FACILITATION ACTIVITIES
To get started, briefly explain the purpose of FYRE and the discussion groups, and be sure to keep instructions clear and simple. Consider asking students to write before they speak; this can help them sort through their thoughts before sharing them aloud with others. Also consider breaking students into small groups where they can share their thoughts; you can give groups small, specific tasks like sharing parts of the book they found most interesting or troubling (see below). Try reading short, specific passages at the outset, and ask for students’ responses; this helps mitigate against students’ having not read all or much of the book.
2. Use general icebreakers to get students comfortable with speaking. Ask students to share their name, hometown, major, and favorite book, television show, and/or movie. Ask students to share something they love to do. Ask students if they like to read, what they like to read, and how they experience reading in their everyday lives (i.e. books, magazines, phone texts, etc.). Be sure to introduce yourself as well, including your position at the university, whether you were a first-generation college student, etc. Activities like these not only help students “warm up” to a discussion, but often help them connect with one another and start building community.
3. Use a “connections” icebreaker. Say one word that represents or connects to you, and ask others to raise their hands to indicate they "own" the same word; then ask students to go around the room and share their one word. Words might include the town they live in, their major, their interests, etc.
4. Use an icebreaker that gets students up and moving around. For example, come up with 4-5 questions that are interesting and relevant to students and that have limited responses (i.e. favorite movie genre or sport). Write each answer on a post-it, and organize post-it stickers into piles so the responses to the first question are on top and responses to the last question are on the bottom. Place piles around the room, then prompt students with the questions, and ask them to gravitate to their preferred response. Ask students to explain to one another why they chose that response, giving them about three minutes to do so. This icebreaker helps students identify commonalities and requires them to be actively engaged in the activity through movement.
5. Have each student write one word on an index card that represents how they felt about the book. Collect the cards and redistribute them throughout the room. Ask each student to read their new card aloud. This gives each student a voice and allows for low-risk sharing. Either (a) ask the group to comment on the themes that were shared or (b) divide students into small groups based on what comments were written and ask students to discuss why that particular word may have been used. Ask each group do a short "report out" after.
6. Read a passage from the book aloud and ask students to react to that specific passage. For a small group activity, identify several passages, divide the room into smaller groups, and give each group a passage to read and discuss. Ask each small group to report to the larger group a summary of their discussion. Consider asking students to think about how these quotes or passages fit into the larger context of the book, but also reflects larger issues, concerns, or personal experiences. Ask questions that are general enough that students who haven’t read the entire book can still feel engaged. Consider using the FYRE quotes distributed via social media to similar effect.
7. Give groups of three or four students a theme or quote to reflect on together. You can support these small-group conversations with reflective sentence starter questions such as the following:
8. Find contemporary news articles, campus-related news, or other media that speak to issues addressed in the book. Individually, in pairs, or in small groups, ask students to consider how the book relates to these current events. Ask students to provide evidence or reasoning to support their opinions and ideas.
9. Each student received a bookmark with several questions to consider as they were reading over the summer. Divide the larger group into smaller groups and ask them to talk about a specific question. Consider assigning each group a different question to discuss and report back about:
a. As a young boy the author experienced many challenges around societies expectations of him. How
did he learn to leverage his difference to become successful? In what ways are you using your
individuality to achieve success?
b. The author discovered a life-time passion for electronics. What impact did that interest and
passion have on his life? What is something that has ignited a passion in your life?
c. The author describes his difficulty to communicate what he feels and thinks, which limits his ability
to connect with others. Have you ever had difficulties connecting with others? If so, how have you
overcome this in order to create bonds and lasting friendships?
d. The author has an exceptional gift designing guitars, yet he describes being terrified that he would
fail. What makes us fear failure? How do we overcome that fear?
e. What connections can you make between the book and your own personal life experiences?
f. What ideas and insights from the book will you keep in mind as you transition into college life?
10. Ask students to create symbols or artwork that represents themes from the book. For example, provide students with playdough or modeling clay, and ask them to create concrete or abstract sculptures that represent issues described in the book. Students can do this activity on their own, in pairs, or in groups.
