Activity 1 Welcome and Big picture

Delivering

Volunteer Led

Learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 1

Welcome and Big picture

Purpose:

To bring the group together, develop understanding of the Volunteer Led

Learning programme and set expectations

Resources:

Time: 15 minutes

What to do:

Introduce yourself to the group, who you are and what your role is.

Use PowerPoint slides to give an overview and introduction

Big Picture of Volunteer Led Learning Programme

Big Picture of the training

Understanding the ethos & values of a volunteer led tutor programme

Understanding the role of UFA, Whole Education and NESTA as national organisations

Aims of the training

Establish quality standard for delivery of Volunteer Led learning programme

Get to know the school setting and clarify roles

Chance to share experiences and expertise with others

Be comfortable with the Volunteer Led learning project

Points to make:

This training is a development opportunity for them.

It is fine to ask questions, however some responses may come after the training

Equips volunteers to provide a high quality experience for Volunteer Led learning participants

Delivering Volunteer

Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 2a

Teambuilding- Who’s in the group?

Story of my name

Purpose:

To introduce yourself to others

To get to know other’s names

To establish identity and individuality

To share any cultural significance of names

Resources: Length of string per small group of 5-8 participants.

Time: 20 minutes

What to do:

This activity can be facilitated either as a whole group or participants can work in small groups of 3 -

4.

If the training group is larger than 12, it is advisable to use the small group process in order to be

more efficient with time. The idea is to learn more about other members of the group by listening to

the story of their name; with the string acting as a time management tool. It is helpful for you to

model what to do by going first.

Each participant has the time it takes to wrap the string around their fingers to share the story of

their name.

They can talk about….

Who chose their name, why?

If their name has any particular meaning they are aware of

Whether they like it or not

Any nicknames they have

If they had another name, what would they choose?

Each person MUST always end with:

‘I’d like you to call me…..’.

Points to make:

Names are very important part of our identity.

When we use names correctly we show we care about people. Using the wrong name,

mispronouncing it or dismissing it, can be hurtful to people and stop them from connecting to us.

Building positive relationships, characterised by mutual trust and respect is at the heart of UFA

activity. This is what helps us to engage and motivate young people.

Easier to persuade, negotiate and communicate with people when we use their names.

Something to do whilst talking can be a comfort for those who feel a bit anxious about social

situations.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 2b

Goals and intentions

Purpose:

To calm any worries and investigate hopes and aims

To allow volunteers to decide how they are going to “be” for the training

Resources:

Post-its in two different colours

Pens/pencils

Flipchart or large paper

PowerPoint Slides

Time:

15 minutes

What to do:

Goals

Ask participants to write on a post-it write their goals for their role as a volunteer. Goals are

what they want to get out of it. These might be things like gaining experience or helping

others.

Stick these on the flipchart.

Group the goals into categories, highlighting the common ones thus demonstrating that many

people share the same sorts of goals.

Intentions

Then ask volunteers to decide how they are going to “be” during the training and ultimately in

their role so that they can get what they want.

Ask them to make a note of their intention in their booklet. For example if they want to gain

confidence then they will need to be friendly and work with other people.

Points to make:

Is your goal a stretch for you? Does it take you outside your comfort zone into your challenge

zone, (avoiding your panic zone!)

Is it achievable/realistic: A goal beyond realistic attainment is a goal that will not be

subconsciously considered?

Is it emotive? How does it connect to your feelings? Without strong emotive connection and

approval by the limbic system, there is little to motivate.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 3

Walk and Talk - review

Purpose:

Small group review

Resources: None

Time:

5 minutes

What to do

Ask participants to get into pairs and go for a walk (outside of the training room if possible).

Walking side by side, for two minutes one person must talk uninterrupted about the training session

and what they have learnt from it. Their partners role is to just listen and not comment

At the end of two minutes they swap roles and walk back.

Points to make:

Verbalising our learning encourages our brain to distil the learning, attaching vocabulary to

thoughts crystallises them

It is as difficult to listen without interrupting, as it is to talk for two minutes

Volunteers can use this process with the young people they are working with


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 4

Energiser: One, Two, Three

Purpose:

To model the use of energisers

To refocus the group after a break

Resources: Lots of space

Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

One, two, three

Ask participants to get into pairs (introduce yourself to your partner if you don’t know names) and

stand opposite each other.

As a pair, count to three with each person saying one word each

i.e. Person A says “one”, Person B says “two”, Person A says “three”, Person B says “one” and so

on.

