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Interactive storytelling games
This document provides an example of an interactive storytelling game called "Get the Treasure and Escape the Island". It involves students taking on roles of characters who work together to overcome challenges during 5 turns as they search for treasure on a secret island. Examples of challenges are generated by the students. The game uses chance to determine success or failure when trying to overcome each challenge. At the end, characters can reveal secret goals and see if they were able to accomplish them through the game. Interactive storytelling games are similar to role-playing games and can be facilitated by a teacher to create longer cooperative storytelling activities for the classroom.
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Interactive storytelling games
- 1. INTERACTIVE STORYTELLIN G GAMESGRAHAM STANLEY @GRAHAMSTANLEY 14th July2020 https://www.slideshare.net/bcgstanley/get-the-treasure-and-
- 2. INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING • Interactive Storytelling examples •Small Town Photographer • Get the Treasure! • Techniques • Designing your own
- 3. THE SMALL TOWN PHOTOGRAPHER http://englishconversations.org/interactive-stories Whatis an interactive story? An interactive story is a guided short story in text form, with questions. It is a speaking acivity, with students working in pairs. The storyteller has a handout of the story and reads it stopping to ask the listener questions. The storyteller continues when happy with the responses. Mark White
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- 5. GET THE TREASURE AND ESCAPE THE ISLAND Graham Stanley @grahamstanley June2020 An #ELTESCAPE ADVENTURE FOR LEARNERS
- 6. TREASURE ISLAND -You have followedthe old man’s instructions and have at last found the secret island. -You have a map and know where the treasure is hidden…or so you think. -You and your new friends have one last chance to find it.
- 7. WHO ARE YOU? -What isyour name? -Where are you from? -What do you do? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - And most importantly… …what do you secretly want? At any point during the game, you can reveal your hidden secret and try to accomplish it. If you do not do this during the game, then it will happen at the end of the game.
- 8. WHAT MAKES FINDING THE TEASURE DIFFICULT? -1) -2) -3) -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Decide together what three things are going to make your adventure difficult.
- 9. CHALLENGE S The game willconsist of 6 turns. During the first 5 turns, there will be a challenge to overcome. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Each character needs to write a challenge (do not tell the others) Example challenges:
- 10. SUCCESS During each ofthe 5 turns, we will randomly select a challenge. Each turn a different character will decide what to do to try to overcome a challenge We will select a chip from a bag to see if you are successful or not. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- 11. CHALLENGE 1 Set the scene Describethe challenge - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How will you overcome the challenge? Chances left = 10
- 12. CHALLENGE 2 Set the scene Describethe challenge - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How will you overcome the challenge? Chances left = 10
- 13. CHALLENGE 3 Set the scene Describethe challenge - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How will you overcome the challenge? Chances left = 10
- 14. CHALLENGE 4 Set the scene Describethe challenge - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How will you overcome the challenge? Chances left = 10
- 15. CHALLENGE 5 Set the scene Describethe challenge - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How will you overcome the challenge? This is the final challenge and your chance to get the treasure! Chances left = 10
- 16. PERSONAL CHALLENGE S Now it’s timeto reveal your hidden wants and see you have been able get what you wanted if you haven’t already revealed them - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- 17. INTERACTIVE STORYTELLIN G GAMES Similar torole-playing games (RPG) Interactive story-telling games + co-created, more open-ended stories + random events and outcomes + facilitated by a Games Master (GM) + longer activities (several classes) Example storytelling games • Escape the dinner party • Get the treasure and escape! • A fortnight in the valley RPG in ELT
- 18. INTERACTIVE STORYTELLIN G GAMESGRAHAM STANLEY @GRAHAMSTANLEY 14th July2020 https://www.slideshare.net/bcgstanley/get-the-treasure-and-
Editor's Notes
- #2 Interactive storytelling games can be played in the classroom or online and are a great way to motivate language learners to speak and listen. They can also be easily adapted by the teacher to most levels. During this webinar, I will use the game 'Get the treasure and escape the island!' with some volunteers to illustrate how it works and then discuss how teachers can best approach designing their own game for their learners. Procedure: We will play the game for 20 minutes or so (will need 4-5 volunteers to play, prepared to speak) and then I will stop and discuss the design of the game and how teachers can do something similar. Graham Stanley works for the British Council in Mexico City. He is the editor of 'Remote Teaching' (British Council, 2019), the author of 'Language Learning & Technology' (CUP, 2013) and the co-author of 'Digital Play: Computer games and language aims'. A TiLT Webinar given on July 14th 2020 http://www.all-london.org.uk/site/index.php/webinars/
- #3 This presentation has the following parts to it. First, I’ll be looking at storytelling in general. Then we’ll look at interactive stories, the techniques and an example story, followed by ideas if you want to write your own Finally, we’ll look at role-playing games in general and then at a couple of examples of interactive storytelling games that use similar techniques to encourage student to speak.
