Materials
- Monster Hunter Powerpoint
- Review Questions (make your own)
- Dice (you only need one die)
How to Play / Use
- Split the class into groups and explain these rules: For each question, one student from each group will stand up. The first student to raise their hand can answer the question. Their group members can help them think of an answer, but when the student raises their hand, their group cannot help them anymore. If they answer correctly, they get to roll the die and attack the monster. If they're wrong, a different student can try to answer the question. After each question, the standing student should rotate, so have each group decide their order (or just assign it).
- After they roll a die, press forward on the powerpoint the corresponding number of times. The bar beneath each monster is its HP. One forward press is one damage point.
- The group gets the points corresponding to their die roll regardless of how much HP the monster has remaining. So, if a group rolled a 6, but the monster only has 1 HP left, the group will still get all 6 points. Note: the first monster has 15 HP, the second monster has 21 HP, and the third monster has 24 HP.
- After each monster is defeated, bonus points are awarded. The group that gets the killing blow on the first monster gets 5 bonus points. For the second monster it's 10 bonus points, and for the third it's 15 or 20 bonus points. The amount I give changes based on how close or far apart the points that each team has is. Also, I give the team that did the most damage to the monster (in other words, the MVP) 2 bonus points. This is separate for each monster, so the MVP for one monster might be different for another monster.
- Depending on how much time it takes to defeat all 3 monsters, you can either do a different activity, "revive" one of the monsters and have them fight it again, or move on to the fourth monster. This obviously also depends on how many questions you have prepared / if you can improvise questions on the spot.
- Of course, at the end, the group with the most points wins.
Preparation / Other Notes
- I prepared 10 questions for each monster split between the categories of spelling, Q&A, and translation (with both English to Japanese and Japanese to English questions). If you run out of questions for a monster because their die rolls are low, pull questions from one of the other monsters. I also had the questions scale with the monsters. So the first monster has relatively easy questions, the second monster has medium questions, and the third monster has difficult questions.
- I would pay attention to the remaining health of the monster, and as it decreased, I would try to ask more difficult questions. So the last question for Monster 2 might be harder than the first question for Monster 3.
- Be careful when the monster only has 1 HP left that you don't go forward too much and skip to the next monster on accident. I feel like there's a way to stop the powerpoint from progressing to the next slide unless you click an on-screen button or something like that, but I'm too lazy to figure it out right now.
- This game can be easily modified to fit other themes. For example, you could easily use pokemon images instead of monster images and have the students fight pokemon instead. (In case you don't know, Monster Hunter is an actual video game that is mildly popular in Japan.) Just be careful that if you change the images, you'll have to reconnect/redo the animations.
- The bonus points for killing the monster and being the MVP are meant to be a catch-up mechanic. Change the bonus points you give them according to how the game is going.
- Like I said above, how lucky/unlucky the students get with their die rolls will affect how quickly the game finishes. Be prepared for it to go faster than expected, but also potentially slower than expected.
Files:
Nice, I used to do something similiar to this with drawings of monsters on the blackboard. Its good to have a cooperative game where the teams work together to defeat each monster although still getting their individual points.
An alternate way of doing this would be to have each group or row working at their own pace to answer the questions. After a group finishes a question they do damage then you give them the next question and they return to their team to work on it. Then rather than having questions for each monster you just have a collection of questions and a collection of monsters and you see how many monsters the class can defeat in one lesson.
Yeah, your idea of having them work at their own pace just changes what you want to students to practice. I mean, if you want to focus on speaking and listening or reading and writing.
True, it's also hard to manage if Social Distance is being taken into effect. 'Write and Race' and 'Race and Speak' activities are almost impossible if students aren't allowed to make groups or move around the classroom. If they can move around you could maybe do it in rows with the first student passing the next question to the next student in the row.
I meant my idea. Your 'Quiz Game' style works perfectly well for Social Distance.
I'm excited to try this! My JHS students love Monster Hunter and have asked me multiple times if I play it.