At the start of the year, you will have a bunch of new students that you will need to develop a relationship with. Aside from their name, you will need to learn who they are.
There is nothing wrong with spending a lesson just getting to know your students and them getting to know you. Somewhere in that hour, you need to connect with students. It might be through a common interest or hobby.
There are of questions you can use to generate some information about your students. Provide students with a quick quiz for you to keep and reflect on later in the year. Check out the following:
- What is your heritage/cultural background?
- Are there other ways in which your cultural background has an impact on your life? If so, please describe them.
- Who is in your immediate family (parents and siblings)? Give a brief description of each member.
- What do you like? This can be anything – food, colours, weather, abstract things (e.g. laughing, daydreaming), types of music/artists.
- What do you like to do in your free time?
- What’s your favourite book? If you don’t have one, then how about a comic or magazine? What’s it about (briefly)? And why is it your favourite?
- What’s your favourite movie? What’s it about (briefly)? And why is it your favourite?
After you have told students about yourself, generate a class Venn diagram. On one side, you can list what you enjoy doing and on the other, students can write down what they enjoy doing. From there, they can figure what commonalities and differences you have with students. This is a great way to capture to summarise the thoughts from the lesson.
The English Classroom 