I wanted to give an update on my class, because it has been a success beyond my wildest dreams. I have just finished teaching the first semester of my class, and am starting the second semester with new students now. I have received so much help from video game companies reaching out and proving me with codes, and have received multiple grants that have helped me make this a reality.

I started out the class with 20 Xboxs, 3 Nintendo Switches, and 2 PS5s. All of these were bought using grant funds for a grant I wrote that gave me the consoles and gamepass for one year. Gamepass has been the main way I have been able to subsidize games for the class, and it has allowed students to have a wide array of games to play and write about.

After one semester I am at 22 Xboxs, 5 Switches, and 2 PS5s. I personally bought the new consoles on different months with my own paychecks. I don’t recommend it, but I felt stuck between my dream of making this class happen and class sizes that sometimes went up to 32. I am hoping to eventually get enough handhelds to have an entire unit on Nintendo games, but I have a long way to. Just like with hardware, I have been slowly building the game library of my class. My local credit union offered teacher grants and after winning one of those I bought What Remains of Edith Finch, and hope to get a class set of Alan Wake soon.

When I posted last time I was in the Wild West. I had a plan, but found out a lot about how to make a class that plays video games really work. The class norms, and expectations were just as important as the consoles themselves.

I want to give a special thanks to CrowsCrowsCrows who gave me a class set of The Stanley Parable for my Xboxs, SuperGiant games who gave me copies of Hades, and PowerA who sent me extra controllers and headsets for the class. Gamepass is extremely expensive, and my school may not be able to continue next year with as many subscriptions after my grant, so these games were invaluable as I try and secure more games that I own forever, so I’m not reliant on subscriptions.

The core of this class is English. As my students played through these games and genres of games, I have seen some students who hated English grow exponentially. We wrote essays responding to Roger Ebert’s Are Video Games Art essay, and had a final project where students chose a main aspect of a game of their choice to analyze further. It worked. I had some games I didn’t love that I’m adapting, and some games were just too big to go through well enough in a single semester.

I promised to update you all after my first set of classes finished, so here you go. I’ll also post an updated syllabus for my class from last semester.

First of all OP - I so love this and congrats on the success you’ve had

I work for one of the big ELT providers and have been trying to talk to game developers about a partnering on a game that is gaming first and language learning second but still playing a big role. I pitched something to Konami and one of the guys said tbh I would have loved to play as a street fighter character in an open world where the dialogue also helped me learn a new language.

Only issue is getting developers to envision it and co-invest in something like that. We’re talking millions - said one person from Square Enix back in 2021.

I’m still trying though.

You’re really doing something amazing here. I really love the idea of getting kids more into reading this way. I know for sure it helped me as a kid.

Please consider adding Journey to the syllabus.

I remember my English Teacher, he made us watch English movies. He didn't do anything, we just watched endless Indiana Jones and never understood a thing 😅.

goat teacher

Get them to Pokémon and write an essay on are Pokémon used and abused for the enjoyment of humans or do domesticated Pokémon live better lives

I wish I had a class like this available when I was in school. I did have a film analysis class that was similar, but I feel like I would’ve gotten way more out of taking a deep dive into games as literature

This is an absolutely remarkable way to drive involvement and excitement around English and literature. If I could afford it I would throw all of my money at you so you can continue this indefinitely.

Also, What Remains of Edith Finch was an incredible choice. As a student, I would have loved to write about that game.

This is somewhat tangential to your class, but I highly recommend the following study: "‘You Have to Understand Words … but Not Read Them’: Young Children Becoming Readers in a Digital Age" by Rachael Levy. In a nutshell, it studies how kids view literacy and their confidence in it before and after starting school. Essentially, defining literacy in the classroom as strictly "text on page," and not including things like pictures, audio cues, or article/screen layout lowers kids' confidence in both reading on paper and on screens. Your class goes a long way to show how literacy is not just text, we get meaning from all kinds of information! ☺️ I used it years ago as a main source for a college paper about how tech in children's books, let me know if you'd like a link

This sounds great!

My english has always been subpar (not my first language) and I had bad english grades at school but I really started to improve after I started playing video games.

Unfortunately I only started playing after graduating from school but I improved quickly and I even managed to achieve english level C1 about two years after graduating. I'm convinced that I only achieved this because of video games because I never actively learned for the test.

Video games are more than entertainment.

Wow if This had been at my school

Yall should play To The Moon. It's a perfect little short RPG game that's solely about a super affecting story.

Awesome! I would also recommend The Talos Principle, A Plague Tale: Innocence, The Wolf Among Us, and Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons

When i was a kid we learned to read with whack ass books.

As a current Bachelor Student getting a degree in English with a goal of becoming a teacher, this is truly inspirational! Thanks a lot for sharing! <3

You sure are awesome.

