Kort beskrivelse
This lesson plan uses the video game Among Us to help students develop their communicative and argumentative abilities. The lesson aligns with LK20 §2.1, which emphasises social learning and development. The students must argue for their own views and understanding, and Among Us provides an anonymous platform for these discussions. As the students work together to identify the imposter, they will encounter disagreements and must collaboratively reach a decision together through voting.
We suggest that the teacher plays the game once to know how it works.
Kjerneelementer
Communication, Language learning, Working with texts in English
Tverrfaglige temaer
Health and life skills
In English, the interdisciplinary topic, Health and Life skills, aims to develop students' ability to express themselves in writing and speaking in English. Teaching health and life skills can contribute to students’ learning about new perspectives on different ways of thinking, communication patterns, lifestyles, and life situations, laying the foundation for expressing one’s own feelings, thoughts, experiences and opinions. Handling situations that require language and cultural competence can give students a sense of mastery and contribute to the development of a positive self-image and identity.
Democracy and citizenship
The interdisciplinary topic, democracy and citizenship aims to give the students knowledge and skills to face challenges in accordance with democratic principles. They shall understand dilemmas and train their ability to think critically, learn to deal with conflicts of opinion and respect disagreement.
Grunnleggende ferdigheter
Oral English
Depending on how the game is played, students can develop their oral skills by voicing their opinions and arguing for their innocence (or someone else’s guilt). The game thus develops the students’ ability to speak convincingly without giving away the truth which would spoil the game.
Writing English
Among Us can be played without talking. The students will have to argue the same way as they would orally, but they will have more time to formulate their statements if writing is used. They must use different methods to appeal to the other students by using, for example, pathos, ethos and logos.
Reading English
If the students argue by text, they also will have to be swift to read and reply in a manner that convinces their co- players. Students will also need to interpret and critically evaluate their co-players’ written explanations to find the imposter.
Kompetansemål i LK20
10th grade
- express oneself with fluency and coherence with a varied vocabulary and idiomatic expressions adapted to the purpose, recipient and situation
- ask questions and follow up input when talking about various topics adapted to different purposes, recipients and situations
Vg1 GS/ST grade:
- express himself or herself in a nuanced and precise manner with fluency and coherence, using idiomatic expressions and varied sentence structures adapted to the purpose, receiver and situation
- explain the reasoning of others and use and follow up input from others during conversations and discussions on various topics
Læringsmål
Students shall
- argue using rhetorical techniques,
- read messages and answer accordingly
- present, discuss and evaluate relevant evidence
Ressurser
- All students need their individual smart phone.
- Download Among Us from App Store/Google Play
Links to learn about rhetoric
- Short introduction, Logos, Pathos, Ethos.
May be used for all grades (videos in Norwegian). - Link about writing content, evidence, analysis paragraphs C.E.A
Example speech to use to discuss rhetoric
Forberedelser
The students should download the game beforehand. As soon as the students start the game, they will have the option to click “how to play”. It hels if students can do this at home before coming to class. The students can listen in detail how the game works.
Explanation of the game
At the beginning of each game, you are given the role of either a crewmate or an imposter. If you are a crewmate, you are assigned tasks to complete as fast as possible without getting killed by the imposter. The tasks are located in different rooms displayed on the screen. Each player has different tasks to complete. The imposter pretends to be a crewmate completing tasks, while walking around eliminating the crewmates (the imposter cannot complete tasks).
When a crewmate finds a dead body, all players are forced into a discussion and voting time that allows them to report what they saw and who they were with and raise suspicion against other players. This means that no matter what role you are given at the beginning of the game, strong argumentative skills are key.
Plan for opplegget
Example timeframe
20-40 minutes preparation focusing on pre-tasks
30 minutes playing the game and taking notes
10 minutes focusing on post-tasks
The teaching plan is divided into three parts: pre-tasks, main tasks and post-tasks.
Pre-tasks
Prior to playing this game, it is advised to work on how to build your arguments. See the links to video resources on rhetorical devices under “resources. An example of how you can work on how to build your arguments is to use the C.E.A paragraph structure (claim, evidence, and analysis) or any other resources you have on the topic of how to discuss and argue. Furthermore, it may be relevant to analyze a speech together as an example for the students.
Main Task
When opening the game on a phone, you will have four options on your screen:
1. Local
2. Online
3. How to play
4. Practice
It is advised to read through “how to play” first. We suggest using smaller groups (4-6) for playing. One of the students in each group must be the “host”. This student needs to press option 2, “online” followed by “host” on their phone. When the hosting student has done this, they may choose game type, number of imposters, maximum players amongst other options. The only options the student should change is how many can join the game and how many imposters will be present in the game. We suggest using 1 imposter when having groups of 4-6. If you have bigger groups, use a maximum of 2 regardless of how many students are in your class, as it is easier for the discussion to flow in-game.
After the student (1 from each group) has changed the maximum students and imposters, the student will need to press “confirm” in the bottom right corner of their screen. This will take them in-game, and a code based on 6 letters will be in the middle, bottom section of the screen. This code is to be given to all the students in the group. To insert the code, the remaining students in each group will have to press “online” from the main menu, followed by “private”. The code will take the students into the game of the student host.
After each playthrough, the students should spend 5 minutes taking notes on the arguments they came up with during the game for later use. This can also be done as a group.
Post-Tasks
Get the students to reflect on how they used arguments to prove their innocence or how they tried to pin the murder on someone else. How you do this will depend on your class. To encourage quiet classes, we suggest putting them in groups of 2 or 3 to discuss. If you use the C.E.A paragraph structure, you can ask students to identify the claims, evidence (the proof), and analysis (how they argued for their claim and evidence). If you choose to discuss in plenary, you can draw three different boxes on the whiteboard and write down all claims, evidence (proof), and analysis (why/how the proof was relevant). In the end, ask the students to reflect on what they learned during the lesson and what could have been done differently.
Refleksjon og vurdering
The lesson plan supports students for open and fluent participation in classroom discussions. When observing the students, the teacher may listen for the use of previously taught terms such as, claims, evidence and analysis. Furthermore, when the students engage in fluent conversations, they should be able to express their thoughts and opinions without much struggle, discussing claims and evidence from the playthrough. Nonetheless, some students may engage less during the discussions, resulting in short discussions on claims and evidence, which in turn may indicate a lower level of understanding.
Kommentarer
This lesson plan can also be practice for the students before they are tasked to write an argumentative essay on a different topic, but this cannot be done within this timeframe.
Idé og utarbeidelse
Anine Schevig Ludviksen (Spillpedagogene)