Students often depend on teachers and other adults to pick teams for games, decide who should go first, or who should be it. These are decisions that to read more click here

In my last post I described how I have been re-purposing the well-known ice-breaker Have You Ever? into Anyone Who as a strategy to engage participants in reflecting on or reviewing content from a lesson. I recently had great success using this game in adult staff training days, in guidance groups and in a middle school social studies class. In all of these experiences the level of involvement and discussion went beyond my original expectations. I found the game not only worked as an active review method but also led to engaging conversation, application of the subject material and served as a formative assessment.

I regularly work with students and teachers at a local school here in Vermont. Originally I was brought into the school to facilitate team-building activities to promote a positive school climate and help students practice social and emotional skills. Over the years my role has expanded to integrate the philosophy of experiential education into day-to-day practice, helping teachers differentiate their instruction methods and actively engage students in academic lessons. I have found there are some great activities that serve both team-building goals and as a method for teaching or reinforcing curricular content. Anyone Who is a great example of one these dual purpose activities.

Recently I used it with students in the 8th grade who had been studying Mid 19th Century US History. Their curriculum included topics such as Westward Expansion, the American Civil War and Reconstruction era.  During one of my visits the social studies teacher and I went through the text book and pulled out key events, people and facts from the current chapter and formulated review questions such as: “Anyone who knows who Jefferson Davis was.” “Anyone who knows the outcome of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.”  “Anyone who knows what the Pickwick Papers where.“  “Anyone who can name the confederate states.” We wrote them on index cards and placed them on the question asking spot.

We found students were actively engaged in the game. Many students couldn’t help blurting answers out while they moved. If a person didn’t have the correct answer other students immediately jumped in to help in a friendly and supportive way.

When one student moved impulsively from their spot without knowing the answer and reached the question asking/answering spot, he froze for a moment and then asked me if he could ”phone a friend”. Immediately 5 other students pretended they had open phone lines to help their classmate out.

Students who in the past had not regularly raised their hands in class were actively moving and sharing answers throughout the game. The teacher gained new insights into the more introverted or previously less involved class member’s actual knowledge of the subject. It was great for the high achieving students in the group (who sometimes monopolize class discussions) to see that other students had knowledge and insights to offer the group.

As the game progressed students started to move beyond review questions and answers spontaneously engaging in detailed discussions around topics such as the impact of the railroad on the civil war, and the impact of Westward Expansion on modern day population and industry in their own state of Vermont. The best part was that students were leading the discussion!

I have also used  “Anyone Who” in counseling and guidance groups and found it to be a great way to review factual information or introduce a subject with questions such as:

“Anyone who knows what empathy means”

“Anyone who can name one way to stop a fight without violence”

Though this activity is great for factual review and as a prelude to a lesson I am cautious when using it or any game to discuss feelings and experiences around sensitive issues such as bullying or substance abuse. Using a playful game to share feelings about tough issues could have the potential to trivialize serious and sensitive subjects, put group members in an emotionally unsafe environment for sharing, or cause a group to cross boundaries in a way that can be inappropriate for school settings. As with any activity, carefully consider how it fits with your group’s personality, development, goals and setting for best results.

Many educators report to me that they like Anyone Who because everyone is involved in the review even if they aren’t speaking out or moving from space to space.  Those passively participating can still be learning from the dialogue and review.

The Have You Ever/Anyone Who activities can be used multiple times with the same group. I like to use the Have You Ever? version (see January 13th post) earlier on in a group’s experience together as a “get to know you” activity. Then later in the group’s process re-introduce the game as Anyone Who with the intention of reflection or review. It doesn’t matter if a group has played the game before it is different every time. When participants have familiarity and comfort with the structure of the game itself they are more willing to push their comfort zone with the questions at hand.

References:

Variations on the “Have You Ever” activity are referenced in many publications; I first ran across it in Karl Rohnke and Steve Butler’s Quicksilver, 1995 Project Adventure/ Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Patrick Torrey contributed a reflective variation of a similar game “All My Neighbors Who” in the 2005 book A Teachable Moment-Cain, Cummings & Stanchfield.

This is a follow up on a popular post from last fall that offered ways to actively engage learners in the classroom, boardroom, training or group counseling setting.

Research on the brain and learning emphasizes the importance of breaking up lecture and direct instruction with activities that involve learners socially, emotionally and physically as well as intellectually. Getting learners away from their desks and moving helps them engage more readily and retain lessons longer (Willis, 2010, Sousa, 2006, Medina, 2008).

Here is another favorite activity I have been using to “break up” lecture sessions and get participants moving, reviewing and reflecting:

Many group facilitators and educators use the well known “get to know you” game Have You Ever? as a way to build rapport and an understanding of commonalities in group team-building sessions. This game is known by many names and has many variations. I first learned it from Karl Rohnke (Quicksilver by Karl Rohnke and Steve Butler, 1995).

Have you Ever? is very popular and used in a variety of settings because it is fun, interactive and easy to play. Participants tend to “buy into it” because there is choice and control built into the game (i.e. participants can choose whether they move when a question is asked).

