Imagine...
The bell rings summoning your students to your English class. They put away their collectable card games like Pokemon and Duelmaster, and enter your class. But not all of them. A couple or more students remain outside.These students are still playing their collectable card game, ignoring the sound of Westminster Quarters. They are completely engaged, and they know from experience nothing in your classroom is going to engage them at the level their card game does.
Eventually you get them in class and begin your lesson. “Today we are going to play a card game,” you say. A few students raise an eyebrow, but they can already foresee the ratty playing cards you usually use, or if not those, the Crazy-Eight or Go Fish style game they already know how to play with English practice slowing down and not central to gameplay. But what’s this? You’ve got a new game. It looks like the game they were playing outside class moments ago.
Question Quest this card game is called, and it shows respect for students’ love of comics and collectable card games. And, you tell them, like their card games, if they have special cards in their hands, they don’t have to wait their turn to play. They can play suddenly and strategically. Your students’ anticipation builds.
Your students start playing slowly at first, getting their heads around
the game’s rules which mirror the conventions of conversation. They ask each other the practical English questions on the cards and try their best to give what you their teacher and referee want as proper answers to score crystal points! When they can’t answer, they start to use the game’s special cards
“What’s your answer?” and
“I don’t know!” to deflect difficult questions away. Meanwhile, the more confident students use the
“I’ll answer that!” cards to steal the chance to answer questions or
“I have a question!” to ask a really difficult question in their head. And the students who answer correctly cannot always savor victory because they mess up the additional details a sudden
“Tell me More!” special card requires. While your students play, you smile because you know as your students play to earn the most crystal points, they are engaged in mini English conversations!
Not only that, but they are simultaneously curious about the
fantasy characters and world on the cards. Who are these amazing characters? What is this strange yet familiar world in which they live? The English questions your students are slowly realizing, are tied to what’s going on with the characters and world in the cards. The students decide, if they want to know more about the characters and their world, they are going to have to pay more attention to not just this game, but to their entire English class as a whole. After the game is over, and the students are heading home, one stops and asks you where you got Question Quest, because he wants a set of his very own.
Hello.
My name is Sean Anderson. I am a Canadian living in Japan, and I invented a new game for helping students with their language learning studies. If you would like to know more about it, contact us at
info@question-quest.com Note, if you live outside Japan, no problem,
contact our distributor and they will help you out!
In the meantime...
The game's home site is
here.
The Facebook page is
here.
We have a free worksheet for download every week
here.
And... You can read an interview I did regarding bringing Question Quest to market,
here. This interview is particularly useful for any teacher looking to bring their own educational game to the public.
Hope all this helps
info@question-quest.com