Practise this for a moment.

Now replace saying “one” with a clap. Practice this for a moment.

Now also replace saying “two” with a click of the fingers and practise.

Finally, also replace saying “three” with a stamp.

Have fun!

Points to make:

These are good activities to use when a concentration is beginning to wander. A quick

energising ‘brain break’ can refresh a young person to help them to carry on for a bit longer.

Initially, these might seem a bit difficult because your brain is laying a new pathway.

However, the more you do it, the faster the signal travels across the pathway, and the easier

it becomes. When we try new things they can be hard. Sometimes we find them difficult to do

physically, sometimes we find it hard to push ourselves to do new things.

This activity elicits laughter….this helps people feel relaxed and enjoy the experience. If they

can build in laughter to their sessions for teenagers, they will find that deeper engagement is

easier.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 5

Back Seat Driver

Purpose:

Energiser

Provide an opportunity to practise communication skills.

To highlight steeping back not stepping out

Resources: Lots of space

Time: 15 minutes

What to do:

Ask participants to get into pairs of around the same height, one behind the other, both facing

forward.

The person at the front is ‘driving ‘and the person at the back is the SAT NAV directs them

with their hand on the shoulder of the driver.

Driver has their eyes closed, SAT NAV directs them where to go in the space. Aim is not to

touch any of the other cars.

Swap after 2-3 minutes.

Then swap back and have the SAT NAV remove their hands from shoulders still giving verbal

directions to the driver.

Any spare people can be ‘traffic police’ to fine pairs driving dangerously.

Feedback how it felt to your partner, what worked? What could be improved?

Trainer – feedback any observations i.e. sometimes Sat Nav when not in contact step to the side, or

drivers put their hands out in front to feel safe

Points to make:

Volunteers can feel anxious when they are not leading session

Clear and concise communication is very important to make sure young people know what you

mean.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 6

Challenge - Comfort Zone Theory

Purpose:

For volunteers to experience what it feels like to be in comfort,

challenge and panic zone.

For volunteers to see others in the comfort, challenge and panic zones

and to identify how this might be useful in their role as a tutor

Resources:

Panic, Challenge and Comfort Zone posters – using flip chart paper create 3

posters

Challenge – green = good for learning (green for go)

Panic – red – warning /danger

Blue – comfortable relaxed

PowerPoint Slides

Time: 25 minutes

What to do:

There are three posters – Comfort, Challenge and Panic. Put the posters up on the wall.

2. Read out a series of statements and ask everyone to stand next to the poster that applies to

them.

Example statements: (you don’t need to use them all )

There’s a spider in the room

In five minutes time I’d like you to do a presentation on the six principles

You’re stuck in a lift

We are all going caving

There’s a snake in the room

3. After each statement, ask people why they stood next to that poster – particularly those in

the challenge and panic zones. What is it about the statement that means they are

challenged or panicked?

4. A couple of times during the exercise, when people have just arrived in their zones, ask

them to ‘freeze’.

5. Get them to think about their own body language and that of those around them. Do the

people in each zone have anything in common?

6. Trainer summarises the session and learning outcomes.

Explore through discussion:

Behaviours associated with each zone.

How they personally respond?

What helps them to shift out of their comfort/panic zone?

How do they feel about delivering the training?

Points to make:

Different things challenge different people.

What things did people have in common when they were in each zone? Can this be applied

to their delivery role i.e. if they see a young person using particular body language, does it

indicate that they are feeling challenged / panicked?

Are there specific questions that people ask when they are starting to feel stretched?


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 7

Reflection - Kolb

Purpose:

To introduce the concept of guided reflection

To experience a simple review framework following input on Kolb’s learning

cycle

Resources: PowerPoint Slides

Time: 15 Minutes

What to do

Emphasise the importance of guided reflection;

Without it young people will be taking part in the programme but not necessarily learning

from it.

Without it, they might not recognise the value of the experience they are going through.

Reflection is how we learn

Guided reflection is also the most useful tool in managing challenging behaviour

Guided reflection is key to young people’s realising personal social development. It involves

helping participants think through experiences for themselves. Importantly it involves helping

participants to realise how they might do things differently in the future.

Participants must be guided to draw out their own realisations without being told or having

views and opinions imposed on them.

