October 23, 2015 by jychristensen

First day ice breaker

1. Put students into pairs. One student sits with her back to the board.

2.  Draw an abnormal shape on the board. The other student describes it to her partner and that partner tries to draw it.

3. Switch roles and draw a new shape on the board.

4. Compare results in the classroom and discuss what partners did that was effective.

5. At this point, you can introduce technical descriptions and draw on the discussion to list what works well in this genre.

Note: You can do a variety of iterations–perhaps the drawing student cannot ask questions (thus mimicking many technical genres that are not interactive) in the first round, but then can ask questions on a second round. Or you can bring in an unfamiliar tool in place of drawing a shape.