Questions to Ask Students
For teachers who want questions to ask students a whole class at a time, from the first week to the last. The list runs in five groups: get to know you questions for students you have only just met, quick check-ins, fun questions for the two minutes before the bell, reflection on learning, and end-of-term questions. None of them asks a student to talk about family, money, health or home in front of classmates, and each has a note on how to ask it (out loud, on paper or by a show of fingers) and what to do with the answers.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Get to know you
What do you like to be called, and how do you say it?
Why ask it
Ask everyone, not only the students whose names you hesitated over, so nobody is singled out. Write the pronunciation down in your own spelling as they say it. A name said right in the first week is noticed, and so is one still said wrong in the sixth.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Why ask it
The oldest get-to-know-you question there is, and still the quickest way to find something to talk to each student about. Take any answer, 'sleep' and 'nothing much' included, and don't ask where or with whom, since free time looks very different from one student to the next. Write one word beside each name.
What is your favorite subject, and which one do you find hardest?
Why ask it
Ask both halves together so that nobody has to announce only a weakness. If the hardest one is yours, you know on day one who needs an early success. If the favorite is yours, ask what they liked about it last year, because that is the standard you are now being measured against.
What are you most looking forward to this school year?
Why ask it
Answers run from a trip or a team to 'being the oldest' or simply 'lunch', and they tell you what each student thinks the year is for. Ask what they are nervous about as well, but take that half on paper: few students will name a worry out loud in the first week.
What do you wish your teachers knew about you?
Why ask it
Give it as a sentence to finish on a card, 'I wish my teacher knew...', and collect the cards folded. Most say things like 'I need longer to read' or 'I talk when I am nervous'. Say before they write that you read every card, and that you can't promise to keep a worrying one to yourself.
Which three words would a friend use to describe you?
Why ask it
Borrowing a friend's point of view makes it easier to say something good about yourself without boasting. The words students choose show how they expect to be seen in your room. Don't hold anyone to a label: 'the quiet one' of the first week may not want that title by the last.
What job would you like to have one day, even if the answer changes next month?
Why ask it
Younger children answer at once. Teenagers can feel judged by it, so the second half matters: it makes the question a guess and not a plan. Ask what appeals about the job, since 'vet, because I like animals more than people' tells you more than the title does. 'No idea yet' is a full answer.
What is something you could talk about for five minutes with no preparation?
Why ask it
This finds each student's expert subject, whether that is a game, a team, an animal or a series. Keep the list: those subjects make good examples later, and a student who hears their own topic in a lesson pays attention. If someone says 'nothing', offer categories instead of waiting.
What is something you are good at that would never show up on a report card?
Why ask it
It gives standing to students whose grades don't. Expect fixing bikes, braiding hair, beating a hard level, calming a nervous dog. Remember two or three and mention them weeks later, which is when they count.
What is one thing a teacher has done that made a class work well for you?
Why ask it
Students answer with concrete practice: the board was always in the same place, we got to redo work, she waited before picking someone. Ask for the thing and not the teacher's name, so it never turns into ranking your colleagues.
How can I tell you are stuck, even when you don't say so?
Why ask it
Students know their own tells: staring at the page, sharpening a pencil for the third time, starting a conversation. Once you know them you can turn up with a hint at the right moment, without the student having to put a hand up in front of everyone.
Would you rather work alone, with one partner, or in a group, and what does it depend on?
Why ask it
The 'depends' half is the useful part. It tells you who dreads group work because they end up doing all of it and who dreads it because they get left out, and those need different fixes. With older students take it on paper, since nobody says 'I get left out' with the group listening.
What do you already know about this subject, or think you know?
Why ask it
'Or think you know' gives permission to be wrong, and the wrong answers are the ones you need. A misconception you hear in the first week is far cheaper to plan around than one you find on the first test.
What is a question you hope this class answers by the end of the year?
Why ask it
Collect these on cards with names on and keep them. Some will shape a lesson, and all of them can be handed back in the last week so students can see whether the class delivered.
How do you like to be told you did something well: out loud, quietly, or in writing?
Why ask it
Public praise is a reward for some students and a punishment for others, and some teenagers will do less to avoid it. Ask on paper, keep the answers next to your seating plan, and then honor them.
If this classroom had jobs, which one would you be good at?
