“In viewing play as the source of the zone of proximal development, we focus on the

collaborative construction of a pretend reality that is invented by the players and sustained by

the rules they negotiate”

L.S Vygotsky (1967)

Play based curriculum makes investments in student development. The value of cooperation, initiative and intellectual

challenges throughout this learning journey will be covered through a chronological timeframe of the process.

Rebecca O’Grady, Sproose Joose Director (and sometimes teacher) ponders her future with 11 English Communication…

How could I create an exciting , student-centered learning experience which would enable my Year 11 English Communication students to develop spoken, written and visual literacy skills which would pave the pathway for success in the `workplace’ of the future?

The Development Phase

The Context

The ability for students to develop the necessary language skills to work collaboratively with others was one of my main objectives. But how? My class consisted of students who generally are considered to be `at risk’ of disengagement or failure in the English classroom.

My class consists mostly of boys. For some of my students, English is their second language. For others, success so far had been unattainable, hindered by various learning, intellectual or social impairments.

The Power of Play

Having experienced the power of play based education for literacy and language learning in Early Childhood Education settings, I was curious to see if I could scaffold the development of workplace literacies through the use of socio-dramatic play with my 16 year olds.

According to Van Hoorn et al (1999) Play supports a classroom atmosphere of cooperation, initiative and intellectual challenge.

Student-Centred Autonomy

In class one day, I asked my students what sort of business or industry they thought it would be best to work in? After some time, one of my students responded.

“I think it would be cool to create a worldwide franchise”. Others quickly joined in. “Something famous, Like McDonald’s”. “A Juice Bar would be great”, quipped another.

We were off….

The Authentic Context All efforts were made on my behalf to create a classroom

environment which would allow us to pretend that this was actually happening. We, Year 11 English Communication, were going to create a juice bar franchise. It had to be authentic. I moved the students out of our conventional classroom and into our Independent Learning Centre.

Use of SpaceThe physical setting of this centre fosters creativity. Students have space to move, to work and to build. They also have technology and resources at their fingertips. For my socio-dramatic play theory to work, we needed to create a space that really resembled a workplace and could be adapted as our workplace changed. We had eliminated the traditional classroom context and moved to the make believe world of entrepreneurship.

Student Negotiated Falling into character

immediately, the students negotiated how the business would be built. Openly discussing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, students were appointed varying roles by their peers.

It was negotiated that these groups (branding and marketing, juice development, building and industrial design, graphics, administration, etc) would all work separately.

Student Examples

Students designed plans and layouts for our store which were approved at staff meetings.

Student Examples

Our branding team used Paint Shop programs to design their franchise’s packaging and logos.

All of the branding and logos were designed by the students

Sproose Joose Designs Hit You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyh3nFplhvA

Students were more than aware of the fact thatone way many businesses are getting their big break is

through exposure online.

The world can now view our flagship store!

Student Examples

Plans for our first Sproose Joose Drive Thru were of a professional standard!

Student Examples

Our Independent Learning Centre became the Sproose Joose Head Office.

Our HR team designed job application forms in MS Word and uploaded these on their website.

SPROOSE JOOSEFranchise

Opportunities

•Cheap to set up

•Easy to run

•Potential for expansion

•Excellent for new franchises as well as experienced

This is the early stage of a business card a student designed. Key rings and fridge magnets were soon to follow….

Introducing the WIKII sat back and observed. We were getting there. The students were working collaboratively to an extent but we weren’t yet working together the way successful businesses operate. I realised that many of our workplaces (schools included) are networked. If the students had the opportunity to play and pretend that they were communicating through an office intranet, the collaborative skills would come through their experimentation and increased confidence.

The WIKI was the missing piece of the puzzle and the key to our project’s success.

Our WIKI Page

How we used the WIKIWith the support of my Teacher Librarian, I created a WIKI page for our business, titled Sproose Joose. Initially, it was a thrill for the students to have a “chat room” like forum at school.

WIKI saves the day…which one?

Students had to make collaborative decisions…

So they started a discussion group on the WIKI … the whole class could help them decide…….

OR

How We Used the WIKII set up a business WIKI which would facilitate and best resemble workplace communication mediums.

It was my intention for students to have ownership of our WIKI page and to understand that it was an important part of our business - the glue that would hold the entire operation together, so to speak.

We used the monitor to plan how we could use the WIKI to our benefit

How We Used the WIKI

At first our whole class spent a number of lessons exploring the WIKI. Each of the students created their own folders and stored them on the WIKI. The recent WIKI activity is available for all to see at a glance. Students store and upload their ideas and creative designs.

Exploring the WIKI

At first our whole class spent a number of lessons exploring the WIKI. As the sole administrator of the page, I was able to monitor the WIKI to ensure the safety of my students.

Utilising Other Teachers

I invited other teachers to become involved in the WIKI and visit our business.

Drawing on Prior Knowledge and taking ownership.

Eventually students were familiar enough with the WIKI to decide how they would use this forum to help their business grow. Notice how the language and intent has changed. They have taken ownership and are rising to the challenge. They have become the business enterprise.

Scaffolding the WIKI

I scaffolded the introduction to this technology by leaving posts and creating threads. This generated discussions and enabled me to exercise control when online conversations needed to be redirected.

As we continued to access the WIKI during lessons, students became more and more engrossed in our play. They used professional language and demonstrated workplace discourses. They started to discern whether content posted was appropriate or inappropriate for a workplace.

