Teacher Activity 3

Confidence Building

The following activities have been designed as introductory exercises to highlight the importance of effective communication within group discussions. These exercises are aimed at developing the confidence of shyer students who may contribute in smaller groups, but tend to keep quiet in larger groups.

Group discussions can be very intimidating for some students especially when they are working with people that they don’t know. There are always a couple of students who revel in the limelight being very domineering and those who don’t utter a word. These exercises will encourage everyone to participate.

Allow about 5 minutes for this exercise.

Sit the students in a circle. Each person in the circle is only allowed to say one word. The teacher will give a general theme as to what the story will be about such as; The worst day of Jog Blogg’s life; The best thing that ever happened to Jog Bloggs. The story must have a clear start, middle and end. The aim is not so much on the content but that everyone must contribute and that each word is vital to the story.

This exercise is a good ‘ice-breaker’ and will easily emphasis the importance of listening skills and everyone contributing.

Small groups work together to produce a poster of outcomes of a discussion. Having to do this focuses attention on a clear goal. At the end of the discussion each group of students ‘tour’ the posters with one member of each group staying by their poster to answer any questions. Next to each group, should be a blank poster where each group can add comments, questions and positive criticisms.