Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom Teaching Guide - Upper Primary

PL E

M

SA

PL E

The publishers would like to thank the children and staff at Woodland National School, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal.

Just Rewards Publications Letterkenny Co. Donegal

M

www.justrewards.ie

ISBN: 978-1-913137-11-3 Š Just Rewards 2019

SA

Author: Michael J. Ward Editor: O’Carroll Editorial Design: Nicolette Culloo Photography: Dermot Donohue

Additional photographs: Adobe Stock images: p27 Veroka All rights reserved. No part of this publications may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publishers or else under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Irish Copyright Licensing Association.

Web references in this book are intended as a guide for teachers. At the time of going to press, all web addresses were active and contained information relevant to the topics in this book.

However, Just Rewards Publications and the author do not accept responsibility for the views or information contained on these websites. Content and addresses may change beyond our control and pupils should be supervised when investigating websites.

2

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Contents Introduction 4 Getting started 5 Resources checklist 8 Session overview 9 10

Session Two Knowing the market

19

PL E

Session One The art of persuasion

Session Three Check out the competition

28

Session Four Creating a prototype

37

Session Five Lights, camera, action!

46

Session Six Catching customers on the web

55

Session Seven Pitching for success

66

Alternative project ideas 75

SA

 

M

Sample questionnaire 77

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

3

Introduction “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi

PL E

Our world is changing at a rapid pace. Advancements in technology, coupled with the everexpanding global nature of commerce, mean that our children’s lives and future will be very different from our own. Increasing competition for employment means that academic qualifications may not always carry the weight that they once did. Employers are increasingly looking for individuals who stand out from the crowd – who have a well-rounded skillset that extends beyond grades and qualifications. The new opportunities that technology and global culture bring, for both social and business endeavours, mean that now – more than ever – we as educators have a responsibility to equip children with the life skills and confidence that they will need to flourish and succeed in this uncertain yet dynamic new world.

Entrepreneurship is an umbrella term that encompasses a set of skills which might define such an approach to learning. We need to encourage children to develop a self-awareness of their own learning and the way in which they approach tasks. Often the act of teaching, by its very nature, can be quite didactic, with ‘right or wrong’ answers and an emphasis on children giving the correct response. Entrepreneurship effectively challenges this approach to some degree by giving more control to children to explore and take ownership of their own learning.

M

Experimentation and risk-taking are at the heart of entrepreneurship. Children are very often crippled by a fear of ‘failure’ and a desire to please, but the skills of entrepreneurship help them to see failure as a valuable learning experience. It is how a child moves on and develops that is the most important outcome – adapting their ideas and aims, and garnering a deeper understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses.

SA

The project outlined in this book is designed to offer practical opportunities for children to foster the following skills: • Teamwork – working effectively with others while exercising dignity and respect • Communication – sharing ideas and listening to those of others • Creativity – using the imagination to invent and make ideas a reality • Problem-solving – understanding a problem and exploring solutions • Critical thinking – analysing information, making predictions and forming plans • Adaptability – adjusting to new challenges and learning from experience None of us can predict the future or what the workplace might look like in ten or 20 years’ time, but we can endeavour in the present to provide children with the self-belief, confidence and skills to help them to adapt and succeed – and ultimately achieve their goals.

4

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Getting started The following pages provide a planning overview for the project, with advice on set-up and preparation, as well as how you might effectively facilitate learning and team-building skills through group work and a positive classroom ideology.

A learning journey

PL E

Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks and assessing the outcomes. Children often fear failure; if something isn’t perfect, their tendency is to want to leave the failure behind and move on. This project intentionally creates situations where trial and error will be necessary to succeed. To this end, it is important to support and promote a healthy attitude to what may be traditionally seen as failure. If something is not working, then children should be encouraged to think about what they might do to change it, or what they might do differently next time. What have they learned from the experience?

The end product, whether this is a T-shirt, a website design or a rehearsed ‘TV advert’, is less important than the journey taken to reach that goal. Children should always have opportunity to discuss and reflect on how they arrived at their end product – and those things that didn’t go quite to plan should be seen as a valuable learning opportunity rather than a ‘failure’.

Teamwork makes individuals shine

M

A vital part of entrepreneurship is the ability to collaborate and communicate with others to achieve a shared goal. Teamwork is embedded in this project as a means of giving children opportunity to listen, explain and share their ideas, and to exercise trust, dignity and respect when dealing with others. Teamwork offers a great opportunity for children to develop and strengthen relationships with their peers. You may want to choose the groups so that there is a mix of abilities and confidence levels, and so children are grouped with those they may not typically have worked with before.

SA

Teams are more likely to work effectively if you have around four or five per group. More than that and you may find some children will find it difficult to contribute effectively and have their voices heard. Once children are placed in teams, they should remain in this same group throughout the project.

Assessing group work can sometimes be seen as difficult, as it can be hard to have eyes and ears everywhere to capture each child’s contribution. However, the practical activities in this book (alongside the children’s Learning Journals – see page 6) have been designed so that children record their learning and ideas individually, even if the team is working towards a single shared outcome.

When it comes to group work, your role as teacher becomes much more of a guide or facilitator.

Visit groups as needed to prompt their learning through the use of open-ended questions or suggestions for what they might look at or try next. Once children have had more experience of working in their teams and have grown in confidence, you will find that less direction may be necessary and you have greater opportunity to listen and record the learning that is taking place.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

5

Getting started Session breakdown

This project has been divided into seven separate learning sessions. Each session is structured to provide a practical and child-centred approach to the learning.

Each session is divided into the following: • Explore: children are encouraged to use a variety of research methods, from hands-on experiences to group discussion, to find out a range of information that will provide the stimulus for their Create activity.

PL E

• Create: during the Create activities, children communicate their learning from the Explore session by explaining and demonstrating their understanding through practical work.

• Support/Extend: differentiation advice is provided for how you might support less confident or more confident learners. This may include additional preliminary activities to give children more confidence in a particular skill or area of learning, or extension activities that will offer opportunities to further develop their learning and understanding.

M

• Cross-curricular links: should you wish to extend the themes of this project into other areas of the curriculum, these practical ideas will provide detailed support on how you might plan and deliver a multidisciplinary approach to the topic.

Learning Journal

SA

This teacher’s book has an accompanying set of children’s Learning Journals (available in packs of 30). Each Learning Journal contains 24 worksheets, which have been specifically designed to support and extend the learning from the main session activities. These worksheets are reproduced in this book, alongside suggestions on how you might use them to focus on specific areas of learning or as the stimulus for further activities and discussion.

As children complete the worksheet activities, they will be creating a valuable record of their learning journey, which will be helpful both to the children when it comes to their own self-review of their work, and for your own assessment of their learning and achievements.

6

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Getting started T-shirts for sale

The focus of this project is T-shirt design and marketing. Children are tasked, within their groups, to come up with their own T-shirt clothing brand. As well as devising a name for their brand, they will also be responsible for performing market research, designing and printing their T-shirt(s), and developing a promotional campaign.

Groups will be working towards the end session of the project, where they will have the chance to pitch their ideas and products to members of the school community, who score each of the groups and vote on their overall favourite.

PL E

If you wish, as part of this event, children could be tasked with selling their T-shirts to raise money for a local initiative, a charity or perhaps a school-improvement project. This will create added challenge for the groups as they will need to create T-shirt designs that are easily replicable across a set of T-shirts (ten to 15 T-shirts per group) and at a standard that someone would want to pay for!

T-shirts for this project can be purchased cheaply and in bulk from online wholesale websites, such as www.wordans.ie or www.mdpsupplies.ie. There are also a number of eBay companies that sell cheap wholesale clothing.

M

If you prefer not to use real T-shirts due to time and budget restraints, then groups can always print their designs onto card or paper templates instead, which can be displayed as part of the final presentation. Alternatively, children can be asked to bring in an old plain T-shirt from home to print onto.

Working for the big boss

SA

To give your project context, the children are asked to imagine that they are working for a large clothing company, and they have been tasked by that company to launch a new brand/T-shirt range. The company will choose the most popular or successful brand design for their new range.

A member of staff could play the role of the company owner who sets the initial challenge. Rather than present this in person, you could video the message or use video-conferencing technology to create a ‘live link up’ between your staff member and the children. The latter could be used throughout the project, for children to give ‘updates’ to the company owner on their progress, while the owner can ask them questions to draw out their learning. Alternatively, children could do this in person with the member of staff, perhaps as part of a ‘board meeting’ style scenario.

While not crucial to the project itself, these interactions can introduce an element of fun to the proceedings as well as provide encouragement for groups to formally prepare and present their work on an ongoing basis.

At the end of the project, the owner/staff member can be the one responsible for congratulating the overall winners, as well as offering prizes and awards for personal achievements across the course of the project.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

7

Resources checklist What follows is a list of recommended resources to support the activities across the seven main learning sessions. Additional resources are also listed for the Support and Extend activities, and the cross-curricular links.

Main sessions:

PL E

Assorted items for selling game (see Session One) Prepared cards (see individual sessions) Art and collage materials Fabric dyes Fabric paints Fabric swatches Clothes magazines and catalogues Plain T-shirts Old T-shirts Large paper/card T-shirt templates Screen-printing kit Letter stamps and/or stencils Interactive whiteboard Voting cards (see Session Seven) Digital cameras Computers with internet access Desktop publishing software, such as Microsoft Publisher Survey software such as Survey Monkey or eSurvey Creator Presentation software, such as PowerPoint or Prezzi Video-editing software, such as Wondershare Filmora9, Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere Rush • Photo-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop or Corel PaintShop Pro • Example questionnaire (see page 77)

M

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

SA

Support/Extend and Cross-curricular links: • • • • •

Two empty boxes, wrapped up as gifts Examples of a news story from two different papers (to demonstrate styles and bias) Fashion adverts/magazines Examples of different company logos Examples of different art movements and techniques (such as optical art, cubism, expressionism, screen printing, etc.)

• Old items of clothing (for upcycling) • Music software, such as Apple GarageBand, StageLight or Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS) • Video-conferencing software, such as Skype

8

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Session overview This project has been divided into seven separate sessions, most of which have been designed to take approximately two hours. Later sessions (such as Session Six and Session Seven) will need extra time allocated to allow children to adequately plan, rehearse and perform their adverts and presentations.

Session One – The art of persuasion page 10

Children will:

Explore how advertising and marketing use persuasive techniques

Create an example marketing campaign for a product

PL E

Session Two – Knowing the market page 19

Children will:

Explore the factors that influence purchasing choices

Create surveys and questionnaires to carry out market research Session Three – Check out the competition page 28

Children will:

Explore competitor websites and products

Create the designs for a new T-shirt range

M

Session Four – Creating a prototype

Children will:

Explore different printing techniques

Create a printed T-shirt design

page 46

SA

Session Five – Lights, camera, action!

Children will:

Explore how TV adverts can persuade us to buy a product

Create an advert for their T-shirt brand

page 37

Session Six – Catching customers on the web page 55

Children will:

Explore the design and user experience of popular online clothes websites

Create a website to market their T-shirts Session Seven – Pitching for success page 66

Children will:

Explore their learning over the course of the project

Create a presentation to impress members of the school community

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

9

The art of persuasion SESSION ONE CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES SPHE

Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• • • • • • •

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Use language, gestures and other appropriate behaviour to perform social functions • Examine the power of persuasion in relating to others and identify times when it can be used positively and negatively • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Explore the different ways in which information can be transmitted and learn to be discerning and selective about this information • Become aware of advertising and its purpose and nature • Begin to explore some of the techniques that are used in marketing and advertising

M

• Media education

Enhance his/her own learning Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence Become increasingly responsible and autonomous Explore how feelings can influence one’s life Become aware of and think about choices and decisions that he/she makes every day Explore and discuss the factors that influence personal decisions and choices Make individual and group decisions.

PL E

• Self-identity • Growing and changing • Making decisions

Language

Content / Objectives

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Become increasingly aware of the importance of gesture, facial expression, tone of voice, audibility and clarity of enunciation in communicating with others • Choose the audience for which to write

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Present ideas that are relevant to the subject in a logical sequence

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Argue a point of view and try to persuade others to support it • Continue to develop a range of comprehension strategies to deal with narrative, expository and representational reading material • Write about an idea to explain it to someone else

Strand: Emotional and imaginative development through language

• Create and sustain imaginary contexts through improvisational drama

• Oral • Writing

SA

• Oral

• Oral • Reading • Writing

• Oral

10

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

The art of persuasion SESSION ONE CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Reflect on his/her experiences and the reasons for taking different courses of action • Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Acquire a growing sense of the importance of making informed decisions at many levels and identify some of the decisions he/she has to make • Explore and learn to examine critically the factors and levels of thought that influence decisions and choices

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Explore and practise the many verbal and non-verbal ways in which people communicate with each other • Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say • Begin to appreciate the importance of maintaining a personal stance while also respecting the beliefs, values and opinions of others • Examine the power of persuasion, how it can be used both positively and negatively

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Explore and understand how information is conveyed and practise relaying messages using a variety of methods • Explore the role of newspapers and other forms of print media in transmitting messages, the techniques used and the types of information included • Become aware of the different forms of advertising, its purpose and the messages it promotes • Become increasingly critical and discerning in his/her own attitude to advertising and the techniques used to promote products, life-styles and ideas

M

• Media education

Language

Content / Objectives

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Listen to expressions, reactions, opinions and interpretations and retell or summarise them • Be continually aware of the importance of gesture, facial expression, audibility and clarity of enunciation in communicating with others • Write for an increasingly varied audience

SA

• Oral • Writing

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Converse freely and confidently on a range of topics • Explore the possibilities of language and sentence structure in expressing increasingly complex thoughts

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Justify and defend particular opinions or attitudes and try to persuade others to support a particular point of view • Explore appropriate non-fiction texts for various purposes • Find information relevant to his/her purpose in non-fiction texts, graphs and pictorial and diagrammatic data, and through the use of information technology • Write for a particular purpose and with a particular audience in mind

• Oral

• Oral • Reading • Writing

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

11

SESSION ONE

The art of persuasion Resources Assorted items for selling game (see Explore) Prepared ‘Method’ and ‘Example’ cards (see Explore) Magazines and internet access Prepared message from the ‘clothing company’ (see Create)

EXPLORE Invite children to give reasons for their choice.