Moving On to the Next Intellectual Challenge

After we had finished exploring the WIKI, we no longer needed to devote entire lessons to being online. The WIKI was now merely our means of communication, a point of reference for our business plans.

There aren’t many businesses which only operate during one or two periods a day and thanks to the WIKI, our business was online and growing 27/7!

Let’s Play at “Working From Home”

A student uploaded his graphic artwork onto the WIKI over the weekend for others to comment on.

The WIKI helped students make the most of out of school study time.The students no longer viewed it as homework, rather their business empire!

Making Collaboration more ProductiveOne of the challenges of involving students in group work is that there are always situations where a group can’t meet or one student is absent. Collaborative group work is much more effective with the WIKI. I watched students learn to work together as they would upload store designs on our page and ask for comments.

Even when students were away sick they still could “play” by accessing the WIKI.

Student InitiativeSome sent other members messages from home over the weekend, reminding people to bring the advertising brochures. Links were uploaded to the Sproose Joose web page one boy created.

Through using the WIKI students were learning how to work together as a group to solve problems and plan ahead.

http:www.freewebs.sproosejoose.com

AssessmentWhile my students played, I assessed. One of our assessment tasks required students to print and submit evidence of their contributions to the WIKI.

Certain aspects of our business were to be only discussed via the WIKI, challenging everyone to test their workplace communication skills.

Authentic Assessment

Sproose Franchise Information Booklet and free key rings and magnets!

Criteria Documents

CONCORDIA COLLEGE TOOWOOMBA Year 11 English Communication

WRITTEN: Workplace TextsSPOKEN: Presentation in a Business Meeting

The Sproose Joose business has grown and we have made a decision to offer our business as a franchise. The Sproose Joose business has grown and we have made a decision to offer our business as a franchise.

Successful franchises produce information booklets which are distributed to potential franchisees in order to inform and persuade them to enter into a franchising agreement with us. You are part of a staff team who have been assigned the task of writing, formatting and designing the Sproose Joose Franchise booklet.

Your role in this process involves:

Deliberately constructing a section of the franchise book. It is important that you consider appropriate text, images and design. You will need to consult with other employees to ensure that the book contains the same themes, graphics and ideas. It is important that your section is thoroughly edited, informative and persuasive.

Presenting your section and discussing at a staff meeting. You and your business partner will discuss the decisions that you made with regard to the design, content and layout of the page during the meeting. You will have to seek feedback from other staff members and ask questions. It is important that you justify to other staff why you feel the content of your page must be included in order to reach our desired goal.

Standards associated with exit criteria – English Communication (2004)

• Table 3: Very High Achievement• • Knowledge of

contextual factors• The student has demonstrated knowledge of the• ways that meanings in texts are shaped by purpose,

cultural context and social situation by:• Knowledge of

textual features• The student has demonstrated knowledge of the

appropriateness of textual features for purposes and audiences by:

• • Knowledge and

understanding of texts• The student has demonstrated knowledge of • how texts are interpreted and constructed by:• consistently using patterns and conventions of genres to

achieve particular purposes• selecting and synthesising relevant subject matter • explaining information ideas and arguments with

analysis and evaluation• substantiating opinions with relevant evidence• controlling appropriate roles and relationships• selecting and integrating modes and media, where

appropriate.•

• consistently sequencing and organising subject matter• consistently using cohesive ties to link ideas• using a range of suitable vocabulary• controlling most clause and sentence structures• maintaining control of paragraphing and most

punctuation• controlling conventional spelling• controlling visual (graphic still and moving images),

auditory (music, silence and sound effects) and / or digital (graphic design elements) features to make meaning in layout or presentation of texts

• controlling spoken / signed and nonverbal features that contribute to meaning:

• pronunciation, audibility and clarity, pace, volume, phrasing and pausing for emphasis

• facial expression, stance, movement, gestures, proximity.

• • explaining or purposefully shaping representations of

people, places, events and concepts in texts• explaining or effectively using cultural assumptions,

attitudes, values and beliefs in texts• explaining ways readers, listeners and viewers take up

positions in relation to texts• making language choices to invite readers, listeners and

viewers to take up positions in relation to texts.

Taking Time to EvaluateWere we succeeding? Was our culminating activity, the trade fair presentation on schedule? The power of metacognition!

The Trade FairThe trade fair displays were remarkable. Everyone had used various multimedia, clever marketing skills, striking artwork and product confidence to showcase the business in a professional context. Each group gave a 20 minute trade fair presentation and I was impressed by how well organized and polished these presentations were.

Meeting our Objectives…and More!

• The WIKI had worked wonders. It’s purpose and design was flexible enough that our students were able to use it as a tool maximize the benefits of working collaboratively with others.

• There seemed to be greater sense of unity within the groups - they were having fun together, playing together, using electronic texts which their generation know and love. In their eyes, they weren’t learning how to work together in a business, they were just simply working together in their business.

The Trade Fair

The Trade Fair

The Trade Fair

The Trade Fair

The Trade Fair

So What’s Next For Our WIKI Page?

The great thing to realize is that your WIKI can be adapted to your learning environment. Last semester it served as a communication tool for building a business…….This semester, students will again login in the roles of film and TV industry executives, using our WIKI as a communication tool as they plan, write, film, produce and edit a documentary about a Year 11 class who built a Juice Empire…..

Director of Sproose Joose.

Miss Rebecca O’Grady (B.Ed Primary/Middle School USQ)Concordia Lutheran CollegeAustralia