You know what happens whenyou ask a group of learners: “Arethere any questions?” You’reright: most of the time the grouplooks at you in silence, waitingfor “someone else” to talk.
Or you ask a question and thenwait - and wait and wait - for onebrave soul to speak up with ananswer.
And when someone finally an-swers your question, everyoneelse breathes a sigh of relief and
expects you to continue yourlecture - the heat is off them forawhile longer.
But what if you had a structuredway to get all learners involvedin answering a question? What ifyou had a way that would guar-antee a lot of participation in alittle time? And what if yourlearners were all thinking andlearning, even if they weren’t allspeaking?
Here is an activity that will do allthat and more. The basic ideawas borrowed from corporatetrainer and games guru, Thiagi(log onto his web site atwww.thiagi.com for more fabu-lous training ideas). The ideamorphed over time to become aquick activity called a Shout Out- one which you can use in a va-riety of ways.
What Is It? A Shout Out is sim-ply an interactive lecture activity.
60-Second Shout Outs!A “Got a Minute?” activity from: The Ten Minute Trainer
by Sharon L. Bowman, MA
Professional Speaker and Corporate TrainerPresident, Bowperson Publishing & Training, Inc.
It is a quick way to encouragelearners to verbally state infor-mation they already know orhave just learned about the topic.
What Does It Do? A Shout Outaccomplishes a number of things:
* It is a structured way to elicitquick answers from a group oflearners.
* It makes the whole group re-sponsible for a specific numberof facts or answers - so morelearners than just one are in-volved in generating replies.
* It engages critical thinkingskills because learners have tocome up with more than oneright answer - and the answersget harder as the activity contin-ues.
* It validates what learners al-ready know about a topic.
* It is a quick way for learners toverbally review important infor-mation.
* It involves learners in the lec-ture, making it a dialogue insteadof a monologue.
* It is an easy way to check forunderstanding (if you see a lot ofblank stares, then you know youneed to re-teach the information).
* It keeps everyone focused andprovides a fast energy break.
Room Set-Up and MaterialsNeeded: The great part of thisactivity is that it accommodatesany room arrangement and anysize group, both large and small.You can also use it with anytopic and any age learner. Abso-lutely NO preparation is neces-sary!
Activity Instructions:
1. Tell your learners to verballygive you a number between 1 -10 (between any two numbers).
2. When someone in the grouphas stated a number (7 for exam-ple), then say, “We need 7 factsabout what we just learned.” Or:“Here is a question about (topic).We need to come up with 7 an-swers to the question.” Or: “Giveme 7 facts about what you al-ready know about (topic).”
60-Second Shout Outs!A “Got a Minute?” activity from: The Ten Minute Trainer
3. You can begin the Shout Outby stating the first fact. As learn-ers shout out the other facts, youkeep track of the number(“That’s 1; that’s 2; we need 3more, etc.”).
4. After learners have shoutedout their facts about the topic oranswers to your question, youcan add information that thelearners didn’t state.
5. Like any brainstorming activ-ity, you accept ALL answersduring a Shout Out. After eachanswer, you simply say, “Yes” or“That’s (number),” or “Great -let’s have another one.” If theanswer is incorrect say, “Holdthat thought and we’ll come backto it,” and go on with the ShoutOut. The time to address anymisconceptions is when theShout Out is over.
6. At the end of the activity,thank the learners and continuewith your lecture or presentation.
Activity Variations:
1. You tell the learners howmany facts about the topic or an-swers to the question that theyneed to come up with.
2. If learners are in small groups,have one small group come upwith the facts or answers, thenask the rest of the groups if they
can add to what the first groupsaid.
3. Have small groups work to-gether first to gather a specificnumber of facts or answers, thendirect them to shout out whatthey discussed.
4. Have the learners shout out anumber of questions about thetopic. Direct a volunteer to writethe questions on a chart for laterdiscussion.
5. Vary the Shout Out with other60-second activities so you don’t“Shout Out” your learners todeath! Remember: anything be-comes boring with too muchrepetition, anything becomesboring with too much repetition,anything becomes - well, you getthe idea!
6. Use the Shout Out at the be-ginning/opening of your trainingas a connecting activity (con-necting learners to what they al-ready know about a topic).
7. Use the activity at the cele-bration/closing of your trainingto review what was learned. Endthe Shout Out by having learnersgive high-fives to those aroundthem (a high-energy way to cele-brate the learning and to close thetraining).
60-Second Shout Outs!A “Got a Minute?” activity from: The Ten Minute Trainer
Final Thoughts: The Shout Outis one of the most versatile 60-second activities around. Ex-periment with it to make it workfor you and your learners. As aninteractive lecture technique, it’stops!__________________________
“60-Second Shout Outs” is an excerptfrom Sharon Bowman’s newest bookThe Ten-Minute Trainer! 150 Ways toTeach it Quick and Make It Stick,published by Pfeiffer Co. (a division ofJohn Wiley & Sons) and printed withpermission. Please cite the source whendownloading this material. You cancontact www.Bowperson.com for moreinformation about The Ten-MinuteTrainer. Read on for a brief description:
Got a minute? Choose from 140 60-second activities to help your learnersreview, repeat, and remember. Or useten high-energy, 5 - 10 minute gamesto move information into long-termmemory. Use the Power Hour tem-plates with your own training topics.And best of all, discover the most usefultraining tool around to speed up bothdesign and delivery – The TrainingMap. The bottom line?
Create a lot of learningin a little time!
The Ten-Minute Trainer is a “grab-it-and-go” book – with loads of back-pocket ideas you can use immediatelywith little or no preparation. Be sure tolog onto www.Bowperson.com for se-lected excerpts of The Ten-MinuteTrainer.
Author and traveling teacher SharonBowman helps educators and businesspeople “teach it quick and make itstick,” - fine-tuning their information-delivery skills and turning their passivelisteners into active learners.
Over 70,000 copies of Sharon’s 7popular teaching, training, and moti-vation books are now in print.
For more information about SharonBowman and her books and training,log onto www.Bowperson.com, oremail her at [email protected].
For book orders, go towww.trainerswarehouse.com,www.amazon.com, or call BowpersonPublishing at 775-749-5247.
![Shout [Score]](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/577cc0131a28aba7118ec188/shout-score.jpg)
