Week 1: July 19

Download Final Fantasy 6 here. You need to complete the FF 6 Questions before you can move on to writing an email to one character.

Today, you will be writing an email to one of the characters you have met. You can choose a character from Final Fantasy 1, 4, or 6. Open and make a copy of the Character Email.

Week 1: July 18

Today, I want you to finish the Creating and Practicing Dialogue document from yesterday. You can find it in your documents or drive folder in your Gmail.

After that, please download Final Fantasy 4 here. In this game, you do not choose your own characters like in Final Fantasy 1. In FF4, there is great emphasis on story and the personality of each character.

Before you start playing Final Fantasy 4, I want you to open the FF4 Questions document.

Week 1: July 17

We still need to finish the comparison paragraph at the bottom of yesterday's Quests, Objectives, and Goals document. Please open your Google Documents/Drive folder in your Gmail to finish that paragraph. Take at least 20 minutes to write as much as you can.

Next, we will be looking at creating and practicing dialogue.

Finally, we will be doing a scavenger hunt with vocabulary from Final Fantasy.

Week 1: July 16

This week, we will be talking about quests, objectives, and goals.

We will be playing Final Fantasy. You can download an emulator to play the game here. You can download the game itself here.

Week 4-3: July 12

Your final quest

Good luck!

Week 4-3: July 11

Week 4-1: July 9

Welcome to Week 4 of EtG.

This week, we will be playing World of Warcraft. You can sign-up for and download the starter edition, which lets you play up to level 20, by clicking here.

Before we start playing, I want to look at video games more generally. They are popular and played all over the world, and millions of hours are spent playing games each year. Researcher Jane McGonigal is a game designer who thinks we can apply our love of games to real-world problems. Watch her TED talk video here. Before you start watching the video, open up this McGonigal Google document so that you can take notes and consider a few discussions questions.

Before the end of the class, you will be making a one-minute presentation. You will need to have a main idea, one or more examples, and one or more reasons. Please ask for help you need it!

Week 3-3: July 5

This is the last day for playing Mass Effect 2, working on the comprehension exercise, and writing a blog post about Mass Effect. First, we will be watching a video and talking about emotions in Mass Effect.

I will add up your EXP at the end of the day, so please work hard with your partner to finish the comprehension exercise. You can start playing Mass Effect 3 if you like. I have added some questions to the comprehension exercise.

Next week, we will be playing World of Warcraft. The download is long, so please download and try it on your computer this weekend. You will need to make an account and then download the game.

Week 3 Leaderboard:

1. Byte. 1425 EXP. Level 5
2. Junghwan. 900 EXP. Level 4
3. Areli. 875 EXP. Level 4
4. Abdulmajeed. 625 EXP. Level 4
5. Risa. 625 EXP. Level 4
6. Alfonso. 575 EXP. Level 3
7. Antonio. 575 EXP. Level 3

Week 3-2: July 4

Today, we will be continuing our work on the comprehension exercise. If you played Mass Effect 2 yesterday, you can play it again today, but you must focus on the questions.


Before we start playing, I would like to look at two different types of role-playing games: Japanese and Western. Have a look at this document

.

Week 3-1: July 3

Welcome to Week 3 of EtG! The games in this week and the next week require faster computers, so it is very important that you find a partner or small group to work with this week. There are also parts of these games, Mass Effect 2/3 and Dragon Age 2, with shooting and moving. You will need a mouse to play the games this week as well.

This week we will be talking about types of role-playing games and how games try to make us feel emotions like happiness, sadness, and frustration.

You can find the "How to" document for Week 3 here. You can find the comprehension exercise that we will be working on here.

Check if your computer can run the games!

Week 2-4: June 28

This is the last day of Week 2. You need to have finished at least three demos by the end of today.

Also, use your blog to write short paragraphs for Side Quest 1 and Side Quest 2.

Almost everyone completed the Secondary Quest for this week. I will give you 150 EXP for doing this! You should be able to get as much as 500 EXP by the end of today's class!

If you have been playing the Indiana Jones demo and you are having trouble, you can use this walkthrough to help you. A walkthrough tells you what to do to finish a game.

During the long weekend, please try to install and test the games for Week 3 here.

Writing about Setting

The setting for the Indiana Jones demo is an island country called Bimini. Bimini is a real island close to Miami, Florida in the United States. The time of the game is probably 50-60 years ago because the game talks about Indiana Jones, the main character, trying to stop Nazi soldiers. The Nazi soldiers are trying to find the fountain of youth, a mystical spring that is supposed to make people live forever. I think the setting of the game is real, but some of the things, like the fountain of youth, are not real.

