Summary of Training from the Back of the Room

Jason Yip
2 min readJan 15, 2023

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Summary of the key points I got from Training from the Back of the Room by Sharon L. Bowman:

Summary of Training from the Back of the Room

Connections (opening activities)

Warm-up (pre-training)

Goal: Expose and create interest in the topic to be learned

Potential activities:

  • Interview an Expert
  • People and Personal Surveys
  • Pop Quiz
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Web Hunt

Fast Pass

Goal: Engage learners the moment they “enter the room”

Potential activities:

  • Dot Voting
  • Post It
  • Take a Guess
  • Think It Then Ink It
  • Turn and Talk

Start-Up (longer version of Fast Pass)

Goal: Engage learners the moment they “enter the room”

Potential activities:

  • Card Carousel
  • Standing Survey
  • Table Talk
  • Wall Writing
  • Where Do You Stand?

Concepts (instruction activities)

Concept Maps

Goal: Give learners a visual outline of the information

Potential activities:

  • Basic Map
  • Burger Map
  • Flow Chart Map
  • Free Flow Map
  • Timeline Map

Interactive Lecture Strategies

Goal: Active participation by the learners

Potential activities:

  • Beat the Clock
  • Bend, Breathe, and Write
  • Pass That Card
  • Rapid Response
  • Stand, Stretch, and Speak

Jigsaw Activities (teaching to learn)

Goal: Give learners responsibility for their own learning

Potential activities:

  • Concept Card Experts
  • Concept Clinic
  • Jigsaw Choices
  • One-Person Experts
  • Table Group Experts

Concept Centers

Goal: Enable learners to learn, review, or practice a specific topic

Potential activities:

  • Computer Centers
  • Discussion Centers
  • Learning-Created Centers
  • Table Centers
  • Wall Centers

Concrete Practice (practice activities)

Teach-Back

Goal: Have learners teach each other what they learned. Helps with memory and validates understanding.

Potential activities:

  • Circle Teach-Back
  • Improv Teach-Back
  • One-Legged Teach-Back
  • Paired Teach-Back
  • Table Teach-Back

Skills-Based

Goal: Practice the skills being learned

Potential activities:

  • Each Teach
  • In-Room Mentoring
  • Rounds and Repetition
  • Skills-Based Game Shows
  • Table Demonstrations

Learner-Created Games

Goal: Give learners responsibility for their own practice AND fun.

Potential activities:

  • Ball Toss
  • Card Games
  • Cooperative Jeopardy
  • Grab and Gab
  • Group Scavenger Hunts

Conclusions (closing activities)

Learner-Led Summaries

Goal: Learners summarize what they learned

Potential activities:

  • Card Exchange
  • Learning Logs
  • Round Robin
  • Stand and Deliver
  • Table Talk

Evaluation Strategies

Goal: Provide a way for learners to assess what they learned and how they might apply it

Potential activities:

  • Email Blast
  • Four-Square Feedback
  • Four-Square Levels of Learning
  • May We Quote You?
  • Where Do You Stand?

Celebrations

Goal: End training on a positive note

Potential activities:

  • Certificate Car Wash
  • Circle Celebration
  • I Like My Neighbour
  • Make and Take
  • Walk and Talk

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Jason Yip

Senior Manager Product Engineering at Grainger. Extreme Programming, Agile, Lean guy. Ex-Spotify, ex-ThoughtWorks, ex-CruiseControl