Interesting game for mature learners
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Ice breaker.
I’ve been really bad about learning the names of my adult students so far. I’m the person that happens to be new to the mix, most of these classes had been together before, or so I had thought.
Today we started a “childhood memories” unit, and no one was willing to answer the questions in class because they weren’t comfortable sharing their answers in front of everyone else. Instead of calling on everyone repeatedly to get answers, I decided to try a sort of game.
I had everyone write their fonded childhood memory on a piece of paper, then turn it in to me. Then, when I had collected them all, I wrote a synopsis of what they had given me on the white board for everyone else to read. I didn’t write who had written what memory, that was the game.
I forced the class to stand up and mingle. They had to go back and forth, asking each other questions using the sentences on the board to try to narrow down who had written each statement. I even added my own statement, so I had to play the game too. I got started mingling and found out that most of the other students didn’t know each other’s name either.
Here I had gone making an assumption, and it turned out that they were in the same boat I was. They had to ask each others names as well as their memory. I didn’t feel as bad, but I only learned one or two more names today as a result. Seeing the classes only twice a week, and seeing some of the students multiple times at different locations, while others only occasionally has really made my task much harder.