One of my favorite anticipatory sets that I do is when I introduce my ceramic units where we make donuts inspired by Jae Yong Kim, and Jeff Nebeker. I start the class by having the students answer questions on a ThinkTech that I created. The first two questions ask are about what their favorite donut shop is, and what their favorite donut flavor is. I program the ThinkTech to show the answers anonymously and on a pie chart. This always prompts a fun, friendly conversation between the class. After a pause to talk, I have them use the short answer section and ask them to describe what kind of donut they would make, if sky was the limit, and they had access to any and every ingredient they could think of. The answers pop up on the screen and we read through them together.
It is at this point that I bring out my own ceramic donut examples, prompt them to get out their sketchbooks, and start sketching out what they want their donut to look like. Eventually I also show they interviews from Jae Yong Kim and Jeff Nebeker. This lesson has been a consistent hit, and gets the students excited to create. Year after year it is also listed as their favorite project on their end of the year exit survey.
I think that this anticipatory set has been successful because it gets the students thinking creatively first without the threat of "I can't do that" or "I won't be able to create anything like that."
It is at this point that I bring out my own ceramic donut examples, prompt them to get out their sketchbooks, and start sketching out what they want their donut to look like. Eventually I also show they interviews from Jae Yong Kim and Jeff Nebeker. This lesson has been a consistent hit, and gets the students excited to create. Year after year it is also listed as their favorite project on their end of the year exit survey.
I think that this anticipatory set has been successful because it gets the students thinking creatively first without the threat of "I can't do that" or "I won't be able to create anything like that."