Student/Staff Snowball Fight

The snow may be melting outside but snowballs abound inside with this getting-to-know you activity.  I’ve used this in the classroom but it makes for a great ice-breaker at staff meetings.

**I’ve also used this to

1. anonymously exchange creative poetry and guess the author
2. energizingly share analysis (a great alternative for the kinesthetic learner) <
3. review for a quiz (I’ll have paper balls prepared ahead of time and give each student one; students must match answers to questions).

Snowball Fight

~ Each student is given a blank sheet of paper.

~ The teacher asks each student to write something such as the following on his/her paper:

• Share something about yourself that nobody in the room knows.
• Share a significant moment that touched your life as a student last year (or last semester).

~ The whole group is divided into two equal groups that stand in two single-file lines facing each other; individuals crumple their papers into a paper balls or snowball.

~ At the teacher’s signal, the groups throw their paper balls or at each other.

~ Students pick up the “snowballs” that land near them and throw them at others; they continue to keep the fight going until the teacher calls time.

~ Everyone picks up a paper ball, unravels it, and tries to find the person in the room to whom it belongs.  Once they locate that person, they engage in conversation about the information on the paper.  This is the part that can get a little loud, and the teacher may have to remind the students to use quieter, conversational tone to begin their productive sharings.  Usually, they’re so energized from the event, that they comply rather quickly.

~ Once rightful owners of paper balls have been identified and conversation takes place for approximately 5 – 10 minutes, the class meets as a whole group again.  The teacher may ask questions such as the following:

• What did you learn from this activity?
• What clues did you use to find the person who matched your paper ball?

Did you find this post useful?  Please take a moment to drop a comment below.  All input and suggestions are appreciated!

**adapted from ENGAGING STAFF MEETINGS BY Eller & Eller

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Carouseling in the Classroom

My sister-in-law just started teaching a course at the university level and asked me for classroom engagement ideas.  Here is the first activity I thought of as this is a highly energizing way to generate information.  This gets maximum participation in the classroom and can easily be utilized in any group setting.

I’ve used this to generate evidence of themes, arguments for debates, examples of standards, interpretations of poetry, etc. Here is how the basic concept works:

Carouseling

~ Divide the class into small teams.

~ The teams are assigned a task that must be completed within 8 – 10 minutes.  Their work should be recorded on a chart that is stationed at locations throughout the room.

~ At the end of the time, ask the groups to designate one “traveler.”

~ The traveler will move to the other teams.  The stayers will stay at their charts and explain the work that their team accomplished.  The travelers will listen to the stayers’ explanations, and then add the information to their own chart.

~ Normally, the travelers move clockwise and remain at the new station until you give the signal.  (2 – 3 min)

~ Continue the 2 – 3 minute timed sessions, with travelers rotating until they’ve visited all groups and returned to their own.

~ Once the rotation is complete, have each group take turns sharing with the whole class what they learned during the process.

**adapted from ENGAGING STAFF MEETINGS by Eller & Eller

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All Together Now . . . Don’t Be Altogether Confused

This particular prickly pair of words gets my students pondering.

 

 

All Together Vs. Altogether

A.  All Together means:

1.  at the same time

One, two, three, all together, sing: “Sweeeeet Caroline, bum, bum, bum . . . .”

2. as a group

Let’s go to hot yoga all together: it’s much more fun that way and I can laugh at you guys trying to balance!

B.  Altogether means:

1. completely

Tyler didn’t take his dog to the vet to put her to sleep until she was altogether listless and lifeless.  He kept saying that she was okay, and it was very sad.

2. total

The books that shipped today were 130 copies of Great Expectations, 50 copies of “Romeo & Juliet,” and 30 copies of The Odyssey:  210 copies altogether.

3. considering everything

Altogether, it was a fabulous trip, despite the painful sun poisoning on my feet. . . .

GG mnemonic (memory trick):  remember that all together – because it’s two separate words – is the one that needs to get into a group and get in sync. This associates the meaning with the spelling to help you remember which of these words is which.

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How Well Do You Self-Monitor?

I give the following survey to my speech students at the beginning of the semester, prefacing our initial discussion of the communication process.  Try this for yourself and then, perhaps, give this to your students.  You can tally your results below!

How Well Do You Self-Monitor?

