Starting with Style: Activities Create a Positive Learning Environment

January 21st, 2009 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Teachers' Corner

Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from Stanchfield’s book, Tips & Tools: the Art of Experiential Group Facilitation. (2007) Wood ‘N’ Barnes Publishing, Oklahoma City.

Introductory activities create a positive environment, enhance performance, and set the tone for the rest of the lessons. Taking time up front for the group to get comfortable and learn names will pay off later. The more I work with groups, I realize how powerful some of the simpler things we do as educators can be. An engaging opening activity designed to get the group interacting and sharing names, backgrounds, and goals in an intriguing way can really maximize the outcome of group process.

Importance of Names
A key ingredient for creating a positive environment is to help group members know and use each other’s names from the very beginning of class. Even in settings where you would assume people know each other’s names already, they actually don’t, or sometimes with youth, are not using and honoring each other’s names in a respectful way. Name activities can help groups not only practice names, but also explore the concepts of connecting with others, honoring individual strengths and personalities, and showing respect.

Name Roulette
I learned this kinesthetic activity from my colleagues Jim Grout and Karl Rohnke at High 5 (Rohnke & Grout, 1998).

Facilitation Suggestions:

• Divide participants into two groups and have them form side-by-side circles.
• Place an object between the two circles that acts as a marker.
• Have both circles of participants shuffle left or right while facing the center of their circles – no looking over their shoulders.
• When you say stop, the two participants who are at the marker have to turn around and name the person they are now facing. Whoever names the other person first captures that person onto their team and the captive must join that circle.

The value in this activity is that, when presented with this challenge, participants will study up on each other’s names. Give teams a few minutes at the start to review the other team’s names together.

Tags: kinesthetic, learnining community