Much of the latest conversation on effective teaching deals with differentiating your teaching for the varied needs, personalities, and learning styles of your students. These practices are designed to overcome the cookie-cutter approach to education, the sort of one-size-fits-all model of teaching. I agree that in order for our school system to become more effective at meeting the needs of every student instead of most of them, we must all do a better job at differentiating our instructional methods.
But how do we do this? How do we determine which teaching method or strategy works with which student? How do we effectively connect with our students so that we can begin to differentiate our instruction to each unique individual in our classes?
At first glance, connecting with every student seems to be a daunting task. I’ve been teaching the middle grades for 15 years, and some years I have upwards of 125 students. That’s 125 different individuals with different learning styles and different interests. The quicker I create a system for connecting with my students, the more effective my instruction will be. Not only that, but connecting with my students has greatly decreased the amount of time I spend managing student behavior and increased the time I have for direct instruction.
Here’s a simple trick I use to start connecting with my students from day one. On the first day of class, I hand out half sheets of a nice drawing paper. I have the students fold it in half to make a sort of tent-shaped structure. On one half of that folded sheet, I demonstrate for the students how to draw their name in their fanciest lettering.
Next, I show them that they will be drawing a small object or symbol that represents something about him or her. For my middle schoolers, I remind them, “Nothing naked, nothing illegal, and no violence.” I give them examples like video game controllers, footballs, horses, flowers, cell phones, tv’s, musical notes, books, trees, cats, dogs, and whatever they come up with.
The final product will have the student’s name written very largely so that I can read it from across the room. Plus it will have a symbol that reflects some aspect of that student’s personality.
Once the students start working on their name tents, I circulate throughout the room, talking briefly with each student, remarking on their work. As they get to the symbol portion of their name tag, guess what I’m doing? I’m asking questions about what he or she has drawn so that I can begin to connect with that student on a personal level.
“That’s a nice horse you’ve drawn Brittany. Do you have a horse? Oh, it’s at your father’s house? How often do you get to ride your horse? Every other weekend? What’s your horse’s name? Do you ever get to compete? Oh, you just like to ride around your father’s farm? I bet that keeps you busy.”
Next time I speak with Brittany informally, like between classes, guess what I’m asking about? Her horse. Or perhaps the other animals on the farm. Or maybe even how her stay with her father went. Then, when we get to a story that has someone who lives on a farm, guess who I’m going to ask for some prior knowledge? Brittany or any other person who showed an interest in farming or animals.
For the first week of school, I have my students display their name tents on their desks. I hand them out every day, trying to match faces to names. Not only does this help me learn everyone’s name, it’s a great reminder what angle I can take when I try to connecting personally with each student.
After that week once I’ve finally learned everyone’s name, I take the name tents and put them on one of my walls above our front marker board. The artwork looks great and the students love seeing both their names and their friends’ names. Then when I need a refresher on what is important to a specific student, I’ve got his or her name tent right there.
Connecting with every student every day is impossible. Connecting with some students every day is not. Using this simply exercise, whether it’s the beginning of the year or halfway through your year, will help give you the tools you need to make those meaningful connections with your students. Those connections will help you differentiate your instruction, which in turn increases your effectiveness as a teacher.
And you’ll find that you’re enjoying your students and your job more too!
