Level: Upper Intermediate+
Location: Connected Classroom
Skills Focus: Reading
Language focus: Expressing opinions/ modals of probability
Luke has been trapped by Alexis and it looks like after his very first date he is being tricked into marriage. You need to help him get out of getting married by solving various puzzles.
I like this game for a number of reasons. First of all, it has a lot of written text that stays on the screen until you are ready to move on and click the screen. This is great for giving students time to read the text and address any interesting or difficult language as well discuss aspects of the story. Secondly, it is a fun and engaging story and offers teens a different spin on the whole valentine’s day topic. The story here is more in line with a valentine’s day nightmare come true and my teenage students responded positively to both the humour (can you see the guy in the background in the picture above picking his nose?) and the characters in the story itself.
In previous classes we’d covered language associated with expressing opinions and modal verbs used to express probability. This game provided the opportunity to practice both which I told my students was the reason we were going to play this game.
I used a copy of the Luke script with key* to actions you have to do while playing the game in order to help me know what to do and when. It also allowed me to look ahead and guide my students through the game. There’s a Luke worksheet* for students to complete during play, which is basically your standard style reading comprehension questions. Finally, I had a copy of the Luke Game Script* ready for students (for each pair) to look at after we had finished the game.
- Direct students to their notebook/ coursebooks so they can see examples of the target language.
- Write the first sentence from the game on the board: ”Son, we’re broke! We’ve spent all the money my last husband had!”
- Check students understand the language and identify language elements (e.g. tenses, adjectives, etc)
- Students prepare sentences using the target language to express their opinions about what the story in the game is about. e.g. “It must be about a mother/ woman speaking because . . . “, ”I reckon she’s going to look for a new husband because . . . ” etc.
- Students tell the rest of the class their opinions and decide which are the best.
- Hand out the worksheet (second page – the first page is for the teacher and contains the answers). In pairs they could make further predictions about the game’s story based on information in the questions but this is up to you.
- Start the game giving time for students to read the text and ask any questions. I also liked to draw students attention to interesting language elements (eliciting definitions, synonyms), and elicit their opinions on what the characters motivation was and what might happen next.
- Students complete the worksheet as the game is played cooperatively. Teacher uses the Luke Script with key to know how to play the game correctly.
- Feedback on the answers to the worksheet.
- Discuss the game, the story and the characters with the class.
- Students invent and write the script to a cut scene from the game using two or more of the characters.