6. Social Relationships
The recent studies in learning and motivating have underlined the social context instead of individual aspect. Learning is more and more a social situation where students are learning together. Social skills, communication skills and emotional skills will be even more important skills in the future. When students are working together and feeling meaningful, they can try and work harder to achieve their goals. They also want to feel the joy of learning.
When students are working together and feeling meaningful, they can try and work harder to achieve their goals.
People have an inner need to create and maintain positive and meaningful social relationships. There are many different exercises you can try out to get your students know each other better and create a good team spirit. As you can remember, a safe and good atmosphere in the classroom is important to get to the emotional goal. In the video you will get more information and instructions about these exercises. ”Go around a friend”, ”Formula” and ”Gazes meet” are so called low-step-exercises. It means that exercises are very simple and everyone can easily join them. “A Marshmallow challenge” and “Totem Poles” are more for the students to improve their teamwork skills and think about the roles in the group. You can try different kinds of exercises. All the exercises don’t work to all groups, but be brave and give them a chance. And always remember to discuss the students’ feelings after the exercise.
”Go around a Friend”
This exercise is very simple. It could be an icebreaker in the beginning of the course. Ask your students to choose “a new friend” from the group. This friend should be someone they don´t know from before. They are not allowed to tell anyone who their new friend is. When you give a sign, they all stand up and try to go around this new friend three times as soon as possible and then go back to their seats. Talking is not allowed. This should all happen so that the students can´t find out each other´s friends. This is a kind of a traffic jam in the classroom.
”Formula”
This is an exercise to strengthen students’ team spirit and to practise working together. You need a classroom with enough space for the students to stand in a circle. The students stand in a circle. Every other person in the circle form one team, the rest another team. The first team gets a black ball and the second team a white ball. (Instead of black and white balls, you can use other colours or for example toy cars or napkins.) The balls start moving in opposite sides and are handed out clockwise around the circle. Since every other student forms a team, the first one passes the ball to the third, the third one to the fifth and so on. The team that manages to get their ball past the other team´s ball is the winner.
”Gazes Meet”
This is an exercise for the students to practise their non-verbal communication and to focus on another person. You need a room with enough space for all the students to stand in a circle. Ask the students to stand in a circle with you. Then ask them to look at the person on their left side for a while and then move gaze on to the next person and so on. One´s gaze has to stay on each person for a short while. If two persons notice that they are looking each other in the eyes, they nod at each other and swap places before starting to look at the person now on their left. Speaking is not allowed during this exercise.
”A Marshmallow Challenge”
The idea behind the Marshmallow challenge is to inspire creativity and teamwork. The teacher forms random teams of 3-4 students each. Each team will use 15 uncooked spaghettis and 6 marshmallows to build a tower in 5 minutes that is as high as possible.
At the end of the exercise, it is good to encourage the students to reflect on the various roles that could be identified within the respective teams. This is an exercise you can repeat as many times as you want. Form random teams again and after the exercise discuss with your students, if there were any new roles or solutions?
”Totem Poles”
This exercise is identical to the Marshmallow challenge, but instead of marsmallows and spaghettis, teams are using 5 sheets of A4 paper. The sheets must not be torn, cut, glued or taped, only folded.
Task 12
- What do you do to create a good and safe atmosphere in your classroom?
- What have you done before?
- What could you do in the future?
Task 13
- Find out one very simple exercise to help your students to get to know each other better.
- Are there some good exercises you have been using?
- Could you try out one of the exercises above?
Course Lessons
8 LESSONS IN TOTAL
