Know Every Student Well

What does it mean to know every student well? Why is it important?

Relationships between teachers and students have as much to do with student success as any curriculum or instructional practice. The basis of any relationship is knowing one another.

To quote the NYC DOE guidance on this topic, "When we know our students well, we sharpen the role student data plays in instructional design and professional learning. Effective educational practice begins with knowing our students as individuals and using this information to inform teaching and learning".

How do I get to know every student well?

There are a number of resources below to help you get started!

NYCDOE Webinar - Know Every Student Well

You can view this webinar as an individual or with a group of other educators to better understand both why this is so important and how Culturally Responsive -Sustaining Education practices will help support you in know every student well.

Knowing our Students as Learners by William Powell and Ochan Kusuma-Powell

This long text provides a great deal of information about this topic. It provides:

  • The benefits of knowing your students well as learners

  • Creating a psychologically safe environment

  • Determining each student's readiness

  • Identifying multiple access points to curriculum

  • Developing greater emotional intelligence

  • Establishing learner profiles and preferences

Knowing Our Students as Learners.pdf

What Great Teachers Know About Their Students

What Great Teachers Know About Their Students differentiates what "good" teachers know about their students vs. what "great" teachers know about their students. Just looking at the list will surely give you many, many ideas but check out the whole page by clicking on the link or the image to the right.

Getting to Know Our Students by Rick Wormeli

Educational researcher and author Rick Wormeli offers 8 concrete activities to get to know your students whern they enter your class and, in his words, "Way more than Eight Ideas for Getting to Know Your Students throughout the school year!"

Some of the ideas are:

  • The best way for you to learn cards

  • Letters to the teacher from students as their own parents

  • "In a Million Words or Less, tell me about your Child"

  • Interest Surveys

  • Learner profiles

  • Reading Autobiography

  • Six Word Memoirs

  • Problem Solving Tasks

Getting to Know Our Students by Rick Wormeli.pdf