Facilitate student feedback with a survey

Many teachers have successfully provided a space for students to open up through Google Forms, which sometimes feels anonymous for students. The information gathered on these forms helps the teacher understand what may be behind certain student behaviors (such as laying their heads down on the desk and not engaging in conversation), or alert the teacher to the pressures a student may be experiencing within their peer group. Discovering the backstory helps teachers feel more compassion for their students and get to the heart of the issue when students do not perform academically as hoped. 

Here is a sample google form that you may adapt to your grade level and student population. Use it at the beginning of the year (perhaps a month in), and then provide a similar survey near the end of the year to see if any improvements have been made. Strengthen engagement by providing pictures for each question, keep wording simple, and offer a variety of responses (rather than requiring students to type out complete sentences). The purpose of this form is quick social emotional feedback for teachers, not an opportunity to grade students’ writing. Perhaps often one or two questions per google form. Here are some basic questions:

1. What is your favorite thing to do outside of school?
2. What is something you are good at?
3. So far, how do you like school?
4. How well do you do in school?
5. How do you think your teachers feel about you? Explain.
6. If you could redesign your school experience to make it better, what would you change?
7. Is there anything else you would like us to know?