Stefanie Carranza

Professor Suk
Education Field Experience EDUC 230-01
Fall 2014
Rationale Statement
Statement of Standard 2: Learning Differences
The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and
communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet
high standards. (NJPTSB, 2014, pp. 17)
Name of Artifact: Ice Breaker
Date of Artifact: Fall 2014
Course: Education Field Experience EDUC 230-01
Rationale Statement:
This artifact is the Ice Breaker. Our assignment was to create an ice breaker that
would work as an introduction to the class, the subject, and ourselves. My ice breaker
was a game where students would guess each others' characters. The name of the game is
Who Am I?. The rules of the game are as follows the teacher hands out post-its with
historical figure names and students take the post-its and place it on their foreheads
without looking at the name. The teacher does not say anything as the students enter
class. Once everyone is in the classroom the teacher leads the class by taking one of the
post-its and placing it on her or his forehead and then asking the students several
questions as to guess which historical figure is on the post-it. Hence, the teacher will ask
five questions related to the character and then call on a student to assist by having them
give one hint, towards the character. Lastly, the teacher will have to call out what their
guess to the historical figure is. Then the teacher asks the student they called on for
assistants to be the next contestant. Depending on the size of the class this activity can be
done as one large group or the group can be divided.
I chose to create this type of ice breaker because I felt it would be a fun and
different type of ice breaker for the students. At first, I did not expect this artifact to show
anything other than introduction to the type of fun well have in history class. However,
while writing this statement, I also discovered that it helps with showing my future
students that I can be wrong too. The game is about guessing so naturally some of our
guesses will be wrong. If I guessed incorrectly I would in a sense be vulnerable. Not only
does this artifact show vulnerability and fun, it also helps me to gauge where my
students historical knowledge lies and an insight into their thought processes. It may not
be a true assessment of their prior history knowledge, but it certainly can help to interpret
their way of thinking.
Furthermore, this artifact correlates to Standard 2.1.3 that states the teacher
designs instruction to build on learners prior knowledge and experiences, allowing
learners to accelerate as they demonstrate their understandings. As already mentioned
this ice breaker can serve as a gauge to see where students cognitive processes lie and

Carranza 2
the only way to win is by luck or having prior knowledge about the characters. Another
way this artifact relates to standard 2 is how it makes the students feel valued. Standard
2.3.3 states, the teacher makes learners feel valued and helps to learn to value each
other. Part of this game has students call on other each other to help with guessing their
character. When the helper is called upon for a hint they see themselves as valued and
others see them as valued too. This game is built with the idea of community, which is
another way students can feel valued.
In conclusion, I will be able to use and tweak this artifact for use in my future
classroom. I think it would be suitable to come up with examples and possibly a handout
with hints to give to the helpers to give hints to the contestant. I would not change the
overall ice breaker, but adapt it to my future students, grade level, course and
demographics that may influence how students respond to this game.

References
Professional Development in New Jersey. (2014, August 4). Retrieved from New Jersey State
Department of Education: http://www.state.nj.us/education/code/current/title6a/chap9c.pdf