In this activity, students are actively participating in an experiment in "cause and effect." Students can easily use their experience to create a graphic organizer designed for recording this kind of information, and reflect on their experience.

Give each student a piece of paper. Have them divide the paper into two columns (they can do this by folding the paper "hot dog" style, or vertically).

At the top of the left side, write "Cause". At the top of the right side, write "Effect". Now, start by recalling the first instructions. What did they have to do initially? They should write down something about standing 9 feet from one person in the group. What was the effect? Have them describe in one or two sentences what happened, to them, their secret person, and the group.

Do the same for the second instruction (standing 9 feet and 6 feet), and the last instruction (standing 9 feet, 6 feet, and 3 feet). The description in the "Effect" column will probably result in more writing, as the situations became more confusing!

Finally, have the students write a 1-2 sentence summary of how this activity might relate to relationships they have. Are there people that they always want close to them? People they always avoid? Does this sometimes result in confusion?


Standards

This activity supports: California Academic Content Standards- English-Language Arts - Fourth - Writing Strategies. Standard 1.3: Student organization of a central idea using traditional structures for conveying information.