Activity: Learning and mood pre-check
At the beginning of a session, adolescents share what they know about the topic to be explored and how they are feeling
Activity overview
Energy level: 2/5
Literacy: 1/5
Complexity: 1/5
Time: 10 minutes
Purpose: Share what participants know about a topic before a session and share how they are feeling.
Objectives
Adolescents will be able to:
- Assess their personal feelings and moods.
Competency domains
- Critical thinking and decision making
Works well for
Circles that have decided to learn about a particular topic as one of their learning goals.
Phase
Starting our circle
Before
This activity works well at the beginning of a session.
After
During the rest of the session adolescents should participate in an activity related to the learning goal they have identified.
During the Review step at the end of the session adolescents should use the Learning and mood post-check activity to assess their progress toward their learning goal.
Adolescents can use the results of their self-assessment (of both their learning and feelings) to carry out the Our progress toward our goals activity.
Activity steps
Step 1
Explanation and discussion: Bring all of the adolescents together in a circle and give each of them each several stones.
Step 2
Facilitator says:
- “How much do you already know about the topic of the session today?”
- “How well do you understand the topic we are going to discuss in the session today?”
- “How well do you think you can use the skills that you are going to learn and practice today?”
Facilitation tip: Adapt the question that you ask the circle to the learning goal they have identified for the session.
Step 3
Participants should say how much they already know about the session topic by dropping their stones in a basket that is passed around.
- Dropping two stones means they already know a lot about the topic.
- Dropping one stone means they already know a little bit about the topic.
- Dropping no stones means they don’t know anything about the topic.
Step 4
Facilitator says: “How do you feel today?”
Step 5
Challenge: Place the 4-6 emotion cards in different spots on the ground or floor. Ask adolescents to drop a stone in front of the emotion card that best describes how they feel as they start the session.
Calculate the results by counting the number of stones representing their learning assessment and their moods and then discuss. If the adolescents plan to conduct the same exercise at the end of the session, keep the results so that you can than compare changes in knowledge and feelings pre-session and post-session.
Step 6
Keep the results for future sessions to help adolescents to review progress toward their learning goals and/or changes in their moods.
Do and don't
Do
- Make sure that adolescents discuss what they know about the session topic, and not just what they like about it.
Don't
- Force adolescents to assess their knowledge of the topic or their mood if they don’t feel like doing so.
Adaptation
Materials: If there isn’t a basket for the stones, adolescents can pile them on the ground or floor.
Simplify or choose a different focus: This exercise can be divided into separate activities. Use the stones to discuss understanding of the topic, and the emotion cards to discuss feelings and moods.
Environment
Indoor or outdoor space.
Supplies
- At least two stones for every adolescent in the group
- A basket
- Flip chart or marker board, and a marker
- Cards or pieces of paper (to create emotion cards)
Improvise
There are many other ways for adolescents to assess how much they have learned about a topic:
- Make tally marks on a piece of paper.
- Hold hands at a high point above their head to show a lot of learning, low point next to their sides to show no learning, or any level in between.
- Use the Thermometer tool.
- Write a self-assessment report or journal entry to explain what they hope to learn (for high-literacy adolescents).
There are many ways for adolescents to express their feelings and moods:
- Write one word on a card to describe their emotions.
- Draw a picture to show their emotions.
- Take turns acting out their emotions with facial expressions or gestures.
Continue
Consider using this activity regularly as a Warm-up step.
Highlights
Share what participants know about a topic before a session and share how they are feeling. Works well for circles that have decided to learn about a particular topic as one of their learning goals.
