In today's class, students worked in groups of 7-8 to complete their 2nd instant challenge. With defined roles, the students were tasked with building a marshmallow and toothpick structure based on a model that I had created. Here were their specific roles:
Seer - only person allowed to see the structure
Runners - passed on messages from the seer to the builder without asking for (or offering) additional details.
Builder - listens to the runner and builds what they are told; they may not speak to the runners
Observer - they watch their group and record things they see that are impacting communication both positively and negatively.
They were given 30 minutes to complete the task. I was really impressed by a few things I saw.
1. The observers - they did a great job recording both the good things and the bad things. They were frustrated at times because they could see failures, but not get involved.
2. The seers - all three girls (*an original seer was changed out due to lack of interest) were motivated to get the best info out to their runners.
3. The builders - they did not give up, even when they felt as if they were overwhelmed and confused.
After the 30 minutes, we discussed the following questions as a class:
What was difficult about this process?
How did the Seers feel? Was it hard to give instructions without seeing what was needed? Or was it liberating? How did you feel about the lack of concrete feedback about what was happening to your careful instructions?
How did the Runners feel? Was one-way communication difficult? Was it frustrating to envision one thing and see the Builder doing something else?
How did the Builders feel? Was it easy or hard to construct something with only verbal instructions and without being able to ask questions?
What does this activity tell us about our communication styles?
No comments:
Post a Comment