True or False

1.      _______            I find it hard to imitate the behavior of other people.
2.      _______            I guess I do put on a show to impress or entertain people.
3.      _______            I would probably make a good actor or actress.
4.      _______            I sometimes appear to be experiencing deeper emotions than I truly am.
5.      _______            In a group of people, I rarely am the center of attention.
6.      _______            In different situations and with different people, I often act very differently.
7.      _______            I can argue only for ideas I already believe in.
8.      _______            To be liked, I tend to be what people expect of me rather than who I am.
9.      _______            I may deceive people by being friendly when I really dislike them.
10.    ______               I am always the person I appear to be.

Scoring: For questions 1, 5, and 7 give yourself 1 point if you answered False.  For the rest of the questions, give yourself 1 point if you answered true.

Add up your points: 7 and above = high self-monitoring;      3 or below = low self-monitoring

Self-monitoring is observing and regulating one’s own behavior.

Some people – like models, politicians, actors – are very aware of the effects of their appearance and behavior.  They regulate themselves to an extreme degree, and are considered high monitors.  Other people seem to have no sense at all of how they appear to other people or what effects their behavior has.  They are considered low monitors.

Most people are somewhere in the middle.  Some self-monitoring ability is definitely preferable to none.  It is healthy and shows that you recognize the importance of other people.

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Move Your Memory

1.  To memorize lists, use acronyms.  For instance, to remember the names of the Great Lakes, think of HOMES:  Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.  NEVER EAT SOUR WATERMELON will help you remember the four directions:  north, east, south, west.  ROY G. BIV will help you remember the colors of the rainbow:  red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

2.  To memorize long numbers, divide them. Divide them into a series of smaller numbers and try to crate associations for that number.  For instance, 183,332,310 becomes 18 (the “legal” age), 333 (3 three’s!), 23 (Ryne Sandberg’s #), and 10 (your curfew?).

3.  To remember dates, associate them.  Associate them with dates you already know.  For instance, November 30th might be four days after your birthday; November 25 is Christmas Day except a month earlier.  The year 1519 can be remembered as the ages of two people you know.  (of course, this will only work for a year!)

More GG Memorizing Tips →

~ Rhyme it!! “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.”

~ Speak it!! To memorize my Human Anatomy notes back in college, I used to read them aloud.  It worked – I earned some of the highest scores in the class (and the class was full of pre-meds!)

~ Hear it!! Record yourself reading your notes and listen to them before you go to sleep.

~ Type it!! Type all your notes on your smart phone or computer.  Just typing will cause you to think about them, and you’ll remember the material longer.

~ Post it!! Put everything on Post-It notes and stick them where you’ll see them ALL the time.

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You’re Wearing My Color

It’s winter and we could all use a little more color to brighten our day . . . yes, even my West Coast friends!  Just as the sun affects our moods, gazing at, wearing or surrounding ourselves with certain colors evokes different feelings.  Check out my post on Colorstrology for details on the intriguing belief that we are connected to certain colors based on our birthdays.

We use color to distinguish between teams (Go Blue and Silver!), to hide pounds, to accentuate curves, to decorate rooms, to mark occasions.  Just as I can’t imagine a world without music, a world without color would be a world with less smiles.

Advertisers, marketers, actors and musicians strategically use color to evoke a response from their audiences.  As a semester opener for my communication classes, I ask my students to answer the following questions about colors.  There are no right or wrong answers but these spawn thought and discussion as to how we can subtly use color to evoke desired responses when conveying messages.  I give students slips of paper with a different color labeled on each.  They answer the questions below according to their given color.

It’s your turn.  Pick a color, any color, and replace the X with that color.  Complete the rest of the sentence with that color in mind.

Color Questionnaire

1. The personality of a person whose favorite color is X may best be described as ____________________, ____________________ and ____________________.
2. The personality of a person who has an extreme dislike for X may best be described as ____________________, _________________, and _______________________.
3. When I visualize X, my thoughts and feelings can best be described as:  ___________________________, ______________________, and __________________________________.
4. My first impression of a book whose cover is X is that the book is _________________________________.
5. My first impression of a woman who wears X a great deal is that the woman is ________________________.
6. My first impression of a man who wears X a great deal is that the man is ___________________________.

Color for thought:
~Do certain colors appear masculine (or communicate masculinity in some way) and certain colors appear feminine (or communicate femininity in some way)?

~Which colors would you categorize as masculine?  Why?

