Lesson Plan (1)

Instructor:Dr. Jinrong Li
Program: GA Migrant Education Program Summer Camp
Subject: English and Academic Writing
Title ofLesson: Do you know all the games and their rules?
Objectives (writing) /
  • To help students understand that writing is an important way of communication

Objectives (language) /
  • To raise students’ awareness of some major differences between spoken and written English

Materials for the lesson /
  • Different board or card games
  • Monopoly
  • Settlers of Catan
  • Ticket to ride
  • Pandemic

Activity (1)
Guided Practice /
  • Play games (50 -60 minutes)
  • Students are divided into small groups of 3-4.
  • Each group need a group leader who knows how to play the game.
  • The group leader takes the game, and introduces the game to the group members without showing them the rules and instructions of the game.
  • The students discuss the rules of the game with the group leader and each other in order to understand how to play the game (again, without using the written instructions).
  • Each group has 30 minutes to play their game. During this process, students are asked to try to understand how the rules work. They are also told that each of them will be asked to write the rules and instructions for the game.
  • Discussion of game rules and instructions (20 minutes)
  • In groups, students are asked to discuss how they feel about learning to play the game without using written rules and instructions.
  • Students then discuss what they think are the most important rules of the game and take notes
  • Whole class summary

Activity (2)
Independent Practice /
  • Writing (30 minutes)
  • Students work individually to write the rules and instructions for the game they have learned to play earlier.
  • Revision (20 minutes)
  • Students in the same group will exchange their written game instructions and help each other make the rules and instructions more accurate.

Lesson Plan (2)

Instructor: Dr. Jinrong Li
Program: GA Migrant Education Program Summer Camp
Subject: English and Academic Writing
Title ofLesson: How to write game rules and instructions that will work?
Objectives (writing) /
  • Genre structure of instructional texts: stages & moves

Objectives (language) /
  • Sequential explanation lexicon and syntax: technical terms

Materials for the lesson /
  • Pictures of different kinds of fruits and vegetables
  • Pictures of receipts
  • Different board or card games
  • Monopoly
  • Settlers of Catan
  • Ticket to ride
  • Pandemic
  • Copies of simplified game rules and instructions
  • Different word games
  • Bananagram
  • Quiddler
  • Taboo
  • Scattergories
  • Copies of simplified word game rules and instructions

Activity (1)
Guided Practice /
  • Play games (40 minutes)
  • Exchange games and read each other’s game rules and instructions
  • Groups learn to play a different game
  • Take notes on unclear part in the game rules and instructions
  • In a whole class discussion, each group take turns to share their experience of learning to play a different game based on their classmates’ written rules and instructions
  • Whole class discussion: technical terms, accuracy and precision, and understanding of rules and instructions
  • Categorization (20 minutes)
  • Students work in groups to categorize pictures of fruits and vegetables
  • When they divide the pictures into two groups, ask them why the pictures belong to different groups
  • Ask students to consider if different parts of writing should also be clearly marked
  • Use blurry pictures of recipes to help students understand what “different parts of a text” mean: ingredients and steps for cooking.
  • Provide each group with a list of simplified game instructions (with subheadings taken out), and ask students to identify different parts and provide a sub-heading for each.
  • Word games (30 minutes)
  • In groups, students read and discuss simplified rules and instructions for a word game
  • Group leaders facilitate the discussion and help students to understand the rules based on reading and group discussion
  • Students play word games

Activity (2)
Independent Practice /
  • Writing
  • Students work individually to write how they think word games can help language learning, and how game rules can be modified for that purpose.

Lesson Plan (3)

Instructor: Dr. Jinrong Li
Program: GA Migrant Education Program Summer Camp
Subject: English and Academic Writing
Title ofLesson: Should we play more games in the classroom?
Objectives (writing) /
  • To develop a point using examples and details

Objectives (language) /
  • Lexicogrammar of adjectives

Materials for the lesson /
  • Copies of full rules and instructions for the word games
  • Different word games
  • Bananagram
  • Quiddler
  • Taboo
  • Scattergories
  • Mad Gab
  • Index cards of three different colors
  • Blank table worksheet

Activity (1)
Guided Practice /
  • Learn from official game rules (30 minutes)
  • Students in each group are asked to write up the rules and instructions for the word game they played yesterday
  • Students are then provided with copies of the official rules and instruction
  • Students are asked to highlight parts of the official rules that they think are clearer and more helpful.
  • Whole class discussion: What make rules and instructions helpful and effective?
  • Mad Gab (30 minutes)
  • Introduce the game Mad Gab to the whole class
  • Students work in groups to compete for more points in Mad Gab
  • Play Mad Gab with the whole class for about 15 minutes and record the scores for each group
  • At the end of the game, the winning team gets to choose one task from the three: to write up a list of the benefits or limitations of the game, or challenges for playing.
  • Summary of Mad Gab and language learning (15 minutes)
  • Each group is provided with an index card
  • Group members work together to complete the list for “benefit”, “limitation”, or “challenge”.
  • Groups report to the whole class

