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We then did an experiential activity called "The Wind Blows" in which people share something about themselves and learn who has that interest or fact in common with them. We then expanded the activity to include a moment of reflection in which the person picked one of the terms/ideas from our list of elements on the board and either defined what that element meant to them or shared an example of what that element would look like. After sharing, the person went on to share a fact about themselves. I kept track of which items people chose to talk about and what they said. This is what our notes looked like at the end:
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Black text = text added during the "The Wind Blows" activity
We debriefed this activity with the concentric circle discussion format. In this type of discussion everyone rotates partners spending two minutes with that partner. One minute is spent responding to a discussion question and the other minute is spent listening to their partner's response. The questions we discussed were:
What did you think of the "The Wind Blows" activity?
What worked well in the activity today?
What could have been improved upon in the activity today?
Which elements of experiential education that we identified did this activity do a good job of focusing on?
Which elements of experiential education that we identified did this activity fail to really focus on?
After engaging in discussions around these questions. Everyone responded individually in writing to the following prompt which was submitted for assessment at the end of the period.
Evaluate how effective today's activity was in terms of being engaging (fun) and in terms of being successful in discussing the important elements of experiential activities? Identify both strengths and weaknesses for the level of engagement and discussion. Explain your responses by referring to specific moments from the activity or your discussion with others.
Homework:
If you did not finish responding to the final question at the end of class, do so for homework.
