I had one of those brilliant experiences today - a lesson that took on a life of its own and became a fantastic learning experience. This was a mixed ability Year 10 group of 22 students, studying GCSE Modern World History and beginning a unit on the Cold War. The aim was to try to get students to get to grips with the concept of capitalism and. like all my best lessons, was nicked from another teacher.
Each student was given 4 normal playing cards at random. 2 students volunteered to play the part of the "bank". The aim for each student was to trade their cards to get a winning hand. Winning hands were as follows: 3 cards of the same suit - 3 points; 3 cards of same value - 3points; 3 cards of any suit in a run (i.e. 2,3,4) - 3points; 3 cards in a run of same suit - 6 points. Whenever students had a winning hand they must go to the bank who would keep a running score of their total and give out 3 new cards. Students should trade cards with anyone else 'blind' - seeing only back of cards. The first round lasted 10 minutes. At the end of the round the bankers added up the scores - the 2 students with the highest score were invited to step outside the classroom and were allowed to either change 1 rule or add in a new one. At the end of each round the 3or 4 students with the highest score could add/change rules. As teacher I play no part at all and just kept observational notes of what happened.
I have run this experiment before but not for a few years and not with this type of result. In the 1st round every kid played and thoroughly enjoyed what they were doing. At the end of the stage 2 girls 'won' with a score of 24 points. They decided to introduce a new rule that they did not have to queue at the bank - long time waiting to bank scores was a big problem. All students continued to play the 2nd round although there were a few minor grumbles about the top 2. At the end of the round the top 2 girls had extended their lead and were joined by a boy who had also scored quite well. They decided that in the next round all other students had to show the top 3 their cards before they traded. This took us to the end of the first hour - and a 15 minute break. All the students were still thoroughly enjoying themselves but some were refusing to follow the latest rule and were starting to refuse to trade. Despite this the top 3 students had extended their lead. After break, things got really interesting. The top 3 decided that any student who refused to trade would be sent out of the classroom as punishment. Very quickly almost all the class were in the corridor whilst a small number were still playing. The group in the corridor began to call themselves the Resistance and a real sense of rebellion grew. At the end of the round the top 3 were still in the lead but had noticed they weren't scoring as well with most students not involved. They decided to double all points values if students obeyed the rules but no point if they refused to play. The top 3 were unfortunately unaware of the fact that the rest of the students had made a secret deal with the bankers that meant any points the top 3 earned in the next round would be taken off their total rather than added on. This final round was hilarious with the top 3 happily adding to their scores whilst the rest stood in the corridor. The final results were brilliant - the top 3 were still just in the lead but had had their scores greatly reduced.
The last 20 minutes of the lesson involved me feeding back on what I had observed. We had started with equality. Very quickly the highest scoring (richest) were making rules that only benefitted themselves and were intent on gettting richer. The lowest scoring (the masses) grew resentful, started to unite together, incited rebellion and carried out acts of sabotage and revolution! All of this came from the students who were then discussing the merits and drawbacks of capitalism and comparing it to communism. I must add - this is not a grammar school or academy or top set. This is a mixed ability group of normal Cornish kids - who had a great time developing their political, economic and historical understanding. No facts - so Michael Gove would have hated it.
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