Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Beth Cougler Blom -
Number of replies: 9

Hi all,

Tracy Roberts from BCcampus and I are about to start designing the lesson plan for our workshop called "Facilitation Activities to Energize Your Workshop", that we'll be teaching for Royal Roads University next year. It is a one-day in person workshop that is offered through Continuing Studies. Tracy has given me permission to talk about what we're doing here and we're looking forward to your ideas about metacognitive activities that we can include.

The course's description and learning outcomes are this:

This one-day workshop will explore a variety of activities for your facilitator toolbox that help build trust with participants and respond to energy highs and lows. Learn opening activities that help set the tone, closing activities that help a group finish strong, and in-between activities that support transitions and tricky moments.

Learning outcomes:

Experience a variety of activities and methods for opening, closing and supporting

String energy-related activities together with other activities and processes in an effective manner

Plan for and respond to energy highs and lows


After reading through some of the materials in the resources in this course, I've brainstormed a few potential metacognitive activities that we could include in the workshop. (Maybe not all of them but one or more.) They are:

  • Participant-generated questions: Ask participants to write a question about how to do something - either something we have already talked about or something else they are wondering about - and write it on a piece of paper. Mix up the papers and re-distribute them around the room. Give people time in groups to try to answer the questions.

  • One sentence summary: Ask participants to each summarize a key knowledge point from the day in one sentence. Have them share it on a whiteboard so we can see everyone’s at the end of the session

  • Pre- and post-assessments: Ask participants at the beginning of the day to write down three things that they already know about managing a group’s energy. Ask them at the end of the day to return to that list and review it, either revising it or adding to it three more things.

  • Free writing: At some point during the day give participants ten or more minutes to “free write” about the concepts we are exploring. Not just what they are thinking in their head but what they are feeling in their body. Give them several prompts to think about for this exercise, such as:

    • What have you experienced or explored today that you already knew?

    • What was new to you?

    • What would you still like to explore about this topic?

    • What new actions will you take when designing your own events based on what you have learned so far today?

    • How have you been helping yourself learn throughout today?


The really interesting thing about thinking about metacognitive activities to include is that I think these activities can also be "win wins" for the topic of our workshop, that is some of the activities could actually be grounding activities to change a group's energy to a more reflective state than a high energized one.

I'm open to any suggestions about these or other potential, better "micro" activities that you think might support both metacognition and allow us teachable moments about a group's energy in general. Thanks!



In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Heather Smith -

Hi Beth -- first of all please say hi to Tracy for me! She was up at UNBC a few times and we sure enjoyed having her there every time she joined us. 

One suggestion I have, early in the workshop, maybe after your initial pre-assessment is to build on that pre-assessment by asking participants to generate a list of their experiences with 'energy-related activities'. So...what were the activities? How did they respond (as well as they can recall) to the activities? Were there activities that worked better for them than others and why? 

As a facilitator, that gives you tons of information and gives you a sense of the participants' experiences and preferences. This activity also gets them thinking about the why and how of the strategies. 

It sounds like a dynamic and fun course!

Cheers - Heather 

In reply to Heather Smith

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Thanks for this advice to deepen that activity Heather, I appreciate it! I'll let Tracy know that we've crossed paths, you and I, in this course. ;-)

In reply to Heather Smith

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Neil Davison -

Heather, i like this idea you propose, it gets participants focusing on why they came and what they bring to the table, not just drifting in to be energized by the facilitator.


Neil


In reply to Neil Davison

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Neil your phrase "not just drifting in to be energized by the facilitator" gave me real food for thought! Thanks.

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Doug Strable -

Hello Beth, 

The word trust stood out for me in the course description. I like the pre- and post group activity and believe it will build immediate trust at the beginning of the day.   Recognizing the tactic knowledge contained in the class shows respect for previous knowledge and that the new learning will add to this. 

I always liked how our course instructor challenged us at the beginning of the course with the question,  If you were to design the lesson what would you include?  Then at the end of the class, we would compare the list.  This type of question did get us to think about our thinking!

Doug 





In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Viviana Chiorean -

Hi Beth,

That sounds like a very interesting and fun workshop! The one activity that sparked my interest was:

Participant - generated questions. I feel that this activity combines both introvert (written on paper) and extrovert (answering as a group) components and keeps the participants engaged in ways that are meaningful to them. This can certainly raise the motivation and "energy" in the room. Best of luck!

Viviana  


In reply to Viviana Chiorean

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Thanks for heightening my awareness to that introvert/extrovert piece Viviana!


In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Activity 2: Beth and Tracy's "energize" course

by Neil Davison -

Beth

I find that one sentence summaries tend to get a bit samey after a while, inspirational and left-field responses aside - but perhaps the session topic could overcome this.

I like the free writing exercise and the question you pose - perhaps throw it out there during the post lunch slump, around 2:15pm? Grounding the energy, using the natural slide to take it down a notch.

I would like have seen a peer to peer activity but that might just need to simply be encouraged in some of the existing activities. Using the room to get each other thinking before you have to?


Neil