocabulary words in the walkthrough and having to mimmick the walkthrough in their own game. As the students grab kitchen items their name pops up in English. This will help the students learn kitchen item names throughout the game. The students will stay engaged in the game because it is very interactive. The teachers role in the game playing will be giving instructions to the students on how to watch the walkthrough video and monitoring the students as they watch the video and attempt the game. The teacher will provide additional support to any students who are struggling with comprehension by asking students if they understand as the game progresses. In order to measure if the objective was met the teacher can have the exact same items from the game cut out onto cards and can ask the students what each picture is. The teacher can go one step further and have the students copy the spelling of each item. This will help gauge understanding from the game. For a final assessment to ensure that the objective was met, the teacher can do an activity where students need to match the written word of the kitchen items with their pictures.