Successful Icebreakers

I was wondering if any of the folks on this list have recently used a successful icebreaker. You know, that first impression, so crucial in that first class session. Any ideas?

John Loundagin

Personal affirmation statements work well for me. I use "I believe" to begin the affirmation. I present several of my own "I believe" statements, usually having to do with my beliefs about teaching and learning. The students then do their own and share them. It also makes a great bulletin board if you have them write their statements on a piece of paper (about a quarter of a sheet) and decorate them.

Another idea I like a lot is the "Bag About Yourself." I bring a small paper sack the first day of school filled with several items which tell about me. I show the class each of the items and explain their significance. You can include actual objects or representations of things (pictures, car keys, etc.). When you explain the contents of the bag and how they relate to you, you are telling about yourself. The students bring their own bags on the second day. It usually takes several days to get through, but it is worth it. The students enjoy themselves and learn a lot about each other.

Kim Hutchens

A first-day writing assignment I've used seems to work well, both for the writing it produces and the discussion that ensues.

Title your paper, fill in the blank, and respond:
"I'm proud of being _____________ but it's not without its problems."

I get every conceivable topic: a mother, Filipino, able to earn all my expenses, African American, a good student, etc.

Bruce Reeves

This is an activity I have used several times with success. Pair up your students and give each pair a blank Venn diagram (two circles overlapping with some space in the overlap area). I give them 5-10 minutes depending upon whether I'm doing it with seventh graders or adults. They talk to each other and try to fill in the chart with ways in which they are different from each other and ways they are alike, or have something in common. Each writes about the other in an outer circle, they put their commonalities in the center. Great for oral speaking, they introduce each other, and share the telling of the center space.

Barb Wilkison

I've found that students are more likely to open up in class if I demonstrate how to do so and that it is a risk worth taking. One way I've found of doing this is to list 5 things on the board about myself: 3 are true and 2 are false. I then ask the students to guess which are true and which are false. For example:

I once played Scrabble for 24 hours straight.

I swam with dolphins in the Florida Keys.

I met my husband through a computer dating service.

I adopted a child from Colombia, South America.

I tried out for the Olympic Swim Team when I was in high school.

After they guess, I ask which of the true answers they would like to hear about. They want to hear about them all!

I then ask them to go home and develop their own T/F lists. When we come into class the next day, I ask the students to pair up and exchange lists and guess which items are T or F on their partner's list, see how they did, and then talk a little about one of their true items.

This exercise then leads into their first writing assignment, which is based upon one of their true items. The essays are pretty interesting to read, too. Students have adopted whales, worked at political conventions, met famous actors, won prizes, and traveled more widely than I have!

I look forward to this exercise every semester, and the classes do develop a sense of community pretty quickly.

Florence Nielsen

Something I tried with ninth graders from many different ethnicities was placing a large map of the world on the wall and having each student push-pin his or her name to the wall, then attach strings to the push pin that went to the different countries their ancestors came from. It was a wonderful conglomerate, and everyone had at least one other person who "came from" the same place.

This led naturally into asking for oral histories from older (over 50) members of the family, and a unit on folk tales culminating in groups writing and publishing folk tales--either updated or original. We had a lot of fun, and it is a great way to use the different backgrounds of your students to your advantage.

Barbara Bass

With my literature classes I have put together a little booklet made up of several short essays on the meaning of life:

"It's been fifty years since Kristallnacht, the night Jewish synagogues and stores were destroyed in Germany and Austria. Hitler was testing the world to see how it reacted. And as we all know, the world didn't react. We are here to be vigilant, to be aware of the terrible things we can prevent -- like the Holocaust, like Hiroshima, like hunger and want. There is a Jewish lullaby that says that we are like a river's shores, and deep, deep in us runs what has been, what we are now and what is to be transmitted to the next generation." -- Ruth Westheimer

"...To this day I believe we are here on earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom. Difference of race, nationality or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges. Life is to be lived to its fullest so that death is just another chapter. Memories of our lives, our works and our deeds will continue in others." -- Rosa Parks

These are from the book The Meaning of Life by David Friend and the editors of Life (Little, Brown, 1990). Many of these appeared as inserts in various magazines a few years ago.

We read and discuss them and then students write their own meaning of life essay. I keep those and at the end of the semester the students write a new meaning of life essay and then compare them with their first ones to see if or how they have been influenced by the literature they have read.

Pat Schulze