Great Class Opening Activity

In order to build community and developing student voice, Alex Shevrin Venet conducted an activity in which the students participated and shared roses. Sharing roses is considered to denote that there is something positive that is going on for a student on that day, whereby the thorns demonstrate negativity in their life or that something less positive is going on.

However the students are free to choose their level of vulnerability where a rose can simply denote that ‘the weather is nice today’. On the other side, a low-stakes thorn may say that ‘I feel tired’. But it has been observed that many students went ahead and choose to share more personal items like “My rose is that even though I’m stressed out, I got all my homework done” or “My thorn is that my dog is sick and I’m really worried about her.” While going around through the classroom, each student must state one rose and one thorn which on an average need five minutes or even less. From outside, yes this fast activity looks like a simple one but the rose and thorn check-in is an essential part of the classroom community-building. The students know that every voice matters and that it is a great way of practicing active listening, turn-taking, and following group norms. Not only this but this activity helps the students to develop awareness of others’ emotions and how they can respond to them and increase their comfort with vulnerability. In this rose and thorn check-ins activity, students can easily practice being emotionally vulnerable with their peers which further helps them to have a comfort level that makes students capable ability to share opinions and take academic risks in other contexts. It is very important if one acknowledges other’s contribution like saying ‘thank you’ followed by the student’s name before passing on to other. It is good if students discuss how emotions impact learning, i.e., letting the students consider how their roses and thorns might affect their ability to participate in class that day and ask them to brainstorm to find out the ways to support a classmate having a big thorn or to celebrate a friend’s exciting rose. Practice is one essential thing to make this activity happen smoothly. To make sure that the activity is quick and consistent, monitoring the activity is also required. Sometimes, when students share something concerning or alarming, then s following up individually with each student and offering them support may help. Whenever it is seen that the class gets the hang of the rose and thorn check-in, it must be modified. Students must be encouraged to take ownership over how to make the check-in feel meaningful to them.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.edutopia.org/article/simple-powerful-class-opening-activity?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow%20--