Project: Taking control of debt
Introduction
Students create a 30-second radio advertisement about taking control of debt – they use a poem, song, rap, rhyme and/or acronym to get their message across to listeners.
Organisation
Depending on your class, the project may involve some of the following elements:
- Divide the class into small teams and allocate responsibilities as required
- Review learning about debt from Section 3: Lessons 12, 13 and 14
- Listen to radio advertisements to get ideas
- Create a brief radio script (based on a poem, song, rap, rhyme and/or acronym)
- Record their ad
- Play their ad over the school intercom or put it up as a podcast on the school website
- Students should track the impact of their ad on knowledge of, and attitudes to, dealing with out-of-control debt by carrying out a Vox Pop-style survey on listeners.
Vox Pop is short for ‘vox populi’ and means ‘voice of the people’ in Latin. This type of survey method involves collecting the opinions of a cross-section of the public on a particular subject and is done by posing the same few open-ended questions to a range of people and recording their responses. Vox Pop surveys can be done by with a notebook and pen but they are sometimes carried out by radio shows who send people out onto the street and create audio recordings of listener opinions about particular subjects. Extracts from recordings of listeners are then played on the radio. These methods, or even video recordings, are all possibilities in terms of gathering information and evaluating the effectiveness of the radio campaign on taking control of debt.
Debrief
Class discusses what worked well; what did not work well; what they learned; what they would do differently etc.
Reflection Journal
At the conclusion of their Taking Control of Debt project, each student should reflect on the experience, using written, audio, visual or digital format. Student reflections should include:
- A summary of information they have learned
- Reflection on skills they have developed
- A record of particular insights they have gained
- Questions with which they are still left
- Reflection on what they have learned from this and what it means for their own lives or for the future
Project Record
Students are required to complete at least three projects relating to different sections of the course and must create a Project Record for one action taken during the short course. [NB: work completed in First Year cannot be submitted for certification].
If students decide to produce a Project Record for the Taking Control of Debt project they can do so in written, audio, visualor digital form. Regardless of the format chosen, students should ensure that their individual Project Record communicates:
- Why I chose this project
- What the aims of my project were and what means I chose to achieve the aims
- How I sourced and used research
- How I worked with others in carrying out the project activities
- How I organised and managed myself
- Key moments or milestones
- Any challenges I encountered
- Evidence of my individual participation in the project activities
- My overall reflections on what I have learned through planning and participating in the project activities
- What I/we achieved
