Lesson Details

Who are you?!

2014-2015

Freshman Literature, Fall 2014

Date

Aug. 6, 2014

Additional Info
Learning Target: Students will recall information about each other in order to get to know each other better.

One of the most important things to me as a teacher is to create  a classroom environment in which everyone feels welcome and comfortable. It is said that we fear what we don't know, that ignorance is the source of misunderstanding and prejudice. To help create a true community of learners, we are going to do an activity that will encourage us to learn everyone's name by associating something unique with that person. Here is how this will go down:

  1. take out a piece of paper. On the top write, "Three reasons why I am AMAZING"
  2. Numbering from one to three, write three things about you that make you amazing. Feel free to be as creative as you want. For example, writing "I love dogs" is not so amazing, while "I read 50 books last year" is pretty darn amazing.
  3. After a few minutes, everyone will get up and share their list of three amazing things with FIVE people. Once you've heard someone's list, tell that person which of the three things you personally think is the MOST amazing. make a note (with a hash mark or check) of which items are "voted" for. 

    I will tell you when to rotate to a new partner.

  4. After you've shared with five people, go back to your seat and count up your votes. You should end up with one of your three things as the winner. Circle this sentence.
  5. Arrange the desks in a large circle.
  6. Starting at random, I will choose a student. This student will stand up next to his or her desk and say his or her name and then the one item that was voted most awesome. Example: "I'm Justin and I never match my socks."
  7. The next person will begin by saying, "Justin never matches his socks" and will then introduce him- or herself in the same way.
  8. This process will continue all the way around the circle. You can take notes if you want, but the goal is to be able to recall each person's name and his or her amazing fact.
  9. Prizes will be awarded to any student who, on returning to class tomorrow, can still name everyone in the class and his or her amazing fact!!

*Reminder for Monday's class: If you have a smart phone, tablet, or other personal device, please bring it to class with you Monday so we can get signed up for some of the various web-based applications we will use in this class.