Getting to know each other
Unit Objective: Upon completion of this five (maybe six) day unit, the student (and teacher) will be able to recognize the names, faces and a few facts about each person in the class. The student (and teacher) will also be able to show how, working as individuals, in pairs, on teams, and as a class, to accomplish several activities and tasks, can bring a class closer together and provide a place where learning and fun can take place.
Grading: Students will receive credit/no credit for all in-class activities and homework assignments based upon their participation and submission of paperwork. Students will receive a letter grade on their quiz at the end of this unit. The quiz grade will depend heavily on their ability to have learned each other’s names and supporting facts and information about each other.
Textbook/Resources:
Silberman, Mel (1999). 101 Ways to Make a Meeting Active: Surefire Ideas to Engage Your Group. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Stocking, S. Holly, et. al.(1998). More Quick Hits: Successful Strategies by Award-Winning Teachers. Blooming, IN: Indiana University Press.
Bonwell, Charles C., & Eison, James A. (1991). Active Learning: Creating Excitement In The Classroom. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1, Washington, D.C.: The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development.
Internet activities—various sites
Activities presented in Speech 400
–Justine Walton—“Three Truths and a Lie” Game
–Diana Jones—“Audience Analysis” Activity
–Autumn Issacs—“Accepting an Award” Activity
–Megan O’Byrne—“Speech of Introduction” Activity
–Heidi Braden—“Tell Me About Yourself” Speech
Supplies for Whole Unit:
Day One: Poster Board (cut 12×18), enough for each student to have one, Magazines, Glue (glue sticks work best), Bean Bag/Soft Ball, Handouts—“Getting To Know You Handout”
Day Two: Slides or Overheads with the “Stand and Be Counted Activity” questions on them.
PowerPoint/overhead, Chalk and Eraser or Dry Erase Markers for “Audience Analysis” Activity
Day Three: 5 or 6 kazoos, Or tissue paper and comb, Bowl with topics for two-minute speeches on a slip of paper, Children’s book of nursery rhymes, 10 exercise mats for Optional Activity Two
Day Four: “How Quickly They Forget” Questionnaire
Day Five: Teacher’s Timeline on Overhead or PowerPoint, Have some events that are “note-worthy” to post on the time line, A time line either written on the chalk board or on paper where the students can add their own time line events, Note cards with 6-9 words written on each card for “Good Sports” Game
Day Six: Quiz, Red Pencils
Day One: “Getting To Know You” (Main Focus Names)
Objective: The student and teacher will be able to identify each student by first and last name.
Activity One: Ball Toss/Bean Bag (10 minutes)
Name the person throwing; name the person catching.
“My name is ____________ (Mrs. Snider)”; throw. “That’s Mrs. Snider, I’m Jill Smith.”
Activity Two: “Getting to Know You Handout” (15 minutes)
Objective: Have students move around the room finding people that can answer certain questions on handout. Provide students with a handout that has 25 facts or questions. Have the students fill the papers out and get the signature of each class member. There can be no duplicate signatures. Try to get as many as possible in 15 minutes.
Activity Three: “Autobiographical Collage” (last 25 minutes of class)
Objective: Have students prepare a collage about them selves during class time. If needed, finish it at home. Distribute to students a piece of poster board, old magazines, scissors and glue. Give the students time in the last part of class to construct a collage that says something about them. *Then pair off the students and have them interview each other, so that in the next class meeting they can then present the other person’s poster to the whole class.
*if time is a factor, have students share collages in the very beginning of next class meeting.
Day Two: “Audience Analysis: Collecting Information for Future Speeches”
Objective: Now that the students (and the teacher) know each other’s name and a few personal facts about each other, students will be able to know their audience through several audience analysis activities.
Activity One: Finish up collages from previous day (10-15 minutes)
Activity Two: “Stand and Be Counted Activity” (10 minutes maximum)
Prepare slides or overheads with a dozen or so questions, some that lots of people will respond to (“Who drinks Coca Cola?”) and others more specific (“Who is left-handed?”) Ask people to stand and be counted for each question—you announce a question, they stand, you quickly count, write the totals, they sit and you fire off the next question. Go fast—everyone should be standing and sitting enough to have to pay close attention. Throw in a couple of joke questions as well.
