Lesson Plan for Teachers
Review course lesson 6
This lesson aims to prepare students for writing a review of a game.
Task 1: Review of movie reviews
Purpose:
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to review movie reviews.
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to focus attention on organization of reviews
Background: The previous lesson covered a variety of topics related to the content of movie reviews, but not on the overall organization
Procedure:
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Elicit from students the possible content of movie reviews: genre, characters, plot, recommendations. Ask students how they might order these in a review.
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In pairs, students read the reviews in Task handout 1, and decide how the author has organized their reviews. The first is done as an example.
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As feedback on the task, have pairs compare their answers.
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Allow students time to find a movie review for a movie of their own choice and decide on how the author has organized the review.
Feedback: Monitor as students are doing the activity and offer feedback individual if possible..
Material: Lesson 6 Task 1 handout
Timing: 20+ minutes
Task 2: Introduction to game reviews
Purpose: To discuss the content and organization of game reviews.
Background: There is some overlap between movie and game reviews, but game reviews form a genre separate from movie reviews with elements specific to them.
Procedure:
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Tell the students they will do exactly the same activity as Task 1, but this time with game reviews. Elicit from students what might be included in game reviews? What might game reviews include that movie reviews don’t? Elicit review of controls, online interactivity, response speed etc.
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In pairs, students read the reviews in Task handout 2, and decide how the author of has organized their review. The first is done as an example.
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Have pairs compare their answers.
Feedback: Go through the answers as a class
Material: Lesson 6 Task 2 handout
Timing: 20+ minutes
Task 3: Game review content analysis
Purpose: To analyse the content and language of game reviews
Background: The techniques students have used over the previous lessons for analysing movie reviews can be used for analysing movie reviews.
Procedure:
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Elicit elements of that may be included in a game review: genre, characters, game play, plot, recommendations etc.
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In pairs, students read the review of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
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Students can edit the categories of the headings in the table to match what they believe to be the major elements of a game review.
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Introduce students to the content analyser https://seoscout.com/test
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Show students how this website identifies keywords, readability statistics.
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Using the tool, students identify words/phrases from the review for each of the categories in the table (eg. recommendations = ‘buy prime’).
Feedback: Deal with any problems the students had with the task. Allow students to suggest keywords for the various categories they chose. Highlight that some of the language in the review is not clear because of jargon (eg. cheaters) – can the analysers help?
Material: Lesson 6 Task 3 handout
Timing: 30 minutes
Task 4: Game reviews
Purpose: To analyse a game review of their choice
Background: Students now have the tools and skills to analyse a game review of their choice.
Procedure:
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In pairs of small groups, students choose a game they are familiar with. Using the tools introduced in the course so far, they analyse the language of the review.
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While students are busy, monitor and assist as necessary.
Feedback: Since each group will have a different focus, give feedback to each group/pair as necessary.
Material: Lesson 4 Task 4 handout
Timing: 30 minutes