The presentation Teaching Adolescent Literacy with Video Games was very interesting. At first, I was skeptical about this session, and I had little faith in it. How could students learn from video game? But after listening to the presentation, I realized how beneficial they can be when instructing adolescents. According to the presenters, video game literacy is based on the premise that this is what students are doing outside of school, and this is how they can be engaged in the classroom. Furthermore, the presenters clearly illustrated that video game literacy will not take the place of reading; it will complement reading.
One interesting aspect of the presentation was the video game Shadow of the Colossus. This video game is based on George Orwell’s novel 1984 and War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The presenters shared a lesson using the video game and the literary element setting. Because the setting of 1984 is supposed to elicit a sense of oppression, students can feel this by playing the video game. Instead of experiencing the setting through the protagonist or characters in the novel, the students can experience it first hand. This activity provides students with the opportunity to connect with literary influences, understand literary elements, and allows students to react and express emotion.
This presentation connects with the material that we are learning in ENG 307. We keep discussing the idea of bringing into the classroom what our students do at home. This will help keep our students attention while bringing in literacy techniques. I think that we have to be careful with the games we use, but overall this will engage our students.
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3 comments:
B, I think video games are texts like any other that our students should be "reading" critically.
I agree that they can work in tandem w/more traditional print texts. Yes.
But I don't think they have to.
They have an internal structure, images, a language, and particular ideologies/values, etc. circulate through them just as they do in any other "literary" text.
I think we ignore video games, some of our kids' locus of interest for hours a day, at our peril.
If we do, I think we just "don't get it."
Bridget,
Thanks for letting me know how the video game presentation went. I was interested in how the connection is made between ELA and video games. I must say I am not a fan of the video game craze, and I do not think it is more beneficial to reading texts. I feel as though the book gives students the ability to think without having to provide the surface to think for them. A better explanation, I guess, is that reading allows and forces students to create their own image of a character, a setting, whatever it is. But a video game takes one person's interpretation and makes it the only image available. Students do not get to come up with their own ideas. They explore the video game's ideas, yes, but they are not "authentic" ideas.
I really wanted to go to this video game session because I knew it would show us some great ways to engage students - especially boys. The game you talked about that works wish Orwell's books sounds great! I love Orwell, and I'll definitely look into the game. Can you rent it at a local video game store? And are there other novel-based video games out there?
I would have never thought about using a video game in class, but after your post, I see how it can be used to benefit students because, like you said, it can be used to complement reading. Thanks for your post!
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