Using the PowerPoint slides introduce

Kolb’s experiential cycle

Important to emphasise that reviewing can be as active as any other part of the learning

process. From a practical point of view, active reviewing methods provide useful tools for

sharpening the process of learning from experience.

Active reviewing methods can help to:

- improve the quality of communication for giver and receiver

- engage more of the whole brain

- speed up processes that just discussion slows down

- bring talk and action together (improving the quality of both)

- make the learning process more memorable

- make the learning outcomes more transferable

Following input ask small groups to use the review framework to reflect on the training so far

What

So What

Now What

2. Capture responses on a flip chart

-

Points to make:

Guided reflection involves helping participants think through experience for themselves

Participants must be guided to draw out their own realisations without being told or having views

imposed upon them

Guided reflection involves helping young people to realise how they might do things differently in

the future


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 8

Powerful Conversations to Build

Respectful Relationships

Purpose:

To explore some of the elements of coaching conversations

To illustrate that giving respect is at the heart of building positive

relationships that encourage growth and learning


Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

Ask participants to think of someone (no names) that they really struggled to get on with; what did

they do/say that made you disconnect from them?

Collect a few responses from the group.

Now ask them to think of a person that has influenced them in a positive way that they felt respected

by. What did they do/say that meant they connected with them?

How much respect did you feel this person gave you?

How well did they listen to you?

Collect responses from the group by asking them to assign a number from 1-10 (1 =low, 10=high).

After the count of 3 they all say their number out loud. You should get a sense of the range of

numbers you are hearing.

Emphasise the sorts of behaviours that we value.

Ask, how we responded to advice and guidance from each of these two people.

Message: We are more open to listening to and taking guidance from those we feel respect us, value

us and don’t judge us.

Respect more often than not comes from feeling listened to and valued

Points to make:

Unconditionally respectful relationships are what we strive for in UFA activity because

experience has shown that this is where deep and lasting engagement stems from. Not an easy

thing to achieve and it relies on individuals building their emotional intelligence over time.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 9

Guided Reflection Through Powerful

Listening

Purpose:

To illustrate that active listening is at the heart of building positive

relationships that encourage growth and learning


Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

Use slides to explore why we listen and how we can listen more effectively to create deeper

engagement

Listening is something we all do but with varying degrees of effectiveness. This is about how you can

call on your listening to help you be more effective at supporting others to ‘grow’ and learn. It is

does not mean you have to listen like this all of the time…get better with practise.

Message: Listen without trying to solve someone’s problem

Listening like this, gives people the space to think through their issues and find solutions themselves,

thus building their self- confidence.

Points to make:

"are you really listening or are you just waiting to speak?"


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 10

Mindset

Purpose:

To understand different mindsets/beliefs about intelligence that influence

our self-image and ability to support others

To explore language that Peer Tutors might use with Tutees that would

promote a growth or a fixed mindset

Resources:

PowerPoint Slides

Praise Speech Bubbles

Time: 10 minutes

What to do

Pose the question

1. Born smart or stupid?- introduce Dweck’s mindset theories, pose some question using the slides

a. Can we learn to be more intelligent?

b. Are we born smart?

c. i)Are we born smart or stupid?

ii) Is intelligence fixed from birth?

iii) Do we have built in talents as a baby?

iv) Or do talents and intelligence develop through experience

d. How would you fill in this equation intelligence = ___% effort + ___% ability (some

people think effort is more important; some people think ability is more important).

As an extension ask the group to stand on a continuum where 1 = 100% effort and 10 = 100% ability.

Ask those at different points to argue their case to try to influence others to change their opinions.

Research

Explain that Professor Carol Dweck has undertaken extensive research and puts forward the theory of

two basic types of mindsets. These are GROWTH and FIXED

Prof. Dweck says that the view you adopt profoundly affects the way you lead your life.

FIXED MINDSET. People with a Fixed Mindset believe that:

test scores tell you what you will achieve in life

that your intelligence is fixed from birth – what you’re born with

your intelligence/ability is more important than effort in the long run

GROWTH MINDSET. People with a Growth Mindset people believe:

that test scores only tell me about my current performance not my future potential;

that putting effort in can change my ability and

that effort is more important than ability.

NEXT

Ask the volunteers which mindset they think they have?

Explain that people with a Growth Mindset outperform those with a fixed mindset- the belief

you have in yourself is very powerful in determining your success in life.

Explain that we can use what we know about the positive power of a Growth Mindset to tailor

the sort of praise we give to our Tutees so that it encourages them towards a Growth Mindset

rather than a fixed one.

