1) The document describes a game called "CLIL-L-ING war" created by teachers to review World War 1 content taught via CLIL methodology to Italian students. 2) The game involved 4 trials testing students' knowledge of letters from the front, trench warfare, war poems, and tanks through competitive physical and intellectual activities. 3) The goal was to turn dull revision into an engaging race that showed students' abilities while enhancing team spirit, with no true losers at the end.

1. clil-l-ing war

2. Game designer
Livia Antoci
Scenography
Guglielmo Manenti
Crew
Albert Franchi
Francesco Senia
Pia Cappellani
Rossana Minardi
Raffaella Tumino
Raffaella Carnemolla
Teresa Iozzia
Gianluca Tidona
Photography
Salvatore Giannì
Graphic design
Salvo Nicolosi
credits

3. Introduction

4. The game is the final event of an in-depth scheme of work
based on the First World War.
This period of study was taught through CLIL
methodology and involved three final year classes of the
Liceo Linguistico “G. B. Vico” di Ragusa (VAL, VBL, VCL).
Introduction

5. Introduction
The title of the game is CLIL-L-ING war, a play on words.
The exact spelling would be Killing war, indeed the
participants of the game are competing using symbols of
the First World War such as the trenches; letters from the
Front; war poems and modern weapons.
The game takes place in the open air in the courtyard of
the school and involves four different trials. Each game
takes about 15 minutes to be played, so the entire game
lasts about one hour.

6. before the game
In the first part of the game each team receives
a colour and a badge (a zeppelin, an airplane and a U-boat)
that it will use in the subsequent games.

7. letters from the front
game 1

8. The game refers to the fact that, while the First World War
enhanced literacy, all the letters from the Front were
read and censored before they were distributed, in order
to quash the contradictions of the war and the dire straits
that soldiers found themselves in during the fighting.
The aim of the game is to find the missing word in each
letter.
letters from the front
game 1

9. 01. Envelopes in team colours are stuck onto
pillars in the courtyard

10. 02. Contestants remove envelopes in their team
colour from the pillars

11. 03. Inside the envelopes
there are some letters from
soldiers, sovereigns, and
famous characters as well
as ordinary folk

12. 04. In each letter there is a missing word and
contestants have to find it and write it down

13. 05. Contestants submit their answers to an
allocated teacher who then ranks them

14. 06. The team in third
place is banished
to no man’s land,
between two
trenches, a deadly,
desolate place,
symbolising death
and devastation

15. 07. These contestants
are obliged to wear
skull masks which
somehow transforms
the horror of this
place into a kind of
carnival

16. terrible trenches
game 2

17. We used coloured sellotape to draw the trenches and limit
the space to visually show the opposing armies.
In this game players are reproducing the intensity and
the speed of the gunfire.
But here the dynamic of military action is inverted:
contestants don’t ward off bullets as real soldiers would do,
but head for them in order to intercept them.
terrible trenches
game 2

18. At this point teams have to
demonstrate team spirit
to elaborate the most
effective strategy and to
successfully play the game

19. 01. While one team is forced to remain in no
man’s land, the other two teams have to divide
themselves in opposite trenches into throwers
and catchers

20. 02. The throwers will launch 30 balls in their
team colour. The catchers can only catch balls
in their team colour

21. 03. On the contrary,
the team in no
man’s land is
allowed to catch
balls of any colour

22. The aim is to throw the balls over the heads of
the team in no man’s land and prevent them
from catching their balls

23. 04. Once all balls have been thrown and caught,
the allocated teachers hand out as many
questions as the balls caught

24. 03. Once again scores
are reported on the
scoreboard and at
this point everyone is
really excited because
the outcome is still
uncertain

25. rhymed war
game 3

26. For the third game we used the stairs of our school.
This activity matched two different aims: reading and
comprehension on the one side and listening on the
other.
The aim of the game is to order the verses of a famous war
poem Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori by Wilfred
Owen. The verses have been written on slips of paper and
mixed up.
rhymed war
game 3

27. 01. Each team leader stays upstairs and:
- pulls up the team badge on a string
- sticks a slip of paper at a time on it
- lets it down

28. 02. Teams stay downstairs, pick up the slips and
try to order the verses

30. 03. In order to help contestants to order the
poem 5 native speakers read aloud the text of
the poem continuously for 10 minutes

31. 04. At the end of
the activity scores
are reported on the
scoreboard

32. woeful tank
game 4

33. The first tank was produced during the First World War,
therefore we made it the symbol of our game, but with
some tinkering because it contains three hooters that are
used to reserve the right to give the first answer during the
last game.
This is a good match of kinaesthetic intelligence, history
and linguistic skills, but, far more, enhances team spirit.
The game is based on two simultaneous activities: a
physical one and an intellectual one.
woeful tank
game 4

35. 01. Team leaders have
to cross the trenches
under the ”gunfire”
of enemy teams and
reach their teams

36. 02. Teams have a double aim: disturbing
the other teams’ leaders by throwing their
“weapons”, in order to delay their arrival, and
answering an allocated question

38. 03. When the leaders reach their teams they
receive the answer, run to the tank, sound the
hooter and answer the question aloud

39. At the end of the fourth trial each team receives
its final score

40. Now the game is over and there’s the
presentation of the cup and one of the teachers
announces the team who is victorious

41. benefits and results

42. Competitiveness is dramatically effective so a dull
revision activity turns into a lively race where everyone
wants to take part, show their abilities and contribute to
the victory.
But the real paradox is that when the game is over
everyone is happy and there’s no real loser.
On the contrary everyone feels like a winner.
BENEFITS AND RESULTS

44. This was our unusual way to celebrate WWI, outside of
either any rhetoric or trivialization of its tragic nature.
We wanted to remind all those who, still young, have
been swept away by an event that overstepped their
expectations and sealed their lives.
Let this game be a warning to those who think war is a
game. This, for sure, was the only war with no bloodshed,
just “brainshed”!
CONCLUSIONS