Learning About Your Students Strategies & Resources Reference

Give your students a survey to learn more about their strengths, areas of challenge and experience of school

Pro tip!  
Giving your students a survey at the beginning of the school year is a great start. And, you can also survey your students again throughout the year to learn about how they are experiencing your instruction/classroom. 

See resources in the "Activities to learn about identities, experiences, and interests" section on Student Surveys! You can adapt these surveys to include questions that ask students to reflect on their strengths and areas of challenge in school

UDL Student Learning Experience survey--these questions can support you in learning about your student’s experience of school

Individualized Education Program (IEP)--make sure to ask your school leadership team which of your students have identified disabilities, and ask to receive a copy of the IEP. Review for information about student strengths and areas of challenge. (Note: well-written IEPs will have clear information about student strengths, but are likely to encounter poorly written IEPst).

Internal Data--ask your school leader if your school has a Pupil Personnel Team (PPT) or a Child Study Team (CST) that comes together to support students. If yes, they may have notes from previous conversations about students.

Meet with a student 1:1 and ask them open-ended questions about their educational experiences.

Pro tip #1! Make sure a student knows about your goals and intentions for this interview so they don’t feel singled out.

Pro tip #2! Check your own assumptions about what you expect to hear from the student. Keep the questions open-ended and monitor your responses. 

See this guide for how to prepare for an Empathy Interview

See information on empathy interviews from High Tech High here. 

You can watch additional interviews of students from Understood here

Walk through a day in your classroom from the point of view of a student. What do you notice? What are you experiencing?

Pro tip #1! You can do this before you’ve even met your students! As you visualize the flow of your day, walk through each of the steps you are asking students to complete from a student’s point of view. And then, after you meet your students, walk through again with a specific students’ experience in mind. 

Pro tip #2! If your students rotate between teachers, make sure to consider their experience in other settings with other teachers. 

Pro tip #3! In a distance learning context, this strategy can be uniquely useful in giving the teacher perspective on a student’s experience.