In proposing new ways of teaching narratives, I provide sample writing activities that can be used in first year composition courses.  Since this is a fairly new idea to the world of composition, I have used theoretical frameworks using the Collaborative Learning Approach. This approach is defined as the intentional physical grouping of students either by the teacher or by the students so that students work together as teams to produce written documents.  Students equally divide the work and assign individual persons to work on a specific section. This method provides instant feedback through peer response and editing. In the case of collaborative video games, students can also provide immediate feedback to each other while working as a team to achieve the game goal. The following are suggested writing activities:

Activity 1: Choosing & Playing Your Favorite Video Game
Begin the unit with an on-line questionnaire about learning styles, and gaming interests. Next have students choose from a variety of video games and play the video game. Make sure that students first identify the narrative in each video game.

Activity 2: Evaluating the Various Features in Video Games
Ask students to discuss their experience with playing the video that they chose. Ask students the following questions: What character did they choose and why; What was their quest; How long did they play the game; How many times did they play the game; Did they play the game alone or with friends; etc. Was the narrative in the video game interesting? Why or why not?

Activity 3: Creating & Developing a Video Game
Have students work in groups of three or four to create narratives in order to create and develop their own video game by first writing about the characters, theme, plot, purpose, playability, originality, content, graphics, and addictiveness. Have students create a storyboard as well as an actual hypertext web-site which other students can access and play. Ask your students questions like the following: How does your video game function as a storytelling device? What is the most powerful narrative aspect of your video game? What is the weakest narrative aspect of your video game? How does your video game relate to or interact with its intended audience?

Activity 4: Reviewing the Video Game Projects
Using the same features for creating and developing video games, have students write reviews of the video game projects of their classmates. Evaluate students on their ability to both give and receive critical criticism and feedback. Discuss how the narrative changed from written text form to video game form.

Extended Activities
Have students expand on the narrative in their video game to develop other forms of narratives such as movie clips, comic strips, cartoons, audio voice over, musicals, etc. Afterwards have students compare and contrast the narrative in the video game to the one originally created.