Play SPENT and Learn About Homelessness! A Lesson Plan for Teens and College Students – Teacher Reboot Camp

To help students get into the giving spirit, I find it important to help them empathize and deeply get to know a real-world problem such as poverty, homelessness, hunger and abandoned animals. SPENT is a free online game in which players are faced with choices that help them better understand homelessness and poverty. Below is a screenshot and lesson plan to go along with the game. This lesson plan combines interactive gameplay with vocabulary building and reflective discussion, helping students critically engage with the realities of poverty. Feel free to adapt as needed. This lesson could also be what my STEAM team calls the Entry Event to a project based on helping those in the community with hunger, poverty or homelessness. Tie this to a food, clothing or toy drive.

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Requirements: Device with access to the game SPENT (you may need to check with a tech specialists if blocked)
Grade Level: Middle School, High School or College
Subject: ELA, Social Students or Similar
Duration: 1 to 2 class periods or more depending on the assessment and if you want them to spend most of the class period playing the game.

Objectives

• Understand the financial and emotional challenges of poverty and homelessness.
• Acquire vocabulary related to poverty, finances, and decision-making.
• Foster empathy and critical thinking about socioeconomic issues.

Lesson Plan

Introduction (10 minutes)

• Discussion Starter:
  • Ask students: “What do you think it means to live paycheck to paycheck?”
  • Briefly discuss common challenges faced by individuals in poverty (e.g., limited resources, tough decisions).
  • Optional- Introduce with a video or image displaying poverty (What do you notice about the image, what do you wonder?) 
• Objective Overview:
  • Explain the goal of the lesson: to experience and analyze the difficulties of living in poverty through the game Spent.

Vocabulary Review (10 minutes)

Introduce key terms and concepts from the game. 

Vocabulary Words:

• Budget
• Minimum wage
• Rent
• Expenses
• Savings
• Debt
• Insurance
• Emergency fund
• Trade-off
• Scarcity

Activity:

• Students work in pairs to match terms with definitions or use them in sample sentences.
• Briefly review the answers as a class.

Gameplay 

(20 minutes or the rest of the class period if you are extending the lesson)

• Model playing the game Spent.
• Direct students to play Spent individually or in pairs.
• Instruct them to take notes on:
  • Decisions they make during the game.
  • How their choices impact their budget and well-being.
  • Vocabulary words they encounter in context.

Reflection and Discussion (15 minutes)

• Small Group Discussion:
  • What decisions were the most difficult to make?
  • What did you learn about budgeting and trade-offs?
  • Did the game change your perspective on poverty? How?
• Whole-Class Reflection:
  • Share insights and discuss systemic factors that contribute to poverty.
  • Explore solutions or support systems that might help those in poverty.

Individual Reflection (15 minutes) 

• Write a reflective journal entry answering:
  • What was the hardest decision you made in the game and why?
  • What do you think society could do to help individuals facing these challenges?

Assessment

Reflect on your understanding of poverty through one of the following: a 3–5 paragraph essay, create a presentation, create an infographic, create a psa (public service announcement) video, or create a podcast analyzing how playing the game Spent impacted your understanding of poverty. In your response, address the following questions:

• What specific choices or moments in the game were most impactful for you? Why?
• How did the game change or deepen your perspective on the challenges people in poverty face?
• What lessons can you take from this experience to apply to your own life, community, or understanding of societal issues?
• Use examples from the game to support your ideas, and include any connections to your personal experiences, current events, or class discussions.

Rubric

(with help from ChatGPT)