English teaching/learning

Give people a list of [musicians] and ask them to choose one person whose music they do not know. Their task is to find music by that person online, listen to it, choose one and post a link (or the video/audio itself) in the online group with a comment about the music. Players are then asked to listen to each other's chosen music and add their own comments, to which the original poster should reply.

You can add a layer by asking people to research the background of the musical piece or the musician and post a summary. This can be very good practice for simple citation.

This game comes from Tom Wujec. See his very useful detailed instructions and TED talk. http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Instructions.html

For my purposes, the project serves as an experiment in which people can practice cooperative learning, work, and innovation.

Prep the materials ahead of time.
For each group:

In this game, which I learned from Sakiko Ishitsubo, people pair up and take turns closely observing each other, describing what they see. When person A says, "I see you are holding the zipper pull on your jacket." Person B repeats the description, "I am holding the zipper pull on my jacket." In this way each observation is stated and verified. There is no strict sequence, players can shift back and forth as they like. The goal is to observe each other closely, to describe what you see, and to verify the observations.

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

Use the haka form to practice the body language of other emotions and attitudes: instead of intimidation, how about love, shame, flattery...?

Use it with language, as a kind of competition -- each side having its players say something in English, different for each player, showing off their language skill and clever ideas.

Use it with sounds, each side taking turns making one sound or word, like my name "Matt." The leaders can coach their teams and tell them which word is next.

Adapted from "Two by Three by Bradford" in Augusto Boal's Games for Actors and Non-Actors.

Team of three. Player one says, "One". Player two says, "Two." Player three says, "Three." Player one says "Four." Repeat the sequence again and again, picking up speed.

Once the team is smooth, the joker introduces a sound in the place of "one." The teams play again, this time using the sound in the place of "one."

Once the team is smooth again, change the sound into a word.

Repeat until all four words have been replaced by words and the team is saying a sentence.

Idea for an activity:

Take a text, in another language, that you love (poem, song, whatever).

Use Google translate to translate it to English.

If the result is sufficiently strange, copy it, reduce it, and perform it like a poem at a poetry slam.

If the result is too normal, try translating the translated version into a different language, then from that language into English, or into another language -- repeat until you have freed the words from the original text.

The idea is to start a discussion of a famous person (or text, artwork, etc) using the Dating Game format.

There are three roles: the Joker (emcee), the player, the potential dates.

The flow:
The player sits separated from the three potential dates.
The joker introduces the player.
The joker then asks the dates to introduce themselves in one sentence that will be attractive to the player.
The player then proceeds to ask questions, to one date at a time, trying to find the one who sounds best.

From the great Open Culture website. http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/10-rules-for-students-and-teachers-po...

These rules can be used in many ways:

• As one big prompt for a writing activity;
• As individual prompts for a writing activity;
• As prompts for role plays or speeches;
• As propositions to debate...

They are great to use for thinking about innovation, creativity, education, any kind of self-directed work.
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RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for a while.