Language and Section: German Advanced

Date:  Sep 15th, 2011

Class theme/topics discussed: Role play game: Die Werwölfe von Düsterwald (The Werewolves from Duesterwald àGerman version of the game mafia)

Goal of the class: fluency, learning how to bluff in German

Structure of the class (unless you attach your lesson plan below): 

1)    Explaining the game to my students

There are werewolves and regular humans. The werewolves kill one human per night, the people of the village (including the undercover werewolves) are discussing who might be a werewolf and killing that person. The discussion part produces a lot of language

2)    Playing the game 

What technology, media or props did you use? (satellite tv, internet resources, playmobiles, etc.)

Role play cards. You can easily make them for yourself.

What worked well in this class? What did not work?

It worked well. We played 2 rounds. The only problem was that after the second round, we only had 10min left, so not enough time for another round, but also too much to let them out early. So I asked them what they are going to do this weekend.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

I don’t have a god solution for the time problem. I guess one just needs a back up on that you can spend some time. 

Please attach your lesson plan and handouts for this class below – if you used any.

Here is a description of the game on Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwölfe_von_Düsterwald

(German game Werwolves)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)

(English game Mafia)

IMPORTANT TIPS:

  • You need 9 or more people to play this game
  • You should have played the game at least once before you are the narrator. Because it is very important to follow the right structure of what happens during the night- and daytime.
  • The gender of the roles can be different from the gender of the person who has the role. Example: the werewolves are always male, the witch is always female. If you would match the gender of the person playing with the gender of the role, it would be more obvious who has which role.