Materials: Post-It Notes
Goals: Create a sense of community as well as clarify questions/misconceptions about the course
Activity:
- Pass around post-it notes and instruct each student to take 3-4 post-its
- On the board, write sentence stems/prompts for the students to complete on their post-its (the prompts can be specific to the class or the general college experience; I find it’s good to have a mix of the two, especially if the class is mostly first-year students)
- As the students finish writing, have them stick their post-its under the appropriate headings on the board
- Discuss the answers as a class. Point out themes or trends, have the class give each other advice, etc.
This is a great first-day exercise, but it can also be used mid-semester as a check-in for the class.
A few prompt examples:
- One thing I am excited about in this class/in my first year is…
- One thing I’m nervous about in this class/in my first year is…
- One question I have is…
- One goal I have for this class/this semester is…
