Below are some sample techniques from the book.

1) By All Accounts: Place small items (e.g., comb, string, call, glove, cup) inside brown paper lunch bags, fold tops, and staple. Divide class into groups of 8-10 members and have each group select a leader. Give each member a bag, instructing him or her to keep the bags closed. Explain that each group will tell an original story with each member basing their 3-4 sentence contribution on the prop in their bag. The story should progress clockwise around the circle. When the first group is finished, any other groups will take their turn. Then let them open their bags. [Variation: make this activity topic-related by enclosing small items or cards with content information---e.g., a small stone in a bag becomes a cobblestone from Sigmund Freud’s Vienna, while a swatch of cloth is from his therapy couch and a comb is to groom his first beard…then don’t go clockwise but let people chime in where appropriate].

2) Comics Counseling: Collect topic-related comic strips where a character has a problem or faces a dilemma. Duplicate them and distribute to groups of 3-5 persons. Instruct groups to solve the character’s problem using the following process: state the problem, list a variety of ways to solve the problem, discuss solutions and choose the best one. Give them 15 minutes, then gather the class and let each group’s recorder give a report.

3) Guest List: Divide the class into teams of four persons each. Tell them that they are going to a desert island for the rest of their lives. It is fully stocked with shelter and provisions, but is totally unpopulated. Each person can choose three persons, currently living, to take to the island. Each person has five minutes to list who they’d choose and why. Second, have each group discuss individual members’ choices for five minutes. Lastly, explain that now the entire group will share one island but that the plane can only accommodate five guests. Give them ten minutes to derive a common guest list, then share who they chose and why. [Alternate: tell them they’re invited to live on the space station but they can only take four personal possessions. Have them list the items and tell why they were chosen].

4) Outer Limits: divide class into teams of 6-10 persons each. Tell each person to imagine having to perform each of these ten activities in front of the group:

Have each person rate how uncomfortable they’d be for each activity on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = most comfortable, 10 = most uncomfortable). Have the team calculate average rankings for all ten activities. Share the rankings.

5) Yurt Circle: divide the class into evenly numbered teams of 6-10 members. Go outside on the grass and have them stand in a circle, linking hands, and count off by twos (“1,2,1,2,1,2…). Tell them that on your signal, “ones” will slowly lean IN (from the ankles, not the hips) while “twos” will slowly lean OUT, grasping hands tightly to support each other. Then have people slowly return to an upright position to a count of 3. Explain that in teams, people support each other like the walls and ceiling of a “Yurt” (ancient Mongolian nomad house) support each other.