When it comes to group activities, it can often be a challenge to ensure that everyone feels comfortable to contribute and make their voice heard.
Many educators struggle to ensure that more quiet students make friends and participate in activities, both in and outside of the classroom. At WiseUp, we use a few handy tips to help encourage these young people to participate.
1. Be careful with labels
There is nothing wrong with being quiet, so rather than associating it with negative connotations, we ensure that students feel happy being themselves whilst positively reinforcing times when they go outside their comfort zone to speak up. By focusing on quietness as a strength, and getting the rest of the team to realise that quiet students often have the best ideas, every member of the group is appreciated for their input.
2. Give them responsibility
One great way of increasing a student’s participation is by giving them a responsibility. In the classroom, this can be anything from watering a class plant to being in charge of a work group. During activities outside the classroom, we often look to play to each student’s strengths in the challenges we set. If a child is great at problem solving, we will encourage them to lead the group and display their skills. Similarly, if they excel at physical activities such as running, that will greatly benefit the team with certain activities.
3. Remove the pressure of participating
Getting up in front of a large group can be intimidating. Rather than increasing the pressure of participation, students work in smaller groups on our activities to help ensure that everyone’s input is needed. By designing many of our challenges to be multi-faceted, students who are feeling less confident are still able to contribute to at least one element of the activity.
In summary
At WiseUp, we host a variety of team building activities for groups of all sizes. We often see quieter students who are reluctant to join in initially, but by playing to their strengths and making them feel appreciated when expressing themselves, many end up surprising their teachers and themselves with how involved they get. Rather than forcing students to participate, we employ a variety of techniques which allow learners to become involved at a pace that they are comfortable with.
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