Workshop: Hexagons and Hopscotch-Brain

Session Three: 12:30-1:45pm

Hexagons and Hopscotch-Brain: a collaborative modality exercise for productive collisions  

https://jh.zoom.us/j/92002314222

Moderator: Jenny Goransson, Johns Hopkins University

Educators from introductory composition and rhetoric through higher-level analysis courses can lean into the onslaught of information through this hexagonal-tile exercise that encourages students to leverage their mental associations and collaborate to leap into the collision of ideas. Through this exercise, students can find fresh ways to think critically and have productive conversations about new ideas.

Using example exercises, I will demonstrate that while mind maps are not new, the hexagon’s six sides are key: they offer six opportunities for connections to expand outward. I will guide participants in mapping an idea individually and collectively, and then we will brainstorm how they might use this exercise in their own classrooms. Participants should bring small notecards or sticky notes (they can be square for proof of concept) for optimal participation.

Deanna Niles McConnell, Towson University