Objective Lesson on Getting to Know You
Hindered past video screens, fluctuating schedules, and health regulations, teachers are up confronting the odds this schoolhouse year when it comes to getting to know their students.
"It's difficult to really become to know your students through a webcam," @mark_bevacqua wrote on Twitter, while @cheri_cheralex shared her struggles of seeing students in masks or "with optics just."
While get-to-know-you lot activities are typically earmarked for the commencement weeks of school, they shouldn't end there, say educators and researchers.
Whether information technology'south that they beloved to play baseball, have three brothers, or enjoy writing or photography, celebrating your students' unique experiences and identities can bolster connections that keep them engaged and performing better in schoolhouse. Students who have a deeper sense of self—and purpose—are as well improve able to ascertain their goals and stay focused on pursuing them, concluded a 2014 study from David Yeager, Angela Duckworth, and colleagues.
We collected an array of grade exercises from interviews with teachers, online resources, and our athenaeum that will assistance students develop greater self-awareness and purpose. These insights tin can also give yous a better sense of who they are, so you can be responsive to their interests—even if you're separated by screens or masks.
Reflecting on Experiences: 'Laws of Life' Essays
In the early 2000s, educators in an urban, high-poverty district in New Bailiwick of jersey gave their middle and high school students an interesting essay consignment: Write about the values and principles that guide your life.
The seemingly small activeness, chosen "Laws of Life," is based on the work of philanthropist John Templeton, and it turned into a much bigger project that helped students develop a stronger sense of cocky, purpose, and possibility for the future, according to Maurice Elias, a psychology professor at Rutgers University. The project has since been replicated all over the world.
To run the assignment in your class, Elias recommends asking students to reflect on their by—in and out of school—and the experiences and people that made them who they are. From there, accept students discern key characteristics that have influenced their lives and then craft an essay—or create a video or other multimedia content—focused on the "laws" or principles that bulldoze them.
Question prompts similar "Who do you admire? List iii of their admirable traits" and "Describe an incident or event from which you learned a lesson 'the hard way'" can help guide students. Periodically throughout the year, have students refer back to their essays to reflect on what they wrote and ask themselves, "What's changed?" and "What's stayed the aforementioned?"
Exploring Identity—and Perceptions About It: Identity Charts
To go to know her students and ensure that they felt seen in her classroom, middle school teacher Shana White created a lesson to assistance them explore their identities. Commencement, White set a foundation for word past defining identity and explaining how identities can sometimes be visible, like age, or invisible, like a person's life experiences.
And then, with the permission of half-dozen of her friends, White shared photos of their faces and had students estimate their "identity characteristics." Afterward, she revealed the true details and led a grade discussion most making assumptions nearly others based on how they wait or human activity. To finish the project, students drew their ain "identity portraits" or a motion picture of their face with half the face showing visible characteristics and the other one-half showing invisible characteristics.
Courtesy of Shana White
Students' identity portraits hang on a wall in Shana White'due south classroom.
The pedagogy organisation Facing History and Ourselves recommends a like exercise called the "Who am I?" activity for middle school students. To start, select some key historical figures or fictional characters—think inclusively and avert stereotypes, selecting a wide range of people from different backgrounds—and ask students to hash out "factors such every bit religion, gender, and geography" that influenced their identities.
Adjacent, accept students read the affiliate "My Proper noun" from the book The House on Mango Street, where the main grapheme, Esperanza, talks about her name, revealing details about her culture. Ask students to create an identity chart for Esperanza, answering questions such equally "What is her family like?" and "What does her name reveal about her personality?" Guided past the reading, students can then create identity charts for themselves and share them with the form.
Learning Important Details: Student Inventories
Pupil inventories can help teachers speedily discern details and facts nigh students that shape who they are, and can be used to plan further form activities and lessons. Ask students to list their favorite musicians, songs, sports, activities, games, or food, for instance, or probe deeper with questions about their culture, memories, and family unit.
