Anika’s annotated Odyssey

Level: Intermediate (and above)

Location: Computer room

Skills Focus: reading

Game: Anika’s Odyssey

One day Anika’s toy rabbit gets stolen by an Eagle.  Help her journey out and get it back.

This is a nice attractively drawn adventure game where you have to use the mouse to solve puzzles and move the narrative on.  There are a number of ways you can use this game and it’s up to you on which way you’ll choose with which class.

You can print off a copy of the walkthrough and have it in your hand when you play the game with the class.  This walkthrough is your support and you can refer to it to guide your students in the right direction.  In this situation you only need a projector or IWB with an internet connection to play the game.  You take control of the keyboard and mouse and you encourage your students to raise their hands and tell you what to do.  This can either be in the form of imperatives or as a form of narrative story telling which in turn could be produced orally or in written form.

You can also present the written walkthrough to the class and cover any language items which may prove problematic to your students.  They can then go and play the game in pairs using an annotated form of the walkthrough as extra support and reading practice.  The game experience could then be used to drive written work later in the form of a story, character bios or a student walkthrough.

Preparation

Print off a copy of the walkthrough:

Anika’s Odyssey Walkthrough

Preplay

1. Present the walkthrough to the class and ask them to find seven words that they don’t understand and write them down.
2. Student’s use a dictionary to look up the words.
3. Feedback on meanings.

Play

Students use the annotated walkthrough to play the game.  The walkthrough is the reading activity and their ability to play the game effectively is the reading comprehension.

Post Play

A few possibilities here:

• Students remember the vocab and write each word on a small piece of paper.  They then organise the pieces of paper into the chronological order in which they occur in the game story.  Learners take it in turns to retell the story to each other.
• Review the story in open class and start writing the beginning of the story.  Students finish the story for homework.
• Do a vocabulary test on words that came up in the game.  Tell students if they know the answer they can put their hand up and describe where in the game this vocabulary item came up.  They can’t say the word or translate it.