Consider whether there was much difference in the products, and how each presentation helped to persuade us that one was more special than the other.

PL E

Prior to the session, make a collection of items that children will be invited to ‘sell’ to others.

These can be familiar everyday items such as a mobile phone, an umbrella, an address book, a stapler, a flask, a torch, screwdrivers, a table lamp, and so on. Ensure that there is a good variety of items.

Method

Example statement

Emotional appeal

Our selfishness is contributing to the needless suffering of these poor animals.

M

Begin by explaining that the children are going to become salespeople. It will be their role to convince others that what they are selling are ‘must have’ items. Invite confident volunteers to each take a turn at selling one of the items that you have assembled. Give them one minute to talk about their chosen item to the rest of the class. Encourage them to consider how they can convince everyone else in the classroom that they need to buy and have that item. What makes it special? What are its unique selling points? Why might it be essential?

Divide the class into small groups. Provide each group with two sets of coloured cards – one set featuring a method of persuasion and the other set showing example statements.

The children’s task is to match them together.

Examples might include:

SA

After each selling pitch, ask the listeners to give feedback. Did they think that the pitch was persuasive? What points did the seller make that were the most/least persuasive? Continue by asking further volunteers to have a go at the selling game. Highlight any examples of persuasive language and techniques that the sellers have used (see table).

Finally, choose two children to go head-tohead in a special selling challenge. Give them similar or comparable items and then give each of them 30 seconds to make a pitch. Ask the rest of the class to vote on their favourite – who made the most convincing argument?

12

Power of three

It’s fast, convenient and secure.

Opinion

In my view, this is the best on the market.

Exaggeration

This phone is the best thing ever!

Statistics

70% of people agreed that this would make a difference to their lives.

Rhetorical question

Who doesn’t want to be healthy?

Call to action

Sign up today and you’ll receive a special discount.

A promise

Try it for a week and you are guaranteed to see the difference!

Allow time for children to explore and discuss the cards. Provide prompts as necessary to help groups compare the language of the statements and decide on the best method that would describe them. Afterwards, talk about the methods and statements as a class. Why might each of these techniques be successful in persuading others?

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

SESSION ONE

The art of persuasion

CREATE research examples of similar advertising and also find any statistics or facts that might help sell their product/service.

PL E

Provide each group with a different selling challenge and invite them to create a persuasive product presentation using some of the techniques that they have been exploring.

Selling challenges might include: • A chocolate bar • A perfume for women/aftershave for men • A healthy fruit smoothie • A breakfast cereal • A dog-walking business • A car-washing business

After the allotted preparation time, invite each group in turn to present their persuasive campaign. Following each presentation, encourage feedback from the rest of the class.

What persuasive techniques did they identify?

What aspects of the presentation/pitch were the most/least successful? Groups could also talk about their research and share which aspects of their research proved the most influential to their pitch.

SA

M

You may wish to provide children with a basic structure for their presentation. For example: • The hook – open with something that will grab the audience’s attention, such as a surprising statement or question.

• The explanation – expand on the hook and encourage the audience to make a connection with the product. What makes it essential? What sets it out from the crowd?

• The sale – how can the audience purchase the product or book a service? Perhaps they might be given a special offer or discount to urge them to take action quickly, and also given directions on what they should do, such as visit a website, go to their local supermarket, call and make a booking, etc.

• Closing hook – try to leave your audience wanting more. End with something that will leave a positive impression and make the audience want to buy your product.

Remind children of the persuasive techniques that they explored and how they might incorporate these into their presentations.

Allow time for groups to rehearse their presentations and assign roles. Some groups might also want to include props or images or a short advert-style drama to help sell their concept.

As part of their presentation, groups will need to come up with a name for their product or company. Provide access to magazines and the internet (if possible) so that children can

End the session by revealing a special video message (or email) from your fictitious clothing company (see Getting started for more information). This aim of the message is to set out the challenge for this project: the children will be competing in teams to come up with their own brand of T-shirts. Teams will be responsible for the design, marketing and promotion of their brand.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

13

The art of persuasion Additional resources Wrapped boxes of different sizes

EXTEND

Rather than have individuals take on the selling challenge, divide the class into pairs or small groups and provide each with a product.

Children can take it in turns to try to sell the item to the others in their group. Once everyone in the group has taken a turn, invite groups to work together on a pitch for their product, which they can deliver to the rest of the class. This will present an opportunity for them to pick out and use their favourite lines and ideas from their group session. Discuss each pitch afterwards as a whole class.

As an added challenge, choose two confident volunteers and explain that they will be competing to win over as many classmates as possible. Take them aside so that they can be made aware of the secret twist! Give each child a different box (these could be wrapped up and made to look like gifts). Explain that each box is actually empty! But the children must try to persuade their classmates to choose their box.

It is up to them how they want to do this. Invite each of the box-holders to make their pitch to the rest of the class. Then, take a show of hands to see which box proved the favourite.

Ask voters to explain their choices and discuss these as a whole class. Work together to pick out the strengths of each pitch and the different ways in which we might be influenced.

Perhaps some children simply voted to go with the majority or because of who their friends were voting for. Finally, ask for volunteers to unwrap each box – to discover there was really nothing inside after all.

PL E

SUPPORT

SA

M

For the Create session, have the whole class focus on one product idea (such as a new healthy cereal bar). Look at each of the persuasive techniques in turn and discuss how they might be used to grab someone’s interest and persuade them to try the new cereal bar.

Pairs/groups can then go on to plan and practise their own product pitch, which can be delivered to the rest of the class.

14

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

The art of persuasion

SA

M

Children are reminded of and encouraged to use some of the persuasive techniques that they have been exploring.

This might involve some additional research if children want to provide statistics in their adverts or offer more information on the health benefits of a balanced and nutritious diet.

This worksheet can be used as the focus for the Create session or as part of a follow-up homework task. Children are introduced to a fictitious character who has opened a new healthy food takeaway in the local area. The children are tasked with writing the script for a radio advert to help promote the launch of the new takeaway.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 1

Encourage children to make notes and write a rough draft of their advert before scribing their final version. Radio adverts tend to be short and to the point, with the aim of packing as much information as they can into a short space of time. They also often feature a memorable line or catchphrase that will hook people and remind them of the brand.

Challenge children to consider these aspects when they finalise their ideas and write their advert. These can then be shared with others as a stimulus for discussion on the effectiveness of the chosen techniques.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

15

The art of persuasion LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 2

PL E

SA

M

If possible, discuss children’s decisions as a whole class. Was there a consensus on the most (and least) persuasive statements?

Consider why the most persuasive statements were effective in promoting the dog charity and its work.

This worksheet contains six persuasive statements linked to a fictitious dog charity. Each statement uses a different persuasive technique. Children are invited to consider each statement and then rate them from 1 (most persuasive) to 6 (least persuasive).

Ask children to identify the persuasive technique that best matches each of the statements.

(From top to bottom: statistic, call to action, emotional appeal, opinion, power of three, promise.) Consider the most effective persuasive technique that the children rated (which is likely to be the emotional appeal). Do the children agree that promoting an emotional response is more likely to get us to respond to something? Is it fair that advertising often targets our emotions and desires in order to win us over? Explore the children’s opinions.

16

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

The art of persuasion

SA

M

This page can be used as a homework task or preliminary activity, to prepare children for the next session. Children are invited to consider the things that influence their purchasing decisions.

Children may be unfamiliar with a ripple diagram. It is an effective visual tool for comparing and ranking information. In this context, children are asked to place the sources that they have identified into the diagram, with those they consider the most influential and impactful at the centre and then working out towards the edge with those that are less impactful.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 3

Children can use the ideas that they have recorded on this sheet to help support their discussion in Session Two. These may also provide inspiration for how they might plan and target their own product campaigns. 

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

17

Cross-curricular links LET’S HAVE A DEBATE! build a prototype of their invention. They can then use their persuasive language techniques to create a pitch to sell the features and advantages of their wonderful invention to the other members of the class.

FACT, OPINION, BIAS

PL E

Children can put their persuasive techniques to the test by participating in a class debate.

Consider a statement that children can choose to be ‘for’ or ‘against’. For example: • Children have to do homework.

• Children should wear school uniform.

• Children should cycle to school.

Often, we can be persuaded to agree with someone’s viewpoint or interpret an event through their eyes. Provide children with three simple statements and ask them to decide which of them is fact (a statement that can be proven), opinion (a statement that is a personal judgement based on facts or experience) or bias (a statement that could be seen as unfair or irrational). For example: • There are 7,500 varieties of apples grown throughout the world. (fact) • I prefer the taste of apples to oranges. (opinion) • Everyone knows that apples are the tastiest fruit. (bias)

SA

M

Divide the class into groups. Within these groups, invite children to discuss the statement and their opinions on it. Do they agree or disagree, and can they give reasons why?

Once children have discussed the issues in their groups, ask them to decide if they are for or against the statement. Then divide the class into these two groups. Ask for confident volunteers from each group to make a short speech or presentation putting forward their viewpoint. Then open out the debate for everyone to participate. Encourage children to articulate and justify their arguments, and to use some of the persuasive techniques they have learned to help support their views. At the end of the session, take a show of hands in support of and against the statement. Were any children swayed by the arguments? Did any change their stance?

WONDERFUL INVENTIONS

Visit the Wallace and Gromit website, where children can view a selection of short videos that showcase some of the wacky inventions that this pair have created for their series of animated films (https://wallaceandgromit. com/films/cracking-contraptions). In pairs or small groups, challenge children to design their own crazy invention. Perhaps it will be a machine to make their breakfast, help with their homework or even clean their bedroom!

Children can use art and junk materials to

18

Look together at a news story published in two different newspapers. Compare and contrast their styles, and highlight any examples of fact, opinion and possible bias in the story. Ask the children to consider why it might be important to be aware of opinion and bias when reading a story or an article. Give children a simple scenario based on a handful of facts and then ask them to write a biased news story, either in favour of or against your protagonist.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Knowing the market SESSION TWO CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES SPHE

Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• • • • • •

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

Explore the factors that influence his/her self-image Enhance his/her own learning Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence Identify and recognise the difference between needs and wants Become aware of and think about choices and decisions that he/she makes every day Recognise and explore how the views, opinions, expectations and responses of others can influence personal decisions or actions • Make individual and group decisions

PL E

• Self-identity • Growing and changing • Making decisions

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Use language, gestures and other appropriate behaviour to perform social functions • Examine the power of persuasion in relating to others and identify times when it can be used positively and negatively • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• • • •

Develop and practise leadership roles and learn to work together in different group situations Realise what it means to belong to a group Become aware of advertising and its purpose and nature Begin to explore some of the techniques that are used in marketing and advertising

M

• Developing citizenship • Media education

Language

Content / Objectives

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Summarise and prioritise ideas • Develop an appreciation of how the intended audience should influence the nature of a piece of writing • Develop his/her ability to write using information technology

SA

• Oral • Writing

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Discuss issues that directly affect his/her life • Discuss different possible solutions to problems • Continue to develop a range of comprehension strategies to deal with narrative, expository and representational reading material • Write in a variety of genres with greater sophistication • Write a list of questions about a particular topic and prioritise them

Mathematics

Content / Objectives

Strand: Data

• Collect, organise and represent data using pictograms, block graphs and bar charts • Read and interpret tables, pictograms, block graphs and bar charts

• Oral • Reading • Writing

• Representing and interpreting data

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

19

Knowing the market SESSION TWO CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Recognise and appreciate that each person is a unique individual and that this individuality is expressed in many different ways • Reflect on his/her experiences and the reasons for taking different courses of action • Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Enhance skills to improve learning • Explore and learn to examine critically the factors and levels of thought that influence decisions and choices

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say • Examine the power of persuasion, how it can be used both positively and negatively

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Explore the concept of the class or school as a community • Practise ways of working together and of developing a sense of belonging • Become aware of the different forms of advertising, its purpose and the messages it promotes

Language

Content / Objectives

• Developing citizenship • Media education

• • • • •

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• • • •

• Oral • Writing

Converse freely and confidently on a range of topics Give and take turns in an environment where tolerance for the views of others is fostered Choose a form and quality of presentation appropriate to the audience Take part in co-operative writing activities Develop skills in the use of information technology

M

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

SA

• Reading • Writing

Retrieve and interpret information presented in a variety of ways Support arguments and opinions with evidence from the text Read and interpret different kinds of functional text Find information relevant to his/her purpose in non-fiction texts, graphs and pictorial and diagrammatic data, and through the use of information technology • Write in a wide variety of genres • Write for a particular purpose and with a particular audience in mind

Mathematics

Content / Objectives

Strand: Data

• Collect, organise and represent data using pictograms, single and multiple bar charts and simple pie charts • Read and interpret pictograms, single and multiple bar charts, and pie charts • Use data sets to solve problems

• Representing and interpreting data

20

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Knowing the market SESSION TWO

Resources Blank squares of card Large sheets of paper Computers with internet access

EXPLORE Once children are happy with their decisions, they can glue or tape their cards onto their sheets of paper. Invite groups to rotate, so that they can view each other’s ripple diagrams.