- #4 I first came across the concept of interactve storytelling years ago, when I was introduced to it by an English teacher based in Japan, called Mark White. Mark has lots of example stories and recordings of students telling his stories on his website. I immediately liked the idea and decided to write one of my own to try out with my own students.
- #5 Let’s start with a structured interactive story. You can either do this as a whole class activity, or hand out the script to students in pairs and ask one student to tell the story and ask the questions, and the other to respond. Today, you can post your answrs into the chat. THE SMALL TOWN PHOTOGRAPHER 1. The Wedding Photograph © Graham Stanley, 2005 A photographer (What is his name?) lives in a small town (Where is it?) where he has successfully made a good living for many years. In the window of his shop he proudly displays some of the wedding photographs he has taken of happy couples over the years. He is very fond of one photograph in particular (What does it show?) It’s of a couple posing next to a ruined tower with a brilliant red sunset in the background of the picture. (Why is he proud of it?) It’s a particularly good photograph and ever since displaying this photo in his shop window, he has noticed an increase in the number of customers his studio has received, especially for weddings. And people enquiring about wedding photographic services always comment upon it. (What do they say?) He’s convinced that the photo is a one-off, and he has often tried to recreate the photo again with different couples – in fact they often ask for it – but it never turns out the same way (Why not? What’s wrong with them?) (What is his explanation?) There must have been something special about that day, something magical. He was just starting out as a wedding photographer, the couple in question were so in love, plus an extra, unknown factor. One October morning (what is he doing?) he is surprised by a special visitor (Who is it?) It is the woman featured in his special wedding photo. Quite a bit older, but still recognisable. She waits until he isn’t busy and introduces herself. (What does she want?) She explains that she has recently moved back to the town after living elsewhere. (Where was she living? With who?) She is living with her mother now. ‘I’m sorry’ says the photographer (What does he think has happened?) He believes the woman has divorced her husband. The woman does not explain, but she does ask the photographer a big favour. (What is it?) She asks him to remove the photograph from his window as she now passes the photographer’s studio every day on her way to work and the photograph disturbs her (Why?) The photographer is surprised by the woman’s request and agrees to it, telling her that he will remove it at the end of the day. The woman thanks him and leaves the shop. The man works hard for the rest of the day, and starts to wonder if he has made the right decision agreeing to remove his lucky photograph from his window. (What does he do?) He does, however, remove the photograph from the window, and places it carefully in storage at the back of the shop. But the next day, he regrets his decision because of three incidents. Talk to your partner and say why the photographer wishes he hadn’t taken the photograph from the window, explaining the three things that happen to justify his superstition.
- #6 This game is © Graham Stanley 2020 [email protected] Get the treasure and escape the island is a role-playing game for English language learners of A2+ level. It is designed to encourage speaking. Set-up: The game is for 3-5 characters, so if you have more than 5 learners, put them into pairs or groups and tell them each pair/group will be playing a different character. You need:- a bag of 24 chips/counters (12 green and 12 red). Aternatively, you can use pieces of paper that are red and green or which have with Y (for ‘yes’) and N (for ‘no’) written on them. These will represent the outcomes of the decisions the learners make during the game. Your learners need:- pencils/pens and paper Available to download her: https://www.slideshare.net/bcgstanley/get-the-treasure-and-escape-the-island https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hixdvn51szvpwso/AAAWVHy_2Q9FsJ_wothg1BWsa?dl=0
- #7 Read the story to the learners as an introduction to the game.
- #8 Ask the learners to work in pairs/groups (or on their own if there are 3-5 of them) to decide on the following for their character: Name; Origin; Profession (job) And… Their ‘secret want’ i.e. what is it they want that the other characters do not know? This might be to keep the treasure for themselves, or they may be a government agent who wants to arrest the others, or anything else the learners can think of. A player can decide during a turn to reveal the secret and try to succeeed. If they do this, draw a counter to see if it succeeds (green) or not (red). If the players do not reveal their secrets during the game, then they will be revealed at the end and their success will be shown through drawing counters.
- #9 Ask the learners to think of three things that are going to make finding the treasure difficult. e.g. a) The treasure is is an abandoned tmeple in the middle of a jungle. b) A storm is coming and you only have a few days to find it. c) There are other treasure hunters who are also going to the island looking for the treasure.
- #10 Ask each of the pairs/groups of learners to write a challenge (and keep it secret) If you only have three characters/learners, then the teacher should write 2 more challenges. You can use the examples above or come up with your own.
