Trainee
teachers‘ names: Johannes
König, Nicole Nedeltschew, Lukas Schnabel
Brief
rationale:
This lesson has been composed for a 50-minutes English lesson at the Neue Mittelschule Schoppenhauerstraße 79 in order to introduce the self-designed video game World of Verbcraft. In addition, this lesson plan can function as demonstration of how to integrate a digital serious game into an English session. The major aim of the lesson is to revise and to consolidate the past and participle forms of regular and irregular verbs in a playful way. After a short introduction of the trainee teachers, the students are asked to introduce themselves stating their name and which languages they speak. For the objective of the session the pupils also need to tell what they like to do in their free time (using the simple present) and what they did at the weekend (using the simple past). In this manner, the teachers become more familiar with the students and the students unconsciously need to use two English tenses in order to express their thoughts.
Subsequently, the principal English tenses are repeated in collaboration with the pupils, including usage and signal words. Moreover, examples for the simple present, the simple past and the present perfect are recorded on the black board.
Thereafter, a circle with chairs is formed for a clapping game. The game is initially explained by the teachers and should become clearer while playing. Fundamentally, one students starts clapping once his or her hands, the clap moves on to the next person sitting on the first student’s left-hand side and moves around clockwisely until it arrives again at the person who had started. If a student claps his or her hands two times the direction of the clapping is changed. This activity serves as a warm-up for the next “clapping” game. Hereby, the clapping is replaced by verbs. Every student has to memorise one verb which is written on the black board. The student who starts the game has to say out loud his or her verb (e.g. walk) in the infinitive form, immediately afterward the pupil on his or her left side has to tell the past participle form of the verb (walked) and the next student the second participle form (walked). In case one pupil names an irregular verb the direction changes. This way the students are stimulated to state the past verb forms very quickly and to pay attention to whether they are dealing with an irregular or regular verb and additionally remain highly concentrated in order not to miss a change in direction.
Once having revised and practiced the English past tense forms the students are considered as fit enough to try out and play World of Verbcraft. The pupils are supposed to start the game without any instructions and to figure out in pairs how the game works. For the purpose of making the game more exciting and a contest like in a video game, the pupils having collected the most points and thus, having matched the most correct verb forms can win sweets.
In the end, the lesson is wrapped up and the students are asked for feedback via a voting platform which they can access via tablet.
This lesson has been composed for a 50-minutes English lesson at the Neue Mittelschule Schoppenhauerstraße 79 in order to introduce the self-designed video game World of Verbcraft. In addition, this lesson plan can function as demonstration of how to integrate a digital serious game into an English session. The major aim of the lesson is to revise and to consolidate the past and participle forms of regular and irregular verbs in a playful way. After a short introduction of the trainee teachers, the students are asked to introduce themselves stating their name and which languages they speak. For the objective of the session the pupils also need to tell what they like to do in their free time (using the simple present) and what they did at the weekend (using the simple past). In this manner, the teachers become more familiar with the students and the students unconsciously need to use two English tenses in order to express their thoughts.
Subsequently, the principal English tenses are repeated in collaboration with the pupils, including usage and signal words. Moreover, examples for the simple present, the simple past and the present perfect are recorded on the black board.
Thereafter, a circle with chairs is formed for a clapping game. The game is initially explained by the teachers and should become clearer while playing. Fundamentally, one students starts clapping once his or her hands, the clap moves on to the next person sitting on the first student’s left-hand side and moves around clockwisely until it arrives again at the person who had started. If a student claps his or her hands two times the direction of the clapping is changed. This activity serves as a warm-up for the next “clapping” game. Hereby, the clapping is replaced by verbs. Every student has to memorise one verb which is written on the black board. The student who starts the game has to say out loud his or her verb (e.g. walk) in the infinitive form, immediately afterward the pupil on his or her left side has to tell the past participle form of the verb (walked) and the next student the second participle form (walked). In case one pupil names an irregular verb the direction changes. This way the students are stimulated to state the past verb forms very quickly and to pay attention to whether they are dealing with an irregular or regular verb and additionally remain highly concentrated in order not to miss a change in direction.
