Lesson Plan

This activity is excellent for developing students' communication skills;

it demonstrates the importance of listening and asking the right
questions (inquiry skills).

Arrange students into pairs. Have each pair of students sit at their
desks back-to-back, with the writing surfaces of their desks in front of
them. Tell students that one of them will be Student "A" and the other
will be Student "B." Have students in each pair choose one of the
letters.

After students have chosen their letters, ask each student to write his
or her letter in the top corner of a blank sheet of paper. Next, instruct
all "A's" to spend two minutes drawing something on their papers.
Students need not be good at drawing; even stick drawings will suffice
for this activity. (Partners may not look at or talk to each other during
this part of the activity.) While "A's" are drawing, "B's" should remain in
their seats. At the end of the two-minute drawing period, instruct "A's"
to put down their pens/pencils.

Next, tell "B's" to pick up their pens/pencils. Instruct "A's" to give a

clear description of their drawings to their respective partners. Instruct
"B's" to listen only to their partners' instructions. Each "B" will use the
oral instructions to try to re-create his or her partner's drawing. Allow
five minutes for this next step. Remember: The only means of
communication is for each "A" to provide description of the drawing to
his or her partner. "B's" can only listen and draw. Partners should
remain sitting back-to-back at all times during this part of the activity.
At the end of the five-minute time period, instruct "B's" to put down
their pens/pencils.

Allow a few minutes for partners to show each other their drawings
and discuss the results.
For the next part of the activity, instruct partners to resume their back-
to-back positions. Provide each student with a clean sheet of drawing
paper and tell students that the second part of the activity will be
different from the first part. Then have "B's" spend three minutes
drawing on their papers. Students should use the entire three minutes
to draw something beyond a simple shape or two. When the three
minutes are up, "B's" should put down their pens/pencils.

Remind all pairs to remain seated back-to-back. Instruct all "A's" to

prepare to draw. Tell students that this time the "A's" are going to
reproduce their partners' drawings, but the only way they can obtain
information about those drawings is by asking yes or no questions.
Emphasize that only questions that can be answered yes or no are
allowed! Allow students five minutes to complete this part of the
activity. When time is up, have partners compare their drawings.

Take time to discuss the difficulties or successes experienced by the

pairs. Ask which exercise was more difficult and why. Discuss what
they learned about the need for effective communication.

Assessment

Students should conclude in their discussions that effective

communication requires cooperation, honest listening, clear
instructions, respect for one another, clarifying questions, proper
feedback, and openness to divergent opinions.
1. What's the Good Word ( this used to be a popular game on DD
in the good old days and used to be hosted by Ms. Sabira
Merchant) Form teams of 2 or 3 or more and one member is
given a word. He /she will ideally give one word clues to the word
and the team members have to guess it. This is a good way to
reinforce learning of synonyms. By tweaking the same game it
can be used to learn antonyms too. eg. EGG - the clues could be
yolk, hen, omelette, etc.

2. Forming sentences one word at a time by each subsequent

participant in a row. Here teams of 5- 10 can be formed. A couple
of word eg. knife, hot, shape etc can be given to a person
nominated as the Joker in the team. The first person starts with a
word and the the next person is to tell another word such that
there is continuity and with each person contributing a sentence
can be made. The joker does not utilize his word till a suitable
situation arises where his/ her word fits in.( Pay attention to
construction of the sentence and not to the logic or factual
accuracy of the sentence formed. Useful to get beginners in the
English language to get initiated into sentence formation)

Few Ground rules for improving Comn Skills::

1. Always Appreciate ( it builds confidence)

2. Have patience (no miracles happen)
3. Give clear specific individual feedback for improvement. ( it
helps)
4. Let it be fun oriented so that they absorb quickly.

Now for the suggested activities ::

1. Thread a story ( start a sentence like " A man was walking on

the road....")
and each person has to add one more line to continue the story
2. Extempore speeches. on random topics or current affairs.
3. Group discussions. - do -
4. Short Debates.
5. Short Playlets/ skits
6. Short Presentations ( non ppt)
7. Short Group presentations
8. Sellling items like pens or any stuff in the class
9 Motivational Poems - like 'Think you Can'
10. Throw a word at them. Let them make sentences at high
speed.

Presentation. Have your child give a presentation of sorts to a

local retirement home. This can include giving a craft
demonstration, playing piano for them as in a short recital, singing
or reciting a poem. This teaches your child how to present
him/herself. This can be done with children of all ages. The
sooner you get your child comfortable talking in public, the better.
It will become like second nature to them and they may be able to
avoid the biggest fear that most people have: PUBLIC
SPEAKING. Studies show that people who enjoy speaking in
public are more successful than those who do not. So get them
out there showing off the talents God gave them!

