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?