Chapter 4. Three Ways to Use the ICE Approach in an Undergraduate Popular Music Seminar

4.1 Instructional Context

Kip Pegley –  Queen’s University

I was introduced to ICE in 2014. Initially impressed by its simplicity, I quickly learned that this straightforward protocol can help students read more deeply, make stronger connections between ideas discussed in the course, and learn to ask more probing and thought-provoking questions.

I am a music professor who teaches university undergraduate courses primarily in the first and fourth years of study and I use ICE for everything from helping students become stronger readers to discussing term papers. The approach helps them read more purposefully and helps frame their thinking to engage in discussion.  For instance, when they first read an article within a fourth-year seminar, students are asked to mark an “I” in the margins when they encounter a new Idea; as they work through the course pack, they move quickly to indicating Connections between the assigned readings and eventually, they load their margins with questions that probe possible Extensions. This approach helps them read much more closely, relationally, and expansively.

Here, I outline three ways I use ICE in my seminars: 1) Spot ICE: where students identify Ideas, Connections, and Extensions in course materials; 2) Reverse ICE: working with older materials; and 3) ICE Speed Dating: reviewing term papers.