Newsprint Comes Alive

From time to time I find other gems on some of the training message boards I belong to. This one comes from Karen Distler of Missouri

She writes, "For my business writing class, I begin with this icebreaker:

Find generic words in newspapers or magazines such as "sports," "holiday,"
"Sunday," etc. Highlight the word so it stands out from other words around it.
Cut up the pieces of newsprint and place the words in a big envelope--one
envelope per group of 5 participants. Ask each participant to reach in the
envelope without looking and pull out a piece of paper. Then ask the
participants to share something about themselves that is not work related using
the newsprint word in their sentence. Give an example: word is "shopping" "I
enjoy shopping at Wal-Mart." Or "My wife enjoys shopping but I don't."

For groups under 20, you can have each participant share with the entire group.
With a bigger group, you could do the same activity, but have them share with
their group members. Ask follow up questions to get to know your participants
better. For example: "Why Wal-Mart?" Or "What do you enjoy doing while your
wife is shopping?"

I think this sounds like fun, and the newspaper pieces are so much more visual than just using index cards. I was thinking about how I would adapt this icebreaker, and just imagine the possibilities. You could select words that could create certain reactions or move the discussion in a particular way.

Thank you Karen.