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We will be using the case study in this reading to discuss during our workshop.

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Using Case Studies to Help Faculty Navigate Difficult Classroom Moments

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We will be using this podcast to help guide our workshop conversations.

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Managing Hot Moments in 2025 with Rick Moore and Bethany Morrison - Intentional Teaching

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Here in the US, the political environment is more heated than I’ve ever known it in my lifetime, and some of that heat is coming directly at higher ed and its faculty. This episode is all about managing those “hot moments” in our classes when just…

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Wendy Smooth, Associate Professor, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Professor Wendy Smooth uses icebreaker activities to establish a sense of community at the start of the term.  In large lectures, she uses simply written note cards to gather insight into her new students' backgrounds and interests. In smaller classes, she goes even further.

"We get in a circle, and I've prepared some really quirky questions. And so, you step out into the circle if I call out something that you identify with: ...'If you're from Ohio, step into the circle. If you've traveled to a foreign country, step inside the circle.' And then it can get really fun."

Smooth asks questions about music, novels, films-popular or obscure-and watches as students are surprised by the commonalities they find with peers. The activity is all about building connections and starting conversations.

Icebreakers are a common approach to helping students get to know each other, as well as course themes or policies, in the first days of class. Putting students in conversation from the get-go increases their comfort with ongoing collaboration and builds a strong community of learning. Effective icebreakers create a relaxed atmosphere that encourages participation.

The following icebreakers have been used successfully in many college classrooms. Feel free to borrow one of them for your own class. If you're teaching online, you can adapt many of these options using CarmenCanvas Discussions or CarmenZoom or have students respond to the icebreaker prompt by posting a video for their peers.

Fun fact bingo

Create bingo cards on a sheet of paper with a 5×5 grid. In each square, write a fun fact, characteristic, or experience that at least one of your students will be likely to relate to. For example: "has traveled to Europe," "plays an instrument," "is left-handed." You can also make these related to your discipline.

Pass out the bingo cards. Have students walk around the class and talk to their peers until they find matches. The first to get "bingo" or fill all the squares is the winner.

Candy icebreaker

Give each student a colored candy-coated chocolate or a piece of hard or chewy candy. In advance, prepare a question for each color.

For example:

red: What's your major?

pink: What's an exciting trip you've been on (or would like to go on)?

yellow: Where are you from?

orange: Why are you interested in this class?

In small groups or as a whole class, have students introduce themselves and answer the question for their candy color. If there is time, pass out more candy for another round.

Best and worst classes

Divide a chalkboard or whiteboard into two sections. On one side write, "The best class I have ever had." On the other write, "The worst class I have ever had." Under each of these headings, make two columns: "What the instructor did," and "What the students did."

Then have students share what they have liked and disliked about previous courses. Ask them to be careful not to mention any course, department, or instructor by name. To conclude, have an open discussion about what you and students can do to create a positive course experience together.

O-H-I-O

This open-ended icebreaker allows students to choose how much they'd like to share with the class and allows the class to learn more about each other personally and academically.
How it works:
To get started, explain the acronym and then allow students to popcorn around the room. In smaller groups, have everyone go through this if time allows. Larger groups could be limited to only those who feel comfortable sharing.

Ourself: Name, major, where you are from, and so on

How I am feeling: Can be interpreted in any way

Interest of mine: Can be interpreted in any way

Objective: Why are you taking this class (if a class)? What is a goal you have for your time at Ohio State?

Dream study space

This is a fun way to get people talking and feeling more relaxed - it's best suited for a smaller course.
How it works:
Encourage your students to take some time to find an image or come up with a description of their ideal study space. It can be anywhere: on the moon, at a beach, in an undersea cavern, in the library of their favorite fantasy series, anywhere!

Start the discussion by explaining to the class what your dream space is and why you would rather work there. Then, go around the room and have each person share with the class the reasoning behind their dream study space.

If your course is being held over Zoom, have students set their virtual background to a photo of their dream study space. This will get them familiar with the feature and give the rest of class a fun flair.

18 & under

Undergraduate students get to know more about each other's passions and accomplishments prior to college.
How it works:
Students each share an accomplishment or point of pride that occurred before they turned 18. This can be done live or on a Carmen discussion board.