• In the original “commonalities” or “get-to-know you” version of the game, the facilitator provides a spot marker for every person in a circle on the floor.
• Traditionally one person stands in middle.
• They ask a question such as “Have you Ever Flown a Kite?”
• Then anyone who has flown a kite leaves their spot and tries to find a new one.
• Someone new ends up in the middle and asks another question of the group sharing something about themselves and looking for commonalities with other group members.

You can increase involvement in this activity when you acknowledge that participants who are more introverted can sometimes find this game fear-inducing. When some people are put on the spot to come up with a question they can experience enough of a stress overload to actually decrease cognitive engagement (Willis, 2010- Perry, 2009).

• I add more opportunity for choice & control within the game by providing a buzzword such as “Bananas” that group members in the middle can use if they can’t think of a question to ask.  When this buzzword is used everyone has to move.
• Or, as my colleague Michelle Cummings once suggested don’t have a middle spot at all. Instead provide a “blank spot” or alternative color spot for the question asking spot.

I have come to prefer this version of the game because the question asker can see the whole group and no one has his or her back to half of the group circle.

Lately I have been re-purposing this activity for reflection and academic review. With some variations, Have You Ever? works as a kinesthetic way to review academic material in the classroom, assess a group’s knowledge around a subject, pre-teach, or jumpstart a group discussion. I have used it effectively in the classroom, training programs and team-building sessions as an active way to engage a group in dialogue and reflection.

To re-purpose the Have You Ever? game into an academic review or reflection activity:

• Change the question from Have You Ever? to Anyone Who…
• In this version the person on the “questioning” spot asks a review or reflection question about the experience or topic at hand.
• For processing or reflection group members pose reflective statements about an experience such as: “Anyone who had fun today” “Anyone who tried something new” “Anyone who stepped up as a leader “ etc.
• For academic review you can prepare relevant questions on an index card such as: “Anyone who knows the capital of Canada”, “Anyone who knows the freezing temperature of water” “Anyone who knows what happened at the Alamo?” etc.
• There are a number of ways to share the questions and answers in the game. The person who ends up on the questioning spot could share the answer when they arrive there, or they could ask for input from others who moved.
• I have participants design the rules of the game in a way that works best for their group.

I have found Anyone Who can be a great way to start a dialogue about reactions to a reading assignment or to review material right after a lecture or direct instruction. This can be a method for assessing knowledge of a subject within a group, or as a technique to introduce a subject prior to a lesson or group experience.

Whether you are a classroom teacher, college professor, corporate trainer or counselor you will find that incorporating movement into your lessons and discussions can increase engagement and help learners better retain and synthesize information from your lessons. Activities that were originally created as ice-breakers can be easily re-purposed for review and reflection. Hopefully this variation will inspire you to think of ways in which some of your own favorite activities could be re-invented as active review methods.

References:

Variations on the “Have You Ever” activity are referenced in many publications; I first ran across it in Karl Rohnke and Steve Butler’s Quicksilver, 1995 Project Adventure/ Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Patrick Torrey contributed a reflective variation of a similar game “All My Neighbors Who” in the 2005 book A Teachable Moment-Cain, Cummings & Stanchfield.

Resources on the Brain and Learning:

Medina, John. (2008). Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

Ratey, John. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York: Little Brown and Company.

Sousa, David. (2006). How the Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Willis, Judy. (2006). Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

I was working with a 2nd grade classroom in Middleton, Wisconsin, helping a teacher implement community building activities in her classroom.

Early in the session I used the “partner choice/which one” scenario for dividing the class up into teams in preparation for a game of Play dough Pictionary (see November 23rd entry).

I had them imagine they were at the circus and seeking out cotton candy. After waiting in line for the cotton candy they found that there was only one blue and one pink cotton candy left at the stand. The students had to decide who would get which one… One pair of students started arguing rather intensely about who should get the blue. Everyone else was ready to move on.

Instead of intervening directly with the students who were arguing. I decided to get everyone’s attention for a moment and ask a pair of students who had decided to share how they came to their decision to the group. One of the students shared: “Well, we both wanted the pink cotton candy, but I am okay with blue AND I wanted to find out what you are going to have us do with those spots and the play dough, so I let her have the pink one.”  Immediately the undecided pair looked at each other and quickly came to agreement.

At that point the student’s teacher and I took a few minutes to talk about the meaning of “compromise” and why we sometimes let go of our first choice to make things work for the group and ourselves. We moved on to the other cooperative activities we had planned for the day and forgot about the conversation.

That evening the teacher called me to tell me that a few hours after I left the students were lining up for lunch when a squabble erupted about who’s turn it was to lead the line to the cafeteria. Just as she was going to intervene, a little voice from the back of the line said: “You know guys, this is just like the cotton candy. We all just want to get to lunch.” This ended the squabble immediately- without adult intervention.

Sometimes the simple exercises we engage students in have more of an effect than we realize. Over my years working with groups I have noticed that some of the best “successes” in teaching come by accident; or the most profound lessons can come from the seemingly “less important” activities you engage a group in rather than the intense problem- solving lesson you carefully designed for the group.