~Which colors would you categorize as feminine?  Why?

What colors would you use to communicate the following feelings and characteristics?  Why?

a.  Friendliness

b. Hostility

c. Warmth

d. Sex appeal

e. Love

f. Satisfaction

g. Anger

h. Strength

i. Weakness

j. Happiness

What colors would you use to package the following products?  Why?

a.  a new and powerful detergent

b. an expensive line of chocolate chip cookies

c. an extremely powerful personal computer

d. a mild liquid laxative

e. an expensive gold watch

GG’s reflection questions:

How universal do you think the impressions that people get from various colors are?  For example, do men and women get the same impressions on the basis of color?  Would young and old derive the same impressions?  Would members of different cultures?

Comment your responses.  This is fun!

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How Well Do Your Friends Really Know You?

Self-Disclosure – A Reality Check!!!

How much of your personal hopes, desires, feelings, and fears do you share with your friends?  Are you comfortable to be your true self with your friends? What do you hold inside?  What do you let anyone and everyone know? We may be surprised and touched by how much our friends really have us pegged for who we really are, cognizant of our intimate wishes and desires. On the other side of the coin, we may be shocked at how little we truly reveal, only assuming they know what our true feelings are when, in actuality,  we put up a facade.

I am ecstatic I’ll be teaching three speech communication classes this semester!  It’s my dream schedule!!!  As part of the interpersonal unit for these classes, I ask my students to give the following set of questions to a friend.  The answers they come back with are always eye-opening as to how well we communicate interpersonally.

Truth time.  Give these questions to a friend and have him/her respond as he/she feels you would answer the questions.  In other words, he should pretend to be you when he answers these.    Once you have your friend’s responses, ponder over the reflections listed below.  How much do you disclose?  Moreover, how accurately do you disclose?

FRIEND COMPLETES THESE QUESTIONS PRETENDING TO BE YOU:

1. How do I feel when I am in a new group of strangers?
2. What does it take courage for me to do?
3. When someone ignores me, how do I feel?
4. What is one thing that I really like about myself?
5. How satisfied am I with my role in school?  With my role at home?  With my role in our friendship?
6. How do I see the future of our friendship?
7. What do I spend a lot of time thinking about?
8. Of what am I most afraid?
9. What about you irritates me?  (remember, here your friend is trying to guess what irritates you about him)
10. What do I appreciate about you?

ONCE YOUR FRIEND RESPONDS TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS, HERE ARE SOME POINTS TO PONDER:

1. Based on how your friend responded to these questions, what aspects of yourself do you tend to disclose most fully?
2. What kind of information are you unlikely to disclose?
3. Did any of your friend’s responses surprise you?
4. Were there any situations in which your friend knew less about you than you expected?
5. Were there any situations in which your friend knew more about you than you expected?

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Test How Well You Summarize & Infer

I’m in the midst of creating my final exam for sophomore reading students.  This semester, we focused heavily on summarizing and inferring as that is a school-wide goal.  The exam is not complete but here’s a peek at some of the questions I’m including so far.  Each question refers to either the summarize or infer strategy:

( All readers . . . take this to test your reading skills!!  Answers are on the bottom.  No peeking!)

1. To summarize nonnarrative nonfiction text, all of these are used, EXCEPT

a.  check first and last sentence.

b.  examine repeated words and synonyms.

c.  group details in categories.

d.  identify the plot.

2. You should use _________ from the text to infer.

a.  questions

b.  expositions

c.  pages

d.  clues

3.  A theme is

a.  the beginning of the story.

b.  the exposition.

c.  the author’s message.

d.  individual vs. society

4.  To summarize narrative fiction text, you should

a.  read captions, bold worlds, and headings.

b.  identify the plot.

c.  read the first and last sentence.

d.  read the entire book.

5.  Authors leave clues for readers

a. in the first and last sentence.

b.  throughout the text.

c.  in the pictures and graphics.

d.  on the front and back cover.

6.  How does knowing the conflicts in the story help you understand the theme?

a.  It keeps the reader interested.

b.  It helps identify the plot.

c.  It helps focus the reader’s attention on what is important.

d.  It makes the characters seem real.

7.  While inferring it is important to

a.  think about one type of inference at a time.

b.  look for all types of inferences at the same time.

c.  highlight all of the text clues.

d.  pay attention to all of the bold words.