Week 2-3: June 27

Yesterday, we created blogs and I subscribed to your blogs. This morning, I made a short comment on everyone's blog.

I would like everyone to leave a comment on my blog about the game they played yesterday. What game did you play? Did you like it?

Today, we will be talking about setting.

Week 2-2: June 26

Today, we will be making our own blog pages. Go to the blogger website by clicking here.

On Monday, we were all able to finish the Tales of Monkey Island demo. Please try to play the other demos today. I will try to let you figure out how to solve the puzzles of the other games. You need to read and listen carefully in order to find out what to do.

You can download the demos from this page.

If the demos are not working on your computer, you can borrow my laptop or use the classroom computer.

Week 2-1: June 25

Last week, we played games that involved buying equipment and magic and fighting monsters. This week, we will be working on difficult puzzles and trying to find out what to do to go through the different games.

Today, I will spend a little bit of time playing The Secret of Monkey Island. It is a point-and-click adventure game, like the games you will be playing this week. I will try to show you how to play point-and-click adventure games. If you have not downloaded and tried to play the games on your computer, you can find them here.

It is possible to earn 600 EXP this week. You will need to do some writing and work together with your partners to solve the many puzzles you will find.

Week 1: June 21

This is the last day of Week 1 in EtG. We will be talking about characters and villains. When you finish working on both documents, please share them with me.

While you are in class, please work on the quests for the week. Help your classmates earn more EXP!

Next week, we will be playing very different games than we played this week. I will do a tutorial for you at the beginning of next week to show you how to play next week's games. It would be a good idea to start downloading and testing the games for Week 2 on your laptops this weekend. You can find the Week 2 games and How to page here.

Here is the updated EtG Leaderboard. If you reached 100 EXP, you are now at Level 2! If you reached 300 EXP, you are now at Level 3! Who can reach the highest level in the class over the next three weeks?!?

t-1. Junghwan. 450 EXP. Level 3
t-1. Byte. 450 EXP. Level 3
2. Yuko. 350 EXP. Level 3
3. Yun Sik. 300 EXP. Level 3
t-4. Hiroyuki. 250 EXP. Level 2
t-4. Risa. 250 EXP. Level 2
t-4. Ami. 250 EXP. Level 2
t-5. Misa. 150 EXP. Level 2
t-5. Huitae. 150 EXP. Level 2
t-5. Junko. 150 EXP. Level 2
t-5. Bong. 150 EXP. Level 2
t-5. Won Je. 150 EXP. Level 2
t-8. Hanna. 0 EXP. Level 1

Week 1: June 20

Most of you have finished the main quest for this week, which is great. Today, we will be starting Final Fantasy 4 and looking at video game cut-scenes and characters. Try to help your classmates gain some EXP today. We all need to work together in this class.

Class Leaderboard as of June 20th
1. Jung Hwan: 200 EXP
t-2. Risa: 150 EXP
t-2. Byte: 150 EXP
t-2. Huitae: 150 EXP
t-3. Hiroyuki: 100 EXP
t-3. Yun Sik: 100 EXP
t-3. Yuko: 100 EXP
t-3. Misa: 100 EXP
t-4. Bong: 0 EXP
t-4. Hanna: 0 EXP
t-4. Won Je: 0 EXP
t-4. Junko: 0 EXP
t-4. Ami: 0 EXP

Week 1: June 19

Today, we will talk about your quests for Final Fantasy 1 and how to play the game. We will also look at the new vocabulary words in the game.

To play the game, remember these keys on your laptop keyboard:

Z = A Button: This is the key used to choose what you want to do, buy or attack.
X = B Button: This is the key used to cancel something or go back to a different menu.
ENTER = Start Button: This is the key used to go to the menu of the game. In the menu, you can choose to save your game. This lets you make a record of your progress.
The Arrow Keys = Direction Buttons: These keys let you move your character around and choose where to go, who to attack, and what to buy.

Week 1: June 18

Today we will be going through the Course Introduction, the Week 1 How to, and the Week 1 Survey. All of these documents can be found by clicking on their links or at the EtG website below:

1-1 Final Fantasy 1

Welcome!

English through Gaming is a new elective course at CCEL. I invite students to post ideas, comments, and questions on this blog as we go through the course. I hope you are as excited as I am to be combining a love and enjoyment of video games with our study of English.

It's time to press START on a new type of learning experience. Here we go!