To help with this, I provide students with a list of key characters, and get them to design a series of “Top Trumps” cards for as many of these as possible using a template I’ve put together in a word processor:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The categories decided upon by students should be as useful as possible (note \u2013 change these to when\/where etc?) and can either be decided upon in advance by the teacher, or settled upon after discussion with the class.<\/p>\n
For example, if the focus is on \u2018significance\u2019 the categories might be as follows:<\/p>\n
- \n
- When? \u2013 long term<\/li>\n
- When? \u2013 short term<\/li>\n
- Where? (local, national, international)<\/li>\n
- What? (political, socio-economic, military)<\/li>\n
- Who? (different classes \/ races, men, women, children)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Step 2: Playing the game focusing on the text, not the ratings<\/strong><\/p>\n
So far, so good. Students have spent time usefully researching or revising key characters, summaring their findings, and using these to make simple judgements in the form of percentage ratings. At this point, though, the rules of the game need to change to ensure that students at all times are discussing and debating the text in their respective cards rather than simply comparing the numbers and swapping the cards without further thought.<\/p>\n
To achieve this objective, put students into groups of three and give each player in each group a letter (A, B, C). All players should shuffle their cards. In the first round, player \u201cA\u201d will act as the judge. Player \u201cB\u201d will take the first card from the top of their deck, and decide upon the strongest category for that character. They then name the character, nominate the category and explain why the character should score strongly in this regard (note: they do not need to read out the rating they gave and should be penalised for doing so). Player \u201cC\u201d responds by repeating this pattern for their own character. It is then up to the judge (Player \u201cA\u201d) to announce the winner, who takes the card from their opponent in the normal way. Player \u201cC\u201d then takes the lead by repeating the process with the first card from their stack.<\/p>\n
Once these two players have had their chance to play one card each, it is time for the next round: player \u201cB\u201d becomes the judge, and the other two take it in turns to play cards against each other. Then in the final round player \u201cC\u201d becomes the judge in the same way. This process can be repeated over several rounds.<\/p>\n
Taking it further<\/h2>\n