Raise your hand

Great for larger undergraduate courses, this icebreaker helps illustrate how much students have in common and can highlight the variety of experiences in your classroom.
How it works:
Ask 3-5 (or more) questions that involve being new to campus. Students then raise their hand if they answer "Yes" to the question. Encourage people to look around and see how similar their feelings are to others. These questions could also be tied to introductory course content.

If your course occurs over Zoom, suggest that students use the raise hand or reaction features.

Questions might include:

I felt unsure of how a college class would be run before today.

I am excited to begin my time at Ohio State.

I am viewing this Zoom session from outside of Columbus.

I am not originally from Ohio.

Virtual show and tell

Best for a synchronous online class, this lighthearted icebreaker allows students to share a bit about their current environment.
How it works:
Each student should select an item near them and come up with a story about it. This story can be made-up or real, funny or serious, and is typically 30 seconds or less in length. You can start the activity by sharing a story for an item in your environment and then calling on another member of class to share theirs. Larger groups could be limited to only those that feel comfortable sharing. This can also be done on Carmen in a discussion board format or by uploading and sharing a video about their object.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Adaptable for many course types and formats, this is a fun way for students to share about their lives outside of class and practice using the discussion board feature in Carmen.
How it works:
Before class, create a Carmen discussion post that is labeled something along the lines of "Summer Memory" or "Over Winter Break." During class, encourage students to visit the Carmen discussion and post a picture of themselves or something they did from the last few months. This is a great way to ensure your students have practiced using the discussion board feature in Carmen if you plan to use it later in the course.

If doing this in-person, you could scroll through the Carmen discussion (with a projector so everyone can see what you're viewing) and encourage students who have unique pictures to introduce themselves and give a brief explanation. If you have a small enough class, have everyone introduce themselves and describe their picture.

If doing this through a Zoom session, encourage students to follow the same steps as above. You could then share your screen on Zoom and scroll through the pictures to follow the same process above. If doing this in a Carmen discussion, you could simply have the students post the picture and then provide a brief introduction of themselves and some context to their photo!

Personal journey

Whether done in person, over Zoom or on a discussion board, this icebreaker encourages your students to consider the variety of experiences present in the classroom.
How it works:
The goal of this icebreaker is to encourage your students to answer the question, "How did you get here?".

For major courses, that could mean explaining why they chose their major. For a GE course, that could mean explaining why they chose your class above other options. For a class with mostly first-year students, that could mean explaining how they ended up at Ohio State. For nontraditional undergraduate students, that could be explaining why they decided to start taking classes.

Encourage your students to tell a story and avoid simply saying, "Because I want to be a teacher" or "Because I needed a GE credit."

This icebreaker works well in smaller courses or in a larger course divided into discussion groups. Over Zoom, students should be encouraged to turn on their cameras when they talk to the class. This could also be a Carmen discussion board.

Activities adapted from:

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Professor Wendy Smooth uses icebreaker activities to establish a sense of community at the start of the term.  In large lectures, she uses simply written note cards to gather insight into her new students' backgrounds and interests. In smaller classes, she goes even further. "We get in a circle, and I've prepared some really quirky questions.

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Understanding Classroom Dynamics: The Critical Incident Questionnaire The Classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire
Assessing learning, critical reflection, and quality educational outcomes: The Critical Incident Questionnaire by Donald Gilstrap and Jason Dupree, College and Research Libraries, 2008, Vol 69, No. 5.

By Their Pupils They'll Be Taught: Using Critical Incident Questionnaire as Feedback by Mary Ann Jacobs, Journal of Invitational Theory and Practice, 2015, Vol. 21, pp. 9-22.

The Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ): From Research to Practice and Back Again
By Jeffrey Keefer, Adult Education Research Conference Proceedings, 2009

A Regression Model of Predictor Variables on Critical Reflection in the Classroom: Integration of the Critical Incident Questionnaire and the Framework for Reflective Thinking D. Gilstrap & J. Dupree. Journal of Academic Librarianship, Vol. 34, No. 6, 2008

FORMATIVE EVALUATION: USING THE CRITICAL INCIDENT QUESTIONNAIRE IN A GRADUATE COUNSELING COURSE ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY By K.S. Linstrum, G. Ballard, T. Shelby Journal of Intercultural Disciplines, Vol. 10, 2012

A study of the uses of a blog-based critical incident questionnaire in further education Paul Smith, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Derby (UK), 2018

Connecting Critical Reflection and Group Development in Online Adult Education Classrooms
By Michelle Glowacki-Dudka and Nicole Barnett (PDF file)

Interrogating students' perceptions of their online learning experiences with Brookfield's Critical Incident Questionnaire
By Liam Phalen, Distance Education, Vol. 33, No. 1 (2012)

Using Critical Incident Questionnaires (CIQs) to Foster Critical Reflection and Formative Assessmentsimplified with Google Forms. By H. Brooke Hessler, Ph.D.

