Serious Play

Want to teach your students real life lessons and expand their awareness of global struggles? Try introducing them to  a serious game. This task can be assigned as homework or simply suggested to sprout a classroom dialogue. These games typically follow a story line and involve strategy and critical thinking, so they are best for students to do outside of the classroom. So many games are available online for free. Students can learn about refugees,environmental issues, budgets, etc... if you want to expose them to a serious concept in an engaging way; there is a game for it.
I played 3rd World Farmer six times and managed to starve my family each time. It reminded me of playing Oregon Trail; which i loved as a kid, but never was very good at. This game is not hard to play though, each time I got a little better and learned from my mistakes. However, theft,wars and general unexpected events are thrown in often and I'm never prepared. This game utilizes the same repetition and vocabulary expansion that you would find in a casual game, but with a deeper message. After a couple of plays, students would have solidified their farm animal, tools, and food vocabulary. Also encountered were some scenarios that involved tourists coming and weather events. I would ask students to write down unfamiliar concepts for a classroom discussion. This could also be a good way to assess the individual understanding of each student. The objective is frequent exposure to vocabulary with a conceptual framework for global issues, a pretty meaningful homework assignment that students will enjoy.