E-grāmata: Melting the ice: Engaging and educational ice-breaker activities for every learning session

The first five minutes of a classroom experience are critical.

The tone set in a session’s opening minutes can significantly impact and influence,in both positive and negative ways, the quality and nature of the subsequentlearning experience.

How students spend that time can also have a positive impact on their learning inboth the short and long term. When the opening minutes of a class are approachedas an opportunity to build student connections, collaboration, and community, alllearners benefit.

As more and more learning experiences occur in synchronous and asynchronousonline learning environments, strategies that both welcome students to onlinesessions and support student learning are increasingly important.

Traditional ice breakers, while typically shared with a goal of building communityand student engagement, can sometimes have unintended or even negativeconsequences on students.

This text shares a collection of powerful, opening activities that are designedto simultaneously engage students, build safe and connected classroomcommunities, and support student learning.

All strategies are easily adapted and personalized to fit individual course andcontent needs including face-to-face, synchronous online, and asynchronousonline learning contexts. Shared activities are aligned with associated learningscienceresearch and incorporate strategies that have been shown to supportstudent engagement and learning such as retrieval practice, active recall, spacedpractice, and interleaving, among other evidence-based instructional strategies.