Eat An Elephant

Contributed by:

Musostudy

Intended Learning Outcome:

To identify study worries and plan interventions

Tool:

This is a time management activity but it also helps with worries around studies. Students can feel more in control of their studies by identifying worries and then prioritising time.

Activity:

1. Students jot down all the aspects of their studies that are worrying them – e.g. performing on stage, completing a big assignment, failing their degree.

2. Now review the worries – which are just worries that are out of their control and therefore can’t be helped? Can they do anything about the other worries? How can they reduce the worry? What decisive action can they take that will help them deal with this challenge?

3. The best way to eat an elephant is in small chunks. What small chunks of study can students do this week to start demolishing the elephant?

How:

Students can do this in small groups/pairs or it could be a whole-group activity. If you are worried about quieter students voicing concerns use an anonymous online survey such as Mentimeter or use the snowball activity (students all throw a piece of screwed up paper with their worries written to the front of the class for the teacher to read out randomly and anonymously).

Examples:

Large Group Teaching:

With large groups, you can either run this as a solo activity and then put students into groups to discuss/adjust their decisions or you could have small-group discussions which contribute to a whole-group activity of generating one list of module-specific worries.

Online Teaching:

Success:

Students will have a clear idea of what is worrying them and a plan of how to deal with the ones in their control.

Next Steps:

Signpost the students on to extra support. You may want to run this activity in conjunction with Student Support. The other time management activities such as the Revision Timetable and the Traffic Lights may be useful for specific planning.

Links to other activities:

Acknowledgements:

Resources:

Image for use on slides etc.: www.musostudy.com/resources/1MM/elephant.png

Worksheet with space to write worries in the elephant: www.musostudy.com/resources/1MM/elephant.pdf