Children may discover that some groups had different ideas and decided that different sources were more impactful than others. After groups have viewed each other’s diagrams, open up a whole-class discussion. Work together to complete a new ripple diagram (perhaps on an interactive whiteboard) which will collate all the different ideas. Take a class vote if necessary on where certain sources might appear on the diagram. Encourage discussion and the sharing of opinions.

PL E

Display the words ‘in fashion’ on a whiteboard.

Invite the children to briefly respond by explaining what those words mean to them.

If you wish, you could record some of the key words and phrases that are used.

Divide the class into groups. Ask the groups to record all the things that they think might have an influence on what someone chooses to wear. If children have completed the ripple diagram (see page 17), they may have already started to explore this theme. Provide squares of paper/card so that children can record an idea on each one.

SA

M

Once the children have assembled their ideas on their cards, provide a large ripple diagram on a sheet of paper for each group to organise their ideas onto. The concept of a ripple diagram is that the most persuasive/impactful sources are placed at or near the centre of the diagram, then – as we move towards the edges of the diagram – we record those influences that are deemed less impactful, with the least impactful towards the very edge. Children will find this exercise offers a useful visual support for organising and discussing the ideas that they have explored. For example: parents

magazines

offers/ sales

values/beliefs

individuality

friends

culture

job status

celebrities

music

television social media

attractiveness

comfort

conformity

prestige

spending power

practicality

sports/recreation hobbies/interests

End the session by reviewing the final ripple diagram. What factors were identified as the most persuasive in influencing our purchasing decisions? Do all the influences, even those that may be the least impactful, play a part in the choices that we make?

Remind children of the challenge that was set in the previous session, to develop and market a new brand of T-shirts. How might the information that the children have explored prove useful in researching and marketing their T-shirts? What factors do they think will be important and more highly favoured by their potential customers?

Revisit your original statement. What does it mean to be ‘in’ fashion? Can someone be ‘out’ of fashion, and is that seen as a positive or a negative? Do our fashion choices really matter?

Explore the children’s thoughts and opinions.

What influences our fashion/clothing?

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

21

Knowing the market CREATE • How can we invite people?

• What questions will we ask?

• How will we record the information?

Survey

• How will this be conducted (face to face, online or both)?

• When will the survey take place?

• What information do we want to find out?

• How will we record the results?

PL E

Explain that the children will be marketing their T-shirts to other members of the school community. Display the words ‘market research’ and ask for suggestions as to what this might mean. Elicit that market research represents an effort to gather information about a target market and its customers. Ask the children to consider why this would be important for a business that is seeking to launch a new product.

Divide the class into groups, which they will remain in for the rest of this project. Invite each group to discuss the types of information they think would be useful to learn about their customers in order to create a successful T-shirt brand. Once children have identified this, prompt them to consider how they might find out the information.

Online surveys can be created using free online software such as Survey Monkey www.surveymonkey.com or eSurvey Creator www.esurveycreator.com. Both are simple to use and allow children to create a variety of question types. Each survey generates a weblink. This could be placed on the school website, or made available on computers during break time so that other members of the school community can participate. The online surveys offer various ways of collating and presenting data, such as bar graphs and pie charts.

M

Share results. Explore some potential methods of research that a company might employ.

These could include: post/email; phone; focus group; direct survey (e.g. face to face); indirect survey (e.g. online questionnaire).

Provide assistance to help groups plan and organise their research. You might want to set aside a room at break time for focus groups and assign a day for each group. Different class teachers could ask for volunteers to participate.

SA

Consider the pros and cons of each method.

For example, post/email research might have a very small response rate but those that respond are likely to be very interested in the topic and want to contribute. Focus groups can be great for exploring opinions in more depth but interviewees might be more inclined to be influenced by the others who are present.

And so on. Concentrate on the focus group and survey options. Ask groups to consider the following questions:

Focus groups

• Where and when will this take place?

• Who will be invited?

22

When creating their surveys, prompt groups to include a question to find out where their potential customers currently shop for clothes/ T-shirts. This will be important for the next session.

Set aside time for groups to compile the data that they have acquired and any conclusions they have drawn from their research, ready to share with the class during Session Three.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Knowing the market Additional resources Presentation software

EXTEND

For the Create session, provide additional guidance in helping children to create an effective questionnaire. Spend time looking at and discussing the different types of question that could appear – for example: multiple-choice questions, rating scale, rank order, open-ended questions. Provide copies of the ‘Health and exercise’ questionnaire (page 77), which offers a sample survey.

Invite the children to identify the problems with this survey, and discuss these as a class.

From this discussion, draw up a list of things to remember when creating a survey. For example: Be relevant; Be respectful; Be clear; Be direct; Be concise.

Once children have gathered the results of their research, they can start to consider their ideal customer. Many companies create what is known as a customer profile. This is often an imaginary person, who encapsulates the traits that the company wants to represent, market and sell to.

PL E

SUPPORT

SA

M

Invite groups to prepare their survey on paper first. Photocopy and swap these with another group. This gives children the opportunity to highlight issues and give constructive feedback.

Surveys can be refined (if necessary) before being inputted onto the computer using one of the online survey sites.

Groups can use the Learning Journal worksheet (see page 25) to structure their customer profile. They assign a name, age and gender to their customer, and then develop the customer’s personality and needs by looking at their hobbies, media habits, and so on.

From their notes, groups can work together to develop a mood board or a multimedia presentation. These could include images (perhaps of clothes, their home, hopes and aspirations, technology they use, celebrities they admire, etc.) as well as words and phrases that the children would associate with their customer. Groups can present their customer profiles as part of their research feedback in the next session.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

23

Knowing the market

SA

M

Children can complete this worksheet individually or in groups, to help focus their initial planning discussion.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 4

The key element of any market research is knowing what the main objective is. What is that golden nugget of information that will help the product to succeed? Tied in with this might be an overall prediction of the outcome – perhaps groups already have a concept in mind. For example, a group might set out to prove the theory that their customers want cheap T-shirts that have funny jokes on them.

The rest of their planning can then build around this key objective, to prove or disprove this statement.

Groups will need to consider how they will collect their information. Surveys are the easiest as they provide a set of targeted questions. For focus groups, however, children may want to consider recording interviews as well as scribing answers, so as not to miss any important comments. Groups will need to decide how they will record the results of their research, perhaps as a series of statements or by presenting their data in graphs and pie charts.

24

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Knowing the market LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 5

SA

M

As part of a followup to the market research session, groups can be challenged to create a customer profile for their T-shirt business, using this page. They should be encouraged to think of the customer profile as a real person who will represent the important key traits that they have identified in their customer base. The exercise provides a valuable opportunity for children to think about their target audience in more detail.

PL E

Based on research as well as opinion, many companies create a customer profile. This is a detailed breakdown of an ideal customer’s habits and interests, and can help with any marketing and advertising, as well as the refinement of the end product.

Groups should be encouraged to refer back to their market research and customer profiles throughout the course of the project. This will help them to stay focused on the key aspects of their target audience when designing and making their product, and developing their promotional campaigns.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

25

Knowing the market LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 6

PL E

SA

M

There are six possible T-shirt designs, which cover different types of genre. Children are asked to rate them (1 to 6) before giving an explanation for their favourite choice of design.

They are then asked to choose the T-shirt that they think would sell the best. It does not necessarily follow that a child’s personal favourite will also be the one they think will make the most money!

This task offers children the chance to take on the role of a T-shirt shop owner, who must decide which of the offered designs they would like to stock in their imaginary shop. It could be set as a group task or a homework task.

Children could use the evidence from their market research and customer profiles to help them decide on the T-shirt that they think would be the most popular. The six example designs may also prompt groups to think about their own T-shirt design(s), and provide ideas that they could go on to explore and pursue in more detail.

26

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Cross-curricular links BODY IMAGE

WALKING IN ANOTHER’S SHOES Ask children to work in small groups to make a list of their needs and wants, before sharing these with the class. Consider the things that are essential or important to our daily lives (such as food, water, warmth, shelter, education, etc.) and those that are luxuries.

Do the children feel that they are luckier than other children around the world in terms of having their needs met and the luxuries that they are able to enjoy? Explore their opinions.

Visit the Trocaire website (www.trocaire.org/ getinvolved/education) to access videos and teacher resources that focus on the lives of families and children in poorer areas of the world, affected by land injustice and drought.

Research a day in the life of one of these children and invite the class to write a story or a diary entry for that child. They should talk about the daily challenges the child faces, and how their perspective of needs and wants might differ from our own.

PL E

Divide the class into small groups. Provide each group with a fashion/gossip or music magazine for them to explore and critique (check that the content is appropriate for the age group).

Alternatively, you could handpick a selection of covers and pages. Invite the children to examine their magazine(s), looking at the types of images, articles and adverts that they contain.

• Who is their audience?

• What messages are they selling/promoting?

• How does the magazine promote fashion?

• Who are the popular celebrities and what lifestyle might they represent?

M

Afterwards, invite children to share their reactions and opinions, using examples from the magazines to support these. Consider whether the fashion industry and media advertising have a positive or a negative effect on society. Children could share their conclusions by writing a short article.

DRESS TO IMPRESS

SA

Challenge groups to research a different historical time period or culture, to find out about the popular fashion trends of the era – from clothing and accessories, to customs and etiquette. Research topics might include ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Vikings, Celts, Aztecs, and so on. Based on their research, children can imagine they are going back in time to create a fashion catalogue (in a modern style) showcasing examples of clothing and accessories from the period. The catalogues could also feature prices in the currency of the time, and snippets of factual information that will help share the children’s knowledge of the era.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

27

Check out the competition SESSION THREE CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES SPHE

Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• • • • • •

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

Explore the factors that influence his/her self-image Enhance his/her own learning Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence Identify and recognise the difference between needs and wants Learn and begin to devise a simple decision-making strategy Recognise and explore how the views, opinions, expectations and responses of others can influence personal decisions or actions • Make individual and group decisions

PL E

• Self-identity • Growing and changing • Making decisions

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Use language, gestures and other appropriate behaviour to perform social functions • Examine the power of persuasion in relating to others and identify times when it can be used positively and negatively • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Develop and practise leadership roles and learn to work together in different group situations • Realise what it means to belong to a group • Discuss and explore television, radio, videos, computer games, the internet (worldwide web and e-mail) and other media • Begin to explore some of the techniques that are used in marketing and advertising

M

• Developing citizenship • Media education

Language

Content / Objectives

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Summarise and prioritise ideas • Develop basic information retrieval skills

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Discuss different possible solutions to problems • Continue to develop a range of comprehension strategies to deal with narrative, expository and representational reading material • Write in a variety of genres with greater sophistication

Mathematics

Content / Objectives

Strand: Data

• Read and interpret tables, pictograms, block graphs and bar charts

Visual arts

Content / Objectives

Strand: Paint and colour

• Explore colour with a variety of materials and media • Discover harmony and contrast in natural and manufactured objects and through themes chosen for their colour possibilities • Discover pattern and rhythm in natural and manufactured objects and use them purposefully in his/ her work • Look at and talk about his/her work, the work of other children and the work of artists

SA

• Oral • Reading

• Oral • Reading • Writing

• Representing and interpreting data

• Painting • Looking and responding

28

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Check out the competition SESSION THREE CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Enhance skills to improve learning • Explore and learn to examine critically the factors and levels of thought that influence decisions and choices • Discuss and practise a simple decision-making strategy

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say • Begin to appreciate the importance of maintaining a personal stance while also respecting the beliefs, values and opinions of others

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Explore the concept of the class or school as a community • Practise ways of working together and of developing a sense of belonging • Become aware of the different forms of advertising, its purpose and the messages it promotes

Language

Content / Objectives

• Developing citizenship • Media education

• Converse freely and confidently on a range of topics • Give and take turns in an environment where tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Take part in co-operative writing activities

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Justify and defend particular opinions or attitudes and try to persuade others to support a particular point of view • Retrieve and interpret information presented in a variety of ways • Read and interpret different kinds of functional text • Explore appropriate non-fiction texts for various purposes • Find information relevant to his/her purpose in non-fiction texts, graphs and pictorial and diagrammatic data, and through the use of information technology • Reflect on and analyse ideas through writing

• Oral • Writing

M

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

SA

• Oral • Reading • Writing

Mathematics

Content / Objectives

Strand: Data

• Read and interpret pictograms, single and multiple bar charts, and pie charts

Visual arts

Content / Objectives

Strand: Paint and colour

• Explore colour with a variety of colour drawing instruments, media and techniques • Express his/her imaginative life and interpret imaginative themes using colour expressively • Discover harmony and contrast in natural and manufactured objects and through themes chosen for their colour possibilities • Discover pattern and rhythm in natural and manufactured objects • Look at and talk about his/her work, the work of other children and the work of artists

• Representing and interpreting data

• Painting • Looking and responding

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

29

Check out the competition SESSION THREE

Resources Computers with internet access Art materials Large paper T-shirt templates

EXPLORE Provide access to computers and the internet so that groups can perform desk research on their competitors by visiting their websites.

The aim of the research is to discover what a competitor is offering. In this context, children will want to focus on T-shirts and research the colours, designs and pricing of the current range. Groups should aim to collate their findings into a feedback report, which could include images as well as comparative data (in the form of bar graphs, pie charts, and so on).

