A county records class opens with a vendor icebreaker that has clerks folding paper cranes with no link to FOIA search. What should the instructor do with that activity?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
An icebreaker that never touches the job is origami hour. Clerks came to search FOIA files, not fold paper. Swap the cute opener for a two-minute search warm-up and the room is still warming up—on the actual skill.
Full Explanation
Icebreakers must still map to the learning objective. When a county records class opens with a vendor crane-folding icebreaker that has no link to FOIA search, the instructor should replace it with a short activity that still maps to FOIA search—such as locating one sample request type—rather than keeping rapport theater that wastes opening minutes. Keeping the crane activity because “any icebreaker builds rapport” ignores objective alignment. Canceling the icebreaker and starting immediately with a pure statute lecture may be better than cranes but still misses a chance for an aligned warm-up. Moving crane folding to the end as a reward after the exam continues the misalignment. Exam caveat: CTT+ treats icebreakers as instructional minutes that should preview or practice the objective, not as content-free entertainment. Operational check: design a two-minute FOIA-search warm-up, swap it for the crane activity on the agenda, and confirm every opening minute still serves search skill. Opening minutes are scarce instructional inventory. Icebreakers that ignore FOIA search objectives spend that inventory on crafts. Replace with an aligned micro-task. CTT+ evaluates whether every activity earns its place against objectives. Keep a library of two-minute records warm-ups so vendor novelty icebreakers never ship unchanged.