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Paradoxical Questioning with Continuum

1/22/2021

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I've been diving into more and more information on the topic of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). As educators we are now pretty familiar with the relevance (and importance) of the topic. I've been working through some ideas on how to present SEL content to team builders since we, pretty much, spend a good deal of time helping people work on social growth. How can we (team builders) recognize and encourage SEL concepts? (This has been my guiding question in my search for ideas.)

In my search, I picked up Tara Flippos book, Social and Emotional Learning in Action: Experiential Activities to Positively Impact School Climate. Tara tells us, "Social and Emotional Learning in Action (SELA) is an easy-to-use sourcebook [a 36-lesson progression] facilitated by teaching and/or counseling practitioners primarily in school settings." Each lesson (for the most part) has two activities and a debrief process. It's a nice progression of community-building activities and when you know and understand the CASEL.org framework and the five competency areas, you can blend the SEL language into the lessons.  
One of the 'nuggets' in the book for me was reading about Paradoxical Questioning. (Those of you already doing this, Kudos to you - it's pretty interesting.) Tara shared this method in the debriefing activity she calls Continuum. (This 'rating' activity has been around for a while, but I can't put my finger on a source just yet.) During face-to-face programs you lay out a rope in a straight line designate one end as zero and the other end as a ten. You provide a question for participants to 'rate/score' for themselves - like, Where do you stand on..." or What score would you give to our.....(insert behavior here)" For the virtual version, develop a presentation slide (area) with the scale and question on it like the one above. Then, participants annotate themselves (their name) near the number they choose to score. 

Traditionally, I then question participants by asking them something like, "Jennifer, you rated communication an eight. What would the group have to do to get a score of nine?" Same with the other end of the scale. "Felix, what would it take from the group for you to give them a three?" I don't ask for BIG leaps, just, what would it take to go up one number - baby steps. 
Here's where the paradoxical comes in. Instead of asking participants how the group can improve, ask them to share what information they used to come up with the score they chose. For example, Tara shared, "to low-rating students, you could ask what allowed them to be a 3/10 instead of a 0/10" - seeking the positive in a low-rated evaluation. Even with the high-rating participants - "What qualities from the group led you to score an eight?" Yes, you could go on to talk about improvement. And, what about simply stating the 'good stuff' and then moving on?

Sometimes it's just the simply things that can light a new path. Come to think of it, it's often the simple things that lead to the biggest changes. 

If you have any other paradoxical ideas, we'd love to hear about them. Leave us a Comment! 

Be well...

Chris Cavert, Ed.D.  
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Commonalities Revisited (for Face-to-Face & Virtual)

1/8/2021

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Happy 2021 to you!! For me, so far so good. Let's make this year amazing....no matter what!?

The recent book I'm diving into is, Social and Emotional Learning in Action: Experiential Activities to Positively Impact School Climate, by Tara Flippo. Early on in the book I came across the activity Commonalities - one of those activities that's been around for a while and still super-useable, super-engaging (Quicksilver, Rohnke 1995). 


Still in the "what-activities-can-I-do-online" mode, Commonalities can be a good one. Here's how I intend to use the activity online with groups of 10 to 25 participants (pretty much the same way I use it face-to-face):
  • Tell everyone they will be going into 'breakout rooms' for about 2 minutes with a few others (groups of 3 to 4) to discover things they all have in common - everyone in the group has done or likes, for example. (While face-to-face, they just get together in groups and go off somewhere to talk.)
  • During the exploration, someone in the group will keep notes (make a list) of the things they have in common with each other.
  • After 2 minutes, everyone is brought back into the main room. 
  • The facilitator then asks for people to share, verbally, something his/her group has in common that is interesting or not-so-common. After something is shared, the facilitator can ask for anyone in the 'Gallery' (main room) to raise a hand if they too have that in common with the group that just shared. (Building awareness of others like you.) Take about 1 to 2 minutes for this exchange. 
  • After this verbal sharing, send everyone back into their breakout rooms and continue the process - same thing. Discover more things they have in common with each other. Add these commonalities to the list. 
  • After two minutes, bring them back to the main room to share interesting and/or unique commonalities. 
  • Then again. After some verbal sharing, send them back to discover even more commonalities they share - another 2 minutes. 
  • Bring them back to the main room to share out these new findings. 
  • And so on....
[NOTE: If I'm working with a group of 12 or less, I'm sure to ask each small group to share one or two of their commonalities. When the group is bigger, I do the volunteer sharing and only spend up to 2 minutes with it.]

When face-to-face, I've done this up to 6 'discovery-and-share' rounds. And, I'm pretty sure I'll shoot for 6 rounds online as well (the more rounds, the deeper the exploration). You might be thinking, "Are you kidding! There's no way a group will want to do this that many times!" Exactly! Getting to REALLY know others is hard work. And, what does it take to really get to know someone?

I've found that after we start discussing the 'point' of the exercise (so to speak - 'exercise' being hard work as well), people start loosening up, realizing that, in fact, it is hard work getting to know each other. If the work can be done, with the appropriate mindset, it can actually be a fun experience. The kind of work you put into something is equal to the kind of reward! 

For me, this process has always been a wonderful deep dive into getting to know each other!! 

Let us know if you try it out and if you make any useful adjustments. Leave a Comment below. 

All the best,

Chris Cavert, Ed.D. 
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    Dr. Chris Cavert is an internationally known author, speaker, and trainer in the area of adventure-based activity programming and its relation to community and pro-social behavior development.

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