Christy and I used the Cultural Autobiography as an introduction activity with our COIL students as a way to bring into relief their own self-awareness and awareness of others when preparing for the final project. Students used the digital tool, Padlet, to create multiple walls to tell their story with a focus on identity, family structure, nationality, education, orientation, friends, etc.  It was interesting to read each student’s Padlet biography but also to see how students engaged their group mates throughout the 8 weeks drawing on information gleaned from the Padlet biography activity. I wished we would have asked students to use this cultural autobiography activity to explore particular reactions and responses to our weekly lectures. There is always next year!
In addition, this activity is rather outdated as it calls for paper/pencil. We chose to incorporate technology which thoroughly enhanced the learning objectives. This activity was meant to help students introduce themselves to their peers. I think with a few more tweaks it could help students to question worldview frameworks as well as develop empathy.