8. Whats Going on in the Picture? This one is great for the little
ones. Have your child tell you what he sees in a picture.
Encourage him to describe the scenery, the people, the colors
anything he sees. For older children, have them talk about what
they think might have just happened before this scene and what
they think will happen after. This gives them practice in
formulating ideas in a logical manner that others can easily
understand.

9. Finish a Story. This one is also very good for different age
groups. Kids love stories! You start off a story and have your child
finish it. For very young children, you can tell them a nursery
rhyme and have them make up an alternate ending or add on to
the story. This exercise is great for teaching beginning verbal
communication skills.

10. Impromptu Speech. This exercise is wonderful for children of

all ages. Pick a topic that your child is familiar with or just loves
and ask him/her to speak for about 2 minutes on that topic. After a
while, have your student graduate to speaking on more difficult
topics and/or for longer periods of time. You can start them off by
talking about their favorite movie and eventually graduate them to
controversial topics like prayer in school.
Communication Skills Activities for Kids

Story Forming
Kids love listening to stories, but what about making a story of their own. This exercise solely depends on
the verbal interaction of the kids to form a story. Narrate a gist of a story to the kids before starting the
game. Cut out some pictures of the same story from a book or you can even sketch it on your own and
laminate them. Scatter all the pieces of pictures in front of a small group of kids and ask them to arrange it
in a sequence of the story that they have just heard by communicating among each other. Once they
have finished doing this, ask each one to narrate their part of story through the picture. Scroll on
communication skills games for more ideas.

Just Half a Minute

Make chits of words that are common among the kids and place them in a fishbowl. Now ask each
student to come up and pick out a chit from the bowl and speak for 30 seconds on the word. The
sentences should be small and simple in structure to avoid any grammatical mistakes. This exercise is
quite similar to an extempore that helps in developing confidence and face the audience other than
communication skills.

Communication Skills Activities for Children

Identify the Object

Communication skills activities are more effective when performed in a group, so for this you need to
have a group of at least five to seven players. Blind fold one of them and make him stand at the corner of
the room. Keep an object that requires an elaborate description to understand and to identify like a lamp,
a computer, a table fan, a toaster, etc. Now ask rest of the students to start describing the features of the
object one by one to the blind folded one. He may also ask questions for further explanations and identify
the object in the stipulated time.

Listen and Draw

For this activity two students are required. Make them stand in a straight line, one behind the other at a
distance. Give a blank drawing sheet to the one standing at the front and a sheet with an image drawn
using geometrical shapes like a bird, an ice-cream cone, a house, etc. to the second kid. Now ask him to
give instructions to the other one to draw the image without revealing the identity of the object drawn. This
exercise would enhance the verbal expression of the child.

Communication Skills Activities for Teenagers

Role-Play
The role-play exercises help in developing confidence and refining the communication skills, thus making
an individual more extrovert. This is one of the best communication skills exercises for the teenagers who
need to have good command over their oral communication skills. The trainer needs to give a situation to a
group of four to five people. The situations can be teleconferencing, dealing with a difficult client, selling a
product, etc. where the actors need to interact and apply verbal communication techniques to communicate
effectively.

Diary Writing
Written communication skills too has an equal role to play. A teenager good at oral communication, but
below average in written may face failures in many stages. To improve this aspect of communication,
diary writing can be one of the most effective communication skills activities that would improve upon the
written skill as well. There are no rules to write in a diary, they just need to jot down what he feels about
the day. Dairy writing should be inculcated in daily habits.

Communication Skills Activities for Workplace

Chinese Whisper
This game is also known as the telephone game and is very effective for improving the workplace
communication skills. Start with telling a story or any thing of five lines to the first person who whispers it to
the other one and it continues until the last person. The last person narrates the story aloud and then the
original story is read again to find out the differences. Through this activity the deconstruction of
information caused by ineffective communication is demonstrated.

Communicate without Looking

Body language and eye contact are the two important aspects of effective communication. This activity
has eliminated these two aspects. Two participants for this activity have to sit back-to back and converse
on a given topic. After the conversation ends, a feedback from the audience will be collected to see how
this conversation, devoid of any eye contact, was different from a normal conversation. The main aim
behind this activity is to explain the importance of eye contact and body language for effective
communication.

I am sure that these communication skills activities would definitely be enjoyed by the individual, whether
he is a young man, a teenager or a kid, and explain the importance of communication skills as well. You can
even draft an interesting activity on your own. Do not thrust these activities, rather let the kids enjoy it. So,
go ahead and choose the best one for yourself.