Lesson: Video Game Verbs
In this lesson, students learn that video games are unlike other media because they are interactive, allowing players to do things and make choices. They then explore the idea of affordances and defaults by considering the “video game verbs” that different games allow you to do. They consider the commercial, technical, and genre reasons why some verbs are more often possible than others and then create a simple design for a video game in which players are able to do a wider variety of things.
Grade range: 7-8
Teacher Material: https://pressbooks.pub/mediasmarts/chapter/introduction-4/
Student Material: https://pressbooks.pub/mediasmarts/chapter/a-verb-is-a-word-that-you-do/
Time Frame
| One class period (60 minutes) | Two or three class periods (120-180 minutes) | |
| Activities |
What are Games? Game Verbs Video Game Verbs
|
What are Games? Game Verbs Video Game Verbs Variant Verbs
|
Preparation:
- Make sure that you are able to show the embedded videos or that students are able to access the links.
- Make sure that students are able to access the interactive activities.
A printable version of this lesson is available here.
Learning Outcomes
Big ideas/key concepts: Students will understand that…
Media are constructions:
- Game designers make conscious choices about what players are able to do in games
Media have social and political implications:
- What we can do in games influences how we behave in them
Each medium has a unique aesthetic form:
- Video games communicate meaning through interactivity
Digital media experiences are shaped by the tools we use
- What we do in video games is shaped by their features and defaults
Key questions:
- How does the range of “verbs” in a game affect how we play them?
- Is it possible to make fun games with less common verbs? How do our choices about online sharing affect ourselves and others?
Essential knowledge: Students will know…
- Reading media: Codes, conventions, affordances and defaults of video games
- Ethics and empathy: Impacts of video game design on ethics
- Making and remixing: Video game construction techniques
- Key vocabulary: Verb, object, obstacle, genre
Performance tasks: Students will be able to…
- Use: Create a media work
- Understand: Analyze how media makers’ choices, media codes and conventions and the affordances and defaults of digital tools influence how works are made and experienced
- Engage: Consider issues of ethics and agency in games
Curriculum Connections
Strand A: Literacy Connections and Applications
A2. Digital Media Literacy
A2.4 Forms, Conventions, and Techniques
evaluate the use of the various forms, conventions, and techniques of digital and media texts, consider the impact on the audience, and apply this understanding when analyzing and creating texts
A2.5 Media, Audience, and Production
demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationships between the form, message, and context of texts, the intended and unintended audience, and the purpose for production
A2.6 Innovation and Design
select and use appropriate digital and media tools to support the design process and address authentic, relevant, real-world problems by developing and proposing innovative solutions
A2.7 Community and Cultural Awareness
communicate and collaborate with various communities in a safe, respectful, responsible, and inclusive manner when using online platforms and environments, including digital and media tools, and demonstrate and model cultural awareness with members of the community
A3. Applications, Connections and Contributions
A3.2 Identity and Community
demonstrate an understanding of the historical contexts, contributions, lived experiences, and perspectives of a diversity of individuals and communities, including those in Canada, by exploring and analyzing the concepts of identity, self, and sense of belonging in a variety of culturally responsive and relevant texts
Strand C: Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts
C1. Knowledge About Texts
C1.2 Text Forms and Genres
Grade 7: analyze a variety of text forms and genres, including cultural text forms, and explain how their characteristics help communicate meaning
Grade 8:
analyze and compare the characteristics of various text forms and genres, including cultural text forms, and provide evidence to explain how they help communicate meaning
C1.3 Text Patterns and Features
Grade 7: analyze text patterns, such as cause and effect in an expository text, and text features, such as a bibliography and accessible fonts, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
Grade 8: compare the text patterns, such as problem-solution in a letter to the editor, and text features, such as a glossary and infographics, associated with different text forms, including cultural texts, and evaluate their importance in helping readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
C1.4 Visual Elements of Texts
Grade 7: analyze and compare how images, graphics, and visual design create, communicate, and contribute to meaning in a variety of texts
Grade 8: evaluate how images, graphics, and visual design create, communicate, and contribute to meaning in a variety of texts
C1.7 Indigenous Context of Various Text Forms
read, listen to, and view various forms of texts by diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit creators to make meaning through Indigenous Storywork about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit histories, cultures, relationships, communities, groups, nations, and lived experiences
C3. Critical Thinking in Literacy
C3.3 Analyzing Texts
analyze complex texts, including literary and informational texts, by evaluating, synthesizing, and sequencing relevant information and formulating conclusions
C3.4 Analyzing Cultural Elements of Texts
Grade 7: analyze cultural elements that are represented in various texts, including values, rituals and ceremonies, architecture, art, and dance, by investigating the meanings of these elements, making connections to their lived experience and culture, and sharing their interpretations with others
Grade 8: analyze cultural elements that are represented in various texts, including norms, values, social hierarchy, pastimes, language, and taboos, by investigating the meanings of these elements, making connections to their lived experience and culture, and considering how the inclusion of these elements contributes to the meaning of the text
C3.5 Perspectives within Texts
Grade 7: explain explicit and implicit perspectives communicated in various texts, including narrative texts, provide any evidence that could suggest bias in these perspectives, and suggest ways to avoid any such bias
Grade 8: analyze explicit and implicit perspectives communicated in various texts, evaluate any evidence that could suggest bias in these perspectives, and suggest ways to avoid any such bias
Strand D: Composition (Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts)
D1 Developing Ideas and Organizing Content
D1.2 Developing Ideas
generate and develop ideas and details about challenging topics, such as topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to other subject areas, using a variety of strategies, and drawing on various resources, including their own lived experiences
D3 Publishing, Presenting and Reflecting
D3.1 Producing Final Texts
produce final texts using appropriate techniques and tools, including digital design and production tools, to achieve the intended effect