Suggested Activities

Gestures Exploration:

  1. Divide into small groups.

  2. Have one person take notes.

  3. Take 5 minutes to generate a list of gestures that we use to communicate as well as what those gestures mean.

  4. Present your list to the rest of the class.

  5. Reflection questions:

    1. Are any of those gestures new to any students?

    2. Do any of the gestures have more than one meaning?

    3. Are there any that could be added to the list now that each group has shared their gestures?


Create a Skit:

  1. With another student, create a scenario you can act out in one minute without the use of words (written or spoken)

  2. Perform your skit and ask audience members to guess what the scenario was about.

  3. Ask classmates to rate the effectiveness of the skit.

  4. Reflection questions:

    1. Which skit was most effective and why?

    2. How difficult was it to convey meaning without spoken or written words?

    3. How difficult was it to interpret meaning without spoken or written words?

    4. What were some of the actions that were ambiguous?

    5. If the partners could have a “do-over” what would they do differently, based on how their skit was interpreted?


Telestrations. Telestrations is a board game where each player draws a card with a word on it. The person who receives the word, draws a picture to illustrate the word. They pass the illustration to the next person who guesses what the drawing is, then passes it on again, until it gets back to the original illustrators. This game showcases the ambiguity of communication. It’s like the old game of “Telephone,” but with illustrations.

Reflection Questions:

  1. How easy was it for you to interpret the illustrations?

  2. Were your illustrations interpreted as you intended?

  3. What barriers or ”noise” got in the way of the communication? (culture, ability, focus, etc.)