I stumbled upon this course organised by the Social Service Institute and I attended a 2-day workshop conducted by Ms Caroline Essame. You can read more about the course overview here. I had to go for this because it seems so helpful for my planning of the PAL lessons. To find out more about PAL, please click here.
There was a balance of theory and practical sessions during the workshop. The participants consist of people from various social service sectors. We worked individually to collaborative play and finally we have case studies where we do role play. We randomly picked a note that states the roles we are supposed to play and I was assigned the role of a social worker. My task was to work with 4 clients (my group members) whom each of them has different specific needs. It was exhausting at the end of the session! My group member were fully immersed in their roles and it was hard to get everyone to be on task.
In one of the activities, Ms Essame gave each of us a randomise unknown number to hold up against our foreheads. The numbers are only visible to other participants. Since there were 20 of us, she instructed us to guess our own number at the end of the activity using non-verbal language. We were to told to assume that the person holding the number 1 was the most noble and respected and the number 20 was the most undesirable. So, it works like a number cline. Of course the activity begins by seeing a number of participants bowing, smiling and waving to a lady, needless to say, she was holding a #1 and more participants flocked towards her. As the activity continues, we saw a man holding #20, some shoo-ed him away or just brushed him aside. The more "dramatic" participants pretend to spit when they see him approaching.
When the activity ends, Ms Essame facilitated the session by asking all of us to stand in line according to what we thought our number was. She went one at a time and asked how we felt and to give the reason why we chose to stand in a particular position in the line. #1 was no brainer because of the treatment the lady received. She said that at one point she felt really good because everyone treated her so well so she thought she must be #1 even though she had no idea what her number was. The participants whose numbers falls in the middle range didn't receive much reactions and they were very much ignored. When we finally come to the man who received a #20, he had a very interesting comment. He was very sure of his number because of the responses he had received. At one point, he claimed that since he knew he could not change his number and the unkind treatment he had received, he decided to "scare" other people by approaching them because at least he felt powerful by having some sense of control to cause others to recoil in fear.
It was really interesting to hear from everyone. We also reflected about our own practices after this activity. This simple and effective activity allows us to think about the class dynamics in general. Typically, the class would consists of teacher pleaser, class clown etc so to keep them in mind, teachers can engage them more effectively.
There was a balance of theory and practical sessions during the workshop. The participants consist of people from various social service sectors. We worked individually to collaborative play and finally we have case studies where we do role play. We randomly picked a note that states the roles we are supposed to play and I was assigned the role of a social worker. My task was to work with 4 clients (my group members) whom each of them has different specific needs. It was exhausting at the end of the session! My group member were fully immersed in their roles and it was hard to get everyone to be on task.
In one of the activities, Ms Essame gave each of us a randomise unknown number to hold up against our foreheads. The numbers are only visible to other participants. Since there were 20 of us, she instructed us to guess our own number at the end of the activity using non-verbal language. We were to told to assume that the person holding the number 1 was the most noble and respected and the number 20 was the most undesirable. So, it works like a number cline. Of course the activity begins by seeing a number of participants bowing, smiling and waving to a lady, needless to say, she was holding a #1 and more participants flocked towards her. As the activity continues, we saw a man holding #20, some shoo-ed him away or just brushed him aside. The more "dramatic" participants pretend to spit when they see him approaching.
When the activity ends, Ms Essame facilitated the session by asking all of us to stand in line according to what we thought our number was. She went one at a time and asked how we felt and to give the reason why we chose to stand in a particular position in the line. #1 was no brainer because of the treatment the lady received. She said that at one point she felt really good because everyone treated her so well so she thought she must be #1 even though she had no idea what her number was. The participants whose numbers falls in the middle range didn't receive much reactions and they were very much ignored. When we finally come to the man who received a #20, he had a very interesting comment. He was very sure of his number because of the responses he had received. At one point, he claimed that since he knew he could not change his number and the unkind treatment he had received, he decided to "scare" other people by approaching them because at least he felt powerful by having some sense of control to cause others to recoil in fear.
It was really interesting to hear from everyone. We also reflected about our own practices after this activity. This simple and effective activity allows us to think about the class dynamics in general. Typically, the class would consists of teacher pleaser, class clown etc so to keep them in mind, teachers can engage them more effectively.
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| A collaborative work around the room |
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| Things we would have learnt after an activity |
Some recommended readings
To find out more, please visit:
www.spreaker.com
www.carolineessame.com
www.suejennings.com
