Probably one of my most popular posts of all time is titled “5 Questions to Ask Your Students to Start the School Year,” and I wanted to share a variation of the post with you today. This is something I explore in more depth in the book “Innovate Inside the Box” with my co-author, Dr. Katie Novak.
The questions I suggest are the following:
A couple of things I wanted to share with you before getting into the post.
First of all, this is not intended solely as an “ice-breaker” activity with students, but rather as a research activity. For eall before Relationships” is not about being friends with students. How would you use the answers to the following questions from your students to help shape their learning experience? For example, if you knew as a student I was interested in basketball, would I have the opportunity to complete the Language Arts/Literacy curriculum while reading about that area of interest? Students will always read at higher levels if they are interested in the content. Start with the students, not the curriculum, and you will always have deeper learning opportunities.
The second reason these questions can become beneficial in our teaching practice is that they help to build foundational relationships to leverage learning.
Relationships are not the endpoint of education, but the foundation for everything that follows.
With that being said, I have noticed a pushback on the idea of “relationships” in education as the cure-all for all the ills of education. To be honest, I get the challenge.
Because of this, I think it is essential to delve into what is meant by the idea of “relationships,” or at least, when I use the term. It does not mean “being friends” with students or being the most popular teacher, by any means. Some of the strictest teachers I had in education still leveraged relationships to bring out the best in their students. They did their best to understand what motivated them and how to leverage it to enhance learning.
I often think about the story of championship coach Phil Jackson, who would give each player on his team a different book, based on what he thought they needed, and how different reading materials could bring out the best in each player toward the shared goals of the team. It also reminds me of an Assistant Principal on my team who did incredible things, but hated public recognition. She felt embarrassed by it, where “public words of affirmation” might have been one of my “Leadership Love Languages.”
The idea of relationships in teaching, learning, and leadership is not being the same thing to all people, but doing everything you can to bring out the individual best in the people you serve. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for this.
Hence, the reason I think the questions below might be beneficial 🙂
You can check out the edited post below:
5 Questions to Ask Your Students To Start the School Year
1. What are the qualities that you look for in a teacher?
We are quick to share our expectations with our students, but do we give them the opportunity to share their expectations with us? If students have been in school for a few years, the teachers with whom they have connected the most obviously have had some impact. I am not suggesting that you should alter your entire personality to suit each child, but I believe that understanding what they have connected with in the past would make a significant difference.
When students look back on their educational careers, they should be able to list a plethora of adults who worked in schools that have had a positive impact on their lives.
2. What are you passionate about?
What I do not want people to get mixed up with here is that I am not saying, “Ditch the curriculum and focus on your students’ passions only!” Knowing what a student is passionate about not only helps you bridge connections to their learning, but it also helps you bridge connections to them as human beings.
Years ago, we held a school-wide “Identity Day” (led by our then-awesomely awesome Assistant Principal, Cheryl Johnson), where all students and staff shared one thing they were passionate about in a display that people could walk around. This process really made a connection for me, as I would watch teachers connect much of the curriculum to what piqued the students’ interest, which made it much more relevant to them. For example, if I loved sports, could you bring that into mathematics instruction? It also helped see the empowerment in the students when they were passionate about something they were sharing, which made for much better relationships with our community.
3. What is one BIG question you have for this year?
Jamie Casap states, “Don’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. Ask them what problem they want to solve.”
Whether this is tied to your course or not is entirely up to you, but giving students the opportunity to develop their own problem-finding/problem-solving abilities in your classroom is one that will only empower them while stoking their curiosity.
Will Richardson talks about how important curiosity is to future success:
The most “successful” (and you can define that just about any way you want) people moving forward will be the most curious. The ones who are constantly asking questions. The ones who are always wondering “What if?”
Don’t just ask this of your students at the beginning of the year. Ask them throughout. Check their progress, and see if their question has changed, or if there are any ways you can support them.
Empower students to be the leaders of today, not only tomorrow.
4. What are your strengths, and how can we utilize them?
If you are challenging your students (as you should be), at some point, you will find their weaknesses. Far too often, we place too much emphasis on that throughout the year. Starting with students asking about what they are strong at, will let students know you value their gifts, and that you are not there to “fix them” but to help them get better.
According to Psychology Today, there is growing evidence that focusing on strengths leads to increased confidence, creativity, and a happier life (among other benefits). However, do our students feel that we are there to fix them or to unleash their talents and gifts?
This is not to say that developing on weaknesses doesn’t matter, but when you start with strengths and tap into them, students (like staff) feel that you are not trying to fix them, but just bring out the best in them!
5. What does success at the end of the year look like to you?
The challenging aspect of this question is that students often say what they believe adults want to hear.
Maybe adding something like “outside of your grades” (no student wants to do poorly in your class or curriculum, whether they are interested or not) might help them think about something deeper that will last with them past their time at school.
How you define and characterize success may differ from mine, as it likely does for your students.
Find out what their key measures are for this year and help them achieve those goals.
Helping students clearly identify what it means to them and how they can achieve it can significantly benefit them, not only during the school year but also in building important habits that extend beyond school.
Many (including adults) learn to identify successes through the eyes of others and often compare themselves. This practice is not helpful and can lead to feelings of inadequacy. If we decide on our own measures of success, and feel comfortable learning from the successes of others as well, it puts us on a constant path of growth, while learning to focus with “the end in mind.”
This is an important skill at any age, but it doesn’t hurt to start with our students.
These questions can be altered, added to, subtracted from, or made age-appropriate for whatever grades you teach, or even used with staff. Please feel free to use and modify them as needed.
Obviously, teaching at different levels will provide you with different opportunities with students, but no matter what you teach, it is essential to listen to your students at the beginning of the year and solicit feedback to move forward, not just after they have left your care.
An important way we can serve our students is by getting to know what works for them and moving backward from there. This research into the children in front of you is crucial to help create a year that they will not forget, but that can make a tremendous impact on them moving forward.