Why ask it
Offer a few to start: timekeeper, tech fixer, the one who notices when someone is missing a handout. Students pick what they already do well, so you learn something about each of them and get a volunteer list you can use the same week. Teenagers will play along if the jobs are real and not decorative.
What is a book, show, game or song you would recommend to this class?
Why ask it
Four categories mean everyone has an answer, where 'favorite book' leaves non-readers stranded in front of their classmates. Put the recommendations on a wall list and let it grow through the term.
If I need to get your attention back, how should I do it without making a scene?
Why ask it
Students suggest a tap on the desk, a look, or you standing nearby. Agreeing on the signal in the first week means the first correction is one they chose, and nobody has to hear their name said across the room.
What should this class agree never to do to each other?
Why ask it
Asked this way you get 'laugh when someone gets it wrong' and 'touch other people's stuff', which are the rules that matter to them. Use their wording in the class agreement, because a rule a student recognizes as their own is easier to hold them to two months in.
What makes a school day a good one for you?
Why ask it
Many answers will be about lunch, friends and not being rushed, with lessons barely mentioned. Take that as information about how the day feels from a desk, and notice the students whose good day is simply 'nothing went wrong'.
Where in the room do you think you would work best, and why there?
Why ask it
Take the answers in writing. 'Near the front so I can see' or 'away from the door' tells you about eyesight, hearing and distraction without anyone having to announce a need to the room. Promise to consider it, not to grant it.
What is a word or phrase you use a lot that I might need explained?
Why ask it
It turns the room around: for two minutes they are the experts and you are the learner, which is a useful thing for a class to see early. It works best with teenagers, and worst if you then start using the word yourself.
What is one thing you want to be able to do by the end of this year that you can't do yet?
Why ask it
Push for something you could watch them do: write a full page without stopping, do long division, hold a short conversation in Spanish. A goal like 'get better grades' can't be checked in the last week, and checking is the point.
Which do you like better: figuring something out yourself or being shown how first?
Why ask it
Most classes split, which is your cue to alternate and to say out loud which kind of lesson today is. The students who hate being thrown in cold cope better when they know an explanation is coming afterwards.
What is one thing you would like to know about me or about this class?
Why ask it
Collect these unsigned and answer a handful each day of the first week. Say before they write which kinds of question you will skip, so that passing over one is not read as a dodge. The ones about the class, such as how much homework there is and who chooses the seats, tell you what the room is worried about.
How do you feel about being called on when your hand isn't up?
Why ask it
Ask this on paper. The students who dread it are not always the quiet ones, and knowing who they are lets you warn them a question is coming, which keeps everyone answering without ambushing anyone.
Check-ins
How are you feeling today, in a word or two?
Why ask it
The plainest check-in, and it fails without help: asked cold, most of a class will say 'fine' or 'tired'. Put a dozen feeling words on the board, from calm and curious to flat and frustrated, and let students pick or point. Take every word as offered. 'Why?' belongs to a private moment later, if at all.
On a scale of one to five, how ready to learn are you right now?
Why ask it
Have students show fingers flat against their chest so only you can read them. A one or a two is a reason for a quiet word once everyone is working, never a question asked across the room.
If your mood were weather, what is the forecast?
Why ask it
A metaphor lets a student be honest without giving details. 'Foggy' and 'thunderstorms later' tell you plenty. Accept every forecast as given and don't ask anyone why in front of the class.
What is one thing I could do this week to help you learn?
Why ask it
Students rarely expect to be asked, so the first round brings 'nothing' and 'less homework'. Keep asking every few weeks and the answers get practical: leave the slide up longer, post the instructions, stop standing in front of the board. Pick one you can do and do it where they can see.
What is one thing you want to get done this week?
Why ask it
Have students write it somewhere they will see again, such as the top corner of a planner page. One thing, small enough to finish, works better than a list. At the end of the week ask only 'done, partly, or not yet?'. Demand an explanation and their goal turns into your homework check.
What is one thing you are thankful for today?
Why ask it
Ask for small and specific: a seat by the window, a friend who saved a place, a quiz that got moved. Small answers are open to every student whatever kind of week they are having, while big ones ('my family', 'my house') can be hard to hear for a classmate who can't say the same. Once a week is plenty.
What helps you reset when you are stressed or frustrated in class?
