Kirsty asked:
I am finding real difficulties in engaging children in session 8. We are on our 2nd term of groups and I have found this repeatedly, my colleague in West Dunbartonshire also found this session was really difficult in engaging the children. I think there are a number of reasons for this, one being that the anger session the week before is the most engaging and exciting, they’re more comfortable in the group but also I feel that session 8 is the most removed in terms of their experiences of hurting in their family.
I don’t think that the problem solving framework is engaging, and I have changed activities and resources with the same learning outcomes. I feel that this has helped, however during the discussions one of my groups were extremely challenging – I had to resort to waiting in silence until the sillyness stopped, and then reminded the children as to why they are there. I should say, this group has been challenging, however yesterday proved to be the most difficult. After this, they engaged with the activities, however I’m increasingly feeling that this session requires a rethink.
This is just my feedback, however I would be keen to hear your thoughts and other project’s thoughts.
national cedar project says
November 8, 2013 at 12:01 pmKirstie wrote:
It’s good to hear from you.
Thank you for your email and for your feedback on session 8. Interestingly, another project recently shared some Cedar Snaps with us, and this included some similar feedback, which we have consent to share
‘During evaluation of the first round of Cedar groups children fed back that they found session 8 “boring” as there is a lot of flip chart work. In response to this we built in some role play, where children were given roles in a problem solving scenario. We also used the problem solving framework on an opportunity-led basis when there was conflict in group, to show how it could be applied in everyday scenarios. This approach seems to have been more successful with subsequent groups, with children feeding back that they “liked the acting” and they liked “talking about stuff” in this session.’
I think that the feedback from yourself and the other project presents an opportunity to think about how we can adapt session 8 to better meet the needs of group, and to engage children and young people more effectively. I really can understand why some children may find it difficult to engage with, partly because it is not as interactive as some of the other sessions, and I can also imagine that it might feel a little bit too much like a school activity due to the flipchart work. I like the example of using role play to explore solutions problem scenarios. I also like the idea of using the framework to look for solutions to conflicts that might arise in group – I suspect the problem solving framework may be more engaging when dealing with a real problem in real time, rather than the scenario approach.
Do you use the Fox, Grain, Chicken exercise? If so, how do the children respond to that? I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be nice to find some more similar exercises like that, as I think that they are useful not only in terms of problem solving skills, but also skills around cooperation and team work.
It would be great to hear more about what you think would work better in relation to session 8, and I’d be really keen to hear about the resources and activities you used. Flexibility is really important, and as long as learning outcomes are being met, I think it’s so important that people feel able to use their own resources and activities.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Sasha says
November 22, 2013 at 12:47 pmCedar Moray replied:
We can definitely relate to this as this has been a standout session for us over all of the groups we have run. I mean this in terms of finding it difficult to manage the children in the session as they appear to find it difficult to focus, later feeding back to us that the flipchart work is “boring”.
In terms of strategies we use to manage this, we have tried to make the “fox chicken and grain” exercise as interactive as possible for the younger ones (teens aren’t so keen on this!) by them taking on the roles of the fox, chicken etc.
This means that they get up and moving, which they like (we also have animal masks and hats which they wear and this adds to the fun factor). We also get the kids to act out and role play the problem solving scenarios too, which they seem to prefer to just talking in a group about how to solve the problems.
We also take any opportunities given to us naturally by the group to use as examples of how to solve problems (fights over toys etc), in order to try and make the material appear more useful and “real”.
We would certainly agree with Kirsty that we feel that this session is challenged by following up from the excitement of the anger one and further to this, that this is the session by which children feel comfortable with the group and their role in it and this leads to more challenges in getting them to focus on the session.. however we do feel that this settles down from s9-12 again!