[chokosaki]

Recently, I read of a video game university back home in the USA doing this. I think something like this could be a hit in countries like China, Japan, and S. Korea. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games are HUGE in these countries (especially China and SK). Anyways, here's the idea....

Essentially, this is quite similar to role-playing games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and World of Warcraft. Students begin the class at level 1 with zero experience points (or a grade of 0.) As the semester advances, students are tasked with defeating monsters (completing worksheets), forming quest parties (doing group activities), fighting bosses (completing tests), and skill crafting (presentations). As these tasks are completed, players (students) earn experience points (a number based on completing tasks.) When students acquire a set amount of experience points, the students will level up and acquire some sort of reward. Awards have yet to be determined, but should be done so based on the teacher. A player sheet will be given to each student the first day of class. Needed information: such as Name, age, date of birth, and a brief description of themselves. There is also a place where the student can draw themselves on the paper. The teacher may periodically hand out stat sheets (report cards) with stats based on certain areas important to the class (such as confidence, group work, etc.)

Attached below is a 'player sheet' or a good way to have an ice breaker and go about explaining things on the first day. I have the idea of having students complete the information sheet, the teacher taking the sheet and distributing the sheets randomly to different students. Then, the students must come up with a questionnaire based on what they find and go around and find whoever the person is they have on their sheet by asking questions relevant to it. IE. Do you like.... Is your hobby.... Is your hometown....

[Dave-B]

I like this idea, and I have been thinking about something similar.

I want to do something like this, but have it online. My school has a computer lab and I want to make a list of activities in our lab that students need to complete on their own time.

I was thinking about the same structure, that is basing it on role playing games.

So, it wouldn't be in class, but extra work for them. I thought it might motivate them to study and think about English after they leave class.

What do you think about doing it online?

[chokosaki]

Online could work as well. There are many possibilities in doing this. Online would be a safe bet too in that students could keep up with their stats on a real time basis and could find the extra credit work or other such activities whenever they want. For instance, one such extra credit activity could be a scavenger hunt. Maybe the hunt is done at home and the students must use a camera to take pictures of certain objects that meet a particular requirement. Unfortunately, I'm not so well versed in html to get a website going.

[Dave-B]

I like your idea of a photo hunt. They are always fun.

I think an Internet scavenger hunt would be fun too. They would have to navigate through different English site to find different pieces of information.

Example:

What is the top sports story in the New York Times today?

[clevermae]

Do you think this kind of strategy will also work for the much older students? I am sure the younger ones will be enthusiastic, but how about those in their... say...30s?

[Dave-B]

I think it would work even better for older students.

With the younger students you would have to spend more time making the actual process more intriguing, where older students would simply study without all the persuasion. You could focus less on the role-playing fantasy stuff, and more on the material

I think it would be less work for the teacher, and more beneficial for older students.

[clevermae]

I believe this gonna be a lot of fun for everybody.

[PBJ2]

If students have access to internet an online scavenger hunt is just as fun to create as it is to participate in. The teacher (or student even) creates a list of online sites as places for students to look up the facts or questions and information information the game creator has gleaned. They generally need to read through the articles, interactive websites or what the creator has found and think about what they are reading to find their information. It's fun and the students always seem motivated to get online.

[chokosaki]

I tried the online scavenger hunt out actually not too long ago. The results were great. The children were put into groups and given clues as to what they needed to find. We spent the entire class period searching English sites. I supervised and helped when needed but the children (around 10-12 years old) were pretty much on their own. Each group put together a presentation of their findings and shared with the class.

I'll end up doing this again in the future. I was definitely pleased with the results.

As for using games and such in the classroom...I've taken that idea and developed it much further into an interactive program set called Keep Up ESL. You can find the link in my signature.