{"id":1942,"date":"2016-08-30T11:01:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T17:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2016-08-30T11:01:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T17:01:36","slug":"icebreaker-course-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/icebreaker-course-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Icebreaker Course Activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back from the summer!\u00a0 It\u2019s great to see the halls busy and classrooms packed.\u00a0 As you spend time discussing your course and expectations, remember to spend time getting to know the students.\u00a0 Whether you have a small or a large class, the value of making sure learners feel included in a class impacts everyone.\u00a0 I can remember being a student and having teachers who did not know my name, even in a small class.\u00a0 That was so discouraging to me, and I would often disengage from the course.\u00a0 I even remember being in courses where I couldn\u2019t remember my classmates\u2019 names.\u00a0 Speaking to them was challenging because I wanted to call them by their name, but I did not want to say the wrong name\u2014so I often wouldn\u2019t speak at all.\u00a0 Below you will find two practical get-to-know you icebreaker activities to help ease you and your students and to create more of an inclusive learning environment.<\/p>\n

Colored Paper Activity (large class)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students use quick discussion of topics you provide to get to know each other. (Feel free to use the picture below as your model\/guide, or you can create other prompts.) First explain what the students will be doing.\u00a0 \u00a0Display the prompts, like the picture listed below. Tell them they will be answering the prompts to their group\/partner. \u00a0Then hand out the pieces of paper with prompts.\u00a0 Before the students begin talking, have them say their names to each other.\u00a0 Then tell them how much time they\u2019ll get to talk with each other.\u00a0 If the students finish before the time, encourage them to swap colors and share. Note: The number of students sitting together will determine how long they should spend on this.\u00a0 A pair of students should spend about 1-2 minutes, and a group of 8 could spend 5-7 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Colored<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Talk-Pair-Share (small class<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Provide prompts for the students. For my Monday class, I had the students share the following: their name, house, major or academic interest, hobby, and a fun fact.\u00a0 There are other prompts you could have them use as well.<\/li>\n
  2. After you tell the students the prompts, explain that partner A will share his\/her response of the prompts to partner B (talk<\/strong>). Then partner B will respond to the prompts to partner A (pair<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I recommend giving the students about 5 minutes or so to each share their ideas.\u00a0 Then bring all of the pairs together, and let each student share what he\/she learned about his\/her partner.<\/p>\n

    If you have any other icebreaker activities, feel free to leave your suggestion(s) below!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Welcome back from the summer!\u00a0 It\u2019s great to see the halls busy and classrooms packed.\u00a0 As you spend time discussing your course […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-tips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5DI6r-vk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1945,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions\/1945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.principia.edu\/teaching-excellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}