Springboard! Session 8: Speaking Up

What is Springboard!? Click here.

Today’s learning outcomes: Participation, Leadership, Creative Problem Solving and Self-Assurance

Today our Springboard! session was a bit mixed up- literally. Coaches and their freshmen were deliberately separated to create new group dynamics. We were divided into two groups to do the “artifact” activity. Each group was given a completely fabricated word that has not meaning in English. Each group was given a great deal of time to create a meaning and prepare a presentation answering several questions about the item. We were told to avoid defining the word as a food or animal. This activity challenged everyone’s creativity; it’s also designed to help freshmen learn to speak up in class.

We also filled out a grid in our workbooks identifying which group member exhibited which role. (Springboard! classifies roles as Leading, Contributing, Inquiring, Encouraging, Focusing, Mediating, and Persuading, with interfering behaviors being Dominating, Distracting, Hostile, Overreacting and Withdrawing.

At the conclusion of class the two groups gave presentations to one another. It was a packed day, with activities that cultivate creativity, analyzed group roles and demanded public speaking.