OBJECTIVES

 To get the pupils familiar with corporate business activities.
 A better grasp of the meaning of often heard words such as management, salary, capital, product,…

SKILLS
 To use the pupils’ own skills to achieve their “idea and produce something
 To use vocabulary referring to a corporate business, its birth, life and development

MATERIALS

 The “Boule et Bill créent une entreprise (“Boule and Bill set up a Corporate Business) comic strip, to be downloaded on http://www.ac-reunion.fr/caleer/cre…
 All raw materials necessary to achieve that product.
 A notebook

PROCEDURES

1st sequence

Every pupil reads the comic strip.

Brainstorm the class to understand the message from two aspects : function and form.

Who wrote and sent the message ? Who was it sent to ? For whom and what purpose was it written and drawn ? Layout of the message (single out different forms of the message : strip and definitions) ? Why have those two forms been used ?

Work on the comic strip

 Get teams of 3-6 pupils to find out different narrative sequences in the strip then note them down : one paragraph with a title for each sequence. Collective assessment of each team’s production.

 Pair-work to spot specific words used in the strip and the definitions. Blank-filling activity.

2nd sequence

Beyond the comic strip.

Challenge the students to spend a day together in the “Six Flags Belgium entertainment park in late June and finance that activity with the sale of a product they have imagined and created. That gardening-related product would be original, feasible and marketable.

The garden : that notion is elaborated from their representations (kitchen garden, orchard, pleasure garden).

The pupils form groups of 3-6, decide who is in charge of what, brainstorm their groups as regards realization, originality and potential markets.

They make a choice and tell the teacher.

3rd sequence :

The pupils confirm their choices, list the necessary raw materials, gear, manufacturing processes and place. They identify the product’s qualities and defects.

4th sequence :

They present a prototype to the group and class’s critical eye in order to improve its final realization.

They single out the components of all raw materials and other gear and find manufacturing costs

5th sequence

The pupils present their final product and set up plans to carry out their project.

They draft a campaign to advertise their product.

FOLLOW-ON-ACTIVITIES

 suggest different varieties of the product elaborated by each group.
 advertise the product inside and/or outside the school.
 visit a help-yourself kitchen garden to discover a life-size realization similar to the one that has been elaborated in class.
 ask the pupils make a drawing illustrating the notion of corporate business (requires grasping the notion, visualisation and imagination to design an illustration or a drawing).
 expand on the notion of corporate business in the environment.

With older pupils : with the help of a bank and the Enterprise Institute, create a mini-business with real accountancy. The product must be marketed and bring benefit to real shareholders.

ASSESSMENT

It will be balanced according three criteria :

a) how much the pupil took part in setting up the mini-business (how much did he intervene ? did he do as he was told ?)

b) the finished product (is it original ? how relevant it is, how far has it been achieved ?)

c) what was his/her approach (understanding the problem and answers given) ?

Geneviève Hamblenne, étudiante en sciences de l’éducation, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve Belgique