Activity Plans - Communication Skills
Session: Exploring Communication Skills.Description: A selection of confidence building activities for young people which provide opportunities to explore and practice a range of communication skills / Aim: To give young people an understanding of key communication skills and enable young people to develop these skills to project greater confidence at school.
Activities will benefit young people who need support to develop:
è Confidence
è Positive body language
è Employability and interview skills
è Self-awareness / Resources required:
Pens
Paper
Flip chart paper
Chairs
Box of random items e.g. stick, cup, beanbag, banana
Box/es of coloured bendy straws.
ACTIVITY PLANS:
Time / Description of Activity / Resources / Learning outcome15 minutes / Energiser: Pass It On
Young people stand in a line facing away from one end. The first young person acts out a short scenario e.g. making a cup of tea. The action gets passed along the line from person to person. The final young person performs it to the Advisers, who have to guess what the scenario is.
Explain that our body language and actions send a message – it’s just not always this obvious! / Non-verbal communication, using actions to communicate.
10 – 20 minutes / Communication Discussion
Use a communication quote to kick start a discussion which explores what we mean by communication and identifies key skills involved.
E.g. The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said—Peter Drucker
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/peterdruck142500.htm
Record ideas on flip chart.
Provide a brief explanation of what body language is, that often we project a message with our body without realising.
· Ask young people to think of a situation where they felt happy and what their body language was e.g. walking tall, smiling or having relaxed posture.
· Explain that we pick up on people’s body language really quickly and it can affect how we view people.
· What would we think if someone came into a room avoiding eye contact or crossing their arms? / Young people to understand body language and how it can affect our first impressions of people
20 minutes / Body Maps
Divide group into two. Using a pen, trace two people shapes on the floor. One group to describe what positive body language might look like, and the other group negative body language. Write notes on the paper around each body shape.
Group discussion on both sets of body language, and what neutral body language might look like. / Flipchart paper and pens / Young people to understand the difference between negative, positive and neutral body language
10 minutes / This is a…
A simple item is passed around the circle. Each member of the group must respond with a new way of using the item e.g. a banana could be a phone, a smile etc. Staff can demonstrate with an item first.
Nb. This activity may need to be substituted for less confident groups / Box of random items / Think creatively, respond to an instruction, develop an idea, develop confidence in front of a group
45 minutes. / Builders and Architects.
Preparation:
Prior to the exercise, the Adviser (who is the Architect) works alone to build a 3D model made out of coloured bendy straws, fitting the ends into each other. This is placed in a separate room or area from the main classroom on a table which people can walk round.
Activity
· The group stays in the main classroom and is divided into groups of 3 – 5 people. Each group is given a full set of coloured bendy straws.
· Objective is for each group to build an exact replica of the model in the other room. There will be one site manager in the group. The rest will be builders. Only the site manager is allowed to see the model and s/he is to describe the model to the builders who then build it according to the site manager’s instructions. The site manager is allowed to go and look at the model as many times as they want. They may not take a photo of the model! The site manager is not allowed to touch the straws.
· Once each group has selected a site manager the instruction ‘Start Building’ is given with each team given a limit of 15 mins.
· After the exercise has finished, the Adviser judges a winner and then de-briefs to draw out the learning points.
De-brief questions
· How did you select the roles?
· What methods and skills did you use to accomplish the task? E.g. listening, speaking, leadership, delegation etc.
· Did you find anything frustrating or difficult during the exercise? If yes what was it, and how did you manage these feelings?
· What else did you learn about communication/team building that you can take back into school, life and in the future into work? / Box/s of coloured bendy straws. / By the end of the session, students within your group should be able to identify roles according to peoples’ strengths, prioritise tasks to achieve a common goal, and work together using a range of communication skills to accomplish a task
Also fits with teamwork/working with others.
20 minutes / Sell It!
Each young person takes turns in choosing a random item from a box, and has 30 seconds to produce a sales pitch to the group. Young people to take it in turns to ‘sell’ the item.
Discuss how they found positive elements to the items and spoke about them – this is similar to what you would do in an interview.
Nb. This activity may need to be substituted for less confident groups / Box of random items / Use their imagination, improvisation, speak in front of the group, think creatively, work creatively with props
30 minutes / Mime
Young people to watch clips of mime, then brainstorm on flip chart paper or whiteboard what they see, and how easy it was to tell what was being mimed. / Flipchart paper, laptop loaded up with mime clips and projector / Analyse a video, group discussion
15 minutes / Say Something
The group take turns in a circle to say a word in different ways – it could be anything, ‘Fairbridge’, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with a different tone of voice. Then young people could try saying the word with different emotion i.e. sadly, happily, excitedly. A third step to add would be to ask young people to add matching body language e.g. slumping in their seat to imply boredom as they say the word in a bored way. / None / Consider how vocal tone and body language can affect a word’s meaning