Develop community during the first three weeks of the quarter

A. Fairly simple group project which students present to class, telling their names as part of the presentation:

• Answering a large philosophical question which is part of the curriculum, such as “What is critical thinking?” or “What is terrorism?”
  
• A creative group project: Students can create, for example, a myth (Mythology and Folklore) or a story (Fiction)
• Quick analysis:  Analyze & explicate a sonnet (Shakespeare) or divide into groups of people who love certain films and analyze those films according to easy categories (acting, cinematography, script, effects, editing)
  

B. Group introductions as opposed to paired introductions (see Pairs)

C. Groups develop ground rules for group work or group learning contract

D. Scavenger Hunt with people divided into small groups

E. Assessment of Ways of Learning and then division into groups of people who learn in similar ways to do a short project.  Please ask Marcos Cicerone (864-8366) either to perform the assessment or to train you to do it.

How do I set up informal, short-term groups?  During the quarter, using a variety of different ways of forming informal groups will help you as an instructor to avoid biases, to develop the class into a large community, and to help students to develop different skills and new friendships.

• Count off
• Numbered slips of paper
• Playing cards (all aces form a group, all tens, etc.)
• Text match-ups (people with the same line of a poem go together)
• Alphabetical (first four in the alphabet either by first or last name go into the same group, next four go into the next group, and so on)