Ice breaker

ICE BREAKER!

I use an ‘ice breaker’ introduction exersise at the start of a workshop or a series of sessions in a unit. It gives students an opportunity to express their interests, experience and any aims they might have with reference to the subject being studied so I can better meet their needs and requirements. It also gives them an opportunity to meet me and understand where I am coming from.

This short task of analysing a media report about one's home town or country could be used as an icebreaker with a bit of planning, and would help a diverse group get to know one another and gel.

1st year drawing students at Camberwell and architecture students from the Architectural Association worked together over two days, drawing, recording and traversing a disused site near the 2012 Olympic site in Stratford East London, being developed into a cultural quarter by the collective 'Assemble'. It’s an area of extreme regeneration, with dramatic changes in the landscape occurring daily. Students responded to the site in groups, thematically pondering (through drawing) on:

• Materials and their taxonomy
• Ordering chaos
• Drawing as recording, establishing a point of view

I have done this ice breaker in my previous role working with adults and college students. I think if you make the ice breaker fun then you get better answers that people really remember.

All members of the group take a piece of paper and a marker pen.
On the paper they write their name, an adjective describing them beginning with the same first letter as their name, and they also draw an animal that represents one of their characteristics.
They then take turns reading out their name and adjective, e.g. “Determined Dave” or “Crazy Caroline”.

Not exactly what is written on the tin... I hasten to add.

Max Mason, David Morgan and myself developed Blind Date as an Ice Breaker project for the rotation stage of the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Chelsea.

I stole the People Bingo icebreaker from Susan Crozier a couple of years ago and we've used it with several groups on the PG Cert in Learning & Teaching and the Developing Educational Practice short course. It helps if you have a little prize for the winner; a stocking-filler from Harpers Bazaar, or the old staple, the Mars Bar...

Simply hand out the 'bingo cards' and set everyone to work finding someone in the room to match each box. They're not allowed to use the same person more than once. The winner is the first to match a person for every box.

The activity is about helping the students to loose the ownership of their drawings.
By encouraging them to share the experience of drawing, because I have noticed that some times at the first instance their perception is that everybody else has a stronger drawing skills than the ones they have.

In pairs the students draw a partner. As a group they are asked to do four guided drawing exercises with four different partners.

They have two minutes per drawing and are not allowed to look at the page they are drawing on during the exercises. They have another two minutes in which to ask their partner questions, the answers of which they include in the portrait.

They only have 60 seconds to find a new partner.

The drawings are then hung on the wall. Each student chooses one portrait/student to introduce to the class.