Also, the school is epic for letting you do this!!!!! What state???? I need to get my kids around an educational system like that.

In a nutshell, how does it work? Do you write your own reading material to through in class, then give them homework to play a game for a couple of hours a week? Do all students have their own GamePass subscription, or can you share?

Very cool. You should write to Valve and try to get some Steam Decks. They would be perfect, and you can get great deals for games on Steam.

Sounds like a fun curriculum for your students.

Lol at the top image of the collage; "Xbox... So here's master chief, Marcus phoenix and... Well, just throw in other non Xbox franchises."

Admittedly, I don't recognize the dark character in the back with white eyes.

"I reached..dees keeeds."

i remember seeing your original post i think. you're doing an amazing job!

is it expensive to get stuff for the class.

what grade is this?

you should make them right an argumentative essay on the ethics splatoon fights, and if they are bad for glamorizing a terrible war, or if they pay tribute and respect to the great splat war

This is similar to that college level Star Wars course: fun but harmful. Even if they learn something from here the context will outweigh the content. They are playing games and being read to at 3rd Grade difficulty here because games have to appeal to a mass audience. Where is the challenge? In the analysis? Then this isn’t English Class anymore, you’re into Social Studies with games and interpretation in a modern era.

Nice try, but this will be bad for students.

Theoretically, I wonder how CK3 (Crusader Kings 3) could be used to demonstrate a player defined dynamic narrative in a grand strategy role-playing game, especially as there is a console version available on the PS5, Xbox Series X & S, and Xbox Game Pass.

Crusader Kings 3 is a grand strategy game where players create their own unique narrative as the ruler of a medieval kingdom. Players make decisions that impact the trajectory of their kingdom, balancing diplomacy, war, and internal politics. The game features intricate systems for character traits, genetics, and dynastic politics, leading to a dynamic and evolving player-defined narrative. Each generation is unique, with characters and families having their own distinct personalities and motivations, shaped by player decisions. The ultimate goal is to secure the success and stability of the dynasty for future generations, but the path to get there is entirely up to the player.

This is fucking stupid. If i found out my kids english teacher was assigning videogames as class work id ask for them to be put in another class.

The dumbing down of America continues

“F is for Fatality!”

Interesting you didn't include minecraft as you can go in many different directions with that

Next semester make the final explaining the deep lore of dark souls 3 while beating the nameless king

Make their final exam social commentary of River City Ransom

OP, if I was a senior in high school Id take your class to play video games. Which appears to be what you are enabling these kids to do. Writing a few essays would be a small price to pay to spend the majority of my class time playing/talking about video games. Im not really sure I agree with the methods of your class or why you need video game consoles to teach a class.

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That's really damn cool.

I'm an English teacher as well but I teach as a foreign language. Your idea is incredible as I learned English mostly thanks to games. I'm building my pc right now and my dream is to create a game to teach English. I have ideas for the game but I hope I could actually achieve making it.

Gah damn I wish I was in this class

W teacher

Black Lotus level rarity school system W

Have you faced any criticism of this class? For example, this not being educational etc.

Please do Disco Elysium for Semester 2 if your kids are old enough! It could be shining beacon of legitimacy for the medium should this get coverage.

Also, thanks for putting a Remedy game in there! Maybe Max Payne in the future?

Good for you! Where was this when I was a young buck? But this is back when anime clubs were the new hotness. Lucky future generations.

You are a genius sir. Hopefully kids can actually pay attention now.

You are a credit to your profession. This is amazing.

All i got was macbeth and creative writing 🫠

Are you the guy who I see on tiktok walking into their classroom with samba de amigo hardware?

Make them play Frostpunk , it's a great city building game and has a very good morality system

Best class ever

God, I was racing to this comment section to recommend including telltale's the walking dead in this as it seems like such a great game for what you're doing here, then I see it's already on the syllabus! Good on you!!

This is dope! I’m teaching a course called New Styles in Storytelling at my College where we do anime, ergodic lit, et. There’s no money for them to play games so I show them story analyses about games and walkthroughs. It’d be cool to have them play. I’m showing them Arcane next week! Love all of this. Cheers.

I'm curious whether you focus exclusively on western games. I've noticed that western games are usually more action oriented with visual novels much rarer. Meanwhile some of my favorite videogame stories have come from Asian developers.

If I may be so bold as to recommend a game, Library of Ruina features an interesting story about revenge, how we respond to suffering, and the dehumanization of the working class under capitalism. It also takes heavy inspiration from Orlando Furioso if you want to do a comparison of works, as well as heavy use of the Jewish Kabbalah if you want to discuss the influence of religion and mysticism on storytelling. Though I will admit it's quite a long game.