Stand and Be Counted Questions:
1. Who drinks soda?
2. Who is left handed?
3. Who watches the “Huskers” play?
4. Who likes corn?
5. Who drives a truck?
6. Who knows the present U.S. President George Bush’s name?
7. Who has ever gotten an “F”?
8. Who is wearing white socks?
9. Who every stole money from their mom’s wallet or purse?
10. Who likes country music?
11. Who watches the “Wiggles?”
12. Who likes Italian food?
13. Who can burp the ABC’s?
14. Who voted in the last election?
Activity Three: “Audience Analysis”
Audience Analysis Activity from Diana Jones (Speech 400 Activity)
1) Have students fill out questionnaire verbally on board for time sake.
2) Talk about results in each area. Let the students see for future reference who their audience really is. (Keep this information to review before future speech assignments)
3) Have students take notes about results and keep for future speeches in class.
Questions for Audience Analysis
1. Age of group (should be pretty similar)
2. Females/Males.
3. Educational Background
4. Three hobbies/Interests
5. Where do they live? (Zip code)
*Don’t be too concerned at this point about explaining audience analysis. Give the students just a little idea of what is it and why it should be taken in to consideration early on in the class.
Day Three: Group Activities
Objective: Have students work in groups to accomplish activities. Break class into five five-person groups. Mix boys and girls. Don’t let students choose their own groups; this will not be achieving the desired outcome if you do.
Activity One: “Hummer’s Parade”
Form groups and give everyone a kazoo (or comb and tissue paper). One person makes a two-minute speech for the group on a class-related topic while the other simultaneously plays the same tune in the background.
Topics for Two-Minute Speech:
“A Teacher Who Has Affected My Life for Good”
“Why I Believe America Is the Greatest Country in World”
“I Really Felt Dumb When…”
“You Would Never Believe Me If I Told You”
“If I Could Meet Anyone In the World I Would Meet…”
Possible Songs being played in the background:
“Battle Hymn of the Republic”
“For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
“This Old Man”
“YMCA”
Activity Two: Group Skits (20-25 minutes)
Have five groups of five students each take 5 minutes to prepare a favorite Nursery Rhyme to present in front of class.
Optional Activity Two: Mat Game (20 minutes)
Have the class divide into two even teams. Place mats across the stage area of class. Each team in supposed to move their whole team from one side of the stage to the other side of the stage without leaving any one person alone.
Day Four: Finishing Up Group/”How Quickly They Forget”
Objective: Give yourself and the students a chance to finish up on any activity that needs to be done. Continue to work in either pairs, groups, or as a class.
Activity One: Finish up on any group activities or other assignments (Take no more than 10 minutes to accomplish this task. Any more time and you will lose the class.)
Activity Two: “How Quickly They Forget” (10 minutes)
Have students pair off and introduce themselves, then immediately have the students turn their back to each other and fill out a handout with the person’s eye color, hair color, jewelry, name, etc.
“How Quickly They Forget” Questionnaire
1. Name your partner—first and last name.
2. What color of eyes do they have?
3. What jewelry were they wearing?
4. What color was your partner’s shirt or blouse?
5. What color hair does your partner have?
6. What color are your partner’s shoes?
7. Bonus: Tell one thing about your partner that you can remember from any activity we have done this week in class.
Activity Three: “In Circle Information” (Rest of Class Period—minus time to explain the assignment due for next class period.)
Have students arrange the desks in a circle. This should work well after coming off the last activity. Starting with the person on your left stand and introduce that person to the whole class. This will go in a circle type movement with one student standing and introducing the person on their left and so on. As each student introduces the person on their left they need to include their first and last name and one important fact about that person. This could be “What this person wants to be when they grow up.” Remind the class that these need to be positive. No criticism or bashing will be tolerated.
