Quebec Competencies Chart - Representing Ourselves Online

Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts
Level: Grades K to 3
Lesson Length: 60-90 minutes
Lesson Link: http://mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources/representing-ourselves-online

Description: In this lesson, students talk about dressing up and taking on identities that are similar to or different from them. They are then introduced to the idea of avatars as a kind of “dressing up” inside video games and consider the ways in which the technical, generic and aesthetic limitations on avatar creation and customization affect their choices and their ability to represent themselves online.

Cross-curricular Competencies

Broad Areas of Learning

  • To exercise critical judgement
  • To use creativity
  • To construct his/her identity
  • To cooperate with others
  • To communicate appropriately
  • Media Literacy 

This lesson satisfies the following Competencies from the Quebec Education Program:

English Language Arts

To Read and Listen to Literary, Popular and Information-Based Texts

  • To use a response process when reading and listening to literary, popular, and information-based texts
  • To construct her/his own view of the world through reading and listening to literary, popular and information-based texts
  • To construct a profile of self as reader
  • To self-evaluate her/his reading development
  • To construct meaning by applying appropriate reading strategies

To Write Self-expressive, Narrative and Information-based Texts

  • To integrate her/his knowledge of texts into own writing
  • To self-evaluate her/his writing development
  • To follow a process when writing
  • To construct profile of self as writer
  • To use writing as a system for communicating and constructing meaning

To Represent Her/His Literacy in Different Media

  • To apply appropriate strategies for constructing meaning
  • To self-evaluate her/his development as a viewer and producer of media texts
  • To follow a process to respond to media texts
  • To construct her/his own view of the world through the media
  • To follow a production process in order to communicate for specific purposes to a specified audience

To Use Language to Communicate and Learn

  • To use language (talk) to communicate information, experiences and point of view
  • To self-evaluate her/his language development
  • To use language (talk) for learning and thinking
  • To apply her/his knowledge of linguistic structures and features
  • To interact in collaborative group activities in a variety of roles

Visual Arts

To produce media works in the visual arts

  • To use creative ideas inspired by a stimulus for creation of media works
  • To share his/her experience of media creation
  • To use transforming gestures and elements of visual arts language according to the message and the intended viewer
  • To organize the elements that he/she has chosen, depending on the message and the intended viewer
  • To finalize his/her media creation

Drama

To invent short scenes

  • To use personal ideas inspired by the stimulus for creation
  • To share his/her creative experience
  • To use elements of the language of drama, performance techniques, styles of theatre and elements of drama
  • To organize the elements he/she has chosen
  • To finalize a production

To interpret short scenes

  • To become familiar with the dramatic content of the scene
  • To share his/her interpretation experience
  • To apply elements of the language of drama, performance techniques, styles of theatre and elements of  drama
  • To bring out the expressive elements of the scene
  • To apply the rules for group performance

To appreciate dramatic works, personal productions and those of classmates

  • To examine an excerpt from a dramatic work or a dramatic production for elements of content
  • To share his/her appreciation experience
  • To examine an excerpt from a dramatic work for sociocultural references (Cycle Two and Cycle Three)
  • To make connections between what he/she has felt and examined
  • To make a critical or aesthetic judgment