“What is something you wish your teacher knew about you?” (SCWriP #1)

I did a trending activity with a small group of fifth graders. I created a Jamboard with the question, “What is something you wish your teacher knew about you?”. I thought my students would be overflowing with information they would want to share. After a few minutes of silence and frustration I wrote an example for them and had our instructional assistant do the same. Once they saw our examples, the sticky notes came in full force. I gave them a few minutes to type out their responses (as many as they wanted). To be honest, I am embarrassed I did not originally give them an example. I thought my fifth graders would understand the prompt right away. This served as a wonderful reminder that no matter the age, an example can help immensely!

I did not get deep responses. All responses were surface level such as “Apex is my favorite video game because you don’t have to build”, “I like pigs because they are cute”, “I go to Las Vegas every year to visit family”, and “I wish my teacher knew that I like to dance”. This activity helped me to see where my students are with responding to a prompt. I was happy to see at least one student turn the question into a statement for his response. This also gave my students an opportunity to open up just a bit with my instructional assistant and me.

I am planning on doing this activity again in the future. I will ask my students to dig a little deeper than their favorite game or hobby.  I highly recommend all teachers to try this activity with your students multiple times. You never know what they will share next.