Teaching about video game music, and a CoPilot error at the end

 That sounds like a fantastic interdisciplinary course. Since your co-teacher is already covering history, music appreciation, and game studies from the music side, your sweet spot as the English instructor is to focus on communication, analysis, and composition skills that use video game music as content—but don’t duplicate music/history instruction. 

Here are strong, non-overlapping topic areas you could lead: 

🎓 1. Analytical Writing & Argumentation

Focus on how to write about game music rather than teaching the music itself. 

Possible units

• Close reading of audio-text relationships
  

• How music shapes player interpretation of narrative
  

• Compare how the same scene feels with different musical cues
  

• Argument essays
  

• “Is video game music essential to immersion?”
  

• “Are video game scores comparable to film scores as an art form?”
  

• Rhetorical analysis
  

• How composers “persuade” players emotionally through sound
  

👉 This keeps you in composition + critical thinking, not music theory. 

✍️ 2. Writing for Different Audiences & Genres

Have students practice writing in real-world formats. 

Assignments

• Game review writing (with emphasis on music’s role—but not music theory)
  

• Blog posts or think pieces
  

• Academic essays vs. popular criticism
  

• Scriptwriting for a YouTube video essay on a game soundtrack
  

👉 Emphasize tone, audience awareness, and genre conventions. 

🧠 3. Narrative & Storytelling Theory

You can explore how stories are told, with music as one element. 

Topics

• Narrative structure in games (linear vs. branching)
  

• The relationship between story, player choice, and emotional pacing
  

• Silence vs. sound as narrative tools
  

• Leitmotif as a storytelling device (framed as narrative, not musical technique)
  

👉 Let the music instructor explain what the music is—
you focus on what it does for storytelling. 

🎮 4. Multimodal Composition

This is a perfect overlap area that still belongs clearly in English/composition. 

Projects

• Video essays analyzing a game moment
  

• Multimedia presentations combining text, audio, and visuals
  

• Creating a short narrative scene and pairing it with selected music (with written justification)
  

Skills

• Integrating multiple modes (text + sound + visuals)
  

• Citation of non-text sources
  

• Designing arguments across media
  

🔍 5. Research Skills & Information Literacy

Use video game music as the research topic, but teach academic research methods. 

Focus areas

• Finding and evaluating sources (game journalism vs. scholarship)
  

• Quoting and citing audio/video media
  

• Annotated bibliographies on a soundtrack or composer
  

• Avoiding plagiarism in multimedia projects
  

🗣️ 6. Discussion, Reflection, and Metacognition

Have students articulate their own experiences with music and gameplay. 

Activities

• Reflective essays:
  

• “Describe a moment when game music changed your emotional response”
  

• Structured discussions / Socratic seminars
  

• Response journals to listening/viewing sessions
  

🧩 7. Language, Description, and Style

Students often struggle to describe sound in words—this is uniquely yours to teach. 

Exercises

• Writing vivid descriptions of instrumental music
  

• Translating sound into metaphor and imagery
  

• Comparing technical vs. expressive descriptions
  

👉 This complements music appreciation without duplicating it. 

⚖️ 8. Cultural and Ethical Writing Topics

You can guide writing about broader issues. 

Essay topics

• Representation and cultural borrowing in game soundtracks
  

• Accessibility: how music affects players with disabilities
  

• Commercialization of game music (concerts, streaming, remixes)
  

🧪 Sample Assignment Sequence (Putting It Together)

Unit Example: “Music and Meaning in Games” 

1. Short reflective response (personal experience)
   

1. Analytical paragraph (close reading of a scene)
   

1. Research mini-paper (scholarly + journalistic sources)
   

1. Final project: video essay or polished argument paper
   

✅ Key Principle for Division of Labor

• Music instructor → What the music is (history, style, composition, appreciation)
  

• You (English) → How we interpret, communicate, and argue about it
  

If you want, I can help you build a full syllabus or a few major graded assignments tailored to your teaching style (short papers vs. large projects, etc.).

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