For the Teachers

FOR THE TEACHERS

Towards the end of the year and especially after end-of-year tests, I always find it harder to keep my students motivated; so I’d been thinking about how to avoid wasting lessons on DVDs or other meaningless time fillers.

If you have an interactive whiteboard then you should be able to hook up a Nintendo Wii and then set it up in Spanish so your students can play videogames whilst still learning new vocab and practising their language skills.

Ideally you will have 4 wii controllers (with fully charged batteries) and 4 teams of 4-6 students for an hour lesson. Before you use it, enlist the help of an IT technician if you’re not sure about how to set the console up, and arrange your classroom so that 4 players can easily move around in front of the whiteboard without causing each other any damage.

As far as most Wii games go, there aren’t many which have a good amount of potential for language learning; however two that I have found are both fun and educational are Wii Brain Academy and the one I’ve used in this example Wii Party.

Wii party http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nintendo-RVLPSUPE-Wii-Party/dp/B003O6DZSQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313404520&sr=8-1 offers a series of silly but entertaining games which can be played in teams. If you watch the video I made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya6qjdc0xFk you’ll be able to see the different language content that appears in the game and get an idea of how to manage playing it with a class. The game costs about £15 from Amazon at the moment; although you’ll find this will continue to drop.

Please watch the video for the gameplay and email me if you have any questions. It’s definitely worth a try as it’s great fun and as you can see from the worksheet below, the amount of vocab learnt is at least as much as a normal lesson. I’ve used it as an end-of-term treat but next year I’m going to try to incorporate it into a scheme of work related to commands/imperatives.

As a quick guide again, this is how I would go about using this in the classroom…

1.)  Before the lesson: Get all the equipment needed (4 remotes, batteries, wii party/wii brain academy game) If you don’t have 4 controllers, ask someone to bring one of their own in.

2.)  Do a test run in your classroom setting up the equipment including allowing enough space at the front (the players should be fine sitting or standing)

3.)  Arrange 4 teams and have a running order so that a different player plays each game. Have the game and controllers all set up before students enter (get to the same stage as my video at 2:02)

4.)  In the lesson: Ask students to sit in their teams, hand out worksheets and go through the top 3 lines of vocab from ‘La consola’ to’Abajo’

5.)  Ask students to match up the verbs in the 2nd part of the sheet – they can have dictionaries to help.

6.)  Begin the game – 1 player from each team comes up and the class helps them understand the rules and controls before they play using the verbs they have just matched up. Whilst not playing, the other students should try to fill in the last part of the sheets. Every time a game finishes, another member of the team comes up until there is a winning team.

en español

Hoy vamos a jugar el Nintendo Wii en español – para empezar vamos a aprender un poco de vocabulario.

La consola El mando El mando Los rivales / Los jugadores

(posición vertical) (posición horizontal)

Ganadores Perdedores Las reglas Los controles

← → ↑ ↓

A la izquierda A la derecha Arriba Abajo

Esta es una lista de los verbos que vais a necesitar para entender los controles y las reglas de los minijuegos. Encontrad los verbos españoles que correspoden a cada verbo inglés.

Evita Move around

Busca Point/Aim

Agarra Get help from

Agita Shake

Sujeta Jump

Apunta Ring / Sound

Desplázate Search for

Pulsa Hold

Cuenta Arrive / Reach

Salta Tilt

Dispara Avoid

Inclina Press

Coge Count

Llega Pick up

Hazla sonar Shoot

Ayúdate Grab

Ponte Place yourself

Mientras jugéis los juegos, intentad escribir el sentido de estas palabras/frases que encontraréis durante la clase….

Adelante! ______Se acabó! ______

Victoria! ______Un punto ______

Minijuegos ______Batalla ______

Ronda ______Buena suerte ______

Veamos/ A ver ______Practicar ______

Comenzar ______Decidido! ______