The Wright Family

 

The Wright Family Listening and Warm-Up Activity

 

 

PASS RIGHT – PASS LEFT

TOPIC AREA: Communication

Concept: Certain skills for good communication are certainly more important than others. One of the most important of these is the skill of listening. "Being in the moment" as it is often called these days. This activity will show the importance of listening and how difficult that is when you are not concentrating on what is being said because you are busy doing something else, or as they say, "trying to do two things at one time"!

 

Method: Classroom activity

Time Frame: 10 minutes plus discussion time

 

Materials Needed:

1. The Wright Family Story

2. One Popsicle stick, button or other item for each student in the group

 

Activity: Have your entire group from a circle (I like to have mine sit on the floor, "Indian style" if possible). Give each person, in the circle, the small item. Tell the group that you are going to read a story and every time they hear any word that sounds like right or left, they are to pass their item in their hand to the person directly on the right or left depending on what they heard. Start reading the story slowly, to give them a chance to catch on to what you want them to do. After a few passes, stop the story and ask them how they are doing. Check to see that everyone has one item in their hands. If your group is typical, some will have 2-3 items, and others will not have any. Have them redistribute items again so each participant again has just one. Continue to read the story, getting faster as you go. Stop the story a couple more times to check on how they are doing.

 

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Discussion:

 

 After a few rounds and lots of laughter and falling cups-ask students what happened? How hard was it to listen and pass objects at the same time? What does this activity tell us about communication? Any other lessons we can learn from this silly activity? Why is this activity a good way to learn a lesson? How did we help each other during the activity? What skills did we have to use in order to do this activity?
 

After this discussion, ask students some comprehension questions such as: "Where was the Wright family going?" "Who didn't go on the vacation with the family?" "What was left in the driveway?" "Why did Tommy have to run back home?" "Who got sick in the car?" See how many students can answer the question. If many of them can't, ask them why? "Why couldn't they remember the details to the story?" Someone might mention that they were busy passing the object around the circle, so they weren't concentrating on the content of the story, just listening for "right" and "left."

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/shi/pdf/training-manual/wrightfamily.pdf