Assignment for Next Class Period: Give the students the assignments to think about five or six events from their life that they could share with the class. Since most students will be around 14, this should be one event from about every two years of their life so far. They need to bring these to class written down and ready to be turned in at the beginning of class to receive class for this assignment.
Day Five: “Timeline Activity”
Objective:
After sharing with students a timeline of your own life and some of the events of their own life, they will be able be feel a better connection to each other. Through this activity they will also see where their lives have crossed with other events that happened at the world at the same time.
Activity One: “Timeline Activity”
Share with students a timeline about yourself prepared on Power Point. On this timeline also show a few events from the world and when certain events would have been happening. It would be good to have more events that the students could relate to in their time frame. Then have students add their events own life events to your timeline. Open the remaining class time for discussion of this timeline and events.
Activity Two: “Good Sports” Game or “Two Truths and A Lie” Game
“Good Sports” Game has the class form groups. Make cards with one of 6-9 words on them: football, bobsled, down hill skiing, cross-country skiing, speed skating, basketball, or figure skating. Keeping their slips hidden, students have to find other members of their group by miming the action without talking.
“Two Truths and a Lie” Game has everyone sitting in a circle. Give each students a few minutes to come up with two truths and a lie about themselves. Have the students one at a time stand up in front of the class and state their two truths and a lie. The other student need to guess which statement is the lie. (Justine Walton, Speech 400, class assignment, September 2003.)
Day Six—Quiz Time–“What Do You Really Know?”
This quiz or test is more than that. The quiz serves as more of a way to set the stage for the class to see my philosophy on honesty.
The “honesty” activity follows this quiz.
T/F
1. Aaron loves music T/F T
2. Sally, Ardienne and Sara showed us belly dancing techniques. T/F F
3. Mrs. Snider promotes teamwork and a general positive attitude in all
Classroom situations. T/F T
4. Group work is one way to accomplish a task. T/F T
5. Using other’s ideas without asking or giving credit where credit is due
is an OK class policy. T/F F
Multiple Choice
1. Looking at a class analysis, we learned that there were:
A. More girls than boys in this class. *
B. More boys than girls in this class.
C. There are equal numbers of boys and girls in this class.
D. In some situations we couldn’t tell.
2. This week in class we accomplished our assignments as:
A. Individuals
B. Pairs/teams
C. Groups
D. As a class
E. All of the above*
3. When working as a group to accomplish a task you need to:
F. Be willing to accommodate everyone’s wishes.
G. Compromise to accomplish the task at hand.*
H. Show who is the leader right off.
I. Complain and sit with your arms folded the whole time.
Short Answers
1. Several people in class showed us through ____________ collages that they loved _____________ as a hobby. (autobiographical)
2. Leslie’s last name is ______________; Bob’s last name is ______________; my last name is __________________.
(Allgood, Brown, and Snider.)
3. During several of the classes we used the ________________, __________________, and ____________________to accomplish many of our tasks. (Computer, over-head, chalkboard or any other visual type item.)
*______________________, ____________________, and _______________ are important factors in preparing any speech and or presentation for a group of people. (Age, sex, and common hobbies or interests.)
Essay Questions (Choose One)
1. Imagine you were stranded on a desert island. Which three people in this class would you want with you and why?
2. The ferris wheel at the local county fair has broken down. You and three of your fellow classmates are in the car at the top of the ferris wheel when it breaks. Which three classmates would you want to be stuck in this situation with and why?
Honesty Activity
Grade all the student’s tests. Don’t leave any marks on the tests. Record the grade you find in your grade book. Return the tests to the students.
In the next class period have the students grade their own tests as you announce the answers to each question. Have each student then tally up the score of their test. Ask each student to give you their score verbally—out loud, as you go down the grade book. Compare the score the students give you by what you recorded the night before.
Take a minute and explain to the class what you have done.
Explain to the class that this was a different kind of test. This test was a test for honesty. Were you true or false?
Some of the students may wish to have a chance to come and talk with you after class. Give them this chance.
Again explain what your policy is on honesty. Stress that honesty is what makes a class fun. Honesty is what is expected in all and every situation.
N. Ann Snider
Fall 2007