Activity (2)
Independent Practice /
  • Comparison & Contrast (15 minutes)
  • Each student is provided with a blank table worksheet.
  • Students first put the “benefits”, “limitations”, and “challenge” of Mad Gab in the first column.
  • Students are then asked to add the same information for the word game they played yesterday, with the requirement that the information need to be different from that in the previous column.
  • Writing (30 minutes)
  • Based on the information from the table worksheet, the students are asked to add at least two examples to help make their previous writing on “how word games can help language learning” more interesting and convincing
  • Students are told that their work will be reviewed by their peers the next day at the beginning of this task

Lesson Plan (4)

Instructor: Dr. Jinrong Li
Program: GA Migrant Education Program Summer Camp
Subject: English and Academic Writing
Title ofLesson: Do college students play games in their classrooms?
Objectives (writing) /
  • How can other types of information help with writing?

Objectives (language) /
  • Interview techniques: formal vs. informal language

Materials for the lesson /
  • Copies of student writing from yesterday
  • Worksheet for comments (two sections: what is good and what is not so good)
  • Sample questionnaire and list of questions for interview
  • Copies of finalized questionnaire and interview questions
  • Data aggregation sheet

Activity (1)
Guided Practice /
  • Review for details (30 minutes)
  • Distribute worksheet for comments to the students
  • Each student places their own writing and the comment worksheet on their desk
  • Students move around the classroom to read each other’s work, and leave comments in either of the sections on the comment worksheet
  • Students are given about 20 minutes to do so, and they can choose to read anyone’s paper
  • At the end, students will review the comments for their own paper
  • Preparation for interview (30 minutes)
  • Introduce the final writing task: students will be asked to write about how they think word games should be used in the writing class in the format of a letter to the instructor
  • Introduce the importance of getting information from others
  • Introduce how to conduct interview
  • Students work in groups to develop a questionnaire and a short list of questions to ask
  • The instructor helps the class finalize the questionnaire and the list of questions to be used for the interview

Activity (2)
Independent Practice /
  • Interview (30 minutes)
  • Each student is paired up with a college student
  • The student has about 30 minutes to interview the college student
  • During the process, the student is asked to take detailed notes
  • Share interview results (15 minutes)
  • Distribute the data aggregation sheet to the students
  • Ask students to move around the class and talk to each other about the results they got on the questionnaire.
  • Students need to talk to everyone else in the class to complete the data aggregation sheet.
  • Once this is done, every student has data from all interviewees
  • Review interview results (15 minutes)
  • Students learn to create visuals based on the data aggregate sheet using Excel
  • Then, students work individually to organize their interview notes into “benefits”, “limitations”, “challenges”, and “others”.

Lesson Plan (5)

Instructor: Dr. Jinrong Li
Program: GA Migrant Education Program Summer Camp
Subject: English and Academic Writing
Title ofLesson: What do I think about how games can affect learning?
Objectives (writing) /
  • How to incorporate sources (including visuals) into writing?

Objectives (language) /
  • Words and phrases used to describe and interpret results

Materials for the lesson /
  • Summary & quotation worksheet
  • Sample summary paragraph for the aggregate data
  • A list of words and phrases frequently used to describe and interpret data

Activity (1)
Guided Practice /
  • What did the interviewee say? (30 minutes)
  • Students work individually to summarize what their interviewee has said into a short paragraph
  • Students then identify a corresponding quote from the interviewee and link the quote with the relevant part of the summary by drawing an arrow
  • Whole class: How to distinguish the interviewee’s words from your own words?
  • Whole class: introduce the idea of citation
  • What does the result on the aggregate data sheet say? (15 minutes)
  • Whole class: ask students to share what they see on the data aggregate sheet: from what they can see and count to what it means (benefits vs. limitations)
  • Improve vocabulary use (15 minutes)
  • Provide students with a short summary of the aggregate data and a list of academic vocabulary
  • Students work in groups to identify how to use given vocabulary to improve the summary paragraph

Activity (2)
Independent Practice /
  • Writing (30 minutes)
  • Students work individually on the final essay “word games and language learning”
  • They are encouraged to incorporate any information they see relevant from previous classes
  • Review (20 minutes)
  • Students work in pairs to review and comment on each other’s essay
  • If there’s enough time, students are encouraged to select the best essay in their group, and the winner receives a game as a prize.