Tell Me More! Getting to Know You Questions
To teach your students well, you must know your students well.
-Cris Tovani
Getting to know my students is something I prioritize on the first day, as well as every other day I have the chance to see my students. I walk around the room and chat with them, I like their posts on social media, I use Let’s Talk forms to carry on a conversation with them, and I implement deep questions into homework or lessons.
Of course there are the basic “Get to Know You” questions, like, “Where are you from? What’s your dream job? What do you like to do in your free time?” But I also like to add in deeper questions.
Here are a few questions I like to include as writing prompts or in-class discussions:
What’s something you’re good at?
What are you afraid of?
Where do you want to be 10 years from now?
What is one thing you would do if you knew you wouldn’t fail?
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Who has had the greatest influence on your life?
What’s a great gift you’ve gotten?
What’s one thing you wish you could change about your personality?
What’s the best part of your personality?
If you could pick one day to live over again, which day would you choose?
If you were offered a million dollars a year for the rest of your life, but you would die 5 years earlier, would you take the offer?
In your opinion, what’s the biggest problem in the world today?
If you could have dinner with anyone in the world (living or dead), who would you want to eat with?
If you were an animal, which one would you be?
If you were giving a hundred dollars today, what would you buy?
What does success mean to you?
Can you be in love with two people at the same time?
What superpower would you want to have?
Not only do these questions help you get to know your students a little better, but they also students dig a little deeper and explore some new topics in English they might never have talked about before. It can also help boost positivity and morale while teaching students how to know themselves better.