Games and Language Learning

Have you ever thought about gamifying your lesson?
Gamifying lesson implies using games as a way of teaching language. Ss have been born in the digital divide, which means that they are full immersed in the digital era, and gadgets are just part of ss' daily lives. So, the idea of gamifying lessons is to actually overcome this digital divide there exists between us, teachers, with respect to ss.  Therefore, using games can be a fantastic tool to motivate and engage our learners in their learning process. 
I have tried some games proposed by Graham Stanley in his site (http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/category/game-plan/). The one I precisely liked the most is called Vortex (http://www.mousecity.com/games/point-and-click/vortex-point/).

Since my fifth-grade ss have been learning "will" for predictions and different past tenses, this will be a great game to make them practice these complicated tenses, while they have fun too. Besides, if ss like playing it, they can even try it at home. 

This is how I would like to apply this particular game into my classes:

First ss can think on what this story will be about and discuss this orally between their classmates. Later on, they can plunge into the game properly. While ss are playing the game, they can stop at times (or the t can stop it in case they refuse to) and ask them some questions as regards the plot, such as "what did he do? What did she say? What was she doing?" They can answer these questions orally and they will be practicing their speaking skills as well. After playing the game, ss can write a short report of what they did and if they enjoyed this experience or not, and why. Or they can even write a summary of the story's plot. In this way, you would have checked speaking skills, tenses, and written skills as well.

I have also found this link very useful... Here you can find many interesting games: http://www.mousecity.com/

I hope you find my ideas useful. Fell free to add any other suggestions :)