5. Seeking asylum/incorporating territory

On each round two ambassadors leave each group, each in the opposite direction. They introduce their topic to the new group and the new group decides whether to adopt the new topic or to stick with the old one. Hopefully the decision is made by consensus. If not then someone (the teacher?, the ambassador?) should have a deciding vote. Naturally odd-numbered groups would get around this difficulty. If the new topic is adopted then the ambassador becomes an auditor and returns on the next round with notes from the group s/he has just heard. If the new topic is not adopted then the ambassador is 'naturalised' as a member of the new group. (Note: this variation can be quite confusing, depending on how forthcoming students are about the position they are adopting!)

6. Spying/intelligence gathering

In an activity, such as debate preparation where groups are working against each other 'in camera', groups could send auditors or spies to collect information and take notes about the other side's arguments and ideas. For instance in a class with six groups three propositions could be used for debating topics. Groups debating either side of the same motion would not sit adjacent to each other. In this way they would hopefully not directly overhear each others' deliberations. Each group would keep a chair for guests and as all of the propositions are related to the same theme, each group's roving reporter could legitimately sit in any empty guest's chair and listen to any of the deliberations. Of course they might be really listening to the group adjacent to the one in which they appear to be a guest. Groups which felt they were being spied upon would then have to take whatever action they deemed appropriate to evade the possibility of losing arguments to the other side. Decorum can be established to obviate the risk of direct accusations.

There could even be double agents involved if students were allowed to decide to sell out to other groups. Likewise certain activities might permit the simultaneous circulation of ambassadors auditors/spies.

7. Jigsaw exercises

The panauric set-up can be useful for jigsaw-style exercises where students need to move around the classroom in order to gather pieces of information. It would be possible to divide the class into information gatherers and information givers; alternatively one could give every student both roles. Again information gathering goals could be individual or they could be the same for everyone. This could work as a kind of structure for what would otherwise be 'mingling' or even group forming activities. For instance if everyone is assigned a line from one of six four line stories they could move from group to group finding the other people 'in their story'. Order could be insisted on by allowing only one group-to-group movement on each round. The person privileged to move would then have the task of asking everyone in the new group for what they could share. Eventually the right people arrive together in the one group and are able to put together the text of which they each hold a piece. If everyone were assigned a line from a poem of six four-line stanzas then the whole class could work to arrange itself into six stanza groups in correct order.

8. Human Flowcharts

Groups can be stationary positions through which students pass. There can be information stored, and which students collect or sift through, at each position. On the other hand information required by others could be, as in technique 7, 'vested' in individuals. Students then move from group to group to gather the information they need from a moving target. This technique could be used for finding out the correct ordering the stages of a process or procedure.

9. Processing ideas and arguments

Ideas and words can be processed through various stages by assigning particular functions to particular groups and then cycling ideas or text, perhaps through the offices of ambassadors, through stages, possibly to completion. Stages of an argument are suited to this treatment which could be a useful exercise in debate preparation. The groups can simulate the functions of parliamentary committees or the branches of a bureaucracy through which a proposal must pass before being put into practice.

To simplify the process and achieve maximum functional diversity, the groups could be arranged such that one group argues for a proposition, the next group against it, the next group amends the proposition (for a specific purpose), the next group finds exceptions and caveats, the next group finds loopholes or means of subversion, the next group finds counter-proposals and so on.

Groups could maintain the same functions with regard to various proposals passed to them (thus simulating the work of a particular office). As the class becomes proficient in each of the critical roles demanded they should be able to juggle new functions and new topics at the same time.

10. Scribes and whisperers

As in the game of Chinese whispers messages can be passed from group to group. To give everyone a job and to maximise the possibilities for message distortion (ie. the need for clarity in speech and good listening) each group can simultaneously be passing a whisper in both directions. Each group has two whisperers and two scribes (the roles could change from round to round to give everyone equal practice at both roles). Each group then begins with one spoken message and passes it in both directions at once. Scribes keep track of messages arriving but cannot show their written version of the message to anyone. They must pass the message to their whisperer by word of mouth before it goes onto the next group. The first warning bells should ring for the inaccuracy of delivery when the 'same' messages meet half way around the circle. If the message is the same then the accuracy of the match will be self-reinforcing. If the messages differ then scribes and whisperers have to make a decision (based on semantic/grammatical and pronunciation criteria) as to which of the versions to pass on. If the changes to the messages are sufficiently outlandish then it could be worth allowing messages to circulate around the classroom more than once. Tongue twisters are particularly good fun for advanced groups. This activity is an effective warm-up for the next one listed.

11. Processing word and text

As with exercise 9 the goal would be to give students practice at a range of text processing tasks. Brainstorming - drafting - editing - revising - finalising - proofreading. The easiest way to run such an activity would be to give every group a different writing task to begin with. The activities of each group can be kept in sync then as the texts-in-progress are passed around the class (i.e. every group is editing or re-writing at the same time, but processing a different text on each occasion. Matching the tasks to the time limits requires skill for this kind of exercise. Depending on the students' facility with the task one could make more realistic efforts to simulate particular editorial processes (eg. those applying to a news item in a newspaper or for radio). One could likewise throw in new information to hand or new editorial directives at various stages in order to keep any tasks from becoming mechanical. If it is an academic genre of writing which is being practised then groups could ask for (and deliver) embellishment, interpretation, justifications, responses to perceived theoretical difficulties. In the case of a policy document groups could ask for (and deliver) judgements on hypothetical cases, re-interpretations in the light of new data and so forth.

11. Progression on a theme

Example: Groups are asked to list the best ten inventions in human history. Reasons have to be given for every invention proposed for the list. They pass their lists by way of ambassadors onto the next group which places the inventions in order of importance. Reasons have to be given for the order assigned (combining comparisons with reasons). Ordered lists are passed on by two ambassadors to groups in either direction. In this way each newly formed group will have three ordered lists of inventions to compare. Arguments can be (re-)asserted in favour of any particular order. Groups are asked to propose a new invention which would be better or more important than the others on the list so far (a device/machine which could/would...). Ambassadors would carry those hypothesised inventions around the room for comparison and priority ordering. Or this could be done in 'plenary' session prior to groups resuming discussion on the relative value of the other groups' projected inventions.

12. Some other possibilities

Stages of creative production (for instance in design or advertising or storymaking), stages of policy development, diplomatic initiative could all be modelled by means of the techniques outlined above. Students by this means can be trained not only in teamwork but in the ways in which teams can work together or against each other.

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