Sharing Spectrum Activity

How to share opinions and thoughts with one another in an honest, respectful, and flexible fashion.

For some of us, sharing about ourselves is an important part of how we connect and bond with others. For others of us, sharing about ourselves can be one of the hardest things to do. Participating in a spectrum-based activity is a cool way to share with the people around you in several different ways. Whether you like to voice your opinions verbally, represent your thoughts without speaking, or somewhere in between, this activity gives you options on how to share with those around you in a meaningful way.

Supplies Needed

Nothing! You can do this activity inside or outdoors, and all you need are other people.

Instructions

Set up a physical space that represents a spectrum from “strongly agree” to “impartial/undecided” to “strongly disagree”. For example, if you are doing this in a living room area, you can designate one wall as the “strongly agree” space, the opposite wall as the “strongly disagree” space, and the area in the middle as “impartial/undecided”.

The spaces in between those three areas represent the spectrum of opinion. For example, you may find yourself somewhat agreeing on a statement and choosing to situate yourself between “strongly agree” and “impartial/undecided”.

You can now begin posing questions that may reveal a difference in opinion or identity, and have the participants move to their respective place on the spectrum. You can either have one person ask all the questions, or take turns asking the questions.

Once everyone has found a spot that they think represents their opinion for each question, everyone may choose to take turns talking about their placement and why they chose it (pro tip: try to use “I” statements when communicating your opinions and everyone should do their best to not interrupt each person while they are sharing).

Everyone does not have to verbally share for each question if they chose not to. You can choose how deep you want questions to be, considering what will work for the people you are doing the activity with. All levels of questions can be fun and engaging, so think about what the best experience for you would be!

Sample Questions

Surface level questions:

• I think cake is better than pie.
• Dogs are better than cats.
• I would rather live someplace extremely hot than extremely cold.

Somewhat deep questions:

• I enjoy heights/being in high places.
• I know where I want to be in one year.
• I like to challenge myself.

Deeper questions:

• I know where I want to be in 10 years.
• I believe in love at first sight.
• I feel I am a leader.