I love classroom hacks, especially when they have to do with building community in the classroom.
Probably because I was so shy when I was a kid, I really love "Conversation Starters" because they provide prompts to students and give them something concrete to talk about. Making small talk was something that I struggled with as a kid. I would have SO appreciated if a teacher had used something like these to create community in our classrooms.
The questions are also appropriate to be used at home. Dinnertime can be transformed into quality family time by building conversations around the prompts on the Classroom Conversation Starters.
I originally created New Year's Conversation Starters, then a last week I shared the Gratitude Conversation Starters on Twitter. Chaunte Garett was excited about them, and she asked if I knew of any for Integrity. Since I wasn't aware of any, I decided to create some.
Thinking ahead to upcoming holidays and seasons, I also created some "Joy Conversation Starters."
If you are a classroom teacher, I highly recommend that you don't ask the questions on the slips of paper to the class as a whole and ask for students to respond to you.
Here are several ways I encourage you to use the Classroom Conversation Starters:
-Have them in a basket and ask a student to draw a question for the class. Then have students to turn and share their answer with a neighbor.
-You, the teacher, draw a question from the basket and share the prompt with the class. Ask students to share their answers with two people near them.
-Make several copies of the prompts and have a couple of questions on each desk. If your students' desks are in pods or groups, have a few questions per group. Ask students to choose one conversation starter to answer with a group member.
-Use one starter per day as a journal writing prompt. At the end of the week, ask students to choose one from the week to share with a friend in the class.
What other ways would you use the Classroom Conversation Starters? Please leave a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter.
All of the Classroom Conversation Starters can be downloaded below
by clicking on each picture.
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