8.  Which is a true statement about summarizing?

a.  Predicting helps summarizing

b.  Readers summarize as they read.

c.  Most paragraphs have a key point.

d.  All of the above

9.  ___________ is an example of a theme.

a.  True friends stick together.

b.  Forgive your friend if he does wrong.

c.  Good always overcomes the bad.

d.  All of the above

10.  Summarizing helps a reader

a.  create a conceptual image.

b.  preview the text.

c.  understand the author’s purpose.

d.  select the next book to read.

11.  What do readers think about that helps them identify the theme?

a.  Plot

b.  Characters

c.  Conflicts

d.  All of the above

12.  What is the most important thing a reader should do with the words an author repeats?

a.  Look for them before reading.

b.  Combine them in a sentence.

c.  Look for synonyms.

d.  Notice how the author uses them and/or what the author says about them

Answers:  1. d, 2. d, 3. c, 4. b, 5. b, 6. b, 7. b, 8. d, 9. d, 10. a, 11.d, 12. d

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I May “Loose” My Mind

I may “loose” my mind if I read one more misspelling of “lose.”  I recently spotted it on a tweet, in an online newspaper article, on a real estate blog, and on a student’s paper.  It’s everywhere – even in professionally edited material.  The right ring finger must fly the swiftest on the keyboard.

Lose Vs. Loose

A Bonobos ape on the loose and a Dallas Cowboys quarterback who rarely loses provide perfect examples of the difference between lose and loose.

“Lose” is a verb. You can lose your wallet or lose a game. I lose inhibitions every day when I try one new scary thing.  Paul Simon even thought of fifty ways to lose a lover.

If you’re playing Blink (the world’s fastest, most fun game!) and your opponent is winning, that means you’re losing. You’re not loosing!! No matter how uneven the card piles, you can take comfort from the fact that you’re never, ever loosing a game–unless the cards are stuck in a tree branch after a tornado and you’re knocking them loose.

You can be a winner or a loser. But you’re only looser if you just stretched out at the gym.

“Loose” is sometimes a verb and more often an adjective and, increasingly, a pain in the neck to proofreaders, editors, and perfectionist grammar geeks like myself.

You have loose change in your pocket. Loose clothes don’t fit well.  If you’re loosing chaos on the world, you’re wreaking havoc. You’re only losing chaos if your girlfriend’s name is Chaos and she wants to break up.

With all this misuse, I’m curious about pronunciation. Are there people who learned to read phonetically who see a phrase such as “loose change” and hear in their heads the pronunciation for “lose change”? For the moment, at least:

“Loose” rhymes with the end of caboose.
“Lose” rhymes with muse.

So please, please, don’t let your finger fing that extra o.  GG may lose her mind!! 

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Hot Headlines

Want a quick way to review parts of speech? Have students do this as soon as they enter the classroom.  I use nouns here but you can easily adapt this to other parts of speech.  This will get them engaged and bustling instantly; and, it won’t take long to complete.

Before class, tape three front pages of newspapers (preferably color for appeal) at three different points of your blackboard so that you leave a ‘trail’ of paper for your students to follow.

Circle (in a bold color) the headlines and sub-headings.

On the board, mark the pages #1 Start here, #2 Do this next, and #3 End here

As students enter, have them bring their notebooks and pens with them to the board.  They are to write down all the nouns they find in the highlighted headlines and sub-headings.  (have these instructions written to the left of the first article)

Once they list their nouns, they should label them abstract or concrete.

When they return to their seats, compare how many nouns they each found.  This lends itself to a discussion of “the transformers” of our language, a.k.a. the fickle ones that are different parts of speech For example, win can be a verb as in “Despite the odds, the Cowboys need to win so they can play on their home turf for the Super Bowl.”  Win can also be a noun as in “The Cowboys need a win because they truly are a better team than their 1-4 record shows.”

Now the fun begins.  Ask which nouns are abstract.  Perhaps place a scale on the board with C (concrete) on the left and A (abstract) on the right.  For each individual word in question, ask them at one point on the scale each is.  Many words will initiate some interesting discussions.  For example, just how concrete is the word win?  It is not something we can physically touch yet can it be measured or quantified?

Bonus:  Pick articles that pertain to the current unit of study.  Sadly, most of our students don’t read the newspaper so this is a great way to sneak it in.

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