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by Sylvia Dressler Miles, John C., and Simon Priest, editors. Adventure Programming. State College, PA: Venture Programming, 1999. This is one of the most comprehensive works on adventure programming that I have ever seen, if not the most comprehensive. It is actually the second edition of a work entitled Adventure Education, with the title more accurately reflecting current terminology. There are 10 major sections -
For instance, the section on the Leadership of Adventure Programming has 4 chapters - "Outdoor Leadership Competencies" by Simon Priest, "Outdoor Leadership Curricula" by Edward Raiola and Deborah Sugerman, "Accreditation and Certification" by Michael Gass, and "Leadership by Community Building" by Denise Mitten. Other individual chapters that came to my notice are "Processing" by Cliff Knapp, "Sequencing the Adventure Experience" by Christian Bisson, "Urban Adventures" by Steve Proudman, "Women's Outdoor Adventures" by Karen Warren, and the "Use of Adventure-Based Programs with At-Risk Youth." Produced in a textbook binding, this volume is very meaty. As an overall reference to the field, it will be valuable to any practitioner, although perhaps a trifle overwhelming to the beginning student. Recommended.
Cavert, Chris, and friends. Games (& other stuff) for Group, book 1 (revised and expanded edition). Oklahoma City, OK: Wood N' Barnes Publishing, 1999. As the title implies, this is an activity book. Chris makes a distinct point of attributing many of the activities to the people from whom he learned the activities, sometimes adding in his own variations. The first section is composed of 20 activities. For each one, he gives the props needed, the directions and some sample processing questions. Variations and other information is sometimes provided. Directions are clear and include his commentary on giving them to the group. The activities are a combination of ice breakers, initiatives, and the like. The second section is called "What would it be like....?" and consists of a list of questions - what would it be like to be a bus driver? What would it be like to work on a farm? There are 204 suggested versions. In the introduction to this section, Chris gives suggestions on how to structure this activity. Section Three is a collection of Teaching Tales. Again, Chris gives suggestions in his introduction as to how to use these tales, and there are suggestions for discussion questions. Section Four is a collection of Minute Mysteries - word puzzles to be solved by the group. Fortunately, the solutions are given, in addition to discussion questions. This work would have been improved by the additition of suggested times and type of activity in that section, or by putting the activities in some sort of sequential order. The "Teaching tales" section is weak in comparison with other materials out there on using literature and stories with children. Recommended only for those who want to
make sure they have "all" the activity books out there.
Cavert, Chris, Laurie Frank and friends. Games (& other stuff) for Teachers: Classroom activities that promote pro-social learning. Oklahoma City, OK: Wood N' Barnes Publishing, 1999. This is a collection of activities. some new, some taken from other sources (and attributed as such). Each activity has listed possible objectives, needs (props), procedure (directions), observations/questions (processing possibilities), variations, and space for you to write in other ideas. Some familiar activities appear here under new names. The activities themselves run from paper and pencil to our more familiar initiatives. In the appendix, there is a chart indicating whether an activity lends itself to building cooperation, building trust, or is a problem solving activity. Having used several of the activities in the book myself, I can recommend it as a good source for ideas. |