Volume 2, Issue 4

Encouraging Discussion Within Your Cloverbud Group

The Cloverbud program is activity based with a variety of short-term experiences. Each of the activities in the Cloverbud curriculum is built around the "experiential learning cycle." An important feature of that cycle is the time allocated for questions as part of the sharing (Digging Deeper), processing (Looking Within), generalizing (Bringing Closure), and applying (Going Beyond) sections of each curriculum lesson. Children in the Cloverbud age group have short attention spans. Therefore, volunteers may need to consider a few strategies when facilitating discussion of the activity.

Give Kids the Right "Signals" to Encourage Them To Talk

• Use a relaxed and informal tone during discussions.
• Make eye contact with each child and pay attention to the whole group.
• Call on children by their own name.
• Give equal time to both girls and boys and to shy and outspoken children.
• Use open ended, rather than "yes or no" questions.
• Give kids credit for their answers, even if they aren’t exactly "correct."
• Don’t let kids stop with obvious answers.

If kids aren’t speaking up:

• Call on a child who will know the answer to break the ice.
• Mention an experience you’ve had and ask kids if anything like that has ever happened to them.
• Cut the discussion short and move on to another activity. This may be especially true, if you are just starting to use the experiential learning cycle process with your group. You may want to start with one or two questions per activity.

If a child brings up a personal experience that you don’t want to get into or gets off the subject:

• Respond positively. ("Thanks, you and I can talk about that later, okay?")
• Change the subject, ask another question, or ask another child to comment on the original question. Be sure you follow up on your promise to talk with the child later.

If one child is doing all the talking:

• Respond positively. ("Thanks for your ideas.")
• Ask another child for a comment.

If Kids Are Interrupting or All Talking at Once:

If your group has a "quiet signal," use it to get everyone's attention. Pass around a ball or another object. Only the person holding it gets to talk. This may be a rule in your Cloverbud group's behavior guidelines.

Article adapted from Talking With TJ: Conflict Resolution Series Leader’s Guide

Written by Sheri Seibold, Extension Educator, Youth Development from University of Illinois Extension, Matteson Center.