Home Winsights No. 37 (January 2000)
"the Game of Gotcha"

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Lesson Plan for "The Game of Gotcha"
  1. However many students you have for the occasion, prepare at least 3 times as many "Gotcha" cards. A "Gotcha" card is an index card with Gotcha printed in large letters on one side, Meetcha printed in large letters on the other.

  2. Have each of your students also fold a sheet of notebook paper, which they are to use to conceal which side of the card is uppermost until after it has been played and their partner's card also played.

  3. Obtain, presumably from a bank, approximately a dollar in pennies for each student. Keep two-thirds of the pennies in a ready box, distribute the other third evenly among your students.

  4. Say to your students, "These pennies, and however many more you happen to win in this little game, are yours to keep. This is reward and/or tuition for something invaluable and positive we are to discover together, so it is not any form of the usual win-lose gambling. Nor does this exploratory lesson in any way countenance such gambling. But you do have a chance to win some money, and you do have a chance in this game to lose the pennies distributed to you and have to sit out the remainder of the game as a loser." (It is your option whether or not to permit losing students to add their own pennies to stay in play, but it would be somewhat difficult to enforce a ban on their doing so.)

  5. "Your Gotcha card has the word Gotcha on one side, and Meetcha on the other side. You and your partner play your respective cards at the same time, inside your folded sheets so that neither of you can see what the other has played until both your cards are sitting there. If you've played the card Meetcha side up, you've played a Meetcha. If you've played the card Gotcha side up, you've played a Gotcha. I will come around to each desk (or table) at the end of each round of play, open your folded sheets to reveal your play, and give you pennies accordingly or take pennies away accordingly. Listen carefully — scoring is as follows:"

    Scoring chart for the game of Gotcha

    (You might also draw a chart as per the above matrix and post it up on the board for all to see.)

  6. "If you have played a Meetcha card and your partner has also played a Meetcha card, I will give you each three pennies for that round. If you have played a Meetcha card and your partner has played a Gotcha card, I will give your partner five pennies, but I'll take away six pennies from you. If you have played Gotcha and your partner has played Meetcha, I will give you five pennies but take away six cents from your partner. If you have both played a Gotcha card, I will take away three cents from each of you."

  7. Play one round, somewhat theatrically. After reactions settle, have the paired students pull into groups of four or so to "buzz" on what happened, what was going through their minds when they made their play, and what they think it all may mean. The rules of Dynamic Format can be useful for keeping this a well-focused, orderly activity. Get some consensus of observations/opinions also from the class as a whole, starting with a report from the groups.

  8. Reconvene and announce a series of five consecutive rounds, each played like the one above, same partners or different, you coming around at the end of each round to reveal the play and to pay and collect accordingly. Each pair also keeps score on the outcome of each play in the series. Indicate but don't actually state that the game, for better or worse, will be over after that fifth round.

  9. Again after reactions settle, have the pairs pull back together into groups of four or so to "buzz" on what happened, what was going through their minds when they made their play, and what they think it all may mean. As these groups report, work toward consensus of observations/opinions from the class as a whole.
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Further options
o You can go on from there into teaching whatever points you find appropriate for this context.

o You can let yourself be "persuaded" into allowing one more round of five plays (or three) next class meeting if, meanwhile, your students develop further insights on what has happened and why, and what it may mean in other contexts. That will result in your students' arguing over the matter up and down halls to the next class and making you the envy of the other teachers.

o You can pick two appropriate students to play a series of ten rounds in front of the rest of the class, and have them report back on what was going through their minds at various points of the game, and answering questions from the rest of the class.

o Run some form of this game with three players or four or five, provided basically the same non-zero-sum payoff structure is kept. Make comparisons with the situation in which only one other person has to be trusted to get mutual benefits realized.
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Points you want to make sure get understood
o That most real-life situations are in fact like a game in that your "play" affects the outcomes of others and vice-versa.

o That most such situations are in fact non-zero-sum.

o That in most situations you can "win" by helping someone else also to "win."

o That it's possible also for everyone to lose. Examples: nuclear war; starving nations conducting an arms race; prolonged strikes and lockouts; mutual bad-mouthing. The original "Prisoner's Dilemma" when, if one prisoner snitched on his partner in crime, he'd go free or get a much reduced sentence but the other guy'd get the book thrown at him and vice versa, while if each "turned state's evidence" on the other, both would get stiff sentences.

o What kind of a situation is a chain-letter? A pyramid scheme? What kinds of situations instead are you likelier to come from with a win?

o What are some of the things one needs to do to engender trust so that "win-wins" can be achieved?

o In what kinds of situation is it easier, and what kinds harder, even when clearly non-zero-sum, to build the kind of relationship which will allow win-wins to be won?
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Win Wenger



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