PL E

Groups should have had prior opportunity to compile the results of their customer research.

Begin this session by inviting groups to present their findings and discuss any conclusions that they have drawn. If children have performed the Extend task or completed the ‘Customer profile’ worksheet (see page 25), then profiles can also be shared. Prompt children to talk about the research methods that they found most useful, their reactions to the data that was collected, and anything they might do differently if they were to repeat the exercise.

SA

M

Explain that for the next stage of their market research, groups will be performing competitor analysis. What might this mean? Explore the children’s ideas. Based on their survey results, groups should be able to make a list of the top three clothing brands or suppliers that are popular with their customer base. Explain that many companies may perform primary and secondary research to find out more about what their competitors are doing and what makes them unique. Ask children to consider why this information might be useful.

Prompt children to look for any patterns in their findings – for example, any obvious seasonal trends in T-shirt designs. Similarly, children may find that some or all competitors sell something unique and different, which offers opportunity to identify what it is that differentiates each brand. Perhaps it is a theme (such as T-shirts based on gaming or music), or perhaps the name and popularity of a brand is what sets it apart from its competitors and makes it a ‘must have’ product.

The two research types are: • Primary research (or field research) would involve visiting stores to view their products.

Children may wish to do this in their own time to help support their research findings.

• Secondary research (or desk research) involves using secondary sources such as the internet, magazines and catalogues to find out information. In this Explore session, groups will be performing secondary research on their competitors.

30

From this research, groups can be challenged to come up with three action statements of how they intend to use what they have learned to help with the design of their own T-shirts.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Check out the competition CREATE Allow time at the end of the session for groups to share their favourite final designs with the rest of the class. Prompt them to talk about their design journey and what impacted their decisions the most. Why do they think their product will be a success? Invite class members to ask questions to draw out further learning.

PL E

Children may have already started to think about their own brand and the designs of their T-shirt range. Now that they have the results of their market research, they should have a clearer idea of their customers’ wants and needs, as well as the types of competitor product that are currently popular. Based on this information, groups can now decide on a name for their brand and their final T-shirt designs.

Provide groups with access to art materials and large paper T-shirt templates (these can be provided in the colour of T-shirt that will be made available for printing – see Getting started for more information). You may also want to allow access to computers and printers, if possible, so that groups can obtain any image references that they might need.

Remember, always be open to the possibility that some groups might choose to go against their research results. Perhaps they are convinced by the strength of their idea and believe that it will win people over and succeed, even if the customer research might suggest otherwise. This is perfectly fine, as this project should be about children making independent decisions and following these through.

Entrepreneurs often have to make risky choices in order to succeed. It’s often said that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes, so children should always be supported to follow through with their ideas. This will provide valuable opportunity for critical evaluation as the project progresses.

SA

M

Even though some groups may have settled on a single design already, encourage them to explore variations and try out different ideas.

Ideally, groups should aim to create five or six different designs or variations, which they can then narrow down to one or two favourites.

Remind children that they can print more than one design and so create a small range of different T-shirts. However, they should think about how their T-shirts might share a common theme (such as a similar genre) so as to strengthen their unique brand.

Make a display of the completed designs, so that children are able to view and compare them as a whole. If you wish, children could continue to add to and tweak their design range prior to Session Four, when children will be creating their prototype T-Shirts.

Visit each group in turn to discuss their ideas. Prompt children to revisit their action statements from the Explore session, as well as the key points of their market research, in order to explain how their designs have been influenced by what they have learned.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

31

Check out the competition Additional resources Fabric swatches Images of famous art

EXTEND

For the Explore session, focus on just two key competitors, as identified by the survey results.

To ease research, you may want to bookmark website pages and/or provide printouts of products for children to look at and compare.

Groups can then share their feedback and discuss as a whole class, before deciding on action points resulting from the research.

Set up an inspiration table which children can explore for design ideas. This might include: • Fabrics and materials – provide swatches of different fabric – fake fur, velvet, silk, etc. – as well as other materials which might provide ideas, from foil to bubble-wrap.

• Artists and movements – print out examples of work by famous artists.

Consider including work by urban artists such as Banksy, optical art by Bridget Riley, surrealism by Salvador Dali, cubism by Pablo Picasso and screen-print artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein.

• T-shirt designs – search online for interesting or famous examples of T-shirt designs that might inspire. An internet search will bring up numerous ‘top 10’ lists

PL E

SUPPORT

M

Before embarking on their T-shirt design, children may benefit from completing some of the Learning Journal worksheets ahead of time (either as homework tasks or as part of a scheduled planning session). The mind map will help remind children of the research that they have completed and how this might feed into their designs. They are then invited to sketch out their own T-shirt idea and consider the reasons for their design. This preparatory work will provide groups with some design choices to discuss and explore once they come to plan out their T-shirts.

SA

Display a colour wheel to discuss complementary and contrasting colours. Look at examples of the competitor T-shirts that the children researched and explore the use of colour theory in their design choices.

32

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Check out the competition

SA

M

Children are prompted to comment on the design choices offered by their competitors as well as their cost.

As part of their analysis, they can also consider the appeal of the range.

Perhaps it is the general popularity of the brand or maybe the designs are linked to a particular theme or interest (urban/ street fashion, music, popular jokes/slogans, etc.).

The questionnaire and focus group sessions should have enabled groups to identify the top three (or more) most popular sources for purchasing clothes. These might be a mixture of high-street stores and onlineonly stores. Children can use this page to help structure their competitor analysis.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 7

Encourage children to compare and contrast their findings across the three categories. Are there any similarities in what the competitors provide or are they each unique? Consider what conclusions can be drawn from this research. How might this information help feed into the design and marketing of a new T-shirt range?

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

33

Check out the competition LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 8

PL E

SA

M

While completing the mind map, encourage children to look back through their market research.

Understanding their customers’ needs and wants is key to being successful, so it is important that children focus on this area by reminding themselves of their survey results. From this foundation, children can develop an understanding of how their product will meet a need and how it might compare against competitor products.

As preparation for designing their own T-shirts, children can use this mind map to help revisit their learning from the previous sessions. Using the question prompts provided as a starting point, children can map out words, phrases and ideas, adding their own branches as necessary to extend and develop the map.

Children can complete their own individual mind maps, then work together in their groups to pool their ideas together and create a larger mind map. Sticky notes can be a helpful aid to organise all the ideas into a structure that everyone agrees upon, before copying out into a final neat mind map. These maps can be kept on display throughout the remainder of the project as a useful reminder of the children’s agreed findings and action points.

34

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Check out the competition

SA

M

Children are prompted to think about the learning that underpins their design choice.

How has their idea evolved as a result of their market research? Some might have stuck rigidly to an idea, even if the customer research may be in opposition.

Others may have changed their ideas considerably in order to please a larger market, or to fill a gap that they believe they have now identified.

Children may have already started thinking about and sketching ideas for their T-shirts. This worksheet offers them the opportunity to start to refine their ideas into a single strong design. Children can complete this individually, then come together in their groups to compare and discuss the different design ideas.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 9

As with any new product that is going to market, it is important to understand its USP (unique selling point). What makes this T-shirt different? How will it draw in customers and become a successful product? Again, interpreting the results of the market research will be important here, in order for children to pinpoint where their product will sit within the market.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

35

Cross-curricular links MAKING AN IMPACT

WHAT’S IN A LOGO?

STREET SMART

Look together at some examples of WWF campaign posters (an online image search for ‘WWF campaign posters’ will provide plenty of examples). Invite children to study the posters and discuss the powerful use of text and images to convey a message. Which poster do they think is the most effective, and why?

Choose an issue that may be affecting your local area, such as traffic, pollution, littering, and so on. Invite children to design their own poster to raise awareness of the problem, using the examples that they have studied for inspiration. Children may want to use desktop publishing or image-editing software to manipulate images and add text. The finished posters can be printed out and displayed in a gallery for children to view and comment on.

PL E

Create a PowerPoint presentation (or a set of cards) displaying the logos of different recognisable world brands. These might include fast-food restaurant chains, soft drink and chocolate manufacturers, popular fashion and sportswear brands, and familiar technology manufacturers. Play a quiz by showing the children a logo and asking them to name the product or company. Afterwards, talk about the strength of a logo – and why they might be important for creating a company identity. Challenge groups to design a logo for their clothing brand, which they can then share with the rest of the class.

SA

M

Ask the children to imagine that they are going to be opening a new clothes shop in your nearest town or city. Where would they choose to locate their new shop and why? Begin by inviting groups to use street maps and Google Earth to view the streets and mark the locations of existing clothing stores. Google Earth has a 3-D street-view function, which can allow you to take a ‘virtual tour’ of a location. Children can also pin comments to a personalised map in order to record their findings. Encourage children to look for the largest concentrations of clothing stores. Do they tend to be situated where the footfall is highest? Perhaps there is a shopping centre – how might this affect businesses in other areas? Where might it be cheapest to rent a location? Based on their findings, have groups choose where they think the best location would be for their shop, giving reasons why.

36

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Creating a prototype SESSION FOUR CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES SPHE

Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• • • • •

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Enhance his/her own learning Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence Recognise and explore the risks and the consequences of making a particular decision Learn and begin to devise a simple decision-making strategy Make individual and group decisions

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Develop and practise leadership roles and learn to work together in different group situations • Realise what it means to belong to a group

Language

Content / Objectives

• Developing citizenship

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Give and follow instructions on how to perform a particular task or process

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Present ideas that are relevant to the subject in a logical sequence • Summarise and prioritise ideas

• Oral

M

• Oral

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Discuss different possible solutions to problems

Visual arts

Content / Objectives

Strand: Paint and colour

• Explore colour with a variety of materials and media • Discover colour in the visual environment and become sensitive to colour differences and tonal variations through colour mixing • Discover harmony and contrast in natural and manufactured objects and through themes chosen for their colour possibilities • Discover pattern and rhythm in natural and manufactured objects and use them purposefully in his/ her work • Look at and talk about his/her work, the work of other children and the work of artists

Strand: Print

• Experiment with a widening range of print-making techniques • Use a widening range of print-making techniques to make theme-based or nonrepresentational prints • Make prints for functional uses (as well as for their own sake) • Look at and talk about his/her work, the work of other children and art prints or print design that emphasise the play of shape, texture or line

SA

• Oral

• Painting • Looking and responding

• Making prints • Looking and responding

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

37

Creating a prototype SESSION FOUR CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Enhance skills to improve learning • Acquire a growing sense of the importance of making informed decisions at many levels and identify some of the decisions he/she has to make • Discuss and practise a simple decision-making strategy • Identify sources of help in solving problems

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Practise ways of working together and of developing a sense of belonging

Language

Content / Objectives

• Developing citizenship

• Oral

• Give and take turns in an environment where tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Explore the possibilities of language and sentence structure in expressing increasingly complex thoughts

M

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Discuss ideas and concepts encountered in other areas of the curriculum

Visual arts

Content / Objectives

Strand: Paint and colour

• Explore colour with a variety of colour drawing instruments, media and techniques • Express his/her imaginative life and interpret imaginative themes using colour expressively • Discover harmony and contrast in natural and manufactured objects and through themes chosen for their colour possibilities • Discover pattern and rhythm in natural and manufactured objects • Look at and talk about his/her work, the work of other children and the work of artists

• Oral

SA

• Painting • Looking and responding

Strand: Print

• Making prints • Looking and responding

38

• • • •

Experiment with more complex print-making techniques Use more complex print-making techniques to make theme-based or non-representational prints Make prints for functional uses (as well as for their own sake) Look at and talk about his/her work, the work of other children and art prints or print design that demonstrate a variety of print-making techniques

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Creating a prototype SESSION FOUR EXPLORE

Resources Fabric swatches Screen-printing kit Old T-shirts Fabric dye and fabric paint Paintbrushes and rollers

• Tie-dying – children could bring in an old T-shirt from home for this activity. They should be white or light colours. Place on a flat surface then twist or pleat sections of the material, keeping these in place using rubber bands or clothes pegs. Once the T-shirts are prepared, place them in a tray of water-based fabric dye. Using pipettes or bottles, get the children to squeeze dye onto and around the areas that have been tied. Remove the T-shirts and leave to dry.

(Note that some brands of dye require you to rinse the T-shirts in cold water after the dye has been added.) Then, carefully remove the bands or pegs and open out the T-shirts.

• Block printing – children can cut their designs into polystyrene tiles or print foam using a blunt pencil or the end of a paintbrush. Lines will need to be quite deep so encourage children to apply pressure and go over their lines repeatedly. Then cover the surface with paint and press down evenly onto the fabric/paper.

• Monoprinting – cover an inking plate or acrylic sheet with printing ink/paint. This can be applied across the surface using a roller.

Then use a cotton bud or the blunt end of a paintbrush to mark out a simple design into the ink/paint. Finally, take your fabric/paper and press down on top of the design – or place the plate/sheet onto your surface. Lift away to reveal the print.

PL E

By now, groups should have arrived at a final design (or set of designs) for their T-shirt range. It is time for groups to explore some printing and art techniques that they can use to create a prototype of their product. Set up areas of the classroom with different options for the children to explore. While groups may have settled on their designs and know what techniques will work best, it is important to give children opportunity to try out the different techniques and explore their effects. They may discover, through experimentation, that they come up with new ideas or alternative approaches to creating their design.

