For a room where nothing happens to them
Control without backup
A casual has no detention that will be followed up, no phone call that will be made, and no consequence that survives the bell. The only leverage left is leverage that lives inside the lesson itself. That is what the game supplies.
Getting loud works. It works for about four minutes, it works better if you have a reputation, and it costs you something every time you spend it. This system gives you a second lever, so the loud one stays rare and stays worth something on the day you use it.
The ladder is the consequence
Points are shared across a crew, and the score is on the board where everyone can see it. That does two things a raised voice cannot.
- The correction comes sideways. A student who calls out costs his own crew a point, and four people beside him say something about it. That correction is one he has to live with tomorrow, and yours is not.
- It never ends. A point taken in period three is still on the sheet next fortnight. Nothing else you have available carries across a day, let alone a term.
The Bank
Every room has one. The student who will not join a crew, who is going to spend the lesson performing, or who cannot sit inside a group today. Do not negotiate with him in front of the room and do not send him out. Promote him.
The Bank is the only job in the room with power over other people, and the only one that is not answerable to a crew. Three things make it work:
- Say it as a promotion, in the voice you would use to give someone a good job. The moment it sounds like a punishment, it is one, and he will refuse it in front of everyone.
- Give it real authority. If the Bank rules against a crew, back him, even when you disagree. The one time you overrule him publicly, the job is worthless.
- It rotates. After a round or two: "Right, you have done your stint. Back in with Crew 2, someone else takes the Bank." Going back into a crew after holding the pen is far easier than being asked to join one cold.
The five lines that do the work
Short, flat, no argument attached. Say the thing, mark the board, keep moving. The speed is what makes it work, more than the volume.
| Instead of | Say |
|---|---|
| "Stop calling out." | "That is not your Speaker. Minus one, Crew 4." |
| "Sit down and do some work." | "Your crew is staking in ten seconds and you are the Scribe." |
| "Do you want to go outside?" | "You are the Bank. Up the front." |
| "I said quiet." | "Stakes close in five. Four. Three." |
| "You are not even trying." | "Take a one. A one is worth the same as anyone else's one." |
The student who says the game is stupid
Every room has one, and he says it in the first ninety seconds, loudly, to see what you do. He is checking whether you will spend the lesson persuading him.
Then turn away and take the next crew's number. He will be in by round two, because the crew he is sitting with wants the points and because nothing happened when he pushed. Arguing with him is the one thing that can make him right.
Nobody has a pen
You already carry the pencils, and the game is built so it barely matters.
- Only the Scribe writes, so a crew of five needs one pencil.
- Staking is fingers. Answering is out loud. Two of the five round steps need no equipment at all.
- If a crew has nothing, they can still play every round except the Last Call, and for the Last Call they can whisper the bet to you instead of writing it.
The student who comes with nothing never has to say so in front of anyone. That is the part that keeps him in the room.
Support staff in the room
If there is a learning support officer with you, give them a crew rather than a student, and say it in front of the class as a job.
It changes what the students in that crew think is happening, it gives the officer something concrete to run, and the student they are there for gets helped inside a group instead of being marked out at the side of the room.
When it goes wrong anyway
The room is too loud to run a round
Stop counting and stand still. Do not shout over it. "Stakes are closed. No round." One missed round is worth more than three minutes of shouting, and the crews will do the rest for you.
Two crews are fighting about a ruling
Challengers only, one sentence each, then the Bank rules and it is finished. If there is no Bank, you rule and you do not explain it twice.
Something happens that is not about the game
Stop the game. It is a lesson structure, and it will not carry anything serious. Follow the school's process, write it down, and pick the game back up next lesson from the same score.
You lost your temper
It happens and it is not the end of the lesson. Get back to a round quickly. The game gives the room something to do other than talk about what just happened, and it gives the student a way back in without an apology neither of you wants to have.