Speaking/listening

I learned this game from a fellow teacher in the Intensive English Learning Program at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, who played it as a child.

It's a pairs game (or chain game), where each player picks up from the previous player's contribution.

The joker starts the game, usually with the standard opening, "Unfortunately, I fell out of an airplane."
The next player continues the story, but switches the direction, "Fortunately, I had a parachute."
The joker (or a third player, if it is a chain), continues, "Unfortunately, the parachute had a hole in it."

I thought up this idea for a game to introduce OWS-type consensus decision-making signals, to practice their use, and to spark discussion about the basics of consensus and some difficulties in consensus decision-making.

Circle game, whole group.

Joker first reminds people of the game Simon Says, leading a quick refresher round of the game. In this game, though, Simon doesn't get to give commands, s/he can only make proposals.

So, for example, the joker says, "Simon proposes we touch our noses."

Then, all the players "twinkle":
a) up to show their support

(I learned this at Kani Club, the great "Yes, and..." improv group in Tokyo.)

This game, done in pairs, challenges the listener and the speaker alike to clarify the meaning of words and phrases used. Like all games it is, as Huizinga says, "pointless but significant." The fun is in the pointless interruption and unnecessary explanation. The significance is in the verification of mutual understanding of even the simplest terms.

The flow:

Idea for a warm-up that helps build shared understanding of group's similarities and differences.

Set up is like Red Light/Green Light, with all players lined up at one end of the space and joker at the other end. The joker turns his back and calls out some identity or trait that people might share: for example, "Postal Workers" or "Single Parents" or "people who love John Legend", then says "`1, 2, 3" dragging it out or suddenly speeding it up, then turns and yells, "stop!" Repeat until some player reaches the joker.

So: "People who are union members. 1, 2, 3.... Stop!"

It's an obvious idea, but seeing video of people using the People's Microphone, I decided to teach the technique in my English for Activists course and use it for language practice.

The Flow

• Introduce this as a technique used at Occupy Wall Street as a solution to a very simple problem: no sound permit. (Could lead to an interesting discussion about laws regarding speech and assembly in different countries.)