Video Games - Lesson

Lesson Plan

Level: Grades 7 to 9

Author: MediaSmarts

Overview

This lesson introduces students to the issue of violence in video games and helps them understand the effects that these games have on their own feelings and attitudes towards violence. Students begin with a discussion on the appeal of video games and complete a self-survey on their video game habits. This is followed by class discussion about stimulus addiction and rating systems for video games. Student activities include a case study about video game violence; deconstruction of video game ads and a short opinion piece on whether or not video games promote violence among young people.

Learning Outcomes

Students demonstrate:

• an understanding of the debates surrounding the influence of violent video games on young people.
• an understanding of the connection between violent video games and stimulus addiction.
• an awareness of the different types of violence found in some video games.
• a knowledge of the classification systems that govern video and computer games.
• an understanding of their own reactions to video games.

This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) are available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit:

Lesson_Video_Games.pdf