Shared by Pablo Novo:
A topic I am currently undertaking with Year 4 students is a 3-week world-building project. Done in pairs, it overarches a wide-range of aspects that have as an aim to reflect on the most basic aspects that constitute the foundation of a country.
Therefore, the driving question is "how is a country ruled?", obviously, watched through a playful and relatively childish lenses that intends to blend creative writing with climate change and environmental concerns in general.
Using handouts with guidelines, the students have to craft from scratch their own imaginary country.
For such purpose, not only do they design the landscapes and the geography of their continent/nation, but they also delve into further detail, outlining the natural resources and the environmental challenges they are facing. On a sociopolitical level, they create their own politicians, namely a president, and they mockingly endow them with ideological frameworks.
Obviously, even if it sounds paradoxical, the project is completely unbiased and neutral, and they merely create political intrigues (civil wars and confrontations) between different factions. They are provided with enemies (tycoons wanting to destroy natural reserves, oligarchs, mafiosos and warlords) to which they have to react accordingly. Besides that, they describe the peoples subject to their rule, they create their own enemies and demonise each other with their own propaganda. Each couple's project is to some extent interwoven with another's, delivering speeches that confront and counterattack each others' politician, ending in a full-scale invasion and a subsequent peace treaty. To wrap everything up, they carry out a 10 to 12 minute presentation, outlining everything done so far and advertising their countries as if they were an ambassador/travel agency.
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