Mirror Me – Online Version 

EnTeam Academic Game

Purpose

To practice listening and speaking skills by partners explaining how to copy drawings without seeing the other’s work.

Requirements 

  • Time: 30-40 minutes
  • Number of Players: 2 or more
  • Age range: Players of any age 
  • Space: Online
  • Equipment: Video device with Internet access (Zoom, Google, etc.).
    • Also can be played with paper, and a pen/pencil
  • Prerequisites: None 

How to Play 

  1. Divide players into pairs or small groups.
  2. Person A makes a drawing with at least 4 different objects without Person B seeing it. Geometric shapes that are drawn more than once, will not be scored.
    • There is no limit to the objects: circle, square, straight line, wavy line, etc.
    • If you have more than 2 people playing together, you can have several Persons B.
  3. Person A has 2 minutes to tell Person B how to make a copy of the drawing. 
  4. Person B can ask as many questions as needed.
  5. When Person B is ready to score, they can show their drawing to Person A. 
  6. If there is more time, Person A may draw and describe another drawing to Person B. 
  7. When time is up, artists display their masterpieces and score the drawings. 
  8. After getting all scores, debrief the first round and strategize how to improve your score and therefore win.
  9. Switch roles and play again!

Rules

  1. Each drawing must have at least 4 different objects (circle, square, dot, line, etc.)
  2. You cannot repeat the same geometric shape.
  3. Nobody can see the drawings until players are ready to score. 
  4. Observers cannot communicate with the players – no words or signals.

Scoring – only score Person B’s drawing using A’s drawing

  • One point for each object that matches A’s drawing.
  • One point for each object about the same size on both drawings.
  • One point for each object in about the same place on the page on both drawings.
  • Points are not given to repeated geometric shapes. 
  • Players win if their combined scores improve each time they play. 

Debrief Questions

The purpose of debriefing is to develop strategies that will improve your performance and to recognize how these lessons apply to everyday life. To facilitate a successful debrief, facilitators must observe participants and ask engaging questions that spark thoughtful reflection. If we don’t debrief, we don’t learn!

What happened?

What did you see? What did you hear? What was the score?

What worked? What didn’t work?

How did people feel? What issue(s) came up? What issue(s) remain?

So what? 

What did we learn?

How does this experience relate to other experiences?

Why are we doing this? How is it relevant to us? 

Now what? 

How could we improve our score in this activity?

How can we work together better?

How could we apply lessons learned outside of the game? 

Digging Deeper 

  • Did anyone feel reluctant to share strategies?
    • Why? Are you still in a win-lose mindset?
    • If we are trying to improve collective achievement, who are you benefitting when you withhold strategies from other teams?

Debrief Chart (PDF)

Mirror Me – Online Version Packet (PDF)