In this activity, students sort different kinds of activities and experiences into a matrix with the two dimensions fun-painful and pointless-meaningful. There are no wrong answers, i.e. all sortings are “correct” since this is about students’ personal experience. The examples are relevant to the lives of (pre-service ) teachers and adults. The activity can be adapted by providing a different set of example activities.  

The fun-meaning-matrix is inspired by Lauren Porosoff and Jonathan Weinstein’s book Two for one teaching. Connecting instruction to student values (p. 15).