Getting to Know Your Students
Students learn best when they have a level of trust and rapport with their instructors. Rapport does not create itself, nor is it created in a vacuum. Building rapport with your students relies on knowing more about them, their interests, their commitments, and what they bring with them to the course (e.g. prior knowledge, preconceived notions, etc.). Below are some effective and quick ideas for helping you get to know your students.
Beginning of Semester Survey
Right from the beginning of the semester is the best time to collect some data on your students. An efficient way to collect it is through a start of semester survey. Making this survey an “Assignment 0,” or pre-semester or first day assignment provides students the incentive to get you the information and make it important for them to provide it: they get credit for providing you with the information you need! Some sample questions may be: what is your previous experience with this topic? What do you use to access the internet at home? What kind of time commitments do you have apart from your course work? What are some topics or subjects you want to know more about in this course?
Want some help starting to write a beginning of semester survey? Here is a Sample Survey for you to revise based on your needs and preferences! [Insert PDF link here]
Use the Time Before/After Class to Talk
As good practice, it’s a great idea to get to your classroom about 10 minutes ahead of time (if you can) so that you can get it set up for instruction. Often your students will do the same. Use that time after setting up to your advantage and engage in conversation with your students. Ask them about their other classes, their weekend plans, any movies or television they are watching, any books they are reading, and so on. Sticking around after class for a few minutes to answer questions also gives you the opportunity to gauge where your students are, if they have any pain points in the course material, and how they are doing in general.
Make Office Hours Matter (and Useful)
We all know the stereotype of office hours: students never show up, they never utilize them, or they have no idea what they are or if they can use them. However, in the pursuit of getting to know your students they can be a great tool to help better understand where they are and what they need to succeed in your course. Some suggestions would be to explain how you want students to use office hours, discuss how office hours can benefit their learning, and even consider making a course requirement to visit office hours once throughout the semester.
Example Syllabus Language:
My office hours are [your office hours here]. Office hours are intended for you to come meet with me and ask questions about the course, address any issues you may be having with course content or assignments, or check in about how you’re doing in the course. Please use them to your advantage!
Icebreakers
We all have horror stories about bad icebreakers that make it awkward for the first day of class. But, icebreakers are great for doing exactly what they are called: breaking the ice! We just need to think about how we can use an icebreaker to help achieve our goals for the course. Here are some ideas below:
- If your course uses group work, create an icebreaker where group members must solve a puzzle or play a cooperative game. This way they have to start working as a team rather than as individuals in a team.
- Have icebreaker activities that help promote a growth mindset so they are starting to think about the course content: what can I learn from this course? What are my study tactics, and where are others that do similar?
- Use the syllabus as an icebreaker! Have students get into groups and go through the syllabus and point out what they think are important items for their fellow students to remember.