Valuing What Students Bring

Incorporating what students can bring to school into lessons is very important. They may have social and cultural knowledge that teachers might not be familiar with, and students' experiences can add depth and meaning to lessons. Their thoughts expand my own beliefs and I gain understand of my students' perspectives of what is happening in the world or at home, so that I can use this background information in our lessons throughout the school year. I can draw from their experiences to create powerful connections between who they are and what they are learning in the classroom.

Immigration Nearpod

One of our units focused on population and migration. During this unit, we learned about immigration, and to learn about what my students could bring to the classroom, I asked them about their own experiences. In this Introduction to Immigration Nearpod, I had several polls and questions for my students. I wanted to know where my students' families were from originally. These were leading questions for my students. They were supposed to get them thinking about their family's experiences with the United States and any other countries that they may have lived in before (either their immediate family or ancestors). Many students had stories to share as we went through this slideshow. Some students had parents who had immigrated, and many of them knew of their ancestors who had immigrated. A few even were immigrants themselves!

By doing this, I became aware of each of their unique backgrounds. I could then use this information in my other lessons during the rest of the year. They were more motivated to pay attention to the lesson knowing it was going to apply directly to them and they were able to bring in their own experiences to make the lesson more effective overall for the class. Having the students hear about personal experiences about this got them more interested and curious about the topic.

Quilt Squares

During our culture unit, we learned a lot about the different cultures of our students. One way we did this was through quilt squares. Each student chose a sheet of paper with the design of a quilt square on it. Students had a list of different aspects of culture that they needed to put of their square. It was personal to each student who made one, so they were all unique. Students had to decorate them and cut them out, and after we had all of them, we taped them up on the wall to make a colorful, classroom culture quilt.

This helped us understand some of the perspectives of our students and what religious holidays they might celebrate. It was a simple way for students to share things that are important to them without putting them on the spot in front of the whole class. We could also use the stuff we learned about them in future lessons, as well as build relationships with my students.

Welcome Survey

This is a welcome survey that the 6th graders answered at the very beginning of the school year. This was designed so that we could get to know each of the students better in addition to talking to each of them in class. It was a way we could quickly get information from everyone about who they are and things that they enjoy doing. After they filled it out, we went through all of them and read about each student. This information gave us a good start with how we could connect with each student. They provided us with good talking points, as well as past information on schooling, so we had a better idea how to support them. We also asked them "What is one thing you want [us] to know about you?" This was very beneficial because it gave students an opportunity to students to share something that they might not have felt comfortable talking to us about or something we might not have thought to ask about. We saved these, so we could go back and read them throughout the year if we wanted to.