Premise

Before the first day of term, instructors know their students’ names, majors, and maybe a glimpse of a profile picture. There is more unknown than known. Letters of Introduction allow students to introduce themselves and also instructors to know more about their students.

 Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to build community by recognizing and welcoming personal interests, prior experiences, cultural backgrounds, and training.

 Preparation

On the first day of class, invite students to write you a letter of introduction in which they address the following four questions (feel free to iterate to better fit the context of your classroom):

• Purpose. Why are you taking this course? What do you hope to learn? What do you hope to contribute?
• Personal. Tell one anecdote about someone who inspired you. Who are your ______ influences (e.g., artistic; activism; etc.)?
• Paraphrase. In your own words, what is this course about? What kinds of activities will you do? How and what might you learn?
• Plan. If you could spend 5 months answering one of the course questions, which one would it be, why, and how would you approach answering it?

 Protocol

Students email letters to instructors by 6 pm on the first day of class; instructors read each letter within 24-hours.

 Premise

While it is one thing for students to write a letter, it is another to receive a response. Responding to student work is a way of recognizing and valuing students and their labor; it is a way of saying, “I see you and I’m glad you’re here.” The intended effect is community-building. Among others, WWA signals to students that: a) you will read what they write; b) individual student writing matters to the whole class and may be read by others (i.e., their audience is more than just the instructor(s); c) students’ experiences outside the classroom are valued and relevant to what happens inside the class; d) what students say has a direct impact on how others experience the classroom.

 Purpose

The purpose of this exercise is to develop a sense of community by sharing responses.

 Preparation

Select one response per student and anonymously (or by name) cut-and-paste into a new document, entitled “Who We Are,” and then share with students the following session after they submitted their letters of introduction.

[Sample]

 Protocol

Invite students to read in class. After a few minutes, ask for cognitive observations – patterns, trends, common interests, etc. Then, ask for affective observations – sensations, feelings.

 Premise

Students want to sound smart, or at least they don’t want to sound ignorant. But learning requires risk-taking and moving beyond familiar modes of learning, thinking, collaborating, and writing. This fearful tension is an underlying aporia to many classrooms. instructors can help mitigate fears of looking ignorant by carefully scaffolded learning activities. Prior knowledge is necessary, but difficult to parse when many students are so skilled at performing intelligence that they hide what they don’t know.

 Purpose

The objective is to get students to share their prior knowledge. By calling this activity a game and naming it “Rumors and Hearsay,” a goal is to get students to examine the situations in which prior knowledge emerges, how these may differ, and in so doing, (hopefully) avoiding the performative signaling of intelligence.

 Preparation

Give students a few minutes to write their associations, assumptions, experiences, reading materials, etc. with the course’s theme or discipline individually.

 Protocol

What have I heard about ______? In groups, invite students to play the game “Rumors and Hearsay,” in which each member answers the question “what have I heard about ______?” (i.e., insert subject-matter).