Erik Kaufhold Dr.

Tobin Lopes ED620 Icebreakers, Energizers, and Motivators Im currently teaching a parliamentary debate class for ESL students. These students are middle school aged, nearly native speakers. Theyve worked hard to get to this level and they show this during class through the research that they do for each debate as well as how prepared they come to each class. However, since this is the first time they have been exposed to debating, they are struggling with working as a group as well as dealing with spontaneity. To help them improve in these areas, Ive come across two wordassociation type games that are variations of games other teachers and trainers have played with their students during the first few minutes of class that Im planning to introduce as a warm-up that will help them develop their skills. I got the ideas for this games from the book, The Big Book of Humorous Training Games by Doni Tamblyn & Sharyn Weiss, and adapted them to be more suitable for this debate class. I feel that these games would be great additions for any instructor or trainer to use as an icebreaker, energizer or motivator. Game 1: Team Story - Adapted from Kommunication Krazy (Tamblyn and Weiss 2000)

Goal: To help learners examine what it means to work as a team during debates. Materials: None

Introduction & Rules: 1. Remind the students that when they debate they not only need solid arguments for themselves, they also need to make sure their team mate looks good. Then tell them that this means that they have to be interested and focused on their partners thoughts and ideas. 2. Inform them that to work more on teamwork, they are going to do a quick warm-up by playing two create-your-own stories games. 3. For this game, they are only going to need to think of one word on-thespot. As far as layout is concerned it may be best to have the students sitting or standing in a circle with you joining them to participate. 4. Then tell them that for the first story game, they need to think of words that are interesting. 5. Pick a volunteer and work through this example together before playing the actual game. You can tell them that you will start the story off with the basic Once upon a time or you could just start with any word. a. b. Example: Teacher says, "Once Student says, Upon

6. After going through the quick example, check for clarification and then tell them that the story will be concluded when you feel that it has reached its natural ending. When you get towards that ending, you will interject with the moral of the story is and then have the students finish the story using the rules of only one interesting word per student.
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7. After they have finished the first story, have the students create a new story, but this time there are two new rules. They have to: a. b. Be unoriginal with their words Make the word that came before their word work well

8. Continue with this until it feels that the story has reached a natural conclusion and again use the ending cue the moral of this story is. 9. Afterwards ask some reflection questions: a. b. Which story did you like better? Which story took more of a group effort?

c.How is this connected to team work?

Game 2: Phrase Game-Adapted from Phrase Ball (Tamblyn and Weiss 2000)

Goal: To help students work on being more spontaneous Materials Needed: A soft ball Introduction & Rules 1. Introduce the idea to students that even if they do an exhaustive

amount of research to prepare for a debate, there are going to come times when they need to think on their feet and be spontaneous with their

thoughts. This is a challenge since they are most likely going to be somewhat nervous during a speech/debate. Inform them that luckily they will be playing a game to have them get used to spontaneity before going into the lesson about responding to cross examinations during a debate. 2. Have the students stand in a circle and tell them that they are going to learn to speak spontaneously. 3. The learners will toss a ball to one another and at the same time, say a simple descriptive phrase like the brown cow or the blue moon.' Since there are no rules as to the types of phrases they can come up with, there are no wrong phrases. 4. Continue with the activity until you feel they are comfortable with the game and remember to try to make the actual game play fast-paced. 5. Congratulate them on coming up with simple phrases and inform them that they have moved on to the next more advanced version of this game. 6. For the advanced version, they will now need to have their phrases relate to the phrase that was said before. Thus, they will be adding onto the other persons phrase. a. Example: Student A tosses the ball to Student B and says, "The

purple monkey b. Student B (without hesitation) says, Hit the blue dog

c.Student B now has to think of another phrase to continue the game and toss the ball to someone else in the circle.
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7. Try a few practice sessions until they get the hang of it. Make sure to keep the game going fast. Remember, youre trying to get them to think on their feet. Reflection Questions: Which round was easier? How comfortable were you with coming up with a phrase without truly taking the time to think and organize your thoughts? During the second game, did you worry about how the other person might continue your phrase? When you present and are responding to aggressive questions, what can you do to ensure that you are suitably responding to whats being asked? Does being spontaneous mean you dont have to prepare?

References: Tamblyn, D., & Weiss, S. (2000). The Big Book of Humorous Training Games. New York: McGraw Hill
First one: Rationale for format/structure 8/8 points each. Each one is appropriate for the course Quality of the description or demonstration 7/7 points each. Good stuff. 15/15. Second one: Rationale for format/structure 8/8 points each Quality of the description or demonstration 7/7 points 15/15. I especially like that you plan for a debrief.