Nov. 9th, 2011

dynamite_lady: (Default)
One of my groups has a bit of a communication problem. That is to say, only a small number of them are inclined to communicate, particularly when I am asking them to communicate knowledge of the topic. There's a lot of silence, and a lot of certain people's voices (nobody being particularly obnoxious - in fact one has told me he doesn't like being the most vocal person there - but those are often the only ones who feel like talking without a LOT of prodding). Last week I broke the ice a little bit by having an exercise where everyone has to speak, albeit briefly, and that loosened a few tongues.* However, it led to situations where half a dozen people started to speak, each coming out with the first part of a sentence, and the loudest got to finish what they were saying. I very rarely have a word with groups about communication and behaviour, but last week I did. (Trying to be positive - something like 'it's good that everyone is talking, let's improve on that by not all doing so at once') And the idea of something like the 'talking stick' was mooted. Now, no way am I going to let these guys wield sticks. My first thought was a tennis ball, but again, they could do a lot of damage to each other and the room with that. One student suggested a teddy bear. I am NOT carrying one of those around campus. A quick look in Poundstretcher on the way to the bus stop (I'd forgotten about it until I was travelling in today) showed a distinct lack of promise - no foam tennis balls, beanbags, nerf balls or whatever. So I picked up the next best thing - a ball of jazzy-looking yarn.**

Fortunately or otherwise, I didn't get to use it.Firstly, when we got to the classroom it was set up with rows of desks like an exam hall - not conducive to discussion even with the chattiest group. Sure, we could have moved it back to the normal setup (a rectangular table), but I decided instead to just shove the tables to the side and get the chairs in a circle. I think this helped a bit in terms of how students interacted - the absence of a large wooden barrier sometimes does that. I've used the tactic with quiet or apathetic groups before with reasonable effect. Secondly, I had the ball of yarn next to me and made a point of displaying it, giving it the title of 'weapon of mass communication' and explaining that I was going to randomly throw it at someone if there was a long silence or regulate with it if they all spoke at once.I think they may have felt that their bluff was called. I'm taking the yarn in again next week just to be on the safe side...


*Just realised I didn't blog this last week. The exercise is called 'spectrum lines' or the position game, and will be familiar to most people who've participated in a longer consensus decision-making session. Basically, each person physically takes a position on the issue at hand - in this case, lined up against the classroom wall, determinists near the door and libertarians near the window. Yes I do get up and stand in line. When used pedagogically, everyone is invited to justify their position. I'd been especially looking forward to it with this group precisely because of the silence issue.
**A bit of a waste of 99p as I have loads of those at home already, if only I'd thought of it before going out

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