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classroom community

Using Student Surveys to Inform Your Teaching Strategies

by Macee Hall August 30, 2024

written by Macee Hall

It’s no secret that many teachers employ back-to-school student surveys to get to know their new students. But, did you know that these surveys are good for more than just breaking the ice? It’s true! Student surveys have the power to inform your teaching strategies, from planning and development to grading and beyond.

How Can a Student Survey Shape My Teaching?

Student surveys can shape every aspect of your lesson plan, from ideation to feedback.

They can help you:

Understand students’ individual learning styles
Discover what makes each student feel secure and confident
Differentiate learning strategies for each student
Help students set unique goals for their own learning journey
Empower students to take ownership of their education

And so much more.

Making a Student Survey

Selecting Questions

When making a student survey, there are several key points you’ll want to consider. Are there key data points you need for your specific subject, such as what kinds of books your students prefer for an English class or what technology they have access to at home for a tech class? Are there any demographically-based questions you should avoid to prevent offense or discomfort? How can you progress your line of questioning to build trust and relieve anxiety? Plan a mix of fun questions and helpful ones to make this an engaging activity for your entire class, while also gathering the data you need!

Building Your Survey

Now comes the fun part! Building your student survey can be as labor-intensive or not as you want it to be. You may choose to build your own template via Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or even Canva. Or you can find a template online and customize it to fit your unique classroom needs.

Here is a super basic example I whipped up on Canva! You can edit and download it here.

Using Student Surveys to Shape Your Lesson Plan

Understand Student Learning Styles

First and foremost, student surveys can help you gain a better understanding of your students’ unique personalities and learning styles. Some students may respond better to factual data while others respond better to narrative storytelling. Gathering information about their preferences can help you understand who they are as developing people, allowing you to interact with more familiarity sooner in the school year.

Create Differentiated Learning Paths

You can also determine what interests or motivates students through their preferences. If a student plays on an athletic team and tends to like movies about teamwork and leadership, they might do well working with a team of like-minded students, whereas a student who is interested in art-related subjects may like to work on a diorama or other creative project. Plus, by asking what students typically need help with, either in class or when working on homework, you can preemptively come up with a plan to better support them!

Build a Classroom Community

When you start an open line of communication for feedback and help requests in your classroom, you begin a more positive and beneficial student-teacher relationship. You’ll be able to better understand students’ backgrounds, interests, and more, to build relationships faster and more effectively than ever before.

Enhance Student Engagement

Empower students to advocate for themselves and take ownership of their education by posing questions that make them think about their own learning styles and motivations. For older students, you might even consider pairing this with a Skills Finder Assessment or other tool to help them discover more about themselves. For all ages, you can even use student surveys as a way to set goals for the semester or the school year — just remember to follow up and help students stay on track!

What are some ways you plan to use student surveys in your classroom this year? Let me know in the comments below!

August 30, 2024 0 comment

Back to School Culturally Responsive Social-Emotional Learning

10 First Day of School Activities Shared by Teachers

by Emily Horn July 27, 2022

written by Emily Horn

I recently came across a post by @Teacher2Teacher on Twitter that I just HAD to bookmark. They asked a simple question: “Do you have any back to school rituals that you just LOVE?” Boy was I excited to explore the answers and activities shared! Here are some of my favorites.

Name Pronunciation

Renee Dawson (@APSITSdawson) had a fantastic idea to share. She has her students record the correct pronunciation of their names using Microsoft Flip (formerly Flipgrid) so that everyone can pronounce names correctly from the start of the year.

What’s Your Name Story?

Stevie Frank (@steviefrank23) uses a ball of yarn to complete an ice breaker with students. She asks the question, “What’s your name story?” and tosses the yarn to a student. The recipient answers, holds on to the yarn, and then throws the ball of yarn to another student who answers. This continues until the whole class has participated. A web of yarn is created between all the students. “By the end, we all see how we’re connected, and we get to learn parts of identity,” says Stevie. You can do this activity with all kinds of questions!

Student Superheroes

I absolutely love this idea from Mark Holt (@Holteacher). He calls his 5th grade students superheroes. On the first day of school, they decorate capes with a superhero name and symbol they create for themselves. Mark says, “Some of the students wear their capes all year long.”

Letter to the Teacher

@PamAmendola has students write her a letter. In the letter, they tell her about their lives, their families, their likes/dislikes, and anything else they’d like to share about themselves. “I get an authentic, low stakes writing sample where I hear their voice,” she says.

Team Building with Puzzles

@lberrelez32 buys some 24-piece children’s puzzles from Dollar Tree. She partners up students with one partner blindfolded. Only the blindfolded student can touch the puzzle. “Their partner has to talk them through putting it together. Great team building activity,” she says.

