Unit 2 Why get to know the learner?

In Unit 2 the emphasis was placed on getting to know your learner. In the past, teachers might have tended to focus only on curriculum and a one-size fits all approach to their students when planning lessons. This is certainly the easiest way to teach but not the most effective.
In recent years there has been more of a movement to build relationships with students, this isn't about going out for coffee with your students or inviting them over for dinner! It is about a balance between knowing about who they are as a person and who they are as learners.

Developing a repertoire of icebreakers or getting to know you activities is a good start to finding out more about the learners in your class. It can be in the form of a bingo activity (e.g. likes swimming, plays an instrument, brown eyes), a walk and talk worksheet (complete the sheet by finding colleagues who match the question e.g. has a dog) or a short questionnaire (see sample below). Teachers can use the information to have authentic conversations with students that are more specific to who they are as a person. That connection helps to create a safe and inclusive learning environment that draws students together, creating a community of learners.

Teachers also need to know who their students are as learners and this is done through a variety of diagnostic, formative and summative assessments using conversations, observations and products to determine the students strengths and challenges. By observing students a teacher can determine if a student is a visual, auditory or tactile learner. All this data helps a teacher create the best plans for her students.

I think we've discovered in education that unless you get to know who your students are as people and learners they will not be successful learners and you will not be a successful teacher.

 Getting to know you task