- #11 Tell the learners that there will be 5 turns and each turn will present a different challenge (those the learners have written). Before each turn, a character will volunteer to decide how to overcome. Then the challenge will be randomly selected and that character (i.e. the learners in that pair/group) must decide what to do to overome the challenge. The teacher or a learner will then draw a chip from the bag to see if they were successful or not. Once a chip has been taken from the bag, do not put it back in again. If the action is unsuccessful, there are consequences. A different character can try to overcome the challenge with a different action, but during the game the player have a total of 10 chances (2 per challenge). They can use any number of chances to overcome a challenge, but once their ten chances are used, they will be automatically unsuccessful overcoming a challenge. i.e. If they have used up their final chance on challenge number 4, then this means they lose the game because they have no chance of being successful when presented with challenge number 5.
- #12 Select a player (either randomly, the teacher selects, or a volunteer). Encourage the learner to describe the challenge in as much detail as posible, to set the scene. A learner volunteers and describes how the group overcome the challenge…they say what they attempt to do. This uses 1 chance (máximum of 10) The teacher (or the student) draws a token from the bag – if it is green, then the attempt was successful. If red, then the attempt was unsuccessful. The teacher describes what happens. If successful, the game moves on. If unsuccessful, another learner can volunteer another idea to overcome the challenge. Again, a token/counter is drawn and this decides whether the attempt was successful or unsuccessful. There is no limit as to how many times the learners can try to overcome a challenge, but there is a limit to the number of chances they have during the whole game (all 5 chances) – if they run out of chances, then they will not find the treasure.
- #13 Select a player (either randomly, the teacher selects, or a volunteer). Encourage the learner to describe the challenge in as much detail as posible, to set the scene. A learner volunteers and describes how the group overcome the challenge…they say what they attempt to do. This uses 1 chance (máximum of 10) The teacher (or the student) draws a token from the bag – if it is green, then the attempt was successful. If red, then the attempt was unsuccessful. The teacher describes what happens. If successful, the game moves on. If unsuccessful, another learner can volunteer another idea to overcome the challenge. Again, a token/counter is drawn and this decides whether the attempt was successful or unsuccessful. There is no limit as to how many times the learners can try to overcome a challenge, but there is a limit to the number of chances they have during the whole game (all 5 chances) – if they run out of chances, then they will not find the treasure.
- #14 Select a player (either randomly, the teacher selects, or a volunteer). Encourage the learner to describe the challenge in as much detail as posible, to set the scene. A learner volunteers and describes how the group overcome the challenge…they say what they attempt to do. This uses 1 chance (máximum of 10) The teacher (or the student) draws a token from the bag – if it is green, then the attempt was successful. If red, then the attempt was unsuccessful. The teacher describes what happens. If successful, the game moves on. If unsuccessful, another learner can volunteer another idea to overcome the challenge. Again, a token/counter is drawn and this decides whether the attempt was successful or unsuccessful. There is no limit as to how many times the learners can try to overcome a challenge, but there is a limit to the number of chances they have during the whole game (all 5 chances) – if they run out of chances, then they will not find the treasure.
- #15 Select a player (either randomly, the teacher selects, or a volunteer). Encourage the learner to describe the challenge in as much detail as posible, to set the scene. A learner volunteers and describes how the group overcome the challenge…they say what they attempt to do. This uses 1 chance (máximum of 10) The teacher (or the student) draws a token from the bag – if it is green, then the attempt was successful. If red, then the attempt was unsuccessful. The teacher describes what happens. If successful, the game moves on. If unsuccessful, another learner can volunteer another idea to overcome the challenge. Again, a token/counter is drawn and this decides whether the attempt was successful or unsuccessful. There is no limit as to how many times the learners can try to overcome a challenge, but there is a limit to the number of chances they have during the whole game (all 5 chances) – if they run out of chances, then they will not find the treasure.
- #16 The final challenge happens when the players reach the treasure Select a player (either randomly, the teacher selects, or a volunteer). Encourage the learner to describe the challenge in as much detail as posible, to set the scene. A learner volunteers and describes how the group overcome the challenge…they say what they attempt to do. This uses 1 chance (máximum of 10) The teacher (or the student) draws a token from the bag – if it is green, then the attempt was successful. If red, then the attempt was unsuccessful. The teacher describes what happens. If successful, the game moves on. If unsuccessful, another learner can volunteer another idea to overcome the challenge. Again, a token/counter is drawn and this decides whether the attempt was successful or unsuccessful. There is no limit as to how many times the learners can try to overcome a challenge, but there is a limit to the number of chances they have during the whole game (all 5 chances) – if they run out of chances, then they will not find the treasure.
- #17 If there are players who haven’t yet revealed their hidden wants, then now is the time. Ask for volunteers and then check to see if the player hs been able to succeed by drawing a counter. If it is green, then the player was successfu. If red, then the player didn’t get what they wanted. In each case, the teacher should elaborate on the story, and the player can add details as they wish. This happens whether the players find the trasure or not. This is the end of the game.
- #19 Thank you! Any questions?