Teaching Tips
Uncommon Commonalities
Purpose: To serve as a group icebreaker, reinforcing for students what they have in common with their team members. To add relevance, teachers can require some academic topics related to their discipline (English classes: Who has read Moby Dick?; Business classes: Who invests in the stock market? Economics classes: Who reads the Wall Street Journal?)
How to Conduct: Give each group/team a blank copy of the grid below and have them energetically and enthusiastically call out possible topics: “Who has traveled to Hawaii?” “Who drives a clunker?” “Who likes Pistachio ice cream?” Students write each topic in the column that represents the number of students who indicate a “yes.” The students can also come up with a team name, if desired.
Uncommon Commonalities
(with five topics and the name filled in as a sample)
Each team gets a blank grid.
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