Early Semester Connections

Getting to Know Students

• Student Surveys

  • Possible questions

    • Basic info

      • Preferred name

      • Pronouns

      • Major or possible major

    • Subject-related info

      • Previous courses taken in the discipline (at Miramar, other colleges, and/or high school)

      • Past experiences (e.g., good experiences, challenges)

      • Connections between course and their major, career, and/or interests

    • Life/the student as a whole person

      • Obligations for work, family, caregiving, etc.

      • Other courses

      • Reflections on possible challenges in the semester and ways to mitigate those

      • Interests

      • Goals (academic, career, personal, etc.)

• Diagnostic Assessments

  • If your course uses diagnostic assessments, try to incorprate ways to learn more information about students in the assignment.

  • Examples:

    • English/writing: Share a picture with a peer(s) as an ice breaker; then create a writing prompt that asks students to write about the image to gather a writing sample.

    • Communications: Have students briefly introduce themselves in a mini-speech as an early semseter assessment

    • Other areas: Include a section for a brief reflection from students about their past experiences—including positive or negative ones—in courses in the area to promote metacognition.

• Goal-Setting Activities

  • Review the SLOs and ask students to set short-term goals to help achieve these.

  • Create short assignments that ask students to link the course goals to their academice, career, and personal goals to increase intrinsic motivation.