Bingo Cards and Whiteboards: A Good First Week

I am always on the lookout for ways to get students up and out of their seats for brief periods of time, especially if it can be for something that's not dividing into small groups and discussing something, just for the sake of having small group work.  I'm not opposed to small group work, even though I hate it for myself.  But I have noticed that small group work involves a lot of prepping on my part and a lot of coaching when they are in small groups (i.e., now talk about this, now switch to talking about this).

Yesterday in my Advanced Creative Writing class, I was leading us through exercises to develop a long-term project.  I created 4 worksheets.  The first one had them list/discuss creative works/artists that had been important to them when they were children and a separate space to list creative works/artists that are important to them now.  As they were writing, I thought, I'm surrounded by whiteboards in this classroom; I could have them write their lists on the board.  And I did it.  There were only 7 students in class, so it wasn't too chaotic.  And it was interesting to see their lists.

On worksheet 2, I had them write about what types of creative works they had created in the past, both in a school setting and on their own.  One wall had two whiteboards beside each other, so I wrote a variety of types (short story, poem, novel, song, animated work, graphic novel/story, hybrid work) on the board as they were filling in the worksheet.  Then I had them put check marks in the columns if they had created that type of work.

On worksheet 3, I had them discuss the conditions that make creative work possible, like space and food.  Then we chatted a bit.  On worksheet 4, I had them list 3 potential long term projects--no commitment implied.  It was a great class, much better than what I had originally planned, which was me verbally giving them prompts.

Then I went to my English 102 class.  I had a bingo/getting to know each other sheet ready to go (see this blog post for details), and I put a blank grid on the back.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but now, I've come up with a plan for both English 101 and 102.  First, the students will move around the room, trying to fill in the getting to know each other Bingo squares.  Then they'll sit back down and use the grid on the back.  For the English 101 class that meets this morning, I'll have them fill in the grid with some details about themselves that can lead to a standard "who I am" kind of essay.  

In English 102, I used the grid for students to create a fictional character.  Some of the squares were minor, like does the character have a pet.  Some were major:  what does the character yearn for and what is keeping the character from getting that (2 squares).  Then, as we talked about what makes a story, we had character details filled in, conflict details that might lead to an interesting plot, and setting details.  It was an interesting way of talking about these aspects of fiction/story telling.  I look forward to seeing how this afternoon's English 102 classes respond.

It's been a good first week of classes, and I'm grateful.