Think about those “simple” opportunities you can weave into the day to day activities you plan for your group that practice these important life skills…

Reference: Tips & Tools for the Art of Experiential Group Facilitation. Jennifer Stanchfield. 2007: Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing.

The Disappearance of Neighborhood Games of Kick-the Can, Part Two: Strategies for Helping Participants of All Ages Learn Through Play.

In Monday’s post I mentioned that I had observed a trend of children and adolescents missing out the development of important social & emotional skills because of a lack of time for “free play” without adult intervention.

I believe we can intentionally bring some opportunities for this kind of peer-to-peer learning and conflict resolution practice in our structured settings such as school, camp, and other recreational programs. When I work with people of all ages in experiential team building programs I purposefully create situations/opportunities for participants to practice coming to agreement on the rules of the game, a team name, a team symbol etc. I use methods that involve pairs and then groups making simple choices together and work up to practicing consensus.

Here is one of my favorite simple strategies for helping learners of any age practice these important skills:

Which one? Partner Decision Making Method for Dividing Into Teams: This activity came from my time teaching in Stevens Point, Wisconsin School District’s Experiential Education program. I started getting bored with the old counting off “1-2″ method of dividing students into teams or groups for a project or activity. I discovered through experimenting with this new method that I had found a fun and engaging way to divide into groups or teams for an activity or classroom project while at the same time helping participant’s practice communication, decision- making, consensus, making a compromise with peers.

Directions:

• Have everyone find a partner.  In many situations a student will often pick a buddy you would rather they are separated from. This is fine, even preferable, because they will be splitting up soon. This method of dividing honors their need to partner with a friend because it gives the friends something to do together before they split up.
• Present a hypothetical situation with two choices. For example: “Imagine it is summer and the two of you are near a river. You want to play on the river, but the only boats available are a kayak and a one-person canoe. Which one of you will take the kayak, and which the canoe? Or: You are at an ice cream stand and the freezer has broken down, there is only one cone of chocolate, one of cookie dough. Who gets which? Cookie dough’s become one team, chocolates the other. Other scenarios I have used: cotton candy flavors, roller blades or skateboards, toboggan or saucer sled etc.

Over the year’s I have noticed that kids of all ages have bought into this method of dividing teams without “pre-arranging” themselves the way participants often do with the old 1,2 count off method. I think it could be because they get to have the connection with their friend first- you are honoring their need to pair with who they are comfortable first before sending them apart.

It can be surprising how intense the discussions and negotiations around these imaginary decisions can be!

I have had many teachers report how they have appreciated this simple exercise for helping practice and reinforce conflict resolution, positive decision- making and the idea of compromising-coming to consensus. Adult participants share that they enjoy the sense of connection and humor from sharing and making decisions about these hypothetical scenarios.

Reference: Tips & Tools for the Art of Experiential Group Facilitation. Jennifer Stanchfield, Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing 2007

Middleton School District Experiential Education Curriculum; Jennifer Stanchfield, 2001

I started realizing this might be influenced by the fact that many students in today’s society don’t have the opportunity to engage in the unsupervised free play with peers that many of us who are now adults did during our childhood.

Our society is becoming increasingly isolative.  Children aren’t out playing pickup games of kickball or kick the can in their neighborhoods during free time after school, or on summer evenings as they once did. Parents are often fearful about letting kids play and roam the neighborhood on their own.

Children and adolescents participate in a great deal of solo video and computer games. Most often children’s group recreation these days involves team sports, clubs, and after school programs led by adults. There is obviously great value in structured team and after school programs, and a benefit to having excellent adult role models in these programs who positively impact students.

A downside of this shift is that kid’s are not gaining the important skills that are learned from interaction with peer only groups without adult intervention. They miss out on opportunities to practice being flexible and making compromises with each other in order to make a game work and learning that play is not always “getting their way” or winning. In peer only activities kids gain valuable experience in coming to consensus on the rules of play, decision-making, and developing social skills around communication and conflict resolution.

I remember as a kid having many opportunities for unstructured play in our neighborhood; pickup games of all kinds filled our summer days and after-school hours. Arguments about who was “it” or who won inevitably arose, but we figured out ways to work it out ourselves rather than interrupt the game to run home and get an adult to decide for us. It appears that in modern society with less participation in peer-only play, kids are missing out on opportunities to gain conflict resolution, problem solving and group communication skills. We can help students gain these skills by providing opportunities within our adult led structured programs to practice decision making and communication on their own.

After observing this trend in students I work with,  I started intentionally focusing on implementing activities that practice the use of decision-making by consensus. I purposefully create situations and opportunities that allow students to practice coming to agreement on the rules of the game, a team name, a team symbol etc. I use methods that involve pairs and then groups making simple choices together and work up to practicing group consensus. This a valuable practice for groups of all ages.

In the next few days I will post some of my favorite activities and strategies for helping learners practice these important skills. Please share your thoughts about the changes in the patterns of play, the value of “free play” and strategies you have found useful in helping students learn and practice these valuable life skills within structured programs.