Teaching with videogames: teaching character with silent protagonists
Students choose a ‘silent protagonist’ from a video game and produce a multimodal portfolio or written narrative response filling in the gaps or silence of the lead character.
Year levels: 7 & 8
Subject area: English
Technology required: depends on the game used - look at the suggested silent protagonist games in the lesson plan, and see what resonates with your students. You don't need to play the game, videos will suffice, but it is helpful if the students have a grasp of the character.
Download the full lesson plan
The lesson plan includes links to the Victorian Curriculum, indications of lesson timing, and ideas for differentiation and assessment.
In this lesson, students will
| 1 | Consider the concept of protagonist and antagonist in videogames |
| 2 | Explore a silent protagonist in a videogame and build a character profile for it |
| 3 | Produce a short first person narrative from the perspective of a silent character of their choosing |
| 4 | Peer review each other's writing for narrative features |
By the end of this lesson, students will
| the purpose of narrative gaps and silences |
| more about narrative features in videogames |
| write a narrative from a character's point of view |
| demonstrate empathy for a character |
| ability to analyse character and infer character motivation |
| ability to develop plausible characters |