Supplemental Instruction

Name Game

Students go around the room and introduce themselves and have to pick a word that describes them that starts with the same letter as their first name. As you go around, each student has to go back and name the rest.

Spiderweb – Connection
(7-10 people is ideal)

Have everyone make a circle. One person starts with the end of a ball of yarn and says something he or she learned from the training (or whatever you are doing), learned about themselves, etc.  They then pass the ball to someone else (other than the person next to them), while holding their end: Proceed until everyone has had a chance to speak and a spiderweb is formed! The web symbolizes unity and how everyone is connected.

Example: One person holds one end of a string and proclaims something about yourself, for example:

• My favorite color is green
• I love to play the guitar
• I dip my pizza in ranch dressing
• I love to read books for Fun!

The other people in the group who agree say “Me Too!” and then the roll of string is passed to them. Everyone who proclaimed “Me too!” gets to hold onto the next part of the string.
Main Concept: After a few rounds a giant spider web will be created. This web is what connects us together and shows how much we all have in common.

M&M Game

Pass around a bag of M&M asking students to help themselves, but not to eat the candy. Then they must say one thing about themselves for every piece of candy they took. (This can also be done with skittles, toilet paper, starbursts)

Grand Pandemonium

1. Do everything listed here and get signatures to prove it.
2. Find a person that lives in the same area or has the same major.
3. Untie someone’s shoe. Then tie it again before you sign.
4. Find someone who is left-handed and have them sign with their right hand.
5. Find someone who is right-handed and have them sign with their left hand.
6. Count out loud as you do 5 jumping jacks with a partner and have the partner sign.
7. Find someone who was born in the same month as you and sign.
8. Do you very best to impersonate a gorilla or sheep and have them sign.

Oral Reading of Lecture Notes

Tell the group that you will begin reading from your lecture notes and then ask the student to your right to pick up where they left off using the notes they took in class. After thirty seconds switch to the next student. Encourage students to take further notes and discuss discrepancies. If there are differences in the notes it doesn’t mean that one person is right or wrong, however, encourage students to seek outside sources such as their textbook to come to a conclusion on what should be in the notes.

Guess Your Vocab Word

This strategy also works as a great opener for an SI session.  The SI Leader should prepare note cards with relevant vocabulary terms.  These can be creative, but should also be review terms that most students will have some familiarity with.  At the session, tape a vocabulary term on each student’s back, students should ask each other questions, until they can guess their term.

Human Graph

A kinesthetic activity where students in the class physically move to create a histogram, where each student represents a data point rating their view. This can be used to help gauge where students are on a topic or see how the group feels about different points of view.

Ex.

• Move to the left if you agree with what the author is saying, move to the right if you disagree and stay in the middle if you don’t understand
• Move to the front of the room if you want to write your paper on WW1 move to the back if you want to write your paper on the Vietnam War.

Parking Lot