Creating Simulations for a Literature Class

I love simulations. Anything that can immerse students in a set of “real” dynamics immediately leads to student epiphanies. That said, they also often require quite a lot of prep work and planning, which can feel daunting.

It can feel especially challenging if you teach reading and composition. I teach literature and writing, so - unlike Government, History, Engineering, Chemistry, etc. - I don’t always have real, historical events (like the French Revolution) or a real-world aim (like creating a prototype of a robotic leg) to work with.

However, since literature is still produced within real social and historical conditions, those conditions can serve as inspiration for a simulation.

Caveat: Of course, you want to be really careful of what you decide to simulate and what forms of suffering and real trauma the simulation might inadvertently produce. A simulation can serve as a powerful instructional tool, but that power must be thoughtfully leveraged and applied. There are so many examples of class simulations gone wrong, like this one.

So how can you create a successful simulation?

A successful simulation requires that you understand the conditions, themes, and structures of the content you’re teaching. From there, it’s all about organizing yourself before the simulation.

Steps toward organizing a simulation:

1. Identify the historical, social, and/or environmental conditions you’re trying to mimic.

2. Break those conditions down and turn them into the rules of your simulation.

3. Identify what the students’ big goal should be. Is there a winner and a loser? Should the whole class solve something together?

4. Allot plenty of time (~1/2 to 1 hour) for a class debrief and reflection session after the simulation ends.

Some sample simulations:

Sample Simulation #1: Power Grabbing in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Big Goal: 1) Compare-contrast Elizabethan power dynamics to our present time 2) Acquire the most amount of “power points” in the simulation.

I like to translate these “power points” into real points for a large, final, compare-contrast assignment, either as a percentage of the overall project or as extra credit points. That makes the game more real for the students.

Project Time Frame: However long you’ve allotted for the students to read Macbeth (ideally: 2-3 weeks)

Conditions: To me, Macbeth is fundamentally a play about the desire for real power within a system that doesn’t allow for democratic methods of obtaining power. Rather than mimic the exact storyline from the play, I instead think more about creating a larger system that imitates the pressures and frustrations of Macbeth’s monarchical rigidity.

Step #1: Social positions (ex: baker, King, Queen, servant, etc.) must be assigned randomly to each student. These positions can’t be exchanged. Suggestion: Keep a record of who has is assigned what position, so you can know whether there are illegal swaps.

Step #2: Explain the rules of the game. Each position comes with a set number of “power points” (you can use raffle tickets or fake coins to represent these points). The lowest positions (slave, servant) come with 0 points. The highest positions (King, Queen) come automatically with 20 points. Positions in between those two poles can have a varying number of points, but they should roughly match the amount of power that position would have in a real monarchy from the Elizabethan Age.

Step #3: Each student can accrue points throughout the simulation by currying favor from anyone who has points (or tickets or coins, etc.) to give OR from someone up above. I like to rope in administrators and other instructors as people who also have power and can give points away. How students decide to “curry favor” needs to be tightly controlled (otherwise, this exercise can devolve into an ethical nightmare). I allow minor administrative tasks in return for points, such as wiping boards down or making photocopies or volunteering for an institutional event. Basically, anything academically- or institutionally-related.

Marriage, especially for female-identified positions, is a legitimate way to rise in the ranks and gain social power. If that occurs, the partners pool their points together and operate as 1 unit.

Step #4 - Debrief/Reflection: After any simulation, it’s important to devote 1 class period to debriefing and reflecting on the project. Let the students express themselves. How that happens can be achieved in a variety of ways, but the key is to give them the opportunity to speak honestly about their feelings as they experienced the simulation. It’s also a good idea for the students to reflect on their experience through independent writing.

Step #5: Both the class discussion and the students’ independent writing can then be collected and used as supporting evidence for a collaborative compare-contrast analysis that connects Elizabethan power dynamics to our present moment. Allow each group to make their own contemporary connections and give them the chance to present their connections through their own mini-play modernizing Macbeth or a class presentation synthesizing past and present.

Note: As you can imagine, this “game” can become competitive really quickly. I don’t apply other limits other than basic rules of decency, like no violence and no cheating (both of which would result in automatic disqualification or zero points). I try to allow the experiment to run its course in as real a fashion as possible.

For that reason, as with any simulation, you will mostly likely have disgruntled students. You will also see plotting, collusion, and other types of potentially nefarious behavior. I let those minor moments of “evil” happen because the other major challenge in Macbeth is learning to define what “evil” means and looks like.

It’s both necessary and helpful though, that you, as the instructor, remind the students repeatedly that the simulation is just a game. Encourage them to forget the game once they’re outside of class. This simulation shouldn’t ruin friendships!

Sample Simulation #2: Resistance in Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”

Big Goal: Create a group presentation analyzing how different forms of resistance work in “Bartleby”

Project Time Frame: Anywhere from 2 class periods to 2 weeks

Conditions: “Bartleby” is a notoriously strange story. Its title character is more like a cipher than a fully rounded character. But students can identify with Bartleby (as well as some of the other minor characters, like Turkey and Nippers) through the concept of resistance, especially passive-aggressive resistance.

For this type of simulation to succeed, secrecy is a must. You actually don’t want to be transparent with your students (except for those students you need as “plants”) about the conditions of the simulation until after the simulation is over.

Step #1: Select 3 secret “plants.” Instruct 1 student to do nothing during class except stare into the distance or take notes (for however many class sessions you want this simulation to go on for); 1 student to grumble and hiss unpleasantly all throughout class; and 1 student to create vocal outbursts and argue with everyone periodically throughout class. Ask these students to maintain their secrete all throughout these class sessions.

Step #2: Teach “Bartleby” and teach class as you normally would OR you can pull off a mini-simulation by asking everyone to copy, by hand, a piece of text (the older and more obscure, the better) written in cursive, just like the scriveners in the story. Your 3 “plants” will perform their behaviors, which you can ignore or accommodate. You can gradually begin to show some frustration at their misbehavior, but continue to try and maintain an empathetic response, regardless of how outrageously they act.

Step #3: At the end of the simulation, ask the 3 “plants” to expose themselves and their instructions. Allow for at least half a class period for a full debrief and class discussion on the behaviors the students witnessed and how it made them feel. See if you can guide the students to connect the behaviors to the theme of resistance, both political and otherwise, during their discussion. It’s also helpful to incorporate an individual, reflective assignment at the end of the simulation.

Step #4: As their final outcome, I like the idea of asking the students to collaborate in small groups to create presentation posters or slides on how different forms of resistance appear in the story. An easy way to do this is by separating groups by character, so one group deals with Bartleby, one deals with Turkey, and another with Nippers. If you need 4 groups, then 1 group can focus on the narrator’s response to these different forms of resistance in the workplace. If you have a large class, then have groups double up on characters. Each group will probably arrive at different insights or notice different details so it’s not necessarily a bad thing for groups to repeat a character.

However, the final outcome can also be flexible, depending on what standards and outcomes you need the students to achieve.