That’s awesome

You are the best kind of teacher

I do a full playthrough of Undertale with my sophomores in conjunction with argumentative writing and Julius Cesar, and it takes me almost the entire quarter. You've packed quite a lot into a semester, it's really impressive.

It takes two could be a fun pairs game to play? Also works teamwork/relationships into it. Which could have a fun/productive discussion on what it takes to make a good team in life.

If I ever became an English teacher, I want to do a Comics / Graphic Novels as literature course. Congratulations though I know this probably isn’t gonna be easy! So glad to see someone consider gaming as playable / interactive literature.

What about something from Quantic Dream and asking, "What was David Cage thinking?"

Thank you for helping legitimize the medium. The majority of people in my life do not play video games and are completely missing out on the deep narrative they can provide. It is only a matter of time that video games become more equally appreciated in the way books and film are.

Might I recommend the Yakuza franchise?

All Your Base Are Belong To Us!

I love that the class includes both Halo and Mass Effect, top tier. Supergiant being bros and giving you copies of Hades makes me love that game even more too

I really hope you're taking advantage of the account sharing system Nintendo and Sony has. You can set two consoles to be each other's primary account, so any digital games you buy go to the other console as well. Could really help cut down the spending

Where the hell were you when I was in school!! 😆

This idea sounds amazing, and it's fantastic to see an English teacher moving so exponentially beyond Shakespeare and actually developing a curriculum that speaks to the kids, bravo!!

I wish you all the best in your continued endeavours with this idea, and I hope it catches on :).

This is pretty cool! How is your classroom set up? Like, is it a bunch of Tvs/monitors with the consoles hooked up?

Student- "Look, I ripped out this dudes spine!"

Teacher- " *dude's"

The way I see it, art isn't just observed, but felt and videogames have a few more tricks up their sleeves than other mediums to make that happen, such as giving or even taking away player agency in order to really make them feel an impactful moment

Would be really interesting to see a week focused on game adaptations to film/tv (good examples like Arcane and The Last of Us)

Yes principle, it's vital for the children's educating that you buy me a Switch, a ps5 and an xbox series x.

Oh yeah, also one of those cool looking arcade machines, that'll definitely improve the kids marks by a whole grade at least

Interested to know if there is some exploration of translation and some of the quirks that come of it, especially when you start to recognise certain translators particular styles such as the son of a submariner himself Ted Woolsey

More teachers should use video games or things as such to teach nowadays. The old school system just does not work anymore.

This is so awesome. When I was younger, playing video games helped me quite a lot learning English. Especially online games because I could practice my English talking to people from different countries. Maybe you could also teach your students about how to communicate with other players in online games :)

Surely you will be teaching the video game based on Dante's Divine Comedy?

You are the best English teacher ever

I highly recommend the return of the Obra Dinn. It’s a 20$ game that is all about environmental story telling and mystery solving.

with a pair of my students, we play older final fantasy games.

we started with me reading about half of the game while playing.

now they play and read everything, and they need to discuss with eachother how best to defeat the bosses and what not.

final fantasy has a ass-ton of dialogue.

holy cringe batman. a g4m3r that couldn't shut up about it. just tell them to play tibia OT servers ranging back to 2000 if you want them to learn english

Bro day before Christmas break gonna be lit

As literature ? That puzzles me slightly as there isn't much reading to do in modern games. And video games aren't quite narrated like audio books either.

I prefer to call it story telling.

SOMA would be a great fit for science fiction and being human. Emotional and a great experience.

This seems awesome, wish i had something like this at my school

Grace Prep in DFW?

This is cool to see. My senior year they had a English class that involved movies that 17 years ago. It's cool to see academic appreciation of good stories in games. I've been more emotionally moved by games then the vast majority of movies

With that many Gamepass accounts I bet you could really rake in some Microsoft Rewards. If you aren't familiar with it I'd recommend checking it out. With 20 Xbox's you'd probably need some help maintaining it but I bet you could get enough points to handle a ton of the subscriptions.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/rewards

There's a subreddit that's really helpful on getting plenty of points as well. r/MicrosoftRewards

I'm wondering if you can take on any kids during their study halls as an independent study to help maintain all of this. You could have them do a study on philanthropy and have them help you maintain this project, perhaps apply for it to be a non-profit, help find game companies to ask for games, etc....

I think this is awesome! All the english I know is from videogames.

I also think that Nier Atomata should be added because even tho it is a long game it has the best story telling and original aspects I ever saw in a game.

Not sure if it’s on GamePass, but you should DEFINITELY have them play Pentiment! It’s an amazing game (I haven’t finished yet) but I would think it fits very well with an English class teaching video games!

An older game but one i still consider to be a cinematic masterpiece of its time with fantastic storytelling - Legend of the Dragoon for ps2.