Students are divided into groups of 5-6 people and sit in a circle with their introduction drafts open on their computer screen. At the beginning of the activity, they move one spot to the left/right (leaving their computers at their original seat). They get 5-10 minutes to provide written feedback on the introduction that they are reading (the instructor should provide specific things that they should look for). Once the timer rings, students should move to the next computer on their left/right and repeat the process. Once they have completed a full rotation, each student will have multiple suggestions about how to improve their existing introductions. 

Students are divided into small groups and given an imperfect introduction–this could be an introduction from a previous student essay that has been modified to have several missing pieces. Students are then asked to revise the introduction to add sufficient contextual details, outline the main ideas of the essay, modify the thesis statement, etc. Each group then has to briefly justify the reasoning for the changes they made. 

Students are asked to bring an outline of their essays to class. The outlines must have clear topic sentences. In small groups, students will pool each of their drafts to assemble one introduction from the topic sentences (words/phrases) of the body paragraphs. Because students will have different topics from different body paragraphs unique to their drafts, the task they have as a group is to synthesize these disparate units into a coherent, united overview. Since there will be some overlap here insofar as students are writing about the same text, students could play with Venn diagrams and see the information that overlaps between/across body paragraphs as potential elements of an introduction. 

Use a spatial model of the essay based on the structure of a house, where each room represents a unique body paragraph. Where in the house would students put the introduction? Would it be the whole picture of the front of the house, a cross-section of the house, or the blueprint of the house? Depending on which option students choose, they must decide what information must be included in their introductions.