Discussion Activities
One activity that Zwiers suggests in the text is called “Take a side”. In “Take a side”, the room is divided up into two sides and students would go stand on the side that they feel best represents their take on an issue. There is also a “middle”, but from what I understand from the text, because the room is a continuum, students will be on a side even though they gravitate more towards the centre. Students will then have to discuss with those around them why they chose to stand where they are and then find someone standing on the other side to discuss. I can see how this activity can be used in home-ec when discussing issues in foods, textiles, and family studies. They can be scenario questions or on a specific topic we are covering such as consumption. There are often no easy answers to many of these questions because of how complex they are and students may find themselves moving around the room as their views shift as we explore the topic and depending on what aspect we are focusing. I have also played a similar game in day camp where there is a line on the floor and students have to take a side. This game was played as an icebreaker though and the questions were meant to help leaders and kids get to know each other. Questions asked were usually quite easy to answer eg. if you could only own one, would you choose the radio or the tv? or would you rather got to a party or go to a museum? Like the games we played with Graham, the students are speaking through their body language while they are playing the game and through their choices as well.
One discussion activity not mentioned in the textbook is “philosopher’s cafe”. I really enjoyed this activity in another class. We were numbered off into small groups of 4 and the discussion leader of each group was provided with a list of many questions. Because the discussion is supposed to be informal, we didn’t have to answer the questions in order, or any of the questions provided if we had a question of our own that we wanted to discuss. We had the choice of staying inside the classroom or going somewhere else. One person in each group took notes on what we discussed and each group shared one comment from their discussion when we all came back into the class. The purpose of the activity is to try to encourage conversation and I think the informal setting made it a little more comfortable. I would like to do a version of this in the classroom…there will have to be a few changes though. For example, students may have to stay in the classroom and may need a bit of guidance as they are participating in the activity. Questions in the home-ec class can be things like what foods do you enjoy eating? Who do you usually eat with? Where does our food come from?