Overview
Often get-to-know-you activities are limited to the beginning of the year and that is definitely a great place to start, but they can be so much more than that. Get-to-know-you activities can be used regularly throughout the year to continue to deepen relationships with and between students. The cadence you choose can dictate the types of questions you choose to ask and the answers you gather can be used for everything from inspiration for future units to simple incorporation into assignments to simply inspiring discussions about similarities and differences among students in the class, including yourself. The options are endless and ultimately depend on the information uncovered by the questions.
Through this activity you will be able to:
- Deepen relationships with students by learning more about them as people, including about their lives outside of school, and sharing more about yourself.
- Demonstrate care and connection with students by incorporating your learning into future interactions with students.
Conducting the Practice
Write your questions for students, keeping in mind the cadence you choose.
- The survey shouldn't be too long (about 5-10 questions).
- The cadence you choose can dictate the types of questions you choose to ask. For example:
- Perhaps you hand out new questions as the seasons change. You may ask questions about students' holiday traditions or favorite seasonal activities, for example.
- You can ask students at the beginning of a new unit and get a sense of their interest in related topics.
- At the beginning of each quarter or semester you can check in on goals and ask about the latest popular show.
- Include a variety of questions, such as:
- Questions where you believe there will be overlap in answers (e.g., favorite color, number of siblings, birth month)
- Preference questions (e.g., salty or sweet, fractions or decimals, dog or cat)
- "Would you rather" questions (e.g., Would you rather time travel back to Ancient Greece or Egypt? Would you rather be [this character] or [that character]? Would you rather be an amazing singer or dancer?)
- Questions that can be answered easily in just a few words (e.g., favorite holiday meal, super power you would want)
- Questions with longer answers (e.g., "Tell me about a time you..." "What do you like about [fill in the blank]?")
- You may eventually invite students to suggest questions for the next get-to-know-you session by submitting them in a suggestion box or folder somewhere in the classroom. Always review these suggestions to make sure they are appropriate for school and are not too personal.
- Consider the medium you will use to engage students in this activity. You can create a digital survey, use a platform that collects and displays information, print paper activities, or use an activity like Four Corners to facilitate this routine.
- Ensure that there is a level of trust and comfort established before asking questions that might be considered personal.
Review the list of questions and make a plan for how students' answers will be used. For example, if most students prefer decimals over fractions, would you decide to cover decimals first? Would you allow students to choose reading materials or activities in line with their preferences? Would you use word problems that draw on students' answers to longer-form questions? You don't have to implement every question into the curriculum, but it's good to plan to do this with at least a few questions so that students feel heard.
When doing the question activity in class, let students know:
- How you plan to use the questions; e.g., driving conversations among the class, inspiring future units, incorporating information into assignments, etc.
- Whether answers will be shared and if they will be anonymous or not; e.g., if you plan to ask students to say how they responded by a show of hands, tell them this upfront so that they don't feel put on the spot.
- That you will also be answering the questions. (Students often find it fun to hear how their teachers respond!)
Depending on your chosen medium, administer the getting-to-know-you activity.
Reveal results (where appropriate). This need not always require a formal tally of students' answers.
- For example, you might note that a lot of students prefer cats just from eyeballing the handouts as they are coming in.
- Alternatively, if none of the questions are of a personal nature, you may consider asking students to say how they replied by a show of hands. You can optionally tally the results this way, or simply let it be a discussion.
- We recommend sharing your own answers as well, especially in the case of questions where students may be surprised to learn that they have something in common with you.
Later, implement your plan for using results that you developed in Step 3. Once students are used to this activity, you may even ask them for suggestions on how to implement their responses. Students may also have interesting ideas for what questions to ask as well.
This practice was adapted from the Teacher Caring Guide developed by the Learning and Development Group at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research in partnership with PERTS.