Building Stronger Connections – The First Pillar of Classroom Success in the New Year, Part 1 of 3

Welcome to the first part of our exciting three-part series, where we’re diving deep into the foundational pillars of a world language classroom success! In this episode, we focus on the first pillar: Building Stronger Connections.

As language educators, we know the start of a new year is a golden opportunity to foster deeper engagement and cultivate a positive and caring classroom culture. If you’re looking for ideas on how to nurture meaningful relationships with your students, and whether you are starting with new students or just starting the new year with your students from last year, this post and episode 68 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast is just what you need!

Why Stronger Connections is the First Pillar

The first pillar in this series is connections because it’s all about students feeling safe in your class, that students trust you and the process, and that the students feel that they belong and are seen in the class. This is also my number one pillar in my class because I know that if I am very intentional and successful in cultivating these connections with my students, the rest will happen. Everything in my class is going to be much easier. 

I work on this very intentionally at the beginning of the school year and at the beginning of the calendar year because there have been two or three weeks sometimes that we haven’t seen each other. Because of this, I want to reconnect. I want to reset the class. I want to get back to that place where we feel very familiar with each other. Also, because in our classes, we ask a ton of personal questions. When we want our students to share about their personal lives, they need to feel like they belong. 

How Can We Cultivate Stronger Connections Among Our Students?

I want to share with you five strategies. Some of them I have already mentioned in the podcast, and some of them are totally brand new. 

Strategy #1 for Connections

The first one is passwords. Passwords is a small expression or a small sentence. It’s usually a phrase or expression or rejoinder that we assign to our students. Then, in the next day, two or three weeks, or a month later, our students are going to say their password to us in order to enter the class. So, your students are going to line up outside your class. You’re going to be next to your door, and the students are going to say the password to you. Then, you are going to respond and let them in one by one.

If logistics allow it, you should try it. The obvious benefit is that we’re going to have a lot of rejoinders or expressions that are going to help our students communicate in a more natural way on a daily basis. So, those expressions are going to add to the repertoire. But, that’s not the biggest benefit of this strategy. The biggest benefit is that this strategy is going to force you to have that one-on-one exchange with each of your students every day that you have a class with them. That is huge and is so important! I share in episode 68 how well it works in my classroom and give you a few different ways you can do this. 

Strategy #2 for Connections

The second strategy for stronger connections with your students is to ask personal questions. Our students don’t have enough social encounters with people throughout the school year, the school day, and many of them don’t have a conversation with anyone. So, the moment that a student hears the teacher say, “Hey, hello. So what do you like? Do you like a vanilla ice cream? Or do you like chocolate ice cream?” They usually are like, “Oh my gosh, really?” So, when we are intentionally asking personalized questions to our students, we are going to start building and cultivating those strong connections. 

I recorded an entire episode about personal questions. It’s episode 48. There is a way that we can ask questions that are more likely to be answered by our students. Sometimes, it’s not like our students don’t want to answer, but sometimes it’s just that they don’t know how to answer. And, the way that we ask the question is going to be more of an invitation for them to answer, and it’s going to be more likely to happen.

Strategy #3 for Connections

Strategy number three for stronger connections is to incorporate star student interviews as a regular practice. I think that and calendar talk are my favorite activities. For this, you create six personalized questions for your students. Then, instead of asking them to the entire class, you are going to invite one of your students to go to the front and answer the questions. But, when they answer the question, you’re going to also ask the class. So, you have a triangle type of question. When the student answers, you answer about yourself, and then you ask the class. 

In episode 68, I explain how to create questions if you are working with a curriculum. Listen above or on your favorite podcast player. 

Strategy #4 for Connections

The next strategy I want to share is co-creating content with your students. This is so much simpler than what you probably think. For example, let’s say that we have an article that we read about social media. Then, as part of one of our post-reading activities, I’m going to ask my students to illustrate each paragraph so they have an illustration that represents the main idea of each paragraph. Next, you collect the work. Then, you’re going to look at the illustrations and select six, or whatever number of illustrations you’d like, and take a picture of them.

Finally, the next day as one of your activities to start the class, tell your students to look at these images and find a sentence in the text to use as captions for those illustrations. The important part is that those illustrations are not Google photos, the images are the work of your students. And when they come and see this, they’re going to say, “Oh, my gosh, that’s my work!” That’ll make your students feel seen and part of the class.

Strategy #5 for Connections

This strategy is called Two by 10. Basically, it’s two minutes of conversation with a student about any topic not related to your class for 10 days in a row. The experience of people or teachers who have done this activity is super positive. They have seen a much better relationship with their students. Also, the students have been more motivated and more engaged in the class. Usually, you’re going to select the students that you have trouble connecting with.

The most important part is that you listen and you make eye contact. You can get your students to say, “I am seen. I belong.” That is the best part! For this activity, you have a conversation with the student on the first day Then, the next day, you’re going to ask another question. The following day, you’re going to ask another question. Those little conversations are going to help build the trust that most of the students need to really drop their armor.

More Support

These five strategies are ones you can use anytime but especially during this beginning of the year to really cultivate those connections. There are also two other podcast episodes you should listen to that will help you build stronger connections with your students. 

Episode 42: Setting the Stage – We explored how to effectively prepare your classroom, touching on organization and parent communication. Listen here.

Episode 43: Powerful First Day – We shared tips for a memorable first day, setting the tone for the rest of the year. Check it out here.