Teaching Notes

You can ask the students to describe the limitations of this purely verbal communication. Then you can ask them the limitations of a purely graphic communication (no opportunity to ask questions). If your building bricks have different colors, you can have the students communicate the color of each block. For a brick to be correctly placed, its position and color would have to be correct.

You will have to decide how to set up groups for this activity. If there are two students per group, that enables the students to go through this part of the activity most rapidly. Also, there will not be much distraction from other students watching the communication. On the other hand, observers who watch the activity can recognize individual miscommunications as they happen (which the participants cannot do). Viewing this kind of activity can help students analyze how communication goes awry. Consider groups of four, so two students participate while the other two can watch both sides at once and listen to the communication. In playing the “Wheel of Fortune” game, it is essential that the students play silently, so that no one reveals the answer until all have successfully guessed it from the letters already shown. Be sure the students understand this before they do Steps 5 through 8.