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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Feb 16 2010, 8:40 AM EST (current) | kennedyogutu | 99 words added, 1 word deleted |
| Feb 11 2009, 7:15 AM EST | mikicesari | 3 words added |
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Openers, energisers and closers are dynamic activities that you can use to start up your workshop, energise the group and bring a learning experience to an appropriate closure. They are designed to suit almost any content: that is, no matter if you are working on negotiation, nonviolence or other topics of your choice, these openers, energisers and closers provide you with templates that will fit to your materials and to the group you are working with.
These activities are not just fun. While some of them might be used just to “shake” and energise the group in order to regain attention, most of them are interactive strategies for learning and provide you with processes to improve learning and achieve your workshop objectives.
As for any of the materials included in this area, we encourage you to change and adapt the activities as you think best. We believe that when it comes to learning nothing is universal and transferable just as it is - the rule “one fits for all” is not applicable to these materials. Change these openers, energisers and closers to fit the contents you are treating, the group you are working with and the context where you are facilitating.
Openers
An opener is an activity to jump start your workshop. A good one, can help you start on the right foot. There are different kinds of openers that can be used for different purposes: to introduce the workshop agenda and objectives, to help participants get to know each other and yourself, to explore participants’ expectations, to set together the ground rules for the rest of the workshop, to get started with the topics of the workshop, etc. Most openers encourage participation, sending a message that ultimate responsibility for learning is not only on the facilitators’ shoulders, but on the participants’ too.
Energisers
An energiser, guess what, is an activity to energise your participants. For instance, it’s 2.00 PM and participants have just returned to the workshop room after lunch. Most of them are suffering from the “post-lunch-syndrome” and you know they will be half-awake for the next hour - no matter how interesting are the activities and contents that will be treated. This is a perfect situation to play an energiser. Usually this is a quick activity that can involve physical action and can “shake” the group to help them focus on subsequent work. An energiser can be connected to the content, group and context with which you are working, but not necessarily. There are moments in a workshop when five minutes of pure fun can achieve a lot in terms of activating participants for learning.
Closers
A closer is an activity that brings the appropriate closure to a learning experience. Many contents can be treated during a workshop and a lot can emerge from participants: if you are not able to harvest all the learning that took place during a session and bring it to an appropriate closure you run the risk to let it go, to not fix it. A closer gives the opportunity to summarise the contents introduced, to emphasise the “discoveries” of participants, to add final tips and to motivate participants to put into practice what they have learned.
These activities are not just fun. While some of them might be used just to “shake” and energise the group in order to regain attention, most of them are interactive strategies for learning and provide you with processes to improve learning and achieve your workshop objectives.
As for any of the materials included in this area, we encourage you to change and adapt the activities as you think best. We believe that when it comes to learning nothing is universal and transferable just as it is - the rule “one fits for all” is not applicable to these materials. Change these openers, energisers and closers to fit the contents you are treating, the group you are working with and the context where you are facilitating.
Openers
An opener is an activity to jump start your workshop. A good one, can help you start on the right foot. There are different kinds of openers that can be used for different purposes: to introduce the workshop agenda and objectives, to help participants get to know each other and yourself, to explore participants’ expectations, to set together the ground rules for the rest of the workshop, to get started with the topics of the workshop, etc. Most openers encourage participation, sending a message that ultimate responsibility for learning is not only on the facilitators’ shoulders, but on the participants’ too.
| Using Name Tags: | This activity helps participants to get to know each other and explore their motivation to attend the workshop. Each participant picks a nametag when entering the facility and chooses a secret target for her interviews. After a few rounds of interviews participants talk to the plenary about their secret target. |
| Brief Interviews: | A pure icebreaker. It helps participants to stay relaxed since they do not have to report on themselves to the plenary. After several quick rounds of interviews in couples, participants return to the plenary, you chose one person and at a time and ask the others “who is this?” |
| I Statements: | This activity explores participants’ expectations and sets the ground rules for the workshop. Most of the work is done individually: after reflecting on what they expect from the workshop, participants are asked what everyone – including the facilitator – should do in order to ensure their expectations are met. |
| Expectations, Worries and Ground Rules: | Sub-groups of 5-6 people reflect on their expectations and worries for the workshop and help set the ground rules to follow during the rest of the session. |
| Expectations, Quickly!: | This activity helps you collect participants’ expectations through a quick brainstorming session. To use when you don’t have much time but still wish to explore participants’ expectations for the workshop |
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Energisers
An energiser, guess what, is an activity to energise your participants. For instance, it’s 2.00 PM and participants have just returned to the workshop room after lunch. Most of them are suffering from the “post-lunch-syndrome” and you know they will be half-awake for the next hour - no matter how interesting are the activities and contents that will be treated. This is a perfect situation to play an energiser. Usually this is a quick activity that can involve physical action and can “shake” the group to help them focus on subsequent work. An energiser can be connected to the content, group and context with which you are working, but not necessarily. There are moments in a workshop when five minutes of pure fun can achieve a lot in terms of activating participants for learning.
| Name Ball: | Participants stand and form and circle. You introduce a ball and pass it to another participant calling her name. You invite everyone to do the same, passing the ball and calling the name of the person who receives it. After a while you introduce a second ball in the circle, then a third, fourth, and so on. Many balls thrown quickly, everybody moving and shouting: a perfect energiser. |
| [...]Self Porttrait: | Participants stand adjacent to their seats. The facilitator asks them to place some writing material on top of their heads. You then ask them to recall the image of their faces which they must have seen in their mirrors that morning. Each participant then draws their self-portrait on the paper, starting with the shape of their head, the left ear, right ear, left eye, etc. You then ask them to lower the paper and see for themselves what they look like. People will have drawn outrageous and hillarious portraits of themselves and will be left laughing. |
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Closers
A closer is an activity that brings the appropriate closure to a learning experience. Many contents can be treated during a workshop and a lot can emerge from participants: if you are not able to harvest all the learning that took place during a session and bring it to an appropriate closure you run the risk to let it go, to not fix it. A closer gives the opportunity to summarise the contents introduced, to emphasise the “discoveries” of participants, to add final tips and to motivate participants to put into practice what they have learned.
| [...] | [...] |
| [...] | [...] |