11. Share with students that idea that “a good book stays with you for a long time.” In pairs or small groups, ask students to share what parts of the book will stay with them and why. Ask students to reflect on what parts of the book affected them on a personal level.
12. Take a few passages or quotes that you found meaningful and write them out onto separate sheets of paper. Put students into groups and have them pick a spokesperson whose name you write on the board. Give each group the task of deciding a name for their group and picking which quote/passage they want to talk about. Write that under the name of the group/spokesperson on the board (to prevent repeated choosing of the same quote/comment). Give the group time to discuss and then have the spokesperson share their thoughts/discussion summary with the larger group.
13. In pairs or small groups, ask students to think about someone in the book who reminds them of themselves or someone they know, someone who they feel compassion for, and things that made them laugh, roll their eyes, or feel uncomfortable. Ask students to consider how this book would be a good or poor conversation starter in their own peer group, family, or community.
14. In small groups, ask students to answer the following questions: What assumptions does the author hold? What do you agree with in the text? What would you argue with in the text? What parts of the text do you aspire to, or make you want to act differently? In a round, ask each student to share their response to the question.
15. Toward the end of the discussion, encourage students to ask questions about college life, and let the student facilitators take the lead in responding. All facilitators should be prepared to answer questions about classes and academic life, and living on campus or away from home, and to address basic concerns like how to find different buildings on campus.
16. To conclude the discussion, if using small groups, bring everyone back together and ask groups to share what they discussed. Encourage students to ask questions about the book and/or transitioning to college life. Remind students that there will be FYRE-related events on campus throughout the year. Ask students to complete the evaluation form; student feedback is critical in helping to improve the FYRE experience for everyone.
Special thanks to our contributors: Guillermo Avila, Laura Biddle, Beth Bower, Mathew Chetnik, Rebecca Comage, Joan Comeau, Peggy Dillon, Leslie Duhaylongsod, James Fallon, Melanie Gonzalez, James Gubbins, Rebecca Hains, Lisa Johnson, John Keenan, Janice King, Mary-Kay Miller, Sara Moore, Ken Mullane, Courtney Orelup, Gail Rankin, Roopika Risam, Peter Sampieri, J.D. Scrimgeour, and Amy Smith.
2. Use general icebreakers to get students comfortable with speaking. Ask students to share their name, hometown, major, and favorite book, television show, and/or movie. Ask students to share something they love to do. Ask students if they like to read, what they like to read, and how they experience reading in their everyday lives (i.e. books, magazines, phone texts, etc.). Be sure to introduce yourself as well, including your position at the university, whether you were a first-generation college student, etc. Activities like these not only help students “warm up” to a discussion, but often help them connect with one another and start building community.
3. Use a “connections” icebreaker. Say one word that represents or connects to you, and ask others to raise their hands to indicate they "own" the same word; then ask students to go around the room and share their one word. Words might include the town they live in, their major, their interests, etc.
4. Use an icebreaker that gets students up and moving around. For example, come up with 4-5 questions that are interesting and relevant to students and that have limited responses (i.e. favorite movie genre or sport). Write each answer on a post-it, and organize post-it stickers into piles so the responses to the first question are on top and responses to the last question are on the bottom. Place piles around the room, then prompt students with the questions, and ask them to gravitate to their preferred response. Ask students to explain to one another why they chose that response, giving them about three minutes to do so. This icebreaker helps students identify commonalities and requires them to be actively engaged in the activity through movement.
5. Have each student write one word on an index card that represents how they felt about the book. Collect the cards and redistribute them throughout the room. Ask each student to read their new card aloud. This gives each student a voice and allows for low-risk sharing. Either (a) ask the group to comment on the themes that were shared or (b) divide students into small groups based on what comments were written and ask students to discuss why that particular word may have been used. Ask each group do a short "report out" after.
6. Read a passage from the book aloud and ask students to react to that specific passage. For a small group activity, identify several passages, divide the room into smaller groups, and give each group a passage to read and discuss. Ask each small group to report to the larger group a summary of their discussion. Consider asking students to think about how these quotes or passages fit into the larger context of the book, but also reflects larger issues, concerns, or personal experiences. Ask questions that are general enough that students who haven’t read the entire book can still feel engaged. Consider using the FYRE quotes distributed via social media to similar effect.
