DCIS ADVISEMENT TOOL BOX

 

Icebreakers Team-Building Activities Journal or Verbal Prompts Buddies / Teams References

 

Icebreakers

http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/calspace_sio/images/polarstar.jpg

 

1. Categories in Common: Ask students to stand (or raise hand) when they fit the category you call out: grade level, place of birth, position in family, ancestry, years lived at current residence, favorite school subject, extracurricular activities, etc. At the end you can also ask if there is any category or person you missed. (1)

 

2. Snowball Fight: On a sheet of paper students write three things about themselves. They then crumble up the paper and have a "snowball" fight. Then they pick up a piece of paper and try to find to whom it belongs. (DJA)

 

3. Candy Confessions: Pass around a bag of candy. Tell students to take as many pieces as they want but not to eat them yet. They need to just place the candy in front of themselves. The students are then told that for every piece of candy in front of them they need to share one thing about themselves. (DJA)

 

4. Two Truths/One Lie: Each person says three things about themselves, one of which is a lie. Everyone else guesses which is the lie. (DJA)

 

 

Team-Building

http://www.team-building-activities.co.uk/images/orange%20group.jpg

 

1. Decorate Your Adviser: Have a school-wide “Decorate your Adviser” competition to drum up school spirit and celebrate winter holidays. (1)

 

2. Birthdays: Celebrate students' birthdays in class. (DJA)

 

3. Free-Time Friday: Designate Friday afternoon as a games and free-time period. Having fun with each other is a great way to get to know each other. (DJA)

 

4. Discussion Questions: Who has good news to share? Who has a situation that we might be able to help solve? (2)

 

5. Breakfast: Go out for breakfast or a meal together. (2)

 

6. Competition: Challenge another advisory group to a game. (2)

 

7. Photos: Take photos during class one day of your advisement students together and post them in your room. (DJA)

 

8. Treats: Bring in treats occasionally for everyone to eat together. Likewise, encourage students to show off their baking talents and bring in treats for the class. (DJA)

 

9. Field Trip: Go on a field trip (rock climbing gym, bowling) with your students. (KG, DA)

 

10. Secret Santa: Do a Secret Santa exchange within your class or with a few other classes. (MCW)

 

 

Activities

Used with permission from HCISSM and http://www.toroidalsnark.net/

 

1. Holiday Map: Have each student put a mark on a map of where they will be celebrating holidays, who they will be visiting etc. (1)

 

2. Holiday Traditions: In small groups, have each student share a holiday tradition, story or fact associated with their family, background. (1)

 

3. 24 Hour Time Management Clock: Put two blank 24 hour clocks on a sheet. First, have students use the top clock and divide it with pie shaped wedges to show the activities for a model school day – sleeping, studying, attending class, relaxing, etc. Then have them divide the second clock for the actual previous day. Have students work in pairs to discuss reasons for discrepancies. (1)

 

4. Group Sculpture: Ask for one volunteer to be the sculptor. Ask for three or four more to be the clay. Tell the sculptor to create a scene/sculpture around a theme you have chosen (ex. one of the DCIS values). The sculptor then explains his/her masterpiece. Ask class if that is how they would have depicted the theme. Invite them to come up and change the sculpture to fit their vision and then explain. Ask original sculptor what s/he thinks about changes. Ask clay volunteers how they felt about being shaped and if they had their own ideas. Repeat with other volunteers. (4)

 

5. Three-Chair Improv: Set up three chairs at the front of the room. Label each with a piece of paper that will tell the person sitting in that chair how to act. The labels can be roles and/or emotions. In addition, create a situation based on an issue you want to address with the stuents. For example: In this chair is a student who was 10 minutes late to school. In the second chair is an administrator about to enforce the school's lateness policy etc.". Ask for volunteers to fill the three roles and improvise for about 30 seconds. Tell the students that every 30 seconds or so, someone from the class should go up and replace one of the actors. (4)