Praise

Working as a whole group the activity is to sort the praise speech bubbles into Growth or Fixed

Mindset language. Stand in a circle and lay out the cards on the floor.

Ask individuals to choose a speech bubble and to decide whether it would promote a growth or

a fixed mindest.

Review what the group has decided.

Points to make:

Mindsets can be changed; we need to be careful to sensitively manage people’s emotional

responses to understand their own mindset, & the impact this can have on self and others.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 11

Feedback

Purpose:

To explore the key features of effective peer critique

To start to develop questioning and critique skills


Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

Explain that Feedback should be kind (and honest)

Kind is all very well but it also needs to be honest. Our Tutees will not make progress if we say things

are great when they’re not!

Focus on the work not the Tutee. Depersonalise comments by avoiding statements like “you

haven’t….” and rephrasing with “it should have….”

Using questions is a very useful approach because questions are less threatening than statements.

They’re much easier to hear and then act on.

We have spent time on this training making sure everyone feels safe and able to learn and it will be

the same in your tutoring.

Feedback should be helpful

A great way to do this is to phrase feedback or critique with “so that” at the end.

This way you are explaining why your feedback is helpful. For example “Begin your sentence with an

adverb so that it makes more of an impact and your sentences are more varied.”

Feedback should be specific

The more precise feedback is, the easier it is to act on. Zoom in on details and offer specific advice

for improving these details. For example: “Can you think of some alternatives for the word ‘weird’?”

or, “Can you think of something else the writer might have meant by the word ‘cold’?” When

feedback is as specific as this it’s almost impossible not to act on it.

Discuss how this will apply to the work of your volunteers

So it should be hard on content but soft on people.

Points to make:

Try to begin with the author/designer of the work explaining their ideas and goals and

explaining what particular aspects of the work they want help with.

Critique the work, not the person.

Try to begin our critique comments with something positive and then move onto constructive

criticism.

Try to use “I” statements when possible e.g. “I’m confused by this” rather than “this makes

no sense.”

Try to use a question format when possible: “I’m curious why you chose to begin with this..?”

or “Have you considered including…?”


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 12

Review – Something old, something new

Purpose: Individual review

Resources: None

Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

Using the frame (slightly altered) that people apply to weddings, invite participants to think of these

four things about the session:

Something old – something you already knew

Something new – something that is new to you

Something borrowed – something you are going to take away (and use)

Something true – something that is really true for you personally

Points to make:

This metaphor helps people to reflect in a creative way and could be used by volunteers,

who could of course alsocome up with their own metaphors for reviewing their sessions.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 13

What makes a great volunteer tutor?

(Scribble sheet activity)

Purpose: To help recognise the qualities of a great volunteer tutor

Resources: Flip chart

Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

Individually participants are asked to complete the sentence starter:

A great volunteer tutor is one that………

Then each table is asked to identify their top seven criteria which would make a volunteer

tutor great.

Top seven written on flip or A3 paper (5 minutes).

After 5 minutes papers are swapped with another table who are asked to identify a further 3

criteria not already on the list (5 minutes)

Papers are returned to original team.

Take feedback from each table (5 minutes).

Trainer summarises the session and learning outcomes.

Points to make:

Establishing quality standards for volunteer tutors to help raise the quality of experience for

young people.

Apply quality standards to improve outcomes.

Draw out common threads.


Led learning

Volunteer Training

Activity 14

Review – Visioning Speech Bubbles

Purpose:

To vision the positive outcomes participants would like.

Resources:

Speech bubbles drawn on A4 paper ideally in 2 different colours

Time: 10 minutes

What to do:

Give each participant 2 speech bubbles, one in each colour.

On one colour, write in the first person,

- What will the Young people you will be tutoring be saying at the end of the Volunteer

Led learning programme.

On the other colour, write what

- What will I as their tutor be saying at the end of the Volunteer Led learning

programme?

Gather participants in a circle and ask them to read out the comments before pinning them on the

wall or laying them on the floor in the middle of the circle.

Points to make:

In Stephen Covey’s book, 7 habits of highly effective people, one of the habits of highly

effective people is that they start with the end in mind. Another habit, the circle of influence

activity is one that is included in phase 4.

Visualising the outcomes you want, is a useful way to setting the outcomes you want to

achieve.

Activity 1 Welcome and Big picture

Documents

Transcript of Activity 1 Welcome and Big picture