Speaking/listening

A series of activities for looking at wealth inequality in the US and globally.

This is adapted from a game I learned at Kani Club -- the improv club I participate in from time to time.　(http://kaniclub.com/)

Joker draws a series of images to tell a story or describe a situation.

Players write the story as they understand.

Compare results then compare to joker's explanation.

Listeners keep track of what they knew before, what they did not know before, and what they want to know more about as they listen to a presentation.

A circle game like Me --> You, but in this variation the initiating player addresses a comment or greeting or question to the other person, who replies, then greets another.

A volunteer describes an incident they experienced -- something embarrassing, funny, puzzling, etc. -- to the whole group. The joker asks questions to clarify details and verify understanding. Then, the joker asks for volunteers to enact the scene. They are free to improvise in any way they like.

The "fist to five" technique for voting or consensus decision-making (see "Dedocracia" can be used for rapid, on the fly, evaluation. It gives people an easy way to practice an important technique for democratic decision-making and the experience of expressing their judgment in a group context. For the facilitator(s) and the group, it provides important information about the usefulness of the techniques being used.

An idea for an activity to help people think about different ways of organizing information to build understanding of historical events.

Players choose a short clip of video and create a bad lip reading, post or perform.

I got this from Kani Club, the improvisation school in Tokyo. It is a great "Yes, and..." game.

Pairs or trios (daunting to do in larger groups, but could be done with practiced players).

The idea is for the players to speak a sentence simultaneously without knowing what the sentence will be ahead of time, relating the sentence to some physical action or pantomime.