The Benton Community School District has placed an increased emphasis on checking in with students’ social, emotional, and behavioral health on a regular basis this school year. With this heightened focus in mind, I have made it my mission as an educator to check in with each and every student before our time together comes to an end each day. With my job title of “reading interventionist” at Norway Intermediate, I meet with one to five students at a time for twenty minutes. Because of this short group time, I knew that my check-in needed to be efficient, yet effective. What better way to do this than by students answering “would you rather…” questions when they walk through my door!
These questions have been incredibly fun to come up with so far. They can range from amusing topics such as “would you rather only be able to see the color: orange or green” to much more thought-provoking questions like “would you rather: win $25,000 or your best friend win $1,000,000”.
When asked how she likes the would you rather questions, fifth-grader Madison replied, “Sometimes the questions are funny and sometimes they make me think about how I am feeling. They make me think to myself, ‘How am I feeling today?"
As a group, we typically quickly review each student’s answer before wrapping up our agenda for the day. The conversation these questions create allows me to get a daily glimpse into each and every student’s life and interests outside of school hours. Not only that, but my hope is that students will know that I truly care about what their answer is; no matter how silly the question may be.
Overall, I think that fifth-grader Evan said it best, “I also get to know my teacher, Mrs. DeNeve, and my group members better when we talk about our answers. You get a peek at who the person is outside of school.”