Icebreakers: They Don’t Have to Be Cringey
What if there was a way to dive right into ELA skills and make students aware of your expectations, all while helping them get to know their classmates?
Okay! Let’s go around the room and give your name, birthday, and what you did this summer for fun. What’s that? A collective groan?
Of course students have to get to know each other to build camaraderie in the classroom. However, doing several icebreaker activities in a row for each class can get a little old. Also, spending a whole class period on figuring out your students’ favorite colors can waste valuable class time that could be spent kickstarting your school year.
What if there was a way to dive right into ELA skills and make students aware of your expectations, all while helping them get to know their classmates? The following ideas can help your students express themselves while subtly introducing them to characterization, argumentation, persuasive techniques, and author’s word choice.
Here are some fun alternative icebreaker ideas for your classroom to bookmark for later:
1. Main Character Quiz
You’ll be reading about some iconic main characters this year, so create a personality quiz that helps students choose one they can relate to. You can have the results align with specific characters they’ll read about, or possibly heroic archetypes that they may encounter. Are you a mad scientist? A hopeless romantic? A warrior? Are you Jay Gatsby, Elizabeth Bennet, Victor Frankenstein, or Holden Caulfield? You can also then use this quiz to create pods for the first quarter or create groups for future activities: “If you’re a Macbeth, you must sit with the other Macbeths!” On second thought, maybe we don’t want the Macbeths sitting together…
Personality Quiz Presentation Template for Google Slides
Turn this personality quiz into a class activity! This template for Google Slides has everything you need to build your own personality quiz to present to your class. After clicking the link below, click the “Make a copy” button to save the template to your Google Drive.
2. Argue It
If students love anything, it’s having an opinion. Present a series of “This or That” questions that force students to choose. Students can physically move to the side they agree with and then explain why they chose that side. After you hear a couple of compelling arguments, ask students if any have changed their minds and want to switch sides. As an exit ticket, ask students to write a quick persuasive paragraph about the opinion they felt the strongest about during the activity.
3. Hot Take
As stated above, if students love anything, it’s having an opinion. This one differs a little from “Argue It,” and it lets students set themselves apart. Ask students to write down their opinion on a few different topics: food, movies, music, and books. They can then go around the room in a traditional way and read their “hot takes.” They’ll be surprised when others agree that pineapple definitely belongs on a pizza.
4. Group Presentation
Randomize students into groups of your choice and then give them a random item: a slinky, a water bottle, a book—anything. Tell them they have 30 minutes to create an advertisement on a PowerPoint or poster to sell that item to the class. Students will have to learn to work together, use elements of persuasion, and critically and creatively think about how to sell the item. These presentations are sure to showcase humor and personality.
5. Synonym Scramble
This one takes a little more prep work but packs a huge ELA punch. Use the first stanza of the poem “Jabberwocky” to have students work together to find meaning in it. Ask students to underline unfamiliar words, as Carroll packed this poem with portmanteaus and nonsense words. Tell students they must agree on the part of speech for each underlined word. Once they have identified these, instruct them to find synonyms for the unfamiliar words to create a new stanza. Ask each group to read their translation aloud. It’s amazing how differently “slithy toves” can be interpreted.
Luckily, the Synonym Scramble is already available at the English Teacher's Free Library!
Free Lesson Plan: “Jabberwocky” Synonym Scramble Activity
This lesson is intended to be an icebreaker for the first day of class. It gives students a chance to work together and allows you to get to know the way they think. It also allows you to dive right into ELA material. You can also use this lesson to introduce a poetry or vocabulary unit, giving students a low-stakes way to explore poetry, author’s word choice, and mood using Lewis Carroll’s famous poem.
Hopefully, these ideas help make icebreakers a little less painful in the coming school year. Who knows? They may even boost students’ interest in the skills they’re going to learn throughout the year, too!
