Creating Company Profiles

We've had our second day now, and for the first time, the pupils have tried acting as their characters.
Presently, it's not really a role-play - it's an educational game. The kids (being ordinary teenagers) don't feel comfortable role-playing, as it is too close to playing. However, I've noticed that we've done one thing right: There's a little something for everyone.
One girl said: "I don't care about the actual course. In fact, I think it's ridiculous, and I'm only doing it because I have to. But I keep thinking about the Award Show at the end, when we have to be dressed up in formal wear. I've never been to a galla before".
Whereas a boy said: "I can't come to the galla, as I'm going on a vacation with my family. But I'm going to line it all up for my team to win, and I'm going to drive them sooo hard!"
Another: "Wednesday is my favourite day of the whole week. It's just so much fun learning this way!"

So, different reactions to what we're doing. Not everyone likes it, but almost everyone, and everyone is active.
One pupil, who is famous for slacking if off, came over and asked me during the lessons: "Is it true that you can get fired?" I saw the fear in his eyes when I answered yes, and he quickly scampered off to make himself useful.

What happened last time:
The groups were presented with their first challenge. Using the very easy flash site Wix, they had to produce and present a website for their company. The website had to contain a name, logo, slogan, description of their profile (which had been subject to change up until that moment), cases, and each character's profile.
When the websites were presented, one of them was announced the winner, and was awarded a prize of 10.000 kr. The winning agency was the tiniest of them all: Street Stylers, which was run by a lesbian couple with a knack for street culture.

Next time, the different customers will be presented, and Street Stylers will get first pick, as they have the most appealing website.

The first day

On the first day, we teachers separated the pupils into the different agencies. We did this in such a way that there were pupils from both 7th, 8th and 9th grade in each agency. The 7th graders had never been taught about commercials before, but would be able to learn from the others, who had.

We made a big deal of giving each agency a specific profile and identity. Some examples:

Pluto: The small hippie bureau, who are specifically for customers who are interested in sustainable growth and green values.

Fedthasen & Søn: A company that believes in the slogan "Sex sells!" They will pander to the consumer's least admirable sides.

Satchel & Satchel: A streamlined megacorp that only serves the biggest and richest customers.

And so on... All in all, there were 9 agencies, each with 5-6 pupils.

The pupils were asked to distribute the following jobtypes between them: Boss, Art Director, Copywriter, and Accountant. We told them that they would all be working on the assignments, but that they would each have to be in charge at different points in the process.

Fortunately for us, it had turned up that the father of one of the pupils at our school was an art director. After the different agencies had been presented to the pupils, the art director made a presentation about commercials and what it's like working at a real advertising agency. The pupils were asked to take notes, and were told that these notes would be important for them in order to be able to play their parts in the role-play.

During the first day, the pupils were introduced to elementary expressions related to advertizing. They were also introduced to things like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the different categories of tv-commercials (aesthetical, humoristic, etc.), and many other things.

At the end of day one, the pupils were handed a character sheet, which they had to fill out at home. We encouraged them to wear clothes that would fit well with what their character would wear. 

The Idea

Nine advertising agencies are competing for customers. Each of them has to do a pitch in order to land their dream customer. When the pitches are done, they are presented to the customers (played by the teachers), who will then pick and choose the best ones. The agencies with the worst pitches will end up with boring customers that pay less money.

When the customers have signed contracts (agreeing on pay and services), they have to do the commercials. They can range from tv-commercials to ads in the local newspaper. However, the companies that do well might get paid extra money.

The whole course ends with a two-hour long award show, where all the different agencies compete.

There are two ways of winning the game: Either you can win the award show, or you can win on money earned (in relation to the amount your agency started out with).

The Course

At our school, Trekronergade Freinetskole, we have 3 years of experience with running educational roleplays. Every Wednesday, the four first lessons are spent on roleplaying campaigns that we teachers have thought out and planned carefully.

The idea for the current one came in May 2011 when I was looking through the official curriculum for 9th grade. I decided that commercials would be an interesting topic to work with, especially as it is something that appeals to a lot of youngsters, and the group of pupils that I had in mind were from 12-16.  

I presented my idea to my colleage, Lasse. I teach Danish, English, History, and Social Studies. Lasse teaches Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Geography. We supplement each other well, and we decided right off that even though 'commercials' was going to be the main topic, we wanted to go cross curricular, and incorporate other subjects. 

Teaching with Role-Playing

In February 2011, I did a 10 minute talk about "Role-playing as a TeachingMethod". The response afterwards has been overwhelming: I've been contacted by teachers and gamers alike, from people all over the world.

However, what puzzles people the most is 'how'. How do I make a roleplaying game for education? Do the older students want to do it, or only small kids, for whom playing comes more natural? How do I make sure that the kids really learn something instead of just fooling around? What about Maths? Surely you can't teach them that?

What you have to understand is that the roleplay is only a method. An empty cup into which you pour the content. It's not about what you teach, but how you teach.

In order to exemplify how teaching with roleplaying works, I'm going to log my experiences with the current role-play that I'm running with my colleague, Lasse Droob.