Rumor Control

The spring 2011 semester at my college began Wednesday. The first day of classes is always interesting. Students filter in and immediately look for seats in the back of the room. I can almost see a cartoon bubble flashing fearfully above their heads: “Eeeew, I hate writing; I’m going to fail!”

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

To help them relax, I made a game out of scrapbook paper and quotes found online. The colors were chosen to reflect the college’s logo scheme. I named the game “Rumor Control”; it is much like “Gossip” or “Telephone” you might have played years ago. The activity helped a lot last semester, so I gave it a go again in my new classes.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

This is one of five different quotes I used. There is one card per row of students. The first student reads the card to the next student who listens and relays the information to the next person who writes it down and passes it along. The process continues to the end of the row. When the class is ready, the first person in each row reads the original card aloud and the last student verbalizes the message that he/she received.

The class ends up laughing at some of the absurd distortions resulting from the exercise. Besides the amusing factor, the students learn that communication and understanding changes from person to person. The map to understanding is not always clear.

The imaginary bubble of fear hovering over their heads evaporates. Now my students are ready to learn and I am eager to teach them.