Spanish Back to School Survey

I am always so nervous on the first day of school. In my school district, the first day of school is dedicated entirely to freshmen getting to know their teachers and the policies of the school. I always feel nervous because I have never met these people before! I definitely feel more comfortable on the second day of school when the entire student body is present and I can reconnect with all of the other students that I had last year.

Even though the first day is nerve-wracking for me, I know that eventually I will have the same relationships with these students as I have with the rest of my students in Spanish II - IV. One way that I begin to foster this relationship right away is by including a questionnaire as the last page my Spanish syllabus that asks students some questions to get them to open up to me. This questionnaire is entirely in English (with Spanish translations afterwards) and students submit it by the end of the first week.

There are two things that I really get out of this questionnaire: 1) I learn a lot about the goals that students have for themselves for the class as well as what they want to learn in the class. Most students in my district take a quarter-long Spanish exploratory class in eighth grade, and so they have some ideas about what a Spanish class should be about or what kind of things that would like to learn more of. And 2) Students have the opportunity to tell me about themselves, so I learn something about them right away! Some students do put 'nothing' but others have genuine information that they would like for their teacher to know. I've had students tell me very personal information, sometimes information that they want me to know that may affect what they do in class or how they learn. It makes me happy to have this section so that students can get some stuff off of their chest right away without having to come see me and tell me to my face (I admit, I can be a little intimidating). One response that I often get in this section is students telling me that they are bad at Spanish. They tell me what grade they got in exploratory Spanish last year or say that they didn't understand any of it. These responses make me feel sad, but they are also great pieces of information because I then know which kids may need an extra boost of confidence as the year begins.

Have you ever tried a questionnaire to begin the year? What kinds of questions do you ask? If you are interested in doing this for your own class, but don't know where to start, you can find a link to my free questionnaire below!