Gloves and aprons Stencils and stamps Plain white T-shirts Computer with internet access

SA

M

For the Explore session children can print onto paper or swatches of fabric, rather than wasting any T-shirts (except for the tie-dying, see below). Remember, when using dyes, children should wear gloves and aprons. The hands-on activities you provide will depend on time, space and resources, but might include: • Stencil-printing – have some examples of prints to view such as Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. Explain how the artist uses stencils in order to create a design. Children can practise with a simple set of pre-made templates. They can tape their stencil onto their paper or fabric, then paint over the stencil. If you have access to a screen-printing kit, the stencils can be taped to a mesh board and then the paint can be scraped across the board using a rubberedged squeegee or stiff piece of card. Have three or four meshes, if possible, with a different colour on each, to avoid having to wash regularly.

Instructional videos of all the above techniques are readily available on YouTube and other online media channels.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

39

Creating a prototype CREATE rubber letter stamps that children can use.

When printing onto T-shirts, remind children to place a sheet of cardboard between the front and back to avoid any paint bleeding through.

If designs are complicated and require a variety of colours, then groups may need to allow one colour/application to dry before applying the next, to avoid smudging. You could have hairdryers on hand to speed up this process (ensure these are set to a low heat).

PL E

Children can now consider how they might adapt and apply one or more of the techniques they have explored to their T-shirt designs.

Groups should work out a plan beforehand, which may also require the preparation of stencils. Provide assistance as necessary to help children with their planning. If possible, provide access to computers and the internet so that, where necessary, children can research and view methods in more detail, and may discover solutions to issues that they have identified. You may want groups to talk through their plans with the rest of the class so that others can share their learning and ideas, and offer advice.

SA

M

Provide each group with two or three T-shirts for them to print on. Plain T-shirts can be bought cheaply from wholesale websites (see Getting started for more information). Children should ideally practise their final designs on fabric swatches or paper first to check the results, before moving on to their T-shirts.

Better to make mistakes early and learn from them, rather than discover these when working on the final T-shirts!

As mentioned previously, some fabric paints may need to be ‘fixed’ to prevent them from fading quickly after several washes. To fix fabric paint, cover the design with a tea towel and then iron with a dry iron (no steam) for two to three minutes. Rather than perform this stage in the classroom, an adult could take the T-shirts home to fix. Some paints may also require a cold wash in order to stabilise the colours.

Children will, of course, be using fabric paints rather than inks for this session. Always check the instructions for these (as some may require fixing by ironing afterwards – see below).

If possible, provide a selection of letter stencils in a variety of fonts as some designs will inevitably feature text. If children are screen printing, then surrounding letters can be covered/taped over so that only the required letter is left as a positive space for the paint to pass through. If using mono-printing, remember that letters will need to be back to front in order for them to print in the correct orientation. You can also buy wooden or

40

Children may find that some of the designs that worked great on paper could prove difficult to achieve using simple printing techniques.

It may be necessary to refine and simplify a design – but ultimately, remind the children that these are prototypes and their purpose is to identify problems and issues with a product, and to learn from them. While some groups may be disappointed with the outcomes, focus on what they have learned from the process and what they might do differently the next time. If groups are tasked with the added challenge of making T-shirts to sell (see Getting started) then this learning process will be even more critical in deciding on a workable design that can be replicated easily.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Creating a prototype Additional resources T-shirt shaped card templates Art materials

EXTEND

Rather than print their final designs onto fabric T-shirts, children can be given paper or card T-shirt templates to use instead. These can be provided in a wide range of colours. As card versions are more disposable, children will be less concerned about making mistakes and taking chances, which may give some groups greater confidence in experimenting and trying out a range of ideas.

For those selling T-shirts as part of a final trade show (see Getting started), creating a workable prototype will be more significant.

Groups will need to create something that is easily replicable across the number of T-shirts that they hope to sell. Their evaluation will be crucial in deciding what elements they take forward and those they might have to lose.

Children should be encouraged to see the process as a further design challenge – to adapt their designs into a viable production model.

PL E

SUPPORT

Groups can be given the ‘Project cost’ worksheet from the Learning Journal (see page 44). You will need to provide estimated costs for some of the key equipment they have used.

This will help them to imagine the start-up costs of their business. It will provide a baseline production cost, from which they can formulate a cost price per T-shirt, to ensure they would make a profit. The size of their profit margin will depend on how daring they want to be, and what they think customers would pay.

M

Other art and collage materials can be used more easily on the card prototypes, including fabrics, glitter, sequins, glow paints, texture paints, and so on. It also means those groups who want to produce a ‘range’ of designs (perhaps linked by a theme or logo) can do so more easily, without concern for the cost and possible limitations of using physical fabric T-shirts.

SA

Children should still consider these their ‘prototype designs’ and use them to evaluate the effectiveness of their ideas.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

41

Creating a prototype

SA

M

By using this worksheet, children can evaluate and give feedback on the printing techniques that they have explored in the practical session.

Children’s T-shirt designs may require a range of techniques to achieve the finished effect. For example, they may want to use stencils and screen-printing to create a background pattern of colours, and then use block printing or letter stamps to add text or finer details onto the background.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 10

The final box allows for children to comment on any other printing or mark-making techniques they may have used. These could be techniques you have provided or some that the children have researched themselves. In the latter case, this can provide a valuable collaborative exercise, as they share their learning with others and assess the outcomes.

42

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Creating a prototype

SA

M

If children are going to be completing the costings sheet (see page 44), then this first prompt will play an important role in reminding them of the equipment and materials (such as the paint and dyes) that they used in the printing process.

Once children have completed the Create session, they can be invited to complete this evaluation sheet. This will help them to communicate their thoughts and feelings about what they were able to achieve using the available methods.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 11

Children are prompted to list the different techniques that they used to achieve their final T-shirt design. Some groups may have focused on one technique while others may have combined several.

Children are also invited to evaluate the success of their design by sharing the things that worked well and those that didn’t. By reviewing and evaluating this process, children will be better equipped to decide on the areas they would improve.

Children are invited to rate their final T-shirt prints. This will give you a good at-a-glance indicator of how the individual or group feels about their end product. This could be followed up by a discussion to help identify any areas that could be improved upon. Perhaps there are other printing techniques you could explore together, or you could look at ways of simplifying a design to make it more manageable and achievable.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

43

Creating a prototype

SA

M

Children can record the items that they used in the table provided here, and then work out what the total cost would have been had they been responsible for sourcing the items themselves. You may need to ensure that children keep a record of what they used during the Create session (perhaps by using the previous worksheet as a prompt).

This is an optional exercise, which will give children opportunity to consider the basic start-up costs of their business, to arrive at a costing plan for their T-shirts. To support this exercise, you will need to create an ‘imaginary’ set of costs for the equipment and materials that were provided, such as the printing equipment, paints, dyes, T-shirts, and so on.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 12

Groups may be selling their T-shirts for real as part of the end-of-project trade show. If so, then they will know how many T-shirts they will be challenged with producing and selling (e.g. 15 T-shirts). Armed with this knowledge, they can start to consider at what price they will sell, in order to make the T-shirts profitable and affordable. Even if groups are not selling T-shirts, this exercise can still be valuable, helping children to understand the challenge that businesses have with covering production costs and making a profit, while remaining competitive and affordable.

44

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Cross-curricular links CHANGING THE WORLD on separate tables for the children to circulate around in groups, using sticky notes to record their thoughts and impressions. Prompt children to study the use of shape, colour and space, and their reactions to how the artist has chosen to represent their environment.

Afterwards, gather round each painting and discuss as a whole class. Which painting did the children like most/least? Explore different opinions, encouraging children to justify their choices. Challenge children to create their own artwork to depict their local area, be it their school, village, town, city, etc. As preparatory work, children could be taken on a field trip to take photographs, or you could have a selection of images on display for them to use as inspiration. They can then choose one of the art styles they have explored or combine several into their own style for their artwork.

Children may even want to use some of the printing techniques they explored in the main session to achieve different effects. Once the artwork is complete, invite children to display their pieces and talk about their ideas and inspiration.

SA

M

PL E

Ask the children to help you compile a list of the most important inventions in the history of the world. Prompt them to justify their suggestions by explaining why the invention is so important. Based on the children’s ideas, rank the list of inventions from most to least important, again inviting children to justify their choices. It’s highly likely that Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press didn’t make the list.

Display an image of the printing press and ask children if they know what it is. Explain that Gutenberg’s press is considered by historians to be one the key inventions that revolutionised the world. Why might that be the case?

Provide access to books and the internet so that children can perform their own research, then feed back their findings to the rest of the class. Explore how the invention of moveable type, coupled with the wooden printing press, allowed books to be mass produced for the first time, allowing ideas, knowledge and even religion to be shared on a scale that had never been seen before. Children can imagine they are salespeople for Gutenberg’s press – how would they sell its benefits and explain the impact it had on society? Revisit your original list of inventions. Where might the children place it based on their learning?

SHAPES OF THE CITY

Look together at some examples of urban/ city art created by cubist and expressionist painters. These might include: • Paul Klee, Castle and Sun (1928) • Fernand Leger, The City (1919) • Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie 1942–43 • Robert Delaunay, Windows Open Simultaneously (1912) You could have the images printed and placed

UPCYCLING

Ask children to bring in an old item of clothing from home that they no longer want. Perhaps a shirt, pair of jeans, T-shirt, etc. Explain that they are going to be upcycling their item – a process of taking something old or unwanted and making something new out of it. Provide access to a variety of fabrics and collage materials, and challenge children to ‘upcycle’ their old clothing.

This might involve adding new accessories (zips, buttons, tassels, etc.) and/or combining old materials with new ones (fabric patches, logos, etc.). Children may even want to create something that ties in with their T-shirt theme.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

45

Lights, camera, action!

SESSION FIVE CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Realise that each person has a unique contribution to make to various groups, situations and friendships • Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence • Become aware of and think about choices and decisions that he/she makes every day • Explore and discuss the factors that influence personal decisions and choices and the different levels of thought involved in making a decision • Make individual and group decisions

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Examine the power of persuasion in relating to others and identify times when it can be used positively and negatively • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Develop and practise leadership roles and learn to work together in different group situations • Discuss and explore television, radio, videos, computer games, the internet (worldwide web and e-mail) and other media • Become aware of advertising and its purpose and nature • Begin to explore some of the techniques that are used in marketing and advertising

Language

Content / Objectives

M

• Developing citizenship • Media education

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Discuss the use and effect of music, sound effects and non-verbal clues in audio tapes, video tapes and film clips

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Initiate conversations and respond to the initiatives of others in talking about experiences and activities • Learn to use questions as a mechanism for expanding and developing a story • Develop an appreciation of how the intended audience should influence the nature of a piece of writing • Learn to revise and re-draft writing

• Oral

SA

• Oral • Writing

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• • • •

Strand: Emotional and imaginative development through language

• Create and sustain imaginary contexts through improvisational drama • Experience and enjoy playful aspects of language

Drama

Content / Objectives

Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge and ideas, leading to understanding

• Understand the relationship between role and character • Develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama • Develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and to communicate with others in helping to shape the drama

Music

Content / Objectives

Strand: Composing

• Invent and perform simple musical pieces that show a developing awareness of musical elements • Record compositions on electronic media

• Oral

Discuss what he/she knows of a particular topic or process as a basis for encountering new concepts Discuss different possible solutions to problems Learn how to use the basic key questions Justify personal likes and dislikes

• Oral

• Exploring and making drama • Co-operating and communicating in making drama

• Improvising and creating • Talking about and recording compositions

46

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Lights, camera, action!

SESSION FIVE CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Become more independent and autonomous • Explore and learn to examine critically the factors and levels of thought that influence decisions and choices • Discuss and practise a simple decision-making strategy

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say • Examine the power of persuasion, how it can be used both positively and negatively

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Practise ways of working together and of developing a sense of belonging • Explore and understand how information is conveyed and practise relaying messages using a variety of methods • Identify the audiences at which different aspects of the media are aimed • Become aware of the different forms of advertising, its purpose and the messages it promotes • Become increasingly critical and discerning in his/her own attitude to advertising and the techniques used to promote products, life-styles and ideas • Explore and use some simple broadcasting, production and communication techniques

Language

Content / Objectives

M

• Developing citizenship • Media education

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Interpret mood, attitude, emotion and atmosphere in video extracts, advertisements, paintings and photographs • Experience interesting and relevant writing challenges

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• • • •

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language • Oral • Writing

• Justify and defend particular opinions or attitudes and try to persuade others to support a particular point of view • Write for a particular purpose and with a particular audience in mind • Refine ideas and their expression through drafting and re-drafting

Strand: Emotional and imaginative development through language

• Discuss plays, films and television programmes • Experience and enjoy playful aspects of language

Drama

Content / Objectives

Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge and ideas, leading to understanding

• Enter appropriately and with facility, whether watched or unwatched, into the fictional dramatic context • Extend playing in role and in character to include the ability to accept and maintain a brief that has been decided on by either the teacher, the group or himself/herself • Distinguish between various genres, such as comedy, tragedy, fantasy • Develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and to communicate with others in helping to shape the drama • Develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama

Music

Content / Objectives

Strand: Composing

• Invent and perform simple musical pieces that show a developing awareness of musical elements • Record compositions on electronic media

• Oral • Writing

SA

• Oral • Writing

Give and take turns in an environment where tolerance for the views of others is fostered Explore the possibilities of language and sentence structure in expressing increasingly complex thoughts Help others with editing their writing Take part in co-operative writing activities

• Oral

• Exploring and making drama • Co-operating and communicating in making drama

• Improvising and creating • Talking about and recording compositions

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

47

Lights, camera, action!

