Breaking News English ESL Lesson Plan on Video Games

The Batman video game ‘Arkham Asylum’ has won top prize at Britain’s biggest gaming awards. The all-action superhero adventure picked up best game at the Bafta 2010 awards. Gamers can take on the role of Batman as he fights his traditional enemies in an asylum. It is only the seventh time Bafta has given the award. The best video game category only started in 2004. Bafta is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Its new award is to recognise "artistic, creative and technical innovation in video games". Second place went to the shoot-em-up game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’. This game won the Game award, voted for by gamers. Nintendo scooped the best family and social game with its Wii Sports Resort.

A special moment at the ceremony was when Bafta presented a lifetime achievement award to legendary game maker Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the creator of legendary games such as Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda. He told the audience: "Our imaginations and creativity...should be the only limits and that is what makes our industry a joy and a dream to work in." Miyamoto’s words summed up the confidence shared by everyone in the industry. A British politician Tom Watson echoed Miyamoto as he handed out a prize. He said to games designers: “You are going to be the dominant creative medium of this century.” Many designers believe they are showing a lot more creativity than Hollywood.

WARM-UPS

1. VIDEO GAMES: Walk around the class and talk to other students about video games. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

Batman / gaming / awards / superhero / enemies / creativity / innovation / Nintendo / ceremonies / achievement / Super Mario / imaginations / confidence / Hollywood

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. MY GAME: Design your own games? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change partners and share again.

A game about…	Game name	Game description
learning English
Barack Obama
coffee
global warming
space
hybrid cars

4. GAMING: Students A strongly believe gaming is good for us; Students B strongly believe the opposite. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. GAMES: Which of these are best? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best game on top. Change partners and share your rankings again.

Super Mario Bros.
Wii Sports
Gran Turismo
The Legend of Zelda

Grand Theft Auto
Sonic the Hedgehog
Final Fantasy
Tomb Raider

6. GAMER: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘gamer’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	A Batman video game scooped the top prize at a British awards show.	T / F
b.	The Batman video game only has new enemies in it.	T / F
c.	The Bafta awards for video games are now in their tenth year.	T / F
d.	Nintendo won an award for one of its Wii games.	T / F
e.	The maker of the Super Mario game got a special award.	T / F
f.	Shigeru Miyamoto said working in the game industry is like a dream.	T / F
g.	A British politician complained the awards show echoed too much.	T / F
h.	Many designers believe Hollywood is more creative than gaming.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	awards	a.	main
2	role	b.	originality
3.	enemies	c.	maker
4.	innovation	d.	prizes
5.	scooped	e.	pleasure
6.	achievement	f.	character
7.	creator	g.	repeated
8.	joy	h.	got
9.	echoed	i.	rivals
10.	dominant	j.	success

3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	won top	a.	this century
2	Gamers can take on the	b.	innovation in video games
3.	he fights his	c.	at the ceremony
4.	creative and technical	d.	role of Batman
5.	Nintendo scooped the best family and	e.	than Hollywood
6.	A special moment	f.	shared by everyone
7.	He is the creator	g.	prize
8.	the confidence	h.	traditional enemies
9.	the dominant creative medium of	i.	social game
10.	a lot more creativity	j.	of legendary games

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

The Batman video game ‘Arkham Asylum’ has won ____________ prize at Britain’s biggest gaming awards. The all-action superhero adventure ____________ up best game at the Bafta 2010 ____________. Gamers can take on the role of Batman as he fights his traditional ____________ in an asylum. It is only the seventh time Bafta has given the award. The best video game ____________ only started in 2004. Bafta is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Its new award is to recognise "artistic, ____________ and technical innovation in video games". Second ____________ went to the shoot-em-up game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’. This game won the Game award, voted for by gamers. Nintendo scooped the best ____________ and social game with its Wii Sports Resort.

creative
picked
enemies
family
top
place
awards
category

A special ____________ at the ceremony was when Bafta presented a lifetime achievement award to ____________ game maker Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the creator of legendary games such as Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda. He told the ____________: "Our imaginations and creativity...should be the only limits and that is what makes our industry a ____________ and a dream to work in." Miyamoto’s words summed up the confidence ____________ by everyone in the industry. A British politician Tom Watson echoed Miyamoto as he ____________ out a prize. He said to games designers: “You are going to be the ____________ creative medium of this century.” Many designers believe they are ____________ a lot more creativity than Hollywood.

shared
dominant
legendary
showing
audience
moment
handed
joy

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

The Batman video game ‘Arkham Asylum’ ____________________ Britain’s biggest gaming awards. The all-action superhero adventure ____________________ at the Bafta 2010 awards. Gamers can take on the role of Batman as he fights his traditional ____________________. It is only the seventh time Bafta has given the award. The best video game ____________________ in 2004. Bafta is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Its new award is to recognise "artistic, ____________________ innovation in video games". Second place went to the shoot-em-up game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’. This game won the Game award, voted for by gamers. Nintendo ____________________ and social game with its Wii Sports Resort.

A special moment ____________________ when Bafta presented a lifetime achievement award to legendary game maker Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the creator of legendary games such as Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda. ____________________: "Our imaginations and creativity...should ____________________ that is what makes our industry a joy ____________________." Miyamoto’s words summed up the confidence shared by everyone in the industry. A British politician Tom Watson echoed Miyamoto ____________________ prize. He said to games designers: “You are going to be the dominant creative medium of this century.” Many designers ______________________ a lot more creativity than Hollywood.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘video’ and ‘game’.

video

game

Share your findings with your partners.

