Tag: Verbal

Enrichment Activities, For Coaches and Teachers, For Kids

Help Your Students Get to Know One Another with Interviews!

Alison Weaverdyck

We hope you all had a great time at Round Robin #1! Many teams came back for yet another season, but we also had the chance to welcome new teams to the fold. In a perfect world, the students came together and sparked immediately in a shower of creative fireworks. In reality, even the most seasoned Triathletes can use a little nudge back into sync from time to time.

Since it’s the beginning of the season, we thought we’d provide a “getting to know you” activity for the students. It’s a dash of P.A.RT.Y. in a Box and mixed with a Mind Sprint’s ticking clock. We’d love to see the results of this role-playing activity. Please, send any finished interviews, images the activity inspires, and videos of our students giving it a whirl to Alison@usacademictriathlon.com.

Objective: Use an interview structure to refresh acting skills and help the students get to know each other better to boost creative flow.

Quick Set-up: An activity for 1 or more. Download and print the interview questions template, or answer the questions below as a verbal activity.

Conducting the interviews: We ask our Triathletes to introduce themselves at Round Robin #1 every year. Now, it’s time to think about who you’d like to be rather than who you are. Use the questions to create a fascinating life story for yourself. The sky is the limit when it comes to what can happen between now and 2050, so aim high when you talk about your accomplishments and aspirations as your adult self.

Take turns acting as an interviewer, be it for a local newspaper, Time Magazine, or your future child’s family history project. Feel free to add or skip any questions you don’t feel like doing. Some people may wish for time to write down their responses in advance, and others may feel ready to jump right in. Use these questions in whatever way works best for you!

Bonus activity: Use your Competition Kit or things around the home or classroom to create one prop your future self would use to add interest to their interview. Refer to it at any point during the dialog and tell a story.

Interviewer: Briefly introduce yourself for the “audience,” then proceed to the questions.

Interview Questions

  1. What an interesting life you’ve lived! Are there any moments that stand out to you the most?
  1. You are a person of many talents. What would you say you are the best known for at this point in your life?
  1. Did that take any training or classes to be able to do that? Maybe a mentor or someone who made a real difference?
  1. When you aren’t busy with that, how do you spend your free time?
  1. Do you do all of that by yourself, or do you have friends or family who do that with you?
  1. What about pets? Do you have a furry friend or slippery serpent in your life? Does your pet require any special care?
  1. Do you have a favorite book or quote that inspired you along the way?
  1. What’s in store for you next? Do you have any goals for the second half of the century?
  1. Thank you so much for your time. Do you have any parting words or advice for young people today?
Multiple Intelligences, Resources

The Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence

Alison Weaverdyck

In this first installment of our Multiple Intelligences series, we decided it would be a good idea to differentiate between “Intelligences” and “learning styles.” There is definitely some overlap between a few of the styles and the various intelligences, but they are not the same thing at their heart. In brief, a learning style refers to the way a person prefers (or is more naturally inclined) to receive and process new information. Intelligences deal more with a person’s inherent interests and abilities.

Both the verbal learning style and the Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence deal with words, but in a different way. For instance, if a person has a verbal learning style, they will prefer to take in new information (on any topic) through words. This may be in the form of reading or listening to a lecture. On the other hand, a person who exhibits the Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence (word smarts) may have a verbal learning style, or they may not. And a person with a verbal learning style may be very interested in listening to a lecture about science and take in all of the information, but could be bored and distracted in English class regardless of the way the teacher is teaching the subject.

Funny-Meme1What defines the Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence is the internalizing of grammar rules, remembering new words they learn, and enjoying puns and word games. These people will often excel at foreign languages because of their innate ability to recognize grammar rules and remember them. They read for pleasure and easily remember quotes. In essence, they enjoy language for language’s sake rather than it just being a tool for taking in new information. Here are a few more examples:

  • They enjoy rhymes, alliteration, and puns.
  • They will talk about things they have read and be able to verbalize why they liked or disliked them.
  • They most likely write poems and stories, because reading them isn’t enough.
  • They correct other people’s grammar and word usage.
  • They know definitions of words that others will not, and use those “fancy” words in conversation.

In our USAT Meets, we try to appeal to students who have this inclination by asking them specific grammar and vocabulary questions, as well as quizzing them on new and classic literature during Face-Off! In the past, we have also had Mind Sprints where a person who exhibits Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence can shine, such as “Connectors” in the second Round Robin. In this challenge, teams were given dominoes with word parts on them, and they had to recognize combinations of three dominoes that made two complete words.

Next week we’ll take a look at the second of the eight Multiple Intelligences, Logical/Mathematical Intelligence.