Unit 1

Activity 1: You learned about listening skills and applied those skills to learn about games.

Activity 2: You learned about character traits and brainstormed words that you associate with the word "hero." You applied your listening strategies again to a podcast that narrated the story of Beowulf. Then you identified the stages of the hero's journey that Beowulf experienced in the story. Finally, you learned about character types and wrote a character sketch.

Activity 3: You watched a video on a controversial topic in video games and recorded yourself explaining your opinion, applying what you learned about effective speaking skills.

Unit 2

Activity 1: In this activity, you learned about the language of comics and read a chapter from the graphic novel The Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1: Power and Responsibility. Then you practiced turning a graphic text into a written text by narrating the panels from one of the pages you read.

Activity 2: This time you practiced taking a longer text like a story, and shortening it using a limited number of words while still keeping the most important ideas. You learned about the strategies strong readers use before, during, and after reading a text like a novel or short story. Then you read a chapter from a novel and wrote a summary for your someone who hadn't read the novel.

Activity 3: Next, you turned your attention to non-fiction texts and learned that you can use many of the same strategies that you used for fiction texts, but you added a few more strategies to your list as well.

Activity 4: You learned about strategies you could use to support your opinion. Then you used what you learned about these strategies and the "claim, evidence, reasoning" structure to revise a paragraph.

Activity 5: In the final activity in this unit, you extended your understanding of one of the texts you read.

Unit 3

Activity 1: In this activity, you learned how to develop effective questions using the Question Formulation Technique. Then you learned how to determine the credibility of websites using something called the C.R.A.P. test.

Activity 2: Next, you identified the main idea and supporting details in nonfiction article. You also learned to be aware of your own bias and how it can affect the way you respond to texts.

Activity 3: You learned about "fake news" and the consequences of spreading fake news. Then you chose a topic to research and you reflected on your research skills.

Activity 4: In the final activity of this unit you discovered how audience, purpose, and format dictates the language you use in a piece of writing. Then you learned about the writing process and applied this knowledge to write, revise, and edit an instruction manual.

Unit 4

Activity 1: In this activity, you learned about reading graphics like bar graphs. Then you read a number of different graphics that contained information about the video game industry in Canada. You also created a flowchart to illustrate the steps that would be required to get a job in the industry or another job you are interested in.

Activity 2: Next, you learned about the conventions of trailers for video games and movies. You thought about the importance of audience and purpose and considered how changing the audience would change the choices made about the conventions of a trailer.

Activity 3: This activity focused on diversity in the media. You considered whether you see people like you in the media and how they are presented if they are in the media. You learned about some video games that have received attention for featuring diverse characters. You also created a character that you would like to see more often in the media.

Activity 4: In the culminating task for this unit you explored achievement systems in games and considered why awards and trophies are motivating. You designed your own badge system for either a real-life task or game.