What's the News? - SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook
What's the News? - SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook is a relationship mapping exercise that helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- Reflect on the current contexts, demographics of participants, and the purpose of this engagement.
- Decide on the amount of time you have and determine if participants will be sharing in a group or with a partner.
- Ask participants to find a partner or small group in a way that is appropriate for your group today.
- Give participants a moment to think of what they want to share.
- Explain that each person will invite their partner to share their news by first saying their partner’s name and then asking them, “(Name), what’s the news?” Speakers share their news while their partner (or the group) attentively listens, without comment or questions.
- Tell participants they have one minute to talk and that you will let them know when it is time to switch roles.
- Give pairs a moment to decide who will go first. Ask the starting partners to raise their hand to make sure everyone is ready, then give the go-ahead to begin.
- At the end of a minute, use your regular attention signal to bring the room to quiet and let participants know it is time to switch roles.
Run this exercise live
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What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
Reflect on the current contexts, demographics of participants, and the purpose of this engagement.
Decide on the amount of time you have and determine if participants will be sharing in a group or with a partner.
Ask participants to find a partner or small group in a way that is appropriate for your group today.
Give participants a moment to think of what they want to share.
Explain that each person will invite their partner to share their news by first saying their partner’s name and then asking them, “(Name), what’s the news?” Speakers share their news while their partner (or the group) attentively listens, without comment or questions.
Tell participants they have one minute to talk and that you will let them know when it is time to switch roles.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: What's the News? - SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Reflect on the current contexts, demographics of participants, and the purpose of this engagement.; Decide on the amount of time you have and determine if participants will be sharing in a group or with a partner.; Ask participants to find a partner or small group in a way that is appropriate for your group today.; Give participants a moment to think of what they want to share.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from CASEL; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including CASEL.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.