Every time I lead a seminar, I start things off by making each student go around the group and give his/her name, program, initial thoughts on the readings, and answer to my "introduction question." I picked this up from a certain teacher in Taiwan named Ariann, who often uses questions like "What's your favourite piece of playground equipment?" as an icebreaker.
I have these seminar groups for an entire year, and I've told them that we're doing introductions like that every week (apart from using this so that we all really get to know each other, it forces each of them to speak up on what they think about the readings).
Here are the questions I've used so far:
1. Where in Europe would you most like to visit? (This is a European history course, and sometimes it helps for them to establish personal connections to the places.)
2. What place do you consider to be your hometown? (Somehow, this question is always really effective.)
What other getting-to-know-you questions can I ask them? I'm going to have a lot of seminars with my groups and I worry that I'll run out of questions. (And I keep threatening that next week they're talking about their favourite playground equipment.)
13 comments:
Ask if they'd rather fight a grizzly bear with their bare hands, or club a baby seal. You'd be surprised at the results.
Or, would you rather give up inspirational dancing movies, or inspirational football movies? Would you rather never get to watch a foreign film again, or only have to watch foreign films? Would you rather never get to listen to music again, or never watch TV again?
So, essentially you're proposing that I should start asking them "Would you rather" questions?
Pretty much. I think they're fun. It was just an idea though. For when you right out of "Which ___ are you?" questions.
I ask mine what their favorite cartoon character is. (No student has ever named mine, which is the Tick!)
Lynniec, that's a good point about mixing things up with "would you rather" questions.
P/H: I'm a big fan of the favourite cartoon character question. I started off my first seminar last year with "Which superhero would you most like to be?" But then I revealed myself to be a big old geek when a.) a student said she'd like to be Batgirl, and b.) someone said they'd be Gambit.
I think I'll use both, but space them out enough through the year that it doesn't feel like I'm asking the same question. Because they aren't the same.
What's your favourite place on campus?
or
What's your favourite cafe?
etc
That sort of question is good for getting the students to bond with each other, since they'll probably have a few "Oh, me too!" moments.
One blogger--maybe lucyrain, but I can't remember--has her students play the "fiery pit" game when she's taking roll.
If I recall correctly, the idea is to ask students to make a choice between A and B, with whichever object they reject being thrown into the fiery pit, never to return. So you'd ask students: "internet or cable TV?" "stovetop or microwave?" etc.
I really like the bear/baby seal question. For me, definitely the bear. I'm such a bleeding heart. Plus today I showed my students the first episode of Disney's "Davy Crockett," and Davy wrestles a bear to death with his bare hands, so I know it can be done. :)
I really have to give credit to Silas for the question. It's brilliant, though. And Lynnie, I'd totally club the baby seal. I'm not up for dying.
My favourite ice breaker questions (aside from playground equipment and colours): the one about which cartoon character you would date given the opportunity and the one about hats (I think it was the prayer meeting Klinger was at - I don't remember the exact details). You could ask people which sibling they'd get rid of given the opportunity, and why. I think the why is really the important part of any question. You could ask people pretty much anything so long as you include that. It makes things longer, though. Kinda like this comment...
Ooh, you could ask people what kid they were in kindergarten/high school and whether or not they've changed (to twist it, what kind of old person they'll probably be). Or what they wanted to be when they grew up. Or what kind of animal/inanimate object/historical figure/country they're most like. Or the usual stuff, like best/worst moment, depending on where you want to go with character and emotional depth.
"If you could be any Mathematician???"
Did you notice the link??
I missed coffee and cookies? Dang!
Congrats, big C!
If I could be any Mathematician, I'd be Big C, because then I'd be able to pronounce all the words in the title of his lecture.
Congratulations, big C! Do you ever stop and remember that you're an undergrad? I'm pretty sure that your CV is better than mine.
(And congratulate Davy about the reception in his honour!)
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