Anyone ever use card or board game design as a teaching activity?

[Tarren Dei]

I'm particularly thinking of using this as activity for teaching in the ESL class. I figure it could be a creative and interesting task that would require students to work in groups and discuss. They could later present their ideas to the class. Also, they could play their games.

Anyone know of a good primer on card game and/or board game design?

[Valegrim]

Hmm; I am not a teacher; but my English is my girlfriends second language; she has been speaking it for about a year and I have a BA in English and we do play board games. We started with Backgammon, as she is Syrian and they play that there; least her father did; so it gave us some common ground. She loves mysteries; so the next game I taught her was Clue/Master Clue; this game is a bit more involved and I made sure she used the correct form; "I suspect Mrs Rose killed Mister Body, in the Kitchen, with the Knife" and helped with pronounciation. She loved it and we now play it quite a bit with my daughter. In Master Clue there are a lot of room and items and people and lots of things to pronounce.

The next game I taught her was Settlers of Katan. This is a game that adds some negotiation into the conversation. Trades may only be started by the person whose turn it is and they can offer "I would like to trade you one sheep for one wood, do you agree?" Or "I am offering two wood for a stone" and things on that order. My GF was bit intimidated by the game; kept asking me if it was a good game; but the game won game of the year a few times, and that was a selling point. Another selling point is that the game is different every time it is played as the map is made from disks that can be put in any order. Also, when the dice are rolled; everyone on that number who is playing gets resources; not just the person whose turn it is.

These games a language resources brought fun and confidence that she could ask me; how do you say? or should i say; this or that; and I could help her with pronounciation; so "that" doesn't get prounouced "Zat"

We also played some card games; but they dont involve much conversation so probably are not what you need.

[Tarren Dei]

Helpful. Thanks Valegrim.

[Megan Robertson]

I believe it was a Holy Roman Emperor who said, "To possess another language is to possess another soul."

I'm a teacher - not of ESL - but would suggest a basic role-play, tending more to the 'story game' concept rather than full-bore traditional RPGs. Introduce a situation, and invite your students to respond 'in character' in the language which they are learning.

(I have used games in teaching land navigation with one group who really liked playing games. Lots of pirate maps and stuff like that really engaged them - these were 16-17 year old low achievers, taking a class which ought really to have been studied a year or so earlier in their academic careers.)

[Tarren Dei]

Megan Robertson wrote:

I believe it was a Holy Roman Emperor who said, "To possess another language is to possess another soul."

I'm a teacher - not of ESL - but would suggest a basic role-play, tending more to the 'story game' concept rather than full-bore traditional RPGs. Introduce a situation, and invite your students to respond 'in character' in the language which they are learning.

(I have used games in teaching land navigation with one group who really liked playing games. Lots of pirate maps and stuff like that really engaged them - these were 16-17 year old low achievers, taking a class which ought really to have been studied a year or so earlier in their academic careers.)

Role-playing activities are quite popular in ESL. Role-playing games would be really valuable but harder to make work in the classroom for various reasons.

It would be fun to design some single-mechanic role-playing activities and games.

[Megan Robertson]

Not difficult, especially if you are happy free-form...

Actually, it's what I did for my very first 'micro-teach' when training.

I started by describing the city walls and the line of people waiting to get in through the gates...

Then got everyone to roll a d6 and keep it visible.

... then told them they'd reached the head of the line and what were they going to say to the guard?

I don't recall what everyone said, one person said they'd brought some chickens to sell at market!

The d6 was used as a scale of how honest they looked, so the people who rolled a 6 got let in whatever they said, and the ones who got a 1 had a hard time and lots of follow-up questions.

I then explained that this was 'role-playing' and that characters were described by a series of die rolls which were used to resolve actions during the game. The next stage was to generate a basic character, using d6 rolls for things like strength, speed, and, well, looking honest and trustworthy :)