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Critical Incident Questionnaire - Stephen D. Brookfield

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Understanding Classroom Dynamics: The Critical Incident Questionnaire The Classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire Assessing learning, critical reflection, and quality educational outcomes: The Critical Incident Questionnaire by Donald Gilstrap and Jason Dupree, College and Research Libraries, 2008, Vol 69, No. 5.

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Feel free to add any communication challenges or questions you currently have that you would like us to address during this workshop.

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Includes a list of benefits and examples and links to supporting research.

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Group agreements (also referred to as class norms, participation norms, ground rules, community agreements, or group contracts) are rules, intentions, or guidelines for behavior and interaction that are communally formulated and agreed upon. They are a tool for fostering participation, inclusivity, and habits of explicit consent and accountability in the classroom. When inviting students to formulate and abide by group agreements in a class, some introductory framing is helpful to make the activity as productive as possible.

Why Might I Want to Create a Group Agreement?

You might wish to employ group agreements in order to introduce students to collaborative process and decision making, have students articulate the ground rules they need for an effective learning environment, practice conversation discourse, create a shared sense of responsibility for the classroom; and/or hold students accountable to agreed-upon behavior. Your goals for a group agreement might vary based on circumstance-for instance, creating a shared sense of community might feel especially important for post-pandemic in-person classrooms; creating guidelines for civic discourse might feel especially important in a course that discusses contemporary politics. Group agreements are often seen as a practice of equity, with explicit communication among instructors and students of what is expected of each other.

The Stanford University Teaching Commons provides a handy reference for some of the benefits of classroom norms:

Transparency: instructor & students clarify expectations of each other

Equity: making expectations explicit is fairer and more equitable for all students

Gravity: instructors convey the seriousness of class behaviors and their effects

Agency: students help shape their desired learning environment

Representation: all students help shape the class learning environment

Empathy: instructors and students consider each other's perspectives

Accountability: students share responsibility for their learning environment

Solidarity: instructors and students are united in a shared project

Community: instructors and students can develop mutual understanding and trust

Whatever your reasoning for having a class (or section) create group agreements, you should be clear with your own goals from the start, and communicate these goals to your students. For example, if class discussions or debates are important components of your pedagogy, you might convey what you hope students might learn or practice in this method of engagement. Your reasons should also then shape the method by which you invite students to formulate the agreements (e.g. by individually submitting proposed agreements and then voting, by brainstorming agreements in small groups and then compiling, or by pooling suggestions generated from the whole group at once). Unlike a class policy, group agreements might be best framed as aspirational, rather than punitive, returning to the documents created throughout the semester as a goal towards which the community is collectively striving.

What Kinds of Propositions Typically Appear in Group Agreements?

Individual

Hold yourself and each other accountable to high standards of excellence at all times

Have the humility to recognize that you do not know everything and that everyone can stand to improve

Recognize that everyone will start from different bases of knowledge

Be open to changing your perspective

Normalize struggle and anxiety

One person speaks at at time

Cite good ideas

Speak authentically, rather than just talking to talk

Respond to people and not just ideas

say thank you for suggestions, corrections, or ideas

"Step up, step down" / "Take space, make space"

Group

Everyone has the right to be heard

Balancing honesty with sensitivity

Assume good intentions

Deciding on terms that are so harmful as to never be uttered or written in class

Make an effort to get to know other students. Introduce yourself to students sitting near you. Refer to classmates by name.

Be respectful while still being critical

No name calling / labeling

Prop up instead of tear down

How Can I Establish a Group Agreement in My Classroom?

Because students may have different experiences with formulating group agreements, it's important to articulate clearly both why you're doing this exercise and how it will function in the class. You may want to start by sharing class policies, and clarify how norms are different. If you're creating group norms in a seminar class, you might then transition into creating group norms; in a large lecture course, section might be a better place for these class agreements. Creating space for students to contribute to norms might include the expectation that everyone in the group is encouraged or expected to contribute, that challenges are accepted and alternatives are discussed before a decision is taken, and that the group will take responsibility for the decisions reached. You might start by asking students to list a condition of a previous class that functioned well, or ask them to answer a question such as: "How do you define respect in the context of course discussion?"

