Game Verbs

Remind students that the part of speech that describes things we do is the verb: in other words, a verb is a word that you do.

Ask students for some examples of verbs: walk, climb, think, and so on.

Have students access the student chapter A Verb is a Word That You Do. Have them watch the video and answer the open text question: What verbs were named in the different games you saw? What verbs did you see the character in the last game doing? (If you prefer, you can show the video to the whole class on a digital projector or digital whiteboard.)

Remind students that all verbs have a subject (who or what is doing it, or having it done to them) and many verbs have an object (who are what they are being done to.)

For example, walk does not have to have an object (unless it’s in the sense of walking a dog) but hit does. Some verbs have objects sometimes (you can eat an apple) but not others (you can just eat without defining what you’re eating.)

Now ask students which of the verbs in their list can have objects: which can be done to someone or something? For those transitive verbs, ask who or what they can be done to in the game.

Now tell students that another element that is different about games compared to other media is that even “open world” game that you can’t really win or lose like Minecraft,  there are always obstacles you have to overcome.

Ask students to name the obstacles that were seen in the video.

Tell students that you most often find verbs without obstacles at the beginning of a game or a game sequence: choosing a spaceship, taking off your airplane, accelerating your car. You sometimes also have verbs with no obstacles after you have overcome an obstacle, like taking treasure after you’ve beaten an enemy.