Icebreakers for the 21st Century Classroom: Part 1, In-Person

Icebreakers are an invaluable tool for the start of the semester when you are introducing new students, faculty, or staff to one another. Icebreakers are also great to continue building rapport at the beginning of a class or meeting as the semester progresses. Their benefits include creating fun introductions, alleviating group nervousness, preparing for collaborative work, and energizing a classroom to dive into actively participating in their learning.

For many instructors, it can be quite daunting to know how to implement an icebreaker that needs to be repackaged for a variety of learning environments, while creating an inclusively equitable space. Our classes can range from small seminars to large lecture halls. They can be in-person, online, or a hybrid with some combination of synchronous and asynchronous work.

Thankfully, ice-breakers can still be used effectively in all of these formats, but some activities are more easily suited for some modes of student engagement over others. This two-part blog will focus on icebreakers. Part 1 will focus on in-person icebreaker activities for both large and small class sizes, while Part 2 will focus on icebreakers for online and hybrid learning environments

Icebreakers that Work Universally for All Learning Environments

• Name Tags
• Photo
• Mood Barometer via Polling
• Coffee Breaks

Many icebreakers can work universally with some minor or major adjustments.  Nametags, photos, mood barometers, and “coffee breaks” generally work in every environment because of their low stakes and practicality. For in-person and online, name tags are great for everyone to be addressed easily by both their preferred names and pronouns. They help the instructor to remember names more easily, while students can refer to each other more comfortably. Students may even take the opportunity to decorate their nametags for fun. Photos are also a great addition to name tags because often those student photos on our rosters never quite match the student in-person. Students can take their own selfies with name tags and add them to the course site with additional information. Students can also upload the photo to their Zoom account, so the virtual meeting can feel less like an empty void, if cameras are off.  Mood barometers are great to use at the start of class to see how students are feeling or whether they understand the course material. This can be implemented though raising hands, polling, using emoji reactions, etc. Finally, having short coffee breaks are great for everyone to freely mingle, particularly for courses that meet for longer hours. Coffee breaks might not be ideal for a first meet-and-greet, but it can be used throughout the course to create a comradery and open-communication throughout the semester.

Icebreakers for Smaller In-person Groups

• Charades
• Two truths and a lie
• Fact Hunt

Beyond nametags, photos, mood barometers, and coffee breaks, there is a slew of icebreakers that can create more high-energy engagement for those students, who appreciate more exciting activities. You may want your students to have an icebreaker that is not being duplicated by another class. For smaller groups, icebreakers have the luxury that they can be more complex in their instructions or require more energy from their participants. Some great examples include charades, two truths and a lie, and fact hunt. These three examples share some commonalities that they are games that involve more time, active engagement, and social deduction. Students have fun while competing and collaborating with one another. Charades involve a person acting out simple words or common phrases without speaking while the rest of the group attempts to guess the answer. To make it competitive, divide the class into two teams. Two truths and a lie allows students to state three things about themselves where two of those statements are true and the third is a lie. Everyone must guess which statement is false. The goal is for everyone to learn something new about each other, while using critical thinking to determine the lie. Lastly, fact hunt is similar to a scavenger hunt, but, instead of searching for physical items, the goal is to match a person to a fact. This requires the instructor to compile a list of miscellaneous facts ahead of time that can include “never left the state,” “high school athlete,” “traveled outside the country,” “speaks more than one language,” “never left the state,” “prefers vegetables over sweets,” etc. Students must meet as many other classmates within the time limit and make match the facts with names of classmates. Another option would be to have students send you interesting facts ahead of time to personalize the game.

Icebreakers for Larger In-person Groups without Breaking into Smaller Groups

• Share their name, pronouns, and one interesting fact with the entire class
• People Bingo
• Answer the following question out loud:
• Who would be your dream dinner guest, living or otherwise?
• Favorite Band / Singer
• What superhero would win in a fight? And why?
• Speed Meeting              

For larger groups, even simple introductions can take much longer because of the amount students in the course. There are a few ways to approach this. One potential solution would be to divide the large class into smaller groups for icebreakers. This would allow students to know some of their classmates, but not everyone. Another approach would be to utilize nametags as discussed above. A third solution would be to lean into the larger size and potential time commitment. Some great ideas for this third option can include a share-out, people bingo, answering a no stakes question aloud, and speed meeting. For a class share-out, the entire class can state their names, pronouns, and one interesting fact one-by-one. If you are more interested in providing a game for students, people bingo allows people to learn from each other as well. Another icebreaker well-suited for large groups includes answering fun questions out loud. It is a great low-pressure way to have students acclimate to their larger classroom setting. Questions can range from naming their favorite musician to identifying and explaining which superhero would win in a hero versus hero showdown. Finally, speed meeting permits students to quickly introduce themselves one-on-one quickly. For larger group settings, there can be a greater emphasis on either individual meet-and-greets or introductions to the entire class. Either choice has its own strengths.

Closing Thoughts

For in-person meetings, there are many traditional and unique options for icebreakers. They often involve simple games or activities that we are familiar with. They can be used as a standalone introductions or in combination with other in-classroom activities to provide momentum at the start of every class.  Successful icebreakers are ones that makes the class become involved in starting a community of learners. However, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, conceptualizing icebreakers for online and hybrid courses provides its own seemingly daunting challenges. In next week’s Icebreakers for the 21^st Century Classroom: Part 2, Online and Hybrid Learning, we will explore some options for icebreaking opportunities for our synchronous and asynchronous students.

If you are interested in further exploring icebreaker activities and tools, reach out to the Center for Faculty Excellence for additional resources and one-on-one consultations. We are happy to help!

Please feel free to share in the comments below an icebreaker that you have enjoyed using in your classroom.

Dayton L. Kinney, Ph.D.

Coordinator of Teaching, Learning, & Academic Excellence
Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE)
Texas Woman’s University
Stoddard Hall – Room 305A
940.898.3427
dkinney@twu.edu

 

Reference List

(2022). Icebreakers. Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation.

(2022). The Best Ice-breakers Games for Large Groups. SurfOffice.

Fraser, K. Bosanquet, A., & Harvey, M. Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching [MOOC]. Canvas. 

Waltje, J. & Evans, A. (2019). The First Days of Class: Building Authenticity and Community. Faculty Focus.

Weimer, M. (2017). First Day of Class Activities that Create a Climate for Learning. Faculty Focus.