Thursday, December 21, 2006
Questions games
There's a weblog called Question of the Day, which, as advertised, asks questions, every, apparently, day. Questions like: How many boxes of cereal are in your kitchen?. What makes this site work so well is: the cleverness of the questions, the responses of the readers, and the rule that when you respond to a question, you must add another question of your own. For example, the first response to the cereal question went like this:
I played a game like this at a NASAGA conference years ago. We were learning about a process for discussing a book. The leader began with a question. Anyone who wanted to respond answered, and then concluded by asking another question. As we progressed, our questions and responses became increasingly more genuine. It was strange, odd, even, because the structure didn't allow for what we commonly think of as "conversation" or even "discussion." And yet, as we progressed, we each experienced the development of a deeply and honestly shared inquiry, and understanding.
Then, of course, there's the Questions Game that has become a standard among improvisational theater games, and was enshrined by the not-yet-dead Rosencrantz and Gildenstern in the Tom Stoppard play - in which everything anyone says has to be a question?
And then there are the games of Two Answers and Plenty Questions as described elsewhere by yours, the funsmith, truly.
Play on!
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
"6 open and 4 or 5 unopened.The next:
How many pairs of jeans do you own?"
"I own 15-20 pairs of jeans.et, most wonderfully, cetera.
How many siblings do you have?"
I played a game like this at a NASAGA conference years ago. We were learning about a process for discussing a book. The leader began with a question. Anyone who wanted to respond answered, and then concluded by asking another question. As we progressed, our questions and responses became increasingly more genuine. It was strange, odd, even, because the structure didn't allow for what we commonly think of as "conversation" or even "discussion." And yet, as we progressed, we each experienced the development of a deeply and honestly shared inquiry, and understanding.
Then, of course, there's the Questions Game that has become a standard among improvisational theater games, and was enshrined by the not-yet-dead Rosencrantz and Gildenstern in the Tom Stoppard play - in which everything anyone says has to be a question?
And then there are the games of Two Answers and Plenty Questions as described elsewhere by yours, the funsmith, truly.
Play on!
from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith
Labels: games, playfulness, work
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