Once having revised and practiced the English past tense forms the students are considered as fit enough to try out and play World of Verbcraft. The pupils are supposed to start the game without any instructions and to figure out in pairs how the game works. For the purpose of making the game more exciting and a contest like in a video game, the pupils having collected the most points and thus, having matched the most correct verb forms can win sweets.
In the end, the lesson is wrapped up and the students are asked for feedback via a voting platform which they can access via tablet.
Definition of
aims and objectives:
· The overall aim of the lesson is to introduce a serious game to the students which they can play for practicing English regular and irregular verb forms in a playful and fun way and to provide a training tool for the future
· Another objective of the session is to induce the pupils to talk in English strengthening their ability to use the regular and irregular verbs properly
· In addition, this lesson plan can serve as a model for incorporating digital media such as serious games into a lesson of English
Teaching experience and game implementation
· The overall aim of the lesson is to introduce a serious game to the students which they can play for practicing English regular and irregular verb forms in a playful and fun way and to provide a training tool for the future
· Another objective of the session is to induce the pupils to talk in English strengthening their ability to use the regular and irregular verbs properly
· In addition, this lesson plan can serve as a model for incorporating digital media such as serious games into a lesson of English
Teaching experience and game implementation
When we arrived at the new middle
school, we were curious and excited at the same time. How will the pupils react
to our video game? Are the students going to like our English session and the
activities we had planned for them and subsequently take home new impressions
and knowledge? Our personal aim of the lesson was to spend an enjoyable session
with the students, to become familiar with them and to have fun with the pupils
trying out World of Verbcraft. As a
matter of fact, we wanted the pupils to feel relaxed so they can associate
learning with something playful and pleasant.
However, we were welcomed warmly and the pupils seemed all agog with curiosity what to expect. Thus, they took part actively in our lesson and contributed valuable ideas and statements.
In point of fact, we took our time to get to know the pupils and simultaneously activated prior knowledge of English tenses. Repeating the use of English tenses, signal words and forming examples was more time-consuming than we thought, therefore we could not play the clapping game with the pupils. We decided not to rush it but to leave enough time for the pupils to try out and play World of Warcraft. The students’ ambition awoke when they realised that we had brought little prizes for the ones having collected the most points in our game. Hence, we watched all pupils playing excitedly our game and enjoying it.
In conclusion, we can claim that we had a great time with the students and according to their feedback they felt the same way. We were very happy to hear that they liked World of Verbcraft and that they even could imagine playing the video game in their free time.
However, we were welcomed warmly and the pupils seemed all agog with curiosity what to expect. Thus, they took part actively in our lesson and contributed valuable ideas and statements.
In point of fact, we took our time to get to know the pupils and simultaneously activated prior knowledge of English tenses. Repeating the use of English tenses, signal words and forming examples was more time-consuming than we thought, therefore we could not play the clapping game with the pupils. We decided not to rush it but to leave enough time for the pupils to try out and play World of Warcraft. The students’ ambition awoke when they realised that we had brought little prizes for the ones having collected the most points in our game. Hence, we watched all pupils playing excitedly our game and enjoying it.
In conclusion, we can claim that we had a great time with the students and according to their feedback they felt the same way. We were very happy to hear that they liked World of Verbcraft and that they even could imagine playing the video game in their free time.
Students trying out World of Verbcraft
Students evaluating World of Verbcraft after the try-out
Final feedback from students
Feedback from pupils who liked World of Verbcraft very much
Concluding, we can definitely claim that we all enjoyed learning more about serious games, programming a video game ourselves and having had the chance to try out effectively how pupils in school respond to World of Verbcraft. We feel very grateful for having had the chance to experience a rather unusual university course in pedagogy and we would like to thank our lecturers Alexander Schmölz and Dr. Christoper Wlash for their kind and enthusiastic guidance; and not to forget SAMSUNG for providing a number of tablets, without which the in-class implementation would not have been possible.
