How It Works

The central element of The Real Game is role playing. Each student plays an adult character in one of a wide cross-section of contemporary work roles that span most industry sectors in Canada. Roles are generally assigned arbitrarily. Students gain valuable and lasting insights about themselves and adult life as they play their role over a number of days, weeks, or months. Through online and print materials, class discussion, active and reflective activities, research, interviewing and dialogue with fellow players, facilitators, family and community members, students learn about adult life. They also learn that what they do, or don't do, now will impact their future. To simplify adult complexities, each character is single.

Players experience situations, challenges and opportunities all adults face, as they will soon. Encourage your players to do their best to "get into" their roles. Explain that they are playing a character, like in a movie or on TV. The character is an adult in the future. It doesn't really matter if they think the role is really "them" or not. They''re just acting.

Playing a character makes the experience safer than playing themselves. You want your students to imagine, as clearly as they can, how the character they create would act and react in the situations and scenarios the program presents. Encourage them to have fun, play with and embellish their roles by researching them and by using their imaginations. The game is about real life. Learning will be greatest when participants can clearly imagine and visualize how they would feel and react in situations they will face before long as adults.

Above all, The Real Game is a learning and teaching tool. Use your creativity and draw on your knowledge of your students and your  community. Session outlines suggest how, but they are intended as starting points. You are the delivery expert. Take advantage of learning moments to further explore issues raised by the game.

The game is divided into four units: Making a Living, Quality of Life, Changes and Choices, and The Personal Journey. Each unit is a stage of the journey, and builds on the previous stage.

Units are divided into sessions, each with key instructional elements: Overview, Time, Learning Objectives, Performance Indicators, Materials, Preparation, a step-by-step guide to Activities, Personal Reflection, Discussion Points and Suggested Speakers. Most sessions include  Optional Activities.

Session times are suggestions. The program is flexible so you can take into account students' personalities, home situations, and relevant events and issues in your community. The program encourages as much parent/guardian involvement as possible.

The Real Game provides many opportunities to evaluate your players' progress, such as group projects and session activities. A Performance Review is included later in this Introduction. Use it or design your own to gauge changes in attitudes, behaviours, attendance, etc., and to measure acquisition of new knowledge or skills. Each session includes performance indicators correlated to learning objectives so you can evaluate players' progress.