SESSION FIVE

Resources Internet access Digital recording equipment Video-editing software

EXPLORE feature music and dancing. Encourage children to give their opinions on each advert and talk about their favourite from the selection. What was it about the advert that made it more appealing or memorable than the others?

PL E

Groups will now have a prototype T-shirt product based on their earlier designs. Pose the question: how can we persuade someone to buy our T-shirts? Explore the children’s ideas.

Focus on the theme of promotion and the methods that a company might use in order to raise the profile of their product. Discuss the common types of promotion (e.g. TV adverts, billboard displays, radio adverts, magazine adverts, and so on). Which method do the children think would be the most successful and reach the largest audience?

M

Explain to the children that they will be filming an advert for their T-shirt product. Begin by asking them to describe any adverts that they have seen recently. What was the advert selling and what made it memorable? Consider what a good advert should include and work together to make a preliminary list of ideas. You may want to display and revisit the children’s learning from Session One on persuasive language to support this discussion.

Talk about how each advert has a ‘hook’ – a central message or theme that is designed to pull you in and make you want to buy the product. You may want to remind children of the presentations they performed for Session One that used hooks at the start to grab the audience’s attention. Identify the hooks in each of the adverts. Link these to the titles of the advertising campaigns. How might these hooks support the ethos/principles of each brand? Which hook(s) are the most effective and why?

SA

Look together at a sample of TV adverts/ campaigns for kids’ clothing brands. Many examples can be found on YouTube or other popular video channels. Some good ageappropriate examples might include: • Gap Kids (Ready for holiday cheer) • North Face (Question madness) • Nike (Dream crazy) • River Island (Labels are for clothes)

Always check content beforehand to ensure that it is age appropriate. Compare and contrast the content of the adverts. Some might focus on a strong narrative and delivering a story or message, while others may

48

End the Explore session by creating a tick-list of things to consider when planning an advert. For example: • Why? What is the key message or hook

of our advert?

• How? How will we deliver our message?

Through music, story, a character?

• What? What’s going to happen in the advert?

• Who? What characters are going to appear in the advert?

• Where? Where will the advert take place?

Revisit the list of persuasive techniques from Session One. Invite the children to highlight those which they think would be the most effective in a television advert, such as emotional appeal, power of three, a promise, and so on.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Lights, camera, action!

CREATE to download, which children may wish to use. Alternatively, groups could create their own using instruments or software such as Apple GarageBand, StageLight or Linux Multi-Media Studio (LMMS).

• Theme/message – what is the main message/hook of the advert? What do the children want to say about their clothing brand? Encourage children to revisit their market research, in particular their customer feedback. They should have a good idea of their ideal customer so their advert can be designed to target and appeal to this demographic.

PL E

In their groups, children can work together to plan their adverts. You may need to organise several sessions in order to allow enough time to plan, rehearse, film and edit their creations.

Some groups may also want to work on their adverts in their own time, or during break times and lunchtimes.

Provide access to digital recording equipment so that groups can record the necessary footage for their advert. They can then use video-editing software, such as Wondershare Filmora9, Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere Rush, to compile their shots and add any music or text.

SA

M

As a starting point, provide worksheets and/or large sheets of paper for children to record and sketch out their ideas. Visit each group in turn to help discuss and prompt ideas. Some areas to consider might include: • Location – will the advert be filmed in the classroom or another area of the school?

Children may need to scout for suitable locations. Consider any problems that their choices might incur, such as ease of access, the weather, background noise, and so on. There may be alternative solutions if a suitable location proves too difficult to source, such as painting a backdrop or displaying a background image on an interactive whiteboard.

• Storyboard and script – what will happen in the advert, and who is going to say what?

Children should be encouraged to plan their scenes and any spoken dialogue. Will everyone in the team have a speaking part?

If not, who will they choose for their actors?

Some groups might decide that they are going to sing or rap, which means they will need to plan and rehearse their lyrics.

• Props/clothing – groups will need to provide or make any props that are required for their advert.

• Music/sound effects – children could bring in music from home (on CD, for example) to play in the background (or add during the editing stage – see below). There are also many free websites that have sound effects

Once the adverts are complete, set up a viewing session where children can watch each other’s adverts and give constructive feedback.

Groups could also give a short presentation after the screening of their advert, to give insight into the design process. Were there any obstacles that they needed to overcome? How did their research help inform their decisions?

Finally, ask groups if there is anything about their adverts they would have liked to improve if they had more time.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

49

Lights, camera, action!

EXTEND

For groups who are struggling to find a suitable concept for their advert, you could try one or more of the following: • Customer profiles – encourage children to look back at the ideal customer that they identified. What were their hopes, aspirations and interests? Revisit the online clothing adverts to look for a similar approach. Did any companies choose a theme or aspiration for their hook and then tell a story with it? Children could use sticky notes to write aspirational words or phrases they might associate with their customer, and then consider how these qualities might be shown in their advert.

• Idea cards – write down some genres from popular cinema or TV and have these available as cards for children to look at or pick from. Genres might include musical, horror, action adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, romance, and so on.

• Imitation – groups could pick a favourite advert and create their own version of it.

This may help with providing a structure to their planning and storyboard, inspiration for music and narration, and so on.

Adverts don’t always need to feature actors or stick to a specific style/genre. If you wish, groups could watch some further examples of adverts, as well as music videos, which use animation or special effects. Some good examples include the ‘Kevin the Carrot’ adverts (Aldi supermarket), ‘Screme Egg Last Stand’ (Cadbury) and the music videos for Crazy (Gnarls Barkly), Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel) and Reet Petite (Jackie Wilson).

PL E

SUPPORT

SA

M

These examples may inspire groups to consider using stop-motion animation or other effects in their adverts. Stop-motion can be achieved by mounting a camera on a tripod, and then taking a sequence of photographs while moving or changing the position of the subject matter. When the sequence is run together (in the video-editing software) it will create the illusion of movement. Children could use this technique to create interesting effects, like paint patterns moving and appearing on a T-shirt or creating stories/dance routines using clothes or other objects.

50

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Lights, camera, action!

SA

M

For the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions, encourage groups to revisit their market research and the persuasive techniques they studied in Session One. These will provide a valuable reminder of the type of customer they are marketing to, and how they might appeal to that customer using persuasive language.

The question prompts on this page will help children with planning out their advert. By addressing each of the questions, groups will be able to arrive at a better understanding of their key message/hook and how they hope to achieve it through their advert.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 13

Groups may benefit from having each team member work individually on their own planning sheet. The completed sheets can then be shared with the other group members and discussed. In this way, everyone gets an equal chance to contribute, which may stimulate new ideas or themes for the advert.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

51

Lights, camera, action!

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 14

PL E

SA

M

Children should be made aware that they can add music, sound effects and voiceover narration in post-production, once they have captured their footage and edited it. This means that they don’t have to worry about those elements while filming. Adverts that might be dialogue heavy will obviously need to capture the sound during filming, so groups will need to be aware of any background noise at their location, and do sound checks by listening back to footage to ensure delivery is clear and audible.

Some groups may find this planning grid helpful with structuring their adverts.

Children might want to work together on their storyboard or assign certain segments to group members to work on, then collate and discuss afterwards.

A storyboard is only a guide. Children may find that once they start rehearsing and filming their adverts, they discover new ideas, perhaps through ad-lib or finding a new location. In this situation, children should always be encouraged to experiment and change their ideas if they feel it will create a better end product. Equally, the original storyboard should be checked frequently as it will serve as a good reminder of the original aim and message of the advert, which could be lost if groups get too carried away!

52

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Lights, camera, action!

SA

M

When evaluating each advert, children are invited to comment on three areas: the effectiveness of the hook (or theme of the advert), its persuasiveness in regard to the target audience, and the quality of the sound and visuals. An additional area is provided for notes, which could be used to further highlight the elements that were most/least effective. Finally, children are invited to give each advert an overall star rating.

Rather than have a whole-class screening of the finished adverts, children could watch the completed adverts in their groups. They can record their reactions on this evaluation sheet and use these as prompts for discussion.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 15

If you wish, groups could share their feedback with the rest of the class. Remind children to be sensitive and considerate when giving such feedback. Try to ensure that any criticism is constructive and is coupled with possible ideas to solve any issues that were identified.

While it may not be practical for groups to reshoot or modify elements of their adverts, children can at least take the feedback on board as a learning experience, and consider it when making their own self-evaluations at the end of the project.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

53

Cross-curricular links SELLING A STORY

WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

It is becoming common for book publishers to create trailers as part of their marketing campaigns. These productions are designed to grab the attention of fans and casual browsers who watch videos online, and – like a movie trailer – are intended to grab the attention and entice viewers into wanting to find out more.

Some useful and varied examples to look at include: • Jacqueline Wilson – Lily Alone • R J Palacio – Wonder • Victoria Aveyard – Red Queen • Oliver Jeffers – Stuck • David Baddiel – Head Kid

PL E

Provide pairs or small groups of children with a magazine or poster advert for a product.

Use tape or paper to cover any taglines for the product, so that the children are left with the image and perhaps the name of the product.

Then challenge children to think of a powerful catchphrase or tagline that they think would sell their product. They can write this down on a sheet of paper. Invite children to swap their adverts and repeat the exercise, and so on. Afterwards, groups can share their catchphrases. Ask children to vote on their favourites for each advert. Which catchphrase was most popular, and why? Children can then be challenged to create a poster for their T-shirt promotional campaign, perhaps linking it to the themes and content of their advert.

GET DOWN TO THE BEAT

SA

M

For their adverts, groups may want to create their own songs or soundtracks using instruments or software such as Apple GarageBand, StageLight or Linux MultiMedia Studio (LMMS). This will give children opportunity to consider the genre of music that would be most appropriate for their advert/ brand, perhaps linking this to their theme or the music tastes of their customer base.

Children may want to edit their videos first so that they know the order and duration of their scenes, before using these timings to help plan their musical accompaniment. Groups could also be challenged to use symbols to notate the rhythm and pitch of their compositions.

(Always remember to check that content is age appropriate for your class.) Challenge children to storyboard and create a trailer for a book you might be currently studying together. Consider the main characters you might include, powerful quotes and language from the text, dramatic scenes and key moments, and so on. This is a useful exercise to encourage children to engage with the text in new and interesting ways, and to consider how they might sell the plot and characters to a new audience.

54

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Catching customers on the web SESSION SIX CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Realise that each person has a unique contribution to make to various groups, situations and friendships • Enhance his/her own learning • Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence • Explore and discuss the factors that influence personal decisions and choices and the different levels of thought involved in making a decision • Learn and begin to devise a simple decision-making strategy • Make individual and group decisions

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Develop and practise leadership roles and learn to work together in different group situations • Realise what it means to belong to a group • Discuss and explore television, radio, videos, computer games, the internet (worldwide web and e-mail) and other media • Become aware of advertising and its purpose and nature • Begin to explore some of the techniques that are used in marketing and advertising

M

• Developing citizenship • Media education

Language

Content / Objectives

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Understand the relationship between text and illustration • Choose the audience for which to write • Receive and give positive responses to writing

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Initiate conversations and respond to the initiatives of others in talking about experiences and activities • Summarise and prioritise ideas • Experience different types of text • Develop an appreciation of how the intended audience should influence the nature of a piece of writing • Learn to revise and re-draft writing • Develop his/her ability to write using information technology

• Reading • Writing

SA

• Oral • Reading • Writing

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language • Oral • Writing

• Discuss different possible solutions to problems • Justify personal likes and dislikes • Write in a variety of genres with greater sophistication

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

55

Catching customers on the web SESSION SIX CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Enhance skills to improve learning • Become more independent and autonomous • Discuss and practise a simple decision-making strategy • Identify sources of help in solving problems

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say • Examine the power of persuasion, how it can be used both positively and negatively

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Practise ways of working together and of developing a sense of belonging • Explore and understand how information is conveyed and practise relaying messages using a variety of methods • Identify the audiences at which different aspects of the media are aimed • Become aware of the different forms of advertising, its purpose and the messages it promotes • Become increasingly critical and discerning in his/her own attitude to advertising and the techniques used to promote products, life-styles and ideas

Language

Content / Objectives

M

• Developing citizenship • Media education

Strand: Receptiveness to language

• Experience interesting and relevant writing challenges • Receive and give constructive responses to writing • See his/her writing valued

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Give and take turns in an environment where tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Explore the possibilities of language and sentence structure in expressing increasingly complex thoughts • Help others with editing their writing • Take part in co-operative writing activities • Develop skills in the use of information technology

• Oral • Writing

SA

• Oral • Writing

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language • Oral • Reading • Writing

56

• Justify and defend particular opinions or attitudes and try to persuade others to support a particular point of view • Explore appropriate non-fiction texts for various purposes • Write in a wide variety of genres • Write for a particular purpose and with a particular audience in mind • Refine ideas and their expression through drafting and re-drafting

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Catching customers on the web SESSION SIX

Resources Internet access Sticky notes Desktop publishing software Online image library

EXPLORE to refer to their customer research as well as their website evaluations, in order to pinpoint how they might target their audience and tailor the content to meet their needs. Children can start to think about the pages/areas they might want to include on their website, such as a ‘Meet the team’ or ‘About us’ page, a checkout page and so on. Visit each group in turn to provide prompts as necessary.

PL E

Prior to the session, ask children to view a selection of online clothing stores or other websites that they might visit regularly. If possible, provide an evaluation sheet (such as the one in the Learning Journal, see page 60) to structure children’s analysis of the websites, focusing on the content, ease of use, visuals and an overall rating. Begin the session by explaining to the class that they will be creating websites for their brand. Ask children why having an online presence might be important for a business? What are the advantages of shopping online, and how might a website cater for those types of needs? (Fast, reliable, convenient, easy to use, etc.)