 

6. Freeze Frame: Divide class into small groups. Give each group a concept. Group members cannot discuss the concept with each other or share it with the class. Each group must create a tableau that illustrates the concept. One member of the group goes to the front of the room and freezes in a pose that illustrates the concept. Then another member comes and poses in a way that adds to the scene and concept. No talking or sounds are allowed. When the whole group has created their freeze frame, the rest of the class guesses what the concept is. (4)

 

7. Info Pictionary: Divide class into two teams. The first team has a person draw a card from a pile teacher has prepared with information teacher wants to review. That first team has 60 seconds for the person to draw a picture of that information and for their team to guess it. If the team doesn't guess correctly, the other team has a chance to guess and earn a point. (4)

 

8. Inside Me Drawings: Give each student flip chart paper and markers. Each draws a figure representing him/herself. Inside the figure they then write or visually represent the following elements: head: - what you think about; hands - what you do with your hands; heart - what you love; stomach - what you like to eat; feet - where you've been. Everyone then hangs their drawings. Then for a fixed amount of time everyone looks at each other's drawings in silence. Process questions: What surprised you about others' drawings? How do we choose what to share and what to keep hidden? If you had done this X years ago, what would have been different? (4)

 

9. Thank You Notes: Give each student a few note cards. Tell them that expressing gratitude can be difficult because it isn't always easy to find the best words to fit a situation. Ask them to think of several people they think deserve their thanks (in school, family or personal life) and to write those people thank you notes. Afterwards process how they felt about doing this. (6)

 

10. Brainstorming: When students bring up an issue that is concerning them, do this activity to help them see that they have several choices to solve problems. Rules: say any ideas that come to mind, don't judge ideas, come up with as many ideas as possible. Divide students in to groups to brainstorm possible solutions to the issue. Then ask them to circle the three most creative solutions and to share them with the class. (6)

 

11. Caroling: Carol other advisements during the holiday season. (DJA)

 

12. Debate/Discussion: Have students brainstorm some topics they would like to debate/discuss then vote. To maintain a respectful conversation, only the student currently holding a ball or some other object may speak. They then throw the ball to someone else when they are finished. (DJA/JH)

 

13. Yoga: Follow a yoga video with your class. (PM)

 

14. Student-generated issues: Ask students to anonymously write on a piece of paper a question that they have or an issue they are dealing with in the area of school, friends, family, personal etc. Then each week draw one issue and ask students to do a three chair improv or freeze-frame or group sculpture etc. Then break them in to groups to discuss and come up with advice for the person who wrote the question/issue. (DJA)

 

15.  Valentine's Day Cards: Provide supplies so that your advisees can make Valentine's Day cards.  With computer access they can use Publisher to customize Valentine's Day templates.  (OS)

 

Journal or Verbal Prompts

Used with permission from Prairie Ecology Bus Center

 

Academic

1. I would describe my first quarter at DCIS as () . The first thing I feel about my 1st quarter report card is (). I did better in () than my other classes because (). I did worse in () than my other classes because (). My academic goal for 2nd quarter is ().(1)

 

2. Your teachers have given you grades for the first quarter. What grades would you give each of your teachers? Explain. What could the teachers who didn't get a good grade do to improve it? (DJA)

 

3. If there were something you could change about yourself as a student, what would it be? (CW)

 

4. How did your week go? Was there something you did not complete? How will you make up for that? (CW)

 

5. How are you planning to make your career at DCIS an international experience? What have you done so far to accomplish this goal? (CW)

 

6. What do you imagine as the ideal community service or service learning experience? (CW)

 

7. What do you wish you could learn at DCIS that isn’t offered right now? Why? (SM)

 

8. If you picture yourself in college, what will you be doing each day? (SM)

 

9. My best class experience this week was (). One thing I learned this week that I feel is really important is ().(5)

 

10. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you give to the DCIS community this week? how much did you take? (MZ)

 

11. What is one thing you achieved last semester that you are really proud of? What is one thing you wish you had done differently? For each of your classes last semester, rate the amount of effort you feel you put into the class and rate the end result of your effort. (1 being no effort exerted and 5 being maximum effort exerted, 1 being extremely poor result and 5 being an excellent result). (TH)

 

Fun

1. If you had the time and the resources to do anything you want this summer, what would you do? (CW)

 

2. If you could make a wish and be famous for something, for what would you be famous? (CW)

 

3. Where in the world would you most like to go and why? (SM)

 

4. What is your favorite ethnic food and why? (SM)

 

5. If you could take three books with you to a desert island for a year, which ones would you choose? (SM)

 

6. If a movie was made of your life, who would play you? Your family? Your friends? Your teachers? (SM)

 

Issues

1. What is happening in the world these days that is bothering you? Is there anything you can do about it? (CW)

 

2. The world is always in need of new inventions. If you could invent something that would solve a world issue, what would it be? (CW)

 

3. Choose a quote (I’ve got some copies of Bartlett’s and other quote books, and there’s plenty of quote sites on the internet) or allow one student each week to choose one. Have students respond to the quote. (SM)

 

Personal

1. In general, how do you spend your weekends? How could you make them more fun? More productive? (CW)

 

2. Do you have long-term goals? What are they, and how are you working toward them? (CW)

 

3. What’s the hardest thing about being your age? (SM)

 

4. Three words that I want people to think of when they think of me: (). Things I need to do starting today to become more like that person: . (1)

 

5. Write three ways in which you act on your own despite pressures to do otherwise. (3)

 

6. I make my family proud when I(). One thing my family expects of me is(). One thing that makes my family special/different/fun is(). (5)

 

7. What was the high point of your week? The low point? (MZ)

 

8. Use 'The Book of Questions' by Gregory Stock or 'Zobmondo: the Outrageous Book of Bizarre Choices' to generate discussion questions. Ask students to call out a number then read that question.(DJA)

 

 

 

Buddies / Teams

http://static.flickr.com/55/151715498_da1ab531be_m.jpg

 

1. Ballot Selection: Ask students to write on a piece of paper their top three preferences for a partner. Ask middle school students to choose only from high school students and vice versa. Then pair them up with their top choice as much as possible. (DJA)

 

2. Line-Ups: (use this to create new partners or teams) Ask students to line-up according to one of the following criteria: birthday; alphabetically by name; shoe size; height; opinion on how many or how much of something (example: number of people to a fundraiser); how long it takes you to leave the house in morning after waking up; how much you love chocolate; how vegetarian you are, how late you stay up at night; number of siblings; shoe type; ideal vacation spot; favorite school subject; part of town they live in. (4)(6)

 

 

References

http://www.skullbox.net/works.jpg

 

1. Jenkins , John M. , and Bonnie S. Daniel. Banishing Anonymity: Middle and High School Advisement Programs. Larchmont: Eye on Education, Incorporated, 2000.

 

2. Vurnakes, Claudia. ABC's of Advisory. Grand Rapids: TS Denison, 1997.

 

3. Maclaury, Susan. Student Advisories in Grades 5-12: A Facilitator's Guide. Norwood: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc., 2002.

 

4. Pollack, Stanley. Moving Beyond Icebreakers: An Innovative Approach to Group Facilitation, Learning, and Action. Boston: The Center for Teen Empowerment, Inc., 2005.

 

5. Poliner, Rachel A., and Lieber, Carol Miller. The Advisory Guide: Designing and Implementing Effective Advisory Programs in Secondary Schools. Cambridge: Educators for Social Responsibility, 2004.

 

6. Schrumpf, Fred, Freiburg, Sharon and Skadden, David. Life Lessons for Young Adolescents: An Advisory Guide for Teachers. Champaign: Research Press, 1993.