How Can I Make Sure that A Group Agreement is Sustained?

Be sure to communicate how the agreements will function in the class as a whole-it's helpful to review the agreements once or twice in the weeks following the initial formulation session so that students have a chance to edit, subtract, or elaborate on agreements. After that, make sure to return to the agreements throughout the semester so that they don't slip from memory. In addition to the above, you might add them to the syllabus document, post them on Canvas and give students the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on the norms. You might use the midterm as a point of reference for students to self-assess their participation, and/or provide feedback about their sense of the class interactions and learning environment.

"Peer relationships set the social context for school life...which makes attending school a more pleasant and welcoming experience ... Feeling included and a sense of social belonging has been consistently shown to be an important predictor of academic outcomes ... a greater sense of belonging ... enhances positive emotions and makes it easier to focus on academic goals." Christia Spears Brown, "The Importance, and the Challenges, to Ensuring an Inclusive School Climate," Educational Psychologist 54, no. 4 (2019): 322-330.
We should "conceptualize the classroom as a society that contributes to the functioning of students." Instead of focusing only on individual students, we should think about the classroom as a microsociety. T.W. Farmer, et al. "Promoting Inclusive Classroom Communities in Diverse Classrooms: Teacher attunement and social dynamics management," Educational Psychologist 54, no. 4 (2019): 286-305.
Neil Mercer has noted that while students seem to be expected to work out ground rules for effective discussion by themselves, they are an opportunity for important pedagogy. "Outside school, the 'ground rules' of everyday communication are usually taken for granted, and there is little meta-discussion or joint reflection on how things are normally done. This indicates a clear and useful role for schools, which are special institutional settings created for guiding intellectual development and understanding. Education should help children [students] gain a greater awareness and appreciation of the discourse repertoire of wider society and how it is used to create knowledge and to get things done." Neil Mercer, Learning for Life in the 21st Century: Sociocultural Perspectives on the Future of Education (Blackwell, 2002), 147-148.
Some scholars have noted that well-intentioned norms like "assume good intentions" can also function as a way of policing behavior or avoiding uncomfortable dialogue. Suggesting that a student "not take it personally" can be a way of avoiding conflict-resolution in potentially heated discussions. The rhetoric of a "safe space" (or "brave space") can interfere with achieving social justice education goals, if they are missing a sense of "discomfort," which some see as a key to productive discussions. They have suggested that such practices ignore imbalances in discourse amplified by structural inequalities among the participants (such as race & sex), noting that while higher education tends to prioritize objectivity in discourse production, some topics will not feel "objective" to some students. Jasmine L. Harris, " Uncomfortable Learning: Teaching Race Through Discomfort in Higher Education" in Difficult Subjects: Insights and Strategies for Teaching about Race, Sexuality, and Gender, Badia Ahad-Legardy, ed. (New York: Routledge); Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo, "Respect Differences: Challenging the Common Guidelines in Social Justice Education," Democracy and Education 22, no. 2 (2014).
A few other useful Harvard resources include the Graduate School of Education's Norm-Setting at the Beginning of the Semester and Leveraging Norms for Challenging Conversations, and the Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging's Inclusive Dialogue Strategies. Some great resources from outside of Harvard are: Cornell's Center for Teaching Innovation's Getting Started with Establishing Ground Rules; Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education's Establishing Classroom Norms and Expectations, and the University of Michigan's Guidelines for Classroom Interactions, especially their Guidelines for Discussion / Community Expectations resource.
This might include, for example, helping students practice listening or debate skills, allowing them to be exposed to a greater diversity of opinions or communication styles, or giving the classroom the opportunity to develop a more critically informed understanding of class topics. See Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill, Discussion as a Way of Teaching : Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999).
Some educators use the LARA (Listen, Affirm, Respond, Ask Questions) framework. For more information, see The LARA Method for Managing Tense Talks.

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Group agreements (also referred to as class norms, participation norms, ground rules, community agreements, or group contracts) are rules, intentions, or guidelines for behavior and interaction that are communally formulated and agreed upon. They are a tool for fostering participation, inclusivity, and habits of explicit consent and accountability in the classroom.