Another option is having students write 20 sentences that complete the prompt, "I am someone who…" or request a short list of thought-provoking questions in one-to-one Hopes and Dreams conferences. Target questions that tap into who students are now and who they hope to be, such as "What are some things that issues you about the globe?" "What inspires you?" and "What dreams do you have after high schoolhouse?"
Await for patterns in pupil responses, and utilize what you learn to make classroom lessons and activities connected to students' interests, advises Rebecca Alber, an education professor in California, who says, "Students demand to run into connections betwixt learning and their lived experiences."
Understanding Interests: Passion Blogging
In Allison Berryhill'south loftier school English grade, literary analysis exercises left her students "frozen," and free-writing assignments produced hard-to-read rants. Influenced by the volume Beyond Literary Analysis, Berryhill started offering a new exercise called "passion blogging" terminal year, in which students write about topics that interest them.
Courtesy of Allison Berryhill
A student in Allison Berryhill's class holds upwardly her middle map.
Students commencement by cartoon "heart maps," or large hearts filled with illustrations and words that represent their passions. Then, they select 1 or two topics to explore farther and look for related manufactures, images, and videos. Berryhill also gives accompanying class lessons on attribution of sources, texts, quotes, and imagery, and shares mentor texts to guide students' writing.
Students' blogs take run the gamut in bailiwick thing, from pheasant hunting to hunger strikes to hiking, and give them an opportunity to dive deeply into things they care near. Every bit function of the procedure, students are likewise tasked with reading and evaluating several of their classmates' blogs. Overall, the low-stakes activity has served as a springboard to build students' literary analysis skills for harder assignments, says Berryhill, while helping her become to know them ameliorate.
Documenting Your Life: Movies, Photos, and Podcasts
Though many teachers and students are feeling virtual brain drain, digital tools tin provide new, creative outlets for students to share and define their interests and personalities. Teachers are having students create autobiographical mini-movies or trailers about their lives and produce podcasts or write articles for digital schoolhouse newspapers on issues they care most.
Influenced by her community's experiences during the pandemic, Wendy McElfish, a high school teacher in California, taught a lesson on Dorothea Lange's famous black-and-white photography from the Peachy Depression. Then, she had her students take their own photos with phones to certificate their lives. She guided them with the themes "life exterior your door," "through a window," "different life inside," and "porch photos of your family unit."
video
"When kids are faced with terrible circumstances, sometimes information technology helps to take an creative approach," she said. "A lot of kids aren't good writers, but they have an center and they have a voice... [and] they can show the globe what I see."
Similarly, Lori Wenzinger, a middle school social studies teacher in Southward Carolina, paired upwardly with a local photographer to create a three-week multimedia project called "Finding Your Joy." Subsequently the photographer taught two classes on photo limerick and mood, students were tasked with taking photos that "capture joyful moments throughout their day," sharing and reviewing them as a class, and selecting their three favorites to keep in the grade Google Drive.
Having Fun: Icebreakers, Games, and Accolades
Courtesy of Cathleen Beachboard
A student in Cathleen Beachboard'southward form brings his domestic dog to course for testify-and-tell during remote learning.
In addition to more than comprehensive assignments and lessons, teachers can build in short, entertaining activities that keep students engaged and reveal insights about who they are.
Trevor Boffone, a high schoolhouse instructor in Texas, asked his students to submit their favorite vocal to a list at the start of the twelvemonth. Now, at the kickoff of each virtual class, he plays music to kick things off, incorporating students' picks and his own.
Throughout remote learning, Cathleen Beachboard, a middle school teacher in Virginia, says she'due south including fun activities like show-and-tells and theme days. This fall, she likewise adopted a do that her superintendent uses for staff meetings called "3 Cool Things I've Seen." One time a week, Beachboard calls out three things she's observed almost students from classes that calendar week that recognize them for their individuality.
"I know a lot of teachers are struggling right now getting students pulled in. I found the more encouragement and accurate praise we give to students, the more they swoop in," she said. "These are scary times, but by giving students time to showcase their individuality, they will feel safe and ready to fully engage in learning."
Source: https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-exercises-get-know-your-students-better-and-increase-their-engagement
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