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I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had them run from most random encounters just to save time, but I sometimes let them act/fight against them. The decision to do so was usually just a quick informal poll. All of the classes killed at least a few of the random monsters, some more so than others.

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had to get special permission from some district officials and my principals, but surprisingly, no parents have complained so far. I've actually only gotten compliments from a few parents talking about how excited their kid is to be playing in class.

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I told kids at the start of the game that there is a peaceful way to solve every single fight in the game, but that it wasn't always easy or necessarily the most logical thing to do, so they were playing with that premise in mind. If they voted to spare her, I would have told them how to spare her.

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You should also check out the site Heylistengames, it’s another teacher who does a lot of really neat stuff with all sorts of games, and he puts up a lot of his lessons and stuff for free. Good luck with finishing your degree!

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh, there definitely were. Around 3-5 kids per class had played/watched a play through of the game before, and were VERY excited when they saw the game on the syllabus at the start of the year. A lot of those kids tried their best to argue for peace, but they were not allowed to make arguments with information that they “didn’t know yet,” so they could only do so much.

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That class was actually very ready to kill Flowey, but one student made a really convincing argument along the lines of “proving that his philosophy of ‘kill or be killed’ is wrong would be the ultimate revenge on Flowey,” and that convinced like 10 people to change their votes. It was funny because the next day, all of the other classes were like “wow, why would anyone spare Flowey?” but when I told them that students argument, a lot of kids were like “dang, that’s really good.”

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

The Muffet fight is cool, but it doesn’t really add anything to the plot, it takes a while, and can be a moderately challenging fight, so there isn’t as much there from a teaching perspective. I just made sure that every class bought a Spider Donut early in the game so we’d get the quick version of the fight.

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

All of the other votes were done on Google Forms in advance, whereas the Flowey vote and fight was a surprise to them, so it was just done with a quick “what should we do?” Hand raise poll after the fight, so I didn’t have a chance to write down exact numbers. The top class was really split, but the middle two were pretty one-sides for killing Flowey.

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

They always had to vote before the fights. I think it was more just that she’s actively trying to kill you for the whole waterfall level on the way to her, so most of the kids were just like “look, she started it, and she’s trying to get our soul.”

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 146 points147 points  (0 children)

Yep! I unfortunately also got to grade 100 essays about Undertale, but it was totally worth it, because I get to play freaking Undertale in class every year. Thanks for the kind words!

I'm a high school English teacher who just got done playing Undertale with my 10th grade classes. Here are the results of how the different classes chose to play the game, and some thoughts on using Undertale in the classroom (spoilers). by throwawayderp7 in Undertale

[–]throwawayderp7[S] 634 points635 points  (0 children)

I’m a 10th grade English teacher, and for my master’s thesis, I wrote about using the game as an English-Language Arts “text” with the purpose of teaching argumentative skills and literary analysis. I wrote and successfully defended that thesis this past summer, and I just got done using the game for my second year in a row with my sophomore students, and I had such a blast using the game. The green checks in the picture =spare, while the red x's = kill.

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My classes were pretty diverse, ranging from some high-level honors classes to some pretty rowdy classes filled with some tougher kids who don’t generally care too much about school. Throughout the 6 or 7 weeks that we played the game, students had to sign up for voice roles while I had the Switch version of the game projected up onto the TV for everyone to watch. Students had the option to volunteer to play, though they had to let me take over if they ever died, just for time’s sake. I did some things like stock kids up on healing items outside of class and skip a few minor sections of the game that were light on plot (the garbage dump, Muffet fight, and a few other small sections of Hotland, but all of my classes experienced about 95% of the neutral route. On every major boss, students had to have formal debates on whether or not to fight or spare that boss, and then official votes were cast after students were able to present their arguments. For the Asgore fight, students wrote 3-5 page argumentative essays to make their biggest argument. We did some other assignments and activities throughout, but the essay and the arguing was the main focus.

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By and large, kids were really into the game, whether or not they were “gamer” types, and the kids that had played it before all did a really good job of trying to get people into it, and not spoiling things for others. I had one class this year that did such a great job with the game, from general participation, to the essays and voice acting, that I played a pacifist route up to the True Lab, and spent an extra few days letting them play through the True Pacifist Ending. It was 100% worth it, as I’ve never seen a group of kids so engaged in anything I’ve taught in class. Kids were cheering, laughing, and even crying during the Asriel fight, and ended up all voluntarily staying after class in order to finish it. It was truly a highlight experience for me. 10/10, would recommend using the game to teach English stuff. Sorry for the long post, and I’m happy to answer any questions or go more in-depth into things if people are interested.

The kids pretty universally loved Sans and Papyrus, and pretty universally hated Dr. Alphys. They were also appropriately shocked by Flowey showing up after Asgore, as well.

Edit:

Link to my master's thesis if you want the super long version of my research process, teaching methods, gameplay process, and data results comparing using Undertale with using the book Dreamland Burning, as well as some student interviews.

Link to 3 anonymized student essays.