Launching the Course
This section provides icebreakers and activities that can be used to launch the course during the
first week of classes.
Standard Icebreakers
There are a variety of tried-and-true techniques for breaking the ice and allowing members of the
1. Have students sit in a circle. Ask one student to state her or his name. The second student
states his or her name and that of the first student. The third student states her or his name
2. Ask students to select some item they have with them that communicates something about
3. Other amusing ways for student introductions are to pick the animal that you would be if you
4. Ask students to pick three things that they have on them on in their purse/backpacks and
5. Have student pair into dyads. Have a list of items that the students will have to guess about
each their partner. For example, topics may include their favorite sport and favorite cartoon
6. Ask students to select something unique about themselves. Each student provides her or his
name and what is unique about him or her. After all of the students have introduced
themselves ask one student to name another and what is unique about that person. The
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7. Ask stude
must guess certain things about their partner, such as their major, their favorite food, favorite
Creating the Course
Place students in small groups and ask them to make a list of what they expect to cover in this
class. Make a list of what each group reports on the board. Use this as a springboard for
deciding how much time to devote to topics as well as a way to talk about how their list mirrors
and differs from what is covered in the textbook.
This is an icebreaker that lets students get to know one another while also introducing issues
pertinent to the content concerns of the course.
Explain to students that one way we use communication is to define who we are and sculpt self-
images. Then tell students that they are going to have a personal experience in defining
ad may be for a friend, a romantic partner, or another kind of relationship. Bring in a local
newspaper with personal ads and read several to relax students and give them an idea how to
write their personal ads.
Pass out 3 x 5 index cards, and instruct students to write their names followed by a ten- to
fifteen-word personal ad on their card. After allowing students five minutes to write their
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If you are uncomfortable having students talk about which ads they did not respond to, feel free
to focus only on what attracts people. With this, you may also talk about the different ways
people constructed their messages (ordering, abbreviations, etc.).
This exercise can be used to launch a brief discussion of gender differences in relationships. To
separate pile. Then ask a student to read all of the ads from women and have the class identify
similarities and differences in how men and women advertise themselves and in what they are
looking for in friends and romantic partners.
This exercise can also be used to launch a brief discussion of perceptions. To do this, put all of
the cards in the pile. Shuffle the cards and pass one out to each student (make sure no one gets
her or his own card). Now ask the students to create a composite picture of the person whose
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Concluding the Course
The Interpersonal Communication Time Capsule
This exercise allows students to review theories, principles, and skills taught during the term and
to identify those they consider most important for people at the present time.
One class period in advance of this exercise, give students the handout titled The Interpersonal
Communication Time Capsule. Emphasize that you want students to be both serious and creative
in choosing artifacts to go into the time capsule.
On the day of the exercise, organize students into four groups. Allow 20 minutes for groups to
decide on no fewer than five and no more than ten items to recommend for the time capsule.
After 20 minutes, call the class to order. Ask one student to serve as recorder and to list each
sheet of paper to be enclosed in the time capsule. Give each group three minutes to explain its
interpersonal communication and interpersonal relation-ships in our era. Invite students to
predict how the issues they regard as most important will be addressed, resolved, and/or changed
in the years ahead.
Note: After you have done this exercise several times, open a time capsule at the beginning of
new classes so that new students learn what issues were viewed as most salient five or ten years
ago.
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The Interpersonal Communication Web Page
This exercise allows students to define salient issues and topics in interpersonal communication
by constructing an Interpersonal Communication Web Page devoted exclusively to interpersonal
communication happenings, news, and features.
One week in advance of the day you plan to do this exercise, explain to students that they will
spend a class period constructing a news website to summarize the most important interpersonal
communication topics, skills, principles, and issues of this term.
On the chalkboard, write the following: Home page, national news page, local news page, life
(home and people) page, sports, business, and advertising. Invite students to volunteer for the
different pages or assign students to the pages.
To give students direction with the assignment, suggest that the home page should report the
most important issues affecting the nation as a whole (one of our classes proposed this lead
headline for page 1: VULTURE DECLARED EXTINCT SPECIES THANKS TO
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL;) the national news should report a range of
Ask students to think about content for the page or section of the website they selected or to
website.
On the day of the exercise, instruct students to meet in their website section groups. Give each
group several dark magic markers and a sheet of blank newsprint paper or another form of large
paper. Tell the groups they will have twenty-five minutes to discuss possible items for their
section of the website and to write out the story headlines on the newsprint they were given.
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Handout: The Interpersonal Communication Time Capsule
Background: The International Committee on Interpersonal Communication wants to prepare a
time capsule that can educate future college students about interpersonal communication in your
era. When the Committee learned that you have studied interpersonal communication for an
entire term, it decided you would be ideal individuals to create the time capsule.
Instructions: The Committee asks that your class prepare a time capsule that will communicate
to future people the most important issues, challenges, principles, and skills of interpersonal
communication in the current year. To guide your thinking, ask two questions: (1) What would
you like to know about communication issues, challenges, skills, and principles that were most
important to people a decade ago? (2) What do you think people your age a decade from now
should know about interpersonal communication today?