Make questions using the words you found.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

top
role
category
artistic
voted
social

lifetime
creator
audience
summed
echoed
medium

STUDENT VIDEO GAMES SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about video games in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

VIDEO GAMES DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘gaming’?
c)	What do you think of video games?
d)	How would your life be different if there were no video games?
e)	Do you like the idea of an awards ceremony for video games?
f)	What kind of people do you think work in the video game industry?
g)	What is your favourite game and why?
h)	What are the biggest differences between today’s games and those that came out five years ago?
i)	What’s your favourite games console (and why)?
j)	Would you like to play the new Batman game?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	What do you think you have to do to get a lifetime achievement award?
c)	What’s the best game ever?
d)	Would you like to work in the gaming industry? Why?
e)	How creative are you?
f)	How important is creativity?
g)	Do you think movies or games are more creative?
h)	Do you prefer to watch movies or play games? Why?
i)	What will games of the future be like?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Shigeru Miyamoto?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

The Batman video game ‘Arkham Asylum’ has won (1) ____ prize at Britain’s biggest gaming awards. The all-action superhero adventure picked (2) ____ best game at the Bafta 2010 awards. Gamers can take on the role of Batman as he fights his (3) ____ enemies in an asylum. It is only the seventh time Bafta has given the award. The best video game category only started in 2004. Bafta is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Its new award is (4) ____ recognise "artistic, (5) ____ and technical innovation in video games". Second place went to the shoot-em-up game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’. This game won the Game award, voted for (6) ____ gamers. Nintendo scooped the best family and social game with its Wii Sports Resort.

A special moment (7) ____ the ceremony was when Bafta presented a lifetime achievement award to legendary game maker Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the creator of legendary games (8) ____ as Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda. He told the audience: "Our imaginations and creativity...should be the only limits and that is what makes our industry a (9) ____ and a dream to work in." Miyamoto’s words summed (10) ____ the confidence shared by everyone in the industry. A British politician Tom Watson echoed Miyamoto as he (11) ____ out a prize. He said to games designers: “You are going to be the dominant creative (12) ____ of this century.” Many designers believe they are showing a lot more creativity than Hollywood.

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	up	(b)	high	(c)	over	(d)	top
2.	(a)	up	(b)	on	(c)	out	(d)	in
3.	(a)	tradition	(b)	traditional	(c)	traditions	(d)	traditionally
4.	(a)	at	(b)	of	(c)	to	(d)	so
5.	(a)	creation	(b)	creates	(c)	creative	(d)	created
6.	(a)	from	(b)	by	(c)	on	(d)	in
7.	(a)	on	(b)	to	(c)	up	(d)	at
8.	(a)	such	(b)	so	(c)	much	(d)	like
9.	(a)	jolly	(b)	joy	(c)	joke	(d)	join
10.	(a)	in	(b)	on	(c)	at	(d)	up
11.	(a)	headed	(b)	shouldered	(c)	handed	(d)	chested
12.	(a)	medium	(b)	strong	(c)	weak	(d)	high

WRITING

Write about video games for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about the Bafta Video Game awards. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. VIDEO GAMES: Make a poster about video games. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. DESIGNER: Write a magazine article about being a video game designer. Include imaginary interviews with a designer and a gamer.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to a top video game designer. Ask him/her three questions about video games. Give him/her three suggestions on what kind of games to design in the future. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	awards	a.	prizes
2	role	b.	character
3.	enemies	c.	rivals
4.	innovation	d.	originality
5.	scooped	e.	got
6.	achievement	f.	success
7.	creator	g.	maker
8.	joy	h.	pleasure
9.	echoed	i.	repeated
10.	dominant	j.	main

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	won top	a.	prize
2	Gamers can take on the	b.	role of Batman
3.	he fights his	c.	traditional enemies
4.	creative and technical	d.	innovation in video games
5.	Nintendo scooped the best family and	e.	social game
6.	A special moment	f.	at the ceremony
7.	He is the creator	g.	of legendary games
8.	the confidence	h.	shared by everyone
9.	the dominant creative medium of	i.	this century
10.	a lot more creativity	j.	than Hollywood

GAP FILL:

Batman wins major UK video game award

The Batman video game ‘Arkham Asylum’ has won top prize at Britain’s biggest gaming awards. The all-action superhero adventure picked up best game at the Bafta 2010 awards. Gamers can take on the role of Batman as he fights his traditional enemies in an asylum. It is only the seventh time Bafta has given the award. The best video game category only started in 2004. Bafta is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Its new award is to recognise "artistic, creative and technical innovation in video games". Second place went to the shoot-em-up game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’. This game won the Game award, voted for by gamers. Nintendo scooped the best family and social game with its Wii Sports Resort.

A special moment at the ceremony was when Bafta presented a lifetime achievement award to legendary game maker Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the creator of legendary games such as Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda. He told the audience: "Our imaginations and creativity...should be the only limits and that is what makes our industry a joy and a dream to work in." Miyamoto’s words summed up the confidence shared by everyone in the industry. A British politician Tom Watson echoed Miyamoto as he handed out a prize. He said to games designers: “You are going to be the dominant creative medium of this century.” Many designers believe they are showing a lot more creativity than Hollywood.

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - b

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - d

8 - a

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

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Breaking News English

March 21, 2010

Batman Wins Major UK Video Game Award