3rd World Farmer and Teaching Numbers & simple future tense

    

     This game named “3rd world farmer” is really engaging, I played it for almost ten times and got my highest score of 1000+.

     To use it in my teaching, I will divide my students into pairs and each group uses one computer to play the game. Since in this game, the amount of money and how to use the money to keep characters alive are the most important things, therefore I plan to use it on teaching students how to say numbers in English and how to use simple future tense by asking them “what to do next” and making them answer me using “I will…”. For example, at the beginning of the game, I ask students how much money they have, they should have 50$ each group, so I teach them 50 is “fifty”, then I will also show them how to say 20, 30, 40, 50 etc. After that, I will ask them what they will use this money for. They may say, “I will buy some wheats” or “I will buy some chickens”, so they can practice simple future tense.

     I can assess whether they acquire the knowledge or not by asking them to share their products after each turn. They need firstly report how much money they left and what they want to do with the money. I can provide instructions immediately if I find them get stuck. So I can assess if my teaching objectives has been met during the process of interaction.

      I think it is not only a good game to use in teaching language, but also a game to make students experience the tough life which somebody in other parts of the world are really experiencing. Since teaching students humanism is also an important part of education, this kind of serious video game is really good material to use in classroom teaching.