|
Ball of Yarn Ice-Breaker Description prepared by Laura Joyce, Prince Georges Community College, Maryland
At the first class I bring a big ball of yarn, and I start it, holding one end, and with the class seated in a closed circle, I toss it to someone, who keeps hold of his/her part, shares some info, tosses the ball to next person who shares, and so on, so that we quickly have a messy maze of yarn. After everyone has shared info, I then have people try to "take back" their messages, figuratively, or hand-deliver a message, and so on, which gets everyone hopelessly entangled (still seated, so that no one gets uncomfortable with too much closeness on Day 1, and the only rules are you have to keep the ball of yarn inside the circle and you have to keep it taut and you can't pass it to the person next to you). Obviously it's demonstrative of the messiness and richness and complications of comm., but it's also just a great visual (and very funny) way to start things off. My students reach wonderful conclusions about rumor, networks, distance comm., and all sorts of other things. |
|