My First Day

Mrs. Moore (@BookDragon_Kat) works with a lot of military kids. She says that reading “My First Day” is a great way for them to share about where they’ve lived, build connections, and learn about how people in different parts of the world go to school.

Plastic Cup Challenge

@Riverart9 puts students in groups of four to five and gives them an equal number of cups of varied sizes and made of different materials. Then she challenges the groups to build the tallest tower of cups. She likes this as a first day of school activity because it encourages teamwork and resilience.

The Name Juggle

Tyle Pelletier (@TPelletierG5) named his favorite activity as being “The Name Juggle.” In this game, students take a ball and say the name of the person they’re tossing it to. Increase the complexity and fun by adding more balls and speeding up the game as students get to know each other’s names.

“Where I’m From” Poems

One activity suggested by @Creative_Ink16 is writing “Where I’m From” poems. Here’s an example with a template based on “Where I’m From” by poet George Ella Lyons. This site also includes a video of students performing their poems. “The students decorate their final drafts, and we hang them up on the classroom wall,” adds Creative_Ink16. I absolutely love this idea.

Letters from Last Year

If you had students write letters at the end of last school year, it’s a great way to introduce incoming students to their new environment. @Kwillmann suggests “reading letters written by last year’s students about how to succeed in class.” It also gives students something to look forward to doing at the end of the year.

Do you have any favorites to add to the list? Tell us about them in the comments, and let’s all have a great first day of school!

July 27, 2022 0 comment

Classroom Management Social-Emotional Learning

Transforming Interruptions in the Elementary Classroom

by Emily Horn March 4, 2022

written by Emily Horn

We’ve all been in this situation. You know– the situation when we are running a small group or teaching a lesson or working individually with a student– only to be met with (wait for it…) interruptions. Note: To be clear, I’m definitely not talking about emergency situations when interruptions are 100% necessary. There are many reasons that students might interrupt, and some interruptions are important and necessary. But there are some that could be solved by the student with guidance from visual tools, class procedures, and their peers. Let’s take a look at strategies that can empower students to own their learning and problem solve before seeking help from the teacher. And they can also help build a great classroom community.

#1 “Ask Three and Then, Me!”

This is one of my favorites. It’s simple! Before asking the teacher, the student asks three different peers for help. If their question isn’t answered or the problem isn’t solved, the student seeks out the teacher. When a student comes to the teacher for help, the teacher asks, “Have you asked three?” If the student hasn’t yet, they know to seek out a peer. Most of the time, the problem is quickly solved after the first or second peer is asked for help. It’s a great strategy that also fosters a positive community within the classroom. And students know that the teacher will assist after they tried first with their peers.

Ask three and then me - prevent interruption

#2 Start a Support Specialist Program

Creating a Support Specialist Program in a classroom can be amazing for students. It empowers them to help each other and can be a great reminder that everyone has strengths, weaknesses, and is a leader in their own way. And we all need help sometimes. Every student in the class can have the opportunity to “apply” to be a support specialist if they’d like to be one. After applying, they “interview” with the teacher. During the interview, you can ask students the following questions:

Why do you want to be a support specialist?
What gifts do feel you’d bring to your class as a support specialist?
In what areas do you think you can best support your peers?

After applying and interviewing, students receive their Support Specialist certificates, which are displayed in the classroom. I find that this system and the fifth system on this list work very well together. Students really felt proud to be official support specialists and took the job seriously.

#3 Create a “Parking Lot”

You can use a digital tool like Padlet for this, but you can also use post-it notes. Designate a space in the classroom (it would be a whiteboard or poster board, for example) as the “parking lot”. Students can write down their activity-, content-, or assignment-related questions on post-its and then “park” them in the parking lot space. Then, once they’re available, the teacher or class support specialists, can address questions and provide assistance.

#4 Brainstorm Things to Try Before Asking the Teacher

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but here is a visual tool for students to help remind them of five things they can try (in any order) before asking the teacher:

Revisit and reread the instructions.
Ask peers for help.
Use available resources (notes, dictionaries, clasroom posters, etc.).
Try it a different way.
Take a one-minute break and come back to the work.

You can brainstorm ideas for this list with your students and make your own classroom poster together!

#5 Student-to-Student Signaling

This procedure works well with any of the above. These cards can be laminated and given to students, or you can create your own with your class. There are many ways to display the cards, but I found that velcro on the desk and back of the cards works well. Students display the appropriate card on their desk to signal their peers, changing them as needed.

A red card means that the student is unavailable. So they should not be visited for assistance.
A green card means the student is available to assist others. So other students can come to ask them questions if needed.
A yellow card signals that a student is in need of assistance. They’d like a classmate, when they’re available, to visit them.

I hope that you find some of these ideas helpful, or that something sparks an idea in you. If you have ways you empower students and transform interruptions in your classroom, please share them in the comments below.

March 4, 2022 0 comment