7. Give groups of three or four students a theme or quote to reflect on together. You can support these small-group conversations with reflective sentence starter questions such as the following:
- An idea or theme that really stood out to me was…
- An idea or theme that was unclear to me was…
- I liked/didn’t like… because…
- I can relate this to other ideas/readings/experiences because…
- To me, the most important message of this book is…
- At first I thought…, but now I think…
- … reminded me of…
- One question this book answers for me is… because…
- The most important takeaway from this book is…
8. Find contemporary news articles, campus-related news, or other media that speak to issues addressed in the book. Individually, in pairs, or in small groups, ask students to consider how the book relates to these current events. Ask students to provide evidence or reasoning to support their opinions and ideas.
9. Each student received a bookmark with several questions to consider as they were reading over the summer. Divide the larger group into smaller groups and ask them to talk about a specific question. Consider assigning each group a different question to discuss and report back about:
a. As a young boy the author experienced many challenges around societies expectations of him. How
did he learn to leverage his difference to become successful? In what ways are you using your
individuality to achieve success?
b. The author discovered a life-time passion for electronics. What impact did that interest and
passion have on his life? What is something that has ignited a passion in your life?
c. The author describes his difficulty to communicate what he feels and thinks, which limits his ability
to connect with others. Have you ever had difficulties connecting with others? If so, how have you
overcome this in order to create bonds and lasting friendships?
d. The author has an exceptional gift designing guitars, yet he describes being terrified that he would
fail. What makes us fear failure? How do we overcome that fear?
e. What connections can you make between the book and your own personal life experiences?
f. What ideas and insights from the book will you keep in mind as you transition into college life?
10. Ask students to create symbols or artwork that represents themes from the book. For example, provide students with playdough or modeling clay, and ask them to create concrete or abstract sculptures that represent issues described in the book. Students can do this activity on their own, in pairs, or in groups.
11. Share with students that idea that “a good book stays with you for a long time.” In pairs or small groups, ask students to share what parts of the book will stay with them and why. Ask students to reflect on what parts of the book affected them on a personal level.
12. Take a few passages or quotes that you found meaningful and write them out onto separate sheets of paper. Put students into groups and have them pick a spokesperson whose name you write on the board. Give each group the task of deciding a name for their group and picking which quote/passage they want to talk about. Write that under the name of the group/spokesperson on the board (to prevent repeated choosing of the same quote/comment). Give the group time to discuss and then have the spokesperson share their thoughts/discussion summary with the larger group.
13. In pairs or small groups, ask students to think about someone in the book who reminds them of themselves or someone they know, someone who they feel compassion for, and things that made them laugh, roll their eyes, or feel uncomfortable. Ask students to consider how this book would be a good or poor conversation starter in their own peer group, family, or community.
14. In small groups, ask students to answer the following questions: What assumptions does the author hold? What do you agree with in the text? What would you argue with in the text? What parts of the text do you aspire to, or make you want to act differently? In a round, ask each student to share their response to the question.
15. Toward the end of the discussion, encourage students to ask questions about college life, and let the student facilitators take the lead in responding. All facilitators should be prepared to answer questions about classes and academic life, and living on campus or away from home, and to address basic concerns like how to find different buildings on campus.
16. To conclude the discussion, if using small groups, bring everyone back together and ask groups to share what they discussed. Encourage students to ask questions about the book and/or transitioning to college life. Remind students that there will be FYRE-related events on campus throughout the year. Ask students to complete the evaluation form; student feedback is critical in helping to improve the FYRE experience for everyone.
Special thanks to our contributors: Guillermo Avila, Laura Biddle, Beth Bower, Mathew Chetnik, Rebecca Comage, Joan Comeau, Peggy Dillon, Leslie Duhaylongsod, James Fallon, Melanie Gonzalez, James Gubbins, Rebecca Hains, Lisa Johnson, John Keenan, Janice King, Mary-Kay Miller, Sara Moore, Ken Mullane, Courtney Orelup, Gail Rankin, Roopika Risam, Peter Sampieri, J.D. Scrimgeour, and Amy Smith.