I Have Never Yet Played This with a Group Who Did Not Beg for More! Students, Tutors, And

Label Game

This game is intended to develop sensitivity on the part of tutors towards their students so as not to treat them according to any preconceived notions they may have about them. I’ve also used it in my developmental math classes in order to help them get rid of any negative labels they’ve attached to the study of mathematics.

I have never yet played this with a group who did not beg for more! Students, tutors, and even administrators love this game.

How to play:

First, ask for volunteers and, hopefully, you’ll get around half of your group to participate. If you have a large group, try and limit the discussion group to around 10. The rest of the group will stand around the circle to observe the participants, who will be seated in a circle. Believe me, once they observe, they’ll want to participate themselves the next time.

Once your volunteers are seated, you then randomly hand out ‘labels’ to each one. A file folder works extremely well for this. I printed an 8.5” x 11” sheet with the label and pasted it to the inside of the folder. As I hand it to each participant, I unfold it and refold it inside out. Hand it to them so they cannot see the label, but the rest of the participants can. You will want to instruct everyone, both observers and participants, not to react in any way, because each participant at the end will have to try and guess what type of label they have, but the idea is to base it off the way they are treated during the discussion.

Once everyone has a label, the group decides upon a non-controversial subject to discuss. For instance, they could discuss plans for a weekend outing, so they discuss what they will do and how it will happen, etc……

Then, discussion will begin and everyone will treat everyone else as their label suggests. I even give suggestions on each label as to how a person with such a stereotype might be treated. At the end of this document, there are suggestions of labels to be used.

Let the discussion commence for several minutes and watch what happens! It’s very fun. Sometimes I need to guide the group a little, depending upon the maturity level or their willingness to speak out.

When everyone has had a chance to contribute to the discussion, I stop them and we go around the circle and ask whether they feel they received a positive or negative label. Some may possibly be able to tell what their particular stereotype is.

We then discuss how it felt to have either a positive or negative label. I talk about how a student might feel if they are treated accordingly. This fosters a lot of discussion about how each student coming to our center should be regarded as highly as another. All have different needs and abilities. However, each demands our attention and respect.

Possible labels w/instructions:

Class Clown

(Laugh at me)

Nerd

(Make fun of me)

Bully

(Gang up on me)

Insane

(Patronize me)

Shy

(Ignore me)

Cute

(Flirt with me)

V.I.P

(Roll out the red carpet for me)

Genius

(Seek my input)

Leader

(Follow me)

Popular

(Hang out with me)

Hard-working

(Ask for my help)

Reputable

(Respect me)