SA

M

Talk about and view some of the websites that the children have evaluated. Compare and contrast their use of graphics, text and logos.

How has the site been branded? Explore the home page and the navigation through the site.

Consider how each site has tailored its content to appeal to its customer. Which sites do the children think are the most appealing/effective?

As well as the home page and a selling page, there may be other common features, such as an ‘About us’ page and a regularly updated news or blog page. Highlight some of these areas and discuss their purpose, layout and content.

From their initial discussion, groups should have begun to picture a structure for their website and how it might look. Based on this knowledge, children can move on to using sticky notes to create a site map. This should start with the homepage, then branch into the main pages and any linking subpages. By using sticky notes, children can easily add or rearrange elements.

In their groups, ask children to discuss and start to plan their website. They could do this by using a mind map to record their ideas (see page 61).

Children should be aiming to identify how their website will sit within their brand, which now comprises a T-shirt design, a brand name and possible logo, and an advert. Children may want

Home page

Main page

Main page

Main page

Main page

Sub page

Sub page

Sub page

Sub page

Sub page

Sub page

Sub page

Sub page

By the end of the Explore session, groups should have an agreed site map for their website.

Groups can be invited to share their maps and discuss how a customer might navigate through the site and experience its content. Some groups may want to revisit their site maps afterwards to tweak ideas based on this discussion.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

57

Catching customers on the web CREATE Once children are confident with their design ideas, they can move on to the computer. If possible, children could use desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Publisher to create a mock-up website. Publisher is a good choice as it allows for the easy positioning and rearranging of images, videos and text, and also offers a hyperlink option (available from the <insert> tab) which can provide basic interactivity between pages.

PL E

Groups are now going to be creating their website. Before they move on to computers, children will need to sketch out each of their pages and decide on the elements that each page will require. Based on these initial sketches and designs, groups can then identify what images they might need, such as photographs and icons, and areas that will require text.

Alternatively, children can be given access to Weebly For Education (https://education. weebly.com/).This is an excellent online service, which allows multiple students to design and publish their own websites within a safe and secure space. The editor tools are based around a ‘drag and drop’ interface that allows for the easy positioning of videos, images and text. These can be dragged onto ready-made templates or the children’s own designs, to gradually build up each page.

SA

M

Prompt children to consider the following: • Home page splash – how will you capture someone’s interest? How do other websites do this and what can we learn from them?

• Navigation – how will the user move forward and back between pages? Will there be a top bar or side bar with icons/text?

• Link to brand – how might the website mimic the colours, design and theme of the T-shirt and the advert?

• Shopping area – how will customers view the available T-shirts? What options might they want to have available (e.g. choosing colour and size)?

• Talking to the customer – how could you build up a relationship with your customer? How might you share your own personalities (perhaps through a blog or an ‘About us’ page)?

• Obviously, children won’t be creating a full workable website where customers can shop, but they can imagine and provide as many elements as they want to in order to give the illusion of an online seller.

Depending on their ideas, groups may need to generate additional images for their site. These could be taken from online image libraries (copyright permitting) or children could be given access to digital cameras to conduct their own photoshoots.

58

Inevitably, children may not have the time to build their complete site so should aim to work on their most important pages (such as the home page). They can always have a ‘Coming soon’ graphic placed on pages that they are unable to complete.

Once children have built their sites, the final stage of the process is to test and proof it. This involves checking that all links are working correctly, images are displaying properly and there are no text errors in the copy. Groups could present their completed sites to the class, to talk through their design process.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Catching customers on the web EXTEND

SUPPORT

Groups could assign roles within their teams to spread out the workload involved in creating a website. Possible roles might include: • Site developer – responsible for building the website using the available software and testing the links to ensure they are working • Designer – responsible for the images, photographs, videos and other visuals that might be featured on the website • Editor/writer – responsible for writing any content for the website and ensuring all text is accurate and error free.

PL E

Rather than use software to build their webpages, children can be given large sheets of plain white card to represent each of their pages. They can use art materials to cut out and add the elements that they want on each page, such as icons, banners, photos, and so on. Groups can then use computers to find photographs and other images to print out to add to their pages, as well as to create text.

Images from magazines and/or catalogues could also be scanned into the computer, resized and then used. Some children may want to do their own photoshoots to create specific images for their pages.

M

Each page/screen essentially becomes a collage, with children placing and rearranging their elements until they are happy with them, and then fixing the agreed pieces in place. This method can save time by avoiding the need to use software to build each page and can give group members more of a chance to contribute freely to the overall creation of the site. The completed pages can then be assembled into a large display, with linking thread/ribbon to show the structure and create a site map.

Children should consider each member’s strengths and the areas in which they are interested. Some roles might benefit from having more than one person involved. Groups could also appoint a ‘project leader’ to oversee progress and offer additional support to whatever role needed it at the time.

SA

This division and responsibility of roles will give children a valuable learning experience, encouraging both teamwork and leadership, as well as offering the opportunity for individuals to develop skills in the areas that interest them.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

59

Catching customers on the web

SA

M

This exercise will help children to appraise the elements that make up a website in more detail and will help when it comes to planning their own mock clothing site. There could be features that they would like to copy or perhaps some that they would like to do differently in order to offer a contrast to what others are already doing.

Either as a homework task or part of a preliminary session, children can be tasked with viewing and evaluating two clothing brand websites. These could be websites chosen by yourself, which might offer contrasting approaches to the presentation of content, or could be websites chosen by the children – perhaps ones that were highlighted as being popular during their market research.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 16

Children are asked to consider three key areas of each website. Firstly, the visuals – which may include their initial reaction to the home page (which is designed to grab a user’s attention). Most home pages will employ persuasive text and powerful imagery in order to attract customers. Next is the content/information, so assessing the brand messages, the tone of the site (is it designed to be friendly as if ‘talking’ to the customer?) and ease of understanding. Finally, children can assess the user experience. How easy was it to navigate and find particular areas of the site?

60

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Catching customers on the web

SA

M

One of the most important elements of the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design will be the theme. This should link in with their T-shirt designs and adverts.

Some groups may have taken a very stylistic approach to their campaign, perhaps using certain colours or linking it to a music genre or movie theme.

Groups should be encouraged to think about how they might carry over this theme into their website so that it links in with their overall message.

Children can use this mind map to help plan their website design. This could be completed individually or in groups. Prompt children to consult their market research as well as considering their T-shirt themes and adverts, in order to ensure that their website supports those same ideas and outcomes.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 17

By analysing other websites, children should have a good idea of the types of visuals and content that their own site could feature. While groups may not be able to create all of these, they should feel free at this early stage to mind map a wish list of all the things that their site could ultimately provide. They can then prioritise the elements that will be the most crucial to their site, based on the time that they have available.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

61

Catching customers on the web

SA

M

Children can circle and/or highlight all of the potential issues with this home page. They can then use the feedback worksheet (see page 63) to give more detailed information on the problems and how they might be solved.

This fun challenge invites children to imagine that they have been asked to give feedback on a new clothing website. There are a number of errors and inconsistencies to spot, as well as numerous elements that might be improved.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 18

This exercise will help highlight some of the problems and pitfalls to look out for when designing a website, which will be helpful for children when they come to create their own.

As a whole class, talk through all the problems that were identified and make a list of the key areas to consider when designing a site, such as user navigation, consistency, clarity and accuracy of information, customer experience, and so on.

62

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Catching customers on the web

SA

M

Children are encouraged to give solutions to the problems and errors that they have spotted. These might involve redesigning elements of the navigation, editing text, moving or replacing images, adding new features, and so on.

This feedback sheet works in conjunction with the previous worksheet. It provides opportunity for children to give their overall rating of the website and elaborate on the problems areas that they have identified.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 19

If you wish, you could develop this exercise further by asking children to sketch out their own version of a new webpage, incorporating the changes and improvements that they have suggested on their feedback sheet. Children can then share these with the rest of the class to generate further valuable discussion.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

63

Catching customers on the web

SA

M

You may wish to talk through the job roles as a whole class and identify the types of tasks each role might perform in the design and implementation of a website. This will give children a better idea of who they might assign to each role. If you have larger groups, then some roles might benefit from having more than one person involved.

This exercise is optional and could be used if you wish to extend the Create session by asking groups to assign specific job roles.

Children are encouraged to consider each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strengths and weaknesses, and identify the areas where an individual can make the strongest contribution.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 20

Children can use the sheet to make notes on the responsibilities of each role and the specific tasks that will need completing that are relevant to their particular website. This will serve as a useful checklist to keep track of progress throughout the design process.

64

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Cross-curricular links IT’S A SMALL WORLD Work together to build a list of the pros and cons of the internet and the services it provides. Consider how the internet might have changed from the original vision of Tim Berners-Lee – that it should be open and free for all. For example, are big online businesses like Amazon having an impact on smaller online businesses or stores on the high street? Is there a financial cost to using the internet and is that fair? End your session by revisiting the pros and cons list. Has the internet changed the world for the better? Invite children to draw conclusions based on the discussion.

PL E

Children have explored the impact that the internet has had on business, helping companies to reach new customers and promote their brand both locally and globally.

Internet technologies have also made it possible to connect with people all across the world. Use Skype or other video-conferencing software to link up with another school, either in your own country or another country around the world. This can provide a valuable learning experience for children. Not only can they share and learn more about the work and learning of their peers in a different school, it also gives opportunity to compare and contrast the geography and climate. Many partnership organisations can also offer social platforms that enable children to globally collaborate on projects and activities. Useful organisations that can help with forming school partnerships include: • Trocaire (https://www.trocaire.org/ getinvolved/education/partnershipprojects) • Link Ethiopia (www.linkethiopia.org) • UClass (https://globaldimension.org.uk/ organisation/uclass/) • iEARN (www.iearn.org)

SAFETY NET

SA

M

As a follow-on from the previous activity, children can be tasked with creating an information poster to educate their peers on internet safety. Begin by discussing together the ways that we use the internet and the potential dangers that we could expose ourselves to. Consider issues such as chat rooms, inappropriate content, cyberbullying and privacy/reputation. The following sites provide useful information and resources: • Internet Matters (www.internetmatters. org) • Childnet International (www.childnet.com) • CyberSafe Ireland (www.cybersafeireland. org) Work together to create a list of top tips for staying safe online. Children can use this list as the starting point for creating their information poster. They might choose to include all the tips or focus in on one single aspect. The completed posters can then be displayed in your ICT area.

WEB OF WONDERS

If children have completed the ‘Changing the world’ cross-curricular activity (see page 45), then they may have listed the internet/World Wide Web as one of their most important inventions – and it may have even taken the top spot. Discuss how Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web but rather than profit from it, he believed that it should be a democratic tool for everyone to have access to and use. In doing so, he revolutionised business, society and global communication.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

65

Pitching for success SESSION SEVEN CURRICULUM LINKS THIRD AND FOURTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Recognise, describe and discuss individual personality traits, qualities, strengths, limitations, interests and abilities • Realise that each person has a unique contribution to make to various groups, situations and friendships • Enhance his/her own learning • Express personal opinions, feelings, thoughts and ideas with growing confidence • Learn and begin to devise a simple decision-making strategy • Make individual and group decisions

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen carefully and reflectively to others • Give and receive compliments and constructive criticism in different situations

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• • • •

Language

Content / Objectives

• Developing citizenship

Develop and practise leadership roles and learn to work together in different group situations Explore the various ways in which the school promotes a sense of belonging Realise what it means to belong to a group Begin to explore some of the techniques that are used in marketing and advertising

• Give and take turns in speaking and experience a classroom environment in which tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Present ideas that are relevant to the subject in a logical sequence • Summarise and prioritise ideas • Develop an appreciation of how the intended audience should influence the nature of a piece of writing • Learn to revise and re-draft writing • Co-operate in writing a record of class activities

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• • • • • • •

Listen to a presentation and discuss and decide which are the most important questions to ask Discuss different possible solutions to problems Justify personal likes and dislikes Argue a point of view and try to persuade others to support it Write in a variety of genres with greater sophistication Write about an idea to explain it to someone else Expand and clarify his/her thoughts on a particular idea or topic through drafting and re-drafting

SA

• Oral • Writing

M

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

• Oral • Writing

66

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Pitching for success SESSION SEVEN CURRICULUM LINKS FIFTH AND SIXTH CLASSES Content / Objectives

Strand: Myself

• Reflect on his/her experiences and the reasons for taking different courses of action • Develop further the ability to express personal opinions, thoughts and ideas and listen to, respect, think about and comment critically and constructively on the views of others • Enhance skills to improve learning • Acquire a growing sense of the importance of making informed decisions at many levels • Discuss and practise a simple decision-making strategy • Identify sources of help in solving problems

• Self-identity • Making decisions

Strand: Myself and others • Relating to others

PL E

SPHE

• Listen actively to others and respect what each person has to say • Examine the power of persuasion, how it can be used both positively and negatively

Strand: Myself and the wider world

• Explore the concept of the class or school as a community • Practise ways of working together and of developing a sense of belonging • Explore and understand how information is conveyed and practise relaying messages using a variety of methods • Explore and use some simple broadcasting, production and communication techniques

Language

Content / Objectives

• Developing citizenship • Media education

• Converse freely and confidently on a range of topics • Give and take turns in an environment where tolerance for the views of others is fostered • Explore the possibilities of language and sentence structure in expressing increasingly complex thoughts • Choose a register of language appropriate to subject and audience • Take part in co-operative writing activities

Strand: Developing cognitive abilities through language

• Justify and defend particular opinions or attitudes and try to persuade others to support a particular point of view • Write for a particular purpose and with a particular audience in mind • Refine ideas and their expression through drafting and re-drafting

• Oral • Writing

SA

• Oral • Writing

M

Strand: Competence and confidence in using language

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

67

Pitching for success SESSION SEVEN

Resources All work produced throughout project Score cards for audience (see Create)

EXPLORE brand/campaign that they think will capture an audience’s attention and help support their pitch.

