How To Create Affinity Among Your Students(Or Any Team of People)
In his book, Motivated Teaching, Peps Mccrea asserts that it is important for a teacher to establish affinity among their students. He defines affinity as students' internal, unspoken answer to the question, "How much are my classmates like me?"
Today, I will share one way that I establish affinity in my classroom. (By the way, I believe this strategy could be modified and used with any team of people.)
When students give me a fist bump and walk through my classroom door on the first day of school, they and I feel excitement, anticipation, anxiety and much more.
But for me, the overwhelming feeling is awkwardness. I feel awkward because I don't know anything about my students, not even their names. (As an aside: I HATE not knowing my students' names. I borrow a copy of the previous year's yearbook and quiz myself by matching names and faces to get a head start, but it still takes at least a week of class to learn all of their names.)
I am desperate to move beyond the awkward stage as quickly as possible.
During the first week of class, I ask every student to respond to a detailed survey about their background, family, interests, and experiences in school.
The following weekend, I scan through the data looking for anything serious that I need to follow up on right away. And then I write a short, personal note to each student, in which I choose 2-3 of their survey responses, say it back to them, and make a connection to myself.
For example, if a student mentions that they love baseball, I might respond, "It is great to learn that you love baseball! I also love baseball. My family and I attended an Angels-Mariners game this season and saw Mike Trout and Cal Raleigh hit home runs."
Or, if a student says that school is "boring," I might respond: "I also found school boring sometimes. I promise to do my very best to make my class relevant and challenging for you."
Here is an example:
In this way, I try to show each of my students that they will be seen in my classroom.
The survey and letters are helpful first steps to build teacher-student relationships, but they don't do anything to develop affinity among my students. That comes next.
To help students make connections to one another, I anonymously post select data from the survey into a google slides presentation (one for each class period). For example, I display pie charts indicating students' responses to the following agree/disagree statements:
I will be the first in my family to graduate from high school.
I will be the first in my family to graduate from college.
School is hard for me.
It is important to me that I earn an A or B in this class.
Here is an example:
When students arrive in my class on Monday, they find the chairs arranged in a circle along with their personalized letters from me.
Then we review the survey data together. I ask students to prepare a response to the following simple, low-stakes question: "What is one piece of data from the survey that stands out to you?"
After reviewing the data twice and giving students plenty of wait time, we go around the circle and each student shares what resonated with them most.
I then ask students to elaborate on their choices and to note any common characteristics or opinions they notice among their classmates. The question sparks discussions about a range of topics, including the pressures faced by first-generation students and anxiety about the rigors of 11th grade.
This activity helps students to identify commonalities among themselves and develop affinity for one another, promoting a sense of belonging.
Later in the week, we use the common identity we have begun to forge to create our class charter (the subject of my next newsletter).
I hope you find these ideas useful. If you would like me to share my Welcome Survey or to discuss how to create an excellent classroom culture during the first days of school, please email me.
Sincerely,
Ben
P.S. Pro Tip: The statement "It is important to me that I earn an A or B in this class" is one of my favorites to include in the survey and share with students. All or almost of my students agree or strongly agree with that statement, a fact I like to draw my students' attention to again when the honeymoon phase is long over and around exam times.
Sincerely,
Ben Katcher
