Paper-based Games for ESL Students

At the inaugural Playful Learning Summit at Ohio University, I shared a couple of games that I developed for use with ESL students at Ohio State. These are both paper-based games, which stood out in a room full of computer games and an Oculus Rift connected to a Kinect. This last project — an immersive, gesture-controlled, virtual reality interface — was really cool, but isn’t something I know how to develop (yet).  But, fortunately, everyone gets paper.  I hope these two games serve as an inspiration for anyone who doesn’t think she can design a game for her students.

Football Simulation – I’ve posted about this one before, but it still stands as an easy-to-prepare, easy-to-play simulation that can help international students to understand the game of American football.  The focus, when I use the game in the classroom, is to understand what down and distance are as well as the importance of basic offensive and defensive strategies.  All that is required is one six-sided die and a printout of the document with the offense and defense  cards cut out.

Orientation to Campus Game – This is a board game I developed based on the Madeline board game.  Players travel around the campus map / board uncovering tokens when they land next to them.  If the player uncovers one of the 5 buckeye symbols, she keeps it.  If the player uncovers the name of a building, she must move to that space immediately.  The best things about this game are that it is very easy to play and that students really focus and pay attention to the most important buildings on the map.  There are no dice and you can use almost anything for player tokens.  I also really like the mechanic of moving to the place listed on the token because this changes every time the game is played.  On the down side, it is a kids game, so it doesn’t hold adults’ attention for very long.  And if the students have been on campus for even a couple of weeks, they are already familiar with most of the buildings in the game.  Still, this game could be useful for students to play while waiting for our orientation program to start because it might help them to discover buildings that they do not yet know.

So, don’t be afraid of developing games on paper if, like me, you don’t have a wide array of programming skills.  Any game that is prototyped and play-tested on paper could later be converted to a computer version.  But, by working out the kinks on paper, you can develop your game to its final version without even picking up your keyboard.

Are you ready for some football?

I’m not quite ready for football yet either.  But this past weekend some students and I braved the wet weather to do some tailgating and join 65,000 of our closest friends at the annual Spring Game.  Though not a “real” game — the Buckeyes split into a Scarlet Team and a Gray Team, which play against each other — it is a very good simulation for only $5.

In order to help ESL students understand American football, I’ve developed a football simulation that requires only one six-sided die (plural = dice).  A coin helps, too, if you want to begin with a coin toss.

I’ve squeezed all of the rules for the simulation onto the first page, which may be a bit too brief (leave a comment below if something is unclear), but almost everything in the game of football is included: offense, defense, and special teams.

The offense has five different plays (Inside Run, Outside Run, Short Pass, Medium Pass, and Long Pass) and the defense has three (Run Defense, Pass Defense, and Blitz).  Each play begins with one team’s offense and the other team’s defense selecting a play by and placing that card face-down on the table.  Teams count to three and reveal the cards simultaneously.  The quarterback (a player on the offensive team) rolls the die to determine the outcome of the play with higher rolls being more successful.

As in real football, if the defense has predicted the offensive play, the offense is less likely to gain yardage (or may even lose yardage).  But, if the offense has selected a play that the defense is not prepared for, bigger gains are likely.  The Run Defense will limit the running plays, the Pass Defense will limit passing plays, and the Blitz will disrupt the longer plays (Outside Run and Long Pass).  These longer plays have a lower chance of success, but when successful produce bigger gains.  Every combination has six possible outcomes, which depend on the roll of the die.  These combinations are listed in a table right below the rules.

I’ve played this game with my class on two different occasions and the students really enjoy it.  Playing the game is the best way to understand what downs are and that 2nd and 5 is much better that 3rd and 13.  (There is room to keep track of each play on the back page of the simulation and twelve plays equal one quarter.)  Students also enjoy the strategic element of predicting whether their classmates are more likely to choose a conservative play or to throw up a Hail Mary.

In my experience with students who were interested but had little knowledge of the game, a 30-40 minute explanation of the basics of football prior to the simulation was helpful.  I also spent 10-20 minutes explaining the basics of the simulation and let the students see the table of possible outcomes before we played.  This allowed them time to understand the simulation in their own way and to begin to develop their own strategies.  I let the students take lots of time for the first couple of plays, because there is usually lots to discuss and negotiate, but play gets quicker as students get more comfortable with the process.  I also make sure to record the outcome of every play on the board at the front of the class (i.e. 3rd and 2 on the 30) which is another big challenge at first, but understanding this vernacular really allows a student to understand and enjoy watching a real game.  Students usually wanted to continue playing even after 30-40 minutes.

There are a few other details included in the simulation that I haven’t explained here (fumbles, for example).  Download the .pdf file and give it a try.  It’s a good way to introduce people to the game and a fun diversion for football fans.  Feel free to share my simulation, but please give me credit when you do.  If you have comments or suggestions for additions or changes, please leave them below.