Just like an advert, a pitch/presentation works best if it has a strong hook. Groups should consider how they might lead their presentation with something that will make it fun and memorable; perhaps a drama or music routine linked to the genre of the T-shirts/advert, an interactive experience for the audience such as a Q&A or a magic trick, a cat-walk style show, and so on.

Talk through some ideas as a whole class to help prompt groups to think creatively about how they might leave a lasting impression.

PL E

The time has arrived for groups to make their final presentations to the rest of the school and hopefully win the most votes to become the top T-shirt brand! This will be the culmination of their learning journey and should serve as a celebration of all that they have achieved.

The following prompts will provide a good template for groups to follow while they are planning their pitches: Customer research • What did you learn about your customers?

• Who is your ideal customer?

Competitor analysis • What did you learn about your competitors?

• What makes you different from your competitors?

Brand identity • What name did you choose for your brand?

• Why did you choose that name?

T-shirt design • How did you create your T-shirt design(s)?

• How does your T-shirt design(s) support your brand identity?

Promotional campaign • What is the main concept/message of your advert?

• How does your advert and website successfully represent your brand?

SA

M

Explain that most businesses often have to pitch to investors – people who may be willing to put money into the company to help it grow.

They often have to pitch to big retailers too in order to get their brand on shelves. In both cases, it is necessary to perform a pitch – a short presentation that will sell their concept and ideas. In this instance, groups will be pitching to other members of the school community, in order to convince them that their T-shirt brand/ design is the best. Therefore, their presentation should include a full explanation of the design process, from their earliest ideas and market research to the final design. Groups can also talk about their brand identity and how this has been incorporated across all elements of their campaign, such as the advert and website, both of which can be shown as part of the presentation.

The school community will be scoring each group based on four different elements of their campaign: brand name/identity; T-shirt design; advert; website.

Work with the children to recap and revisit all the work that they have produced over the course of this project, from surveys and customer profiles, to advert storyboards and T-shirt designs. Groups should spend time looking back through their work to decide on the key elements of their

68

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Pitching for success CREATE Groups may want to consider having a different team member responsible for each part of their presentation (e.g. one member talks about the research, another talks about the T-shirt design, and so on). Alternatively, groups may prefer to nominate one or two confident speakers, while the other team members are responsible for displaying props or operating equipment (e.g. an interactive whiteboard).

Group name: Geeky Gamers Please rate and comment on the following: Brand name/identity

PL E

T-Shirt design/s

Advert

Allow time for children to plan and rehearse their presentations. You may want to invite each group to present to the other members of their own class, to have an opportunity to try out their talk and receive feedback for possible improvement.

This could be followed up by giving each audience member a token which they can deposit into a box to vote for their overall favourite T-shirt brand. If you are holding a charity trade show, then audience members will have opportunity to purchase T-shirts, the sales of which will determine the most popular brand.

SA

M

Set up a time and location for your presentations, ideally choosing a location with an interactive whiteboard so that the adverts and websites can be shown. Children could make their pitches to another class or several classes across different year groups, depending on the level of challenge you want to set and the time/space that is available. If you are setting up a trade show as part of this (see Getting started for more information), then you may want to use a hall where there is plenty of space, to enable children to both perform their presentations and also set up their trade stalls.

Alternatively, you could hold the presentations and trade show on different days.

Website

Audience members will need scoring cards so that they can score each group based on the four categories (name, design, advert and website) and leave comments. For example:

Hold a follow-up session to review the results.

Reveal the overall winner of the most popular T-shirt brand. You could do this via a special video message from your fictitious clothing company (see Getting started for more information). Be sure to praise each group and offer special prizes based on the individual score results as well as your own observations of achievement over the course of the project.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

69

Pitching for success EXTEND

Help groups to organise a visual journey of their learning by laying out the various elements of their work across a table or on a display board, with linking arrows to trace the journey. This will provide a clear sequence of learning, starting with their exploration of persuasive language, then their market research, T-shirt and brand designs, advert storyboards and ideas, website development, and so on. Children can be given post-it notes to write in and attach to each area of their group’s learning journey, to highlight things they might want to say.

If children are going to be selling their T-shirts as part of the end-of-project show, you may want to invite groups to choose their own charity, to which they can donate the proceeds of their sales. This choice could be left up to the children (and may have a personal connection to a group member) or you could provide a small selection for each group to choose from.

These might include local community charities and initiatives.

PL E

SUPPORT

SA

M

Help guide less confident children through the process using question prompts (like those suggested in the Explore session). These will help children to assemble a rough framework for their presentation, which they can then build on further. Remember, children don’t have to learn their presentations off by heart.

They can use notes or prompt sheets if they wish, and by dividing the presentation up between all team members, they can share the responsibility and keep their own contributions short.

As part of this process, children can research each charity and find out more about the charity’s work and how any money raised might help their cause. This will give groups a more personal attachment to the charity that they are representing, and their presentations could feature some of this information so that buyers are made more aware of how their money will help contribute towards a good cause.

70

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Pitching for success

SA

M

Each team member could work on their own version of the sheet, then share their recordings with the rest of the group. Children will inevitably remember different details or even have a different opinion of certain concepts, so sharing their learning in this way will be a valuable opportunity for team members to listen to and take on board each other’s experiences.

They can then work together to bring all the facts and ideas together into one presentation.

Children may find this prompt sheet helpful when it comes to revisiting their learning journey and the work they have completed.

By answering the questions, children will be recording the most essential information for their talk, which can then be worked on and embellished.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 21

An enlarged version of this sheet could be provided for groups to combine all of their contributions in one place. This can become the ‘master copy’ that they refer to when structuring and practising their presentations.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

71

Pitching for success LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 22

SA

M

Feedback is always valuable, so groups should be given opportunity to discuss and evaluate the results. Were they surprised by any of the comments? Did they hope to score higher in certain categories? Groups can be invited to consider what areas they might look at to improve, and how they might do so, if they had the opportunity.

PL E

During the presentations, audience members will each have a score card to complete in order to give feedback and rate each group. These cards will give a score for four categories: the brand name/identity, the T-shirt design(s), the advert and the website.

Children can use this worksheet to collate the results for their group.

The total scores can be used when giving out prizes and/or certificates to reward the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s achievements. For example, you might have an award for the overall winner (who scored the most stars or sold the most), and then awards for the best team in each category (best name, best T-shirt design, best advert, best website). You can also create other awards to ensure that every team is receiving something special, and that awards are not all weighted towards one team.

72

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Pitching for success

SA

M

Encourage children to think back over the course of the project and consider their three proudest achievements.

Perhaps itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a piece of work that they are proud of or a task that they particularly enjoyed doing? It may even be a new skill they learned or a problem that they solved in a creative way.

This worksheet could be completed by children prior to them completing their selfevaluation (see page 74) as their responses here might be relevant to what they want to highlight and comment on in their evaluation.

PL E

LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 23

As a follow-up task, you could pair children up within their groups, and let them write down a medal for their partner, based on what they think their partnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best achievement or contribution was during the project. These can then be shared and discussed. This exercise offers children a valuable opportunity to recognise the skills and knowledge of others, and to celebrate that within their teams.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

73

Pitching for success LEARNING JOURNAL PAGE 24

PL E

SA

M

Children are invited to rate their overall performance out of five stars. If possible, allow for some follow-up time with each child to talk through their responses and their rating.

Be encouraging of those who may have scored themselves low and use your talk as an opportunity to explore the reasons for this. Focus on the positives of what they brought to their team and the project as a whole, and consider those things they might work on and improve moving forward.

This self-evaluation sheet can be completed at the end of the project.

Children are invited to record what they liked and didn’t like about the project, and are also given opportunity to answer a number of questions that will help them to reflect on their own understanding of their role as learners.

If children have completed the ‘Three medals’ worksheet, then they may want to refer to that for support and ideas when answering the questions. You may also want to spend time re-exploring each of those key skills and why they are important to improving us as both individuals and members of a team.

74

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Alternative project ideas While the learning sessions in this book have been planned around a T-shirt design project, they could easily be adapted to focus on a different theme. For example:

RESTAURANT OWNERS

• The pitch: children have been contacted by a toy company to develop a brand-new toy or game for a specific age range (e.g. babies, toddlers, seven- to nine-year-olds, etc.).

• Activities: in their teams, children can find out more about the toys that are popular in the chosen age range. Based on their research, children can then design and make a prototype, create packaging for their toy, and finally develop a marketing campaign to promote their toy.

• Cross-curricular links: teams can explore the popularity of modern-day interactive toys and games, with discussion of the impact of screen-based entertainment such as tablet devices and mobile phones. Children could be introduced to a simple programming language such as Scratch (https://scratch. mit.edu) and challenged to create their own virtual pets or interactive games. Similarly, children can also explore control software and sensors to develop toys that might react to light, temperature or the physical environment.

• End point: the project can lead to children setting up their own ‘toy fair’ to exhibit their toys to other members of the school community.

• The pitch: children have been tasked with opening a brand-new restaurant in their local area. What will be its theme, and what food will it sell on the menu?

• Activities: take the children on a field trip or use the street-view tools on Google Earth to investigate the types of restaurants in your local area. What types of food do the children enjoy eating the most? Children can design their own menus and logo, create sample dishes, and explore how they might market their restaurant (through leaflets, posters, adverts, a website, etc.).

• Cross-curricular links: explore the globalisation of food production and count the ‘food miles’ of certain products that are shipped to our supermarkets. Study the food production cycle from farmer to shop shelf, and how initiatives such as the Fair Trade Foundation aim to improve work and pay conditions for farmers and workers in developing countries. Children can also investigate local food producers and how they compete with larger competitors.

Consider how these local food producers might be promoted at the end point celebration, perhaps by having a ‘farmers’ market’ for visitors to shop at.

• End point: invite children’s family and friends to a special banquet, where they have the opportunity to taste the children’s foods and view the work that they have produced over the course of the project.

SA

M

PL E

TOY DESIGNERS

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

75

Alternative project ideas SERVICE PROVIDERS

• The pitch: children have been approached by a major chocolate producer to create a new chocolate product.

• Activities: investigate the types of chocolate products that children like to eat. Discuss why these brands and flavours are popular.

Children can explore possible ingredients for their chocolate product (e.g. raisins, honeycomb, coconut, fudge, etc.) and then make their own chocolate. (Be aware of any food allergies in school.) Teams are also responsible for developing a name for their product, designing packaging and creating a promotional campaign.

• Cross-curricular links: read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and explore the adjectives and names associated with the different chocolate bars. Investigate the origins of chocolate and how the Aztecs used cocoa seeds to make drinks – and also adopted them as a form of currency. Children can then investigate cocoa-producing countries today and how initiatives such as the Fair Trade Foundation are working to improve conditions and pay for workers.

• End point: children can hold a trade show where they invite members of the school community to view their learning and sample some of their chocolates. The chocolates could also be sold as part of the event and the money donated to a charity or organisation.

• The pitch: children have been challenged to develop their own service business for their local community or school.

• Activities: in groups, children will need to consider the type of service that they might offer as part of their business plan. Ideas could include: car washing, dog walking, cleaning, gardening, tutoring/mentoring, window cleaning, and so on. Children will be responsible for planning and marketing their service, from costing the materials and deciding on a price, to developing a promotional campaign.

• Cross-curricular links: investigate the types of private-sector services that are provided in the local area. If possible, invite business owners to discuss how they market their business and attract new customers.

Consider the impact of the internet and how this has helped (or hindered) small businesses to compete in an often-crowded market. Investigate the entrepreneurs behind the global giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and eBay to learn how they identified a problem or need and then delivered a solution. Could the children design a better or an alternative version of what these big companies are offering?

• End point: children pitch their service idea to a panel of judges, which could be made up of local business owners and members of the school community. Groups will be responsible for presenting their ideas, as well as their promotional materials, and explaining why they believe their business plan would be successful.

SA

M

PL E

CHOCOLATE MAKERS

76

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

Health and exercise SEE SESSION TWO 1. Do you consider yourself to be healthy?

Yes

No

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know

Maybe

2. What age are you? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

5 or more

PL E

3. How many hours of exercise do you do a week?

2-4 hours

3-5 hours 4. What sports do you like to do?

Football Rugby Tennis

Hurling Horse Riding Basketball

Snooker Fishing Running

5. On a scale of 1 to 7 how would you rate your fitness level?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

M

__ 6. How many times a day do you eat (including snacks)?

1-3 times 4-6 times 7 times 7. How many glasses of water do you drink?

SA

______________________________________________

8. Besides boredom, what other reasons cause you to eat: Hunger

Tiredness Depression Other

Social

9. Would you like to do more exercise? And what type of exercise would you like to do? And would you consider joining a gym? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your favourite holiday destination? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Some of this information may be useful to us.

Promoting Entrepreneurial Skills in the Classroom

77

PL E

Also available in this series

SA

M

978-1-913137-09-0

978-1-913137-10-6

PL E

M

SA big

PL E

M

SA big