Why ask it
Ask on a calm day, not in the middle of a bad one. Students name what works: a drink of water, two minutes with their head down, an errand that involves walking somewhere. Note the answers where you can find them fast. A remedy the student chose, offered quietly, is taken far better than one you picked.
What is taking up the most space in your head today?
Why ask it
Take it as three words on a sticky note, so a heavier answer stays between the two of you. Usually it is a test next period or a game tonight, and it helps to know what you are competing with. If half the room names the same thing, give it one minute before you start.
What is a small win you have had this week?
Why ask it
The word 'small' matters: without it students think only trophies count and say nothing. Ask late in the week, when there are a few days to draw on, and accept 'I got here on time every day'.
How is the workload feeling across all your classes this week: light, fine, or too much?
Why ask it
In middle and high school you only see your own subject. If most of the room says 'too much', ask what is due elsewhere. Moving your own deadline by two days, when you can, is a small cost for a lot of goodwill.
Is the pace of this class too slow, about right, or too fast for you at the moment?
Why ask it
Collect it on slips with no names. A room that leans one way is easy to fix. A room split between 'too slow' and 'too fast' is telling you to plan two routes through the next lesson, not to change speed.
What is one thing from the last lesson that stuck with you?
Why ask it
It doubles as recall practice. Compare what they remember with what you thought the main point was: when the class remembers the joke and not the concept, you know where to start today.
What would make today's lesson easier for you: more time, more examples, or more quiet?
Why ask it
Naming three options gets an answer from students who would shrug at an open question. Take a show of hands, and give the winning option in that same lesson if you can, so the check-in is seen to lead somewhere.
What is coming up at school this month that you are excited or nervous about?
Why ask it
You will hear about the game, the play, the field trip and the exam in another subject. Write the dates down. Asking 'how did it go?' the day after costs ten seconds and is remembered for a long time.
How confident do you feel about the next test or assignment, and what would raise that by one point?
Why ask it
The number alone gives you little to act on. 'One more worked example', 'knowing what the questions look like' or 'a list of what to study' are requests you can meet this week.
What is one good thing, one hard thing and one thing you are hoping for this week?
Why ask it
Three parts keep a check-in from tipping into all sunshine or all complaint. Let students give one or two of the three, and run it in pairs or on paper before you ever take it around the circle. If a hard thing sounds bigger than school, thank the student and find a private moment later.
How are things going with your partner or group: smooth, bumpy, or stuck?
Why ask it
Ask it midway through a project, on a slip, never out loud with the group listening. 'Bumpy' can wait for your next lap of the room. 'Stuck' needs you at that table today.
What is one thing you would like me to know before we start?
Why ask it
Make it a written slip and make it optional. Most come back blank, which is fine. Read them before the lesson ends, and if one worries you, follow your school's reporting procedure instead of handling it alone.
Is there anything about today's plan you want to ask about before we start?
Why ask it
Put the plan on the board first, including anything out of the ordinary: a drill, a visitor, a room change. Some students settle only once they know what is coming, and one question answered now saves several interruptions in the middle of the lesson.
How did the homework go: finished and fine, finished but unsure, or didn't get there?
Why ask it
Take it as one, two or three fingers held against the chest, and name the third option without any edge so that students use it. Don't ask for reasons in front of the class: they are often about things outside school that are none of the room's business.
Is this week going fast or slow for you?
Why ask it
A light check-in for days when a question about feelings would be too much, and neither answer is the wrong one. 'Slow' tends to come with waiting for something and 'fast' with too much due at once, so ask one volunteer from each side what is making it that way.
Who in this class have you not worked with yet?
Why ask it
Have each student write two names just before you set pairs, so it reads as logistics and not as a comment on anyone. You get fresh pairings, and the slips show you, quietly, which students almost nobody has worked with.
Fun
If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
Why ask it
Every student has thought about this already, which is why it works on a day when nobody wants to talk. The second half is where it gets funny: plenty of people would fly, but only one would use it to skip the lunch line. Tally the powers on the board and let the class argue flying against invisibility.
If you could be any animal for a day, which would you pick?
Why ask it
'For a day' keeps it light and lets students choose for the experience: a bird to see the town from above, a cat to sleep through math. The youngest classes can answer by moving like the animal while everyone guesses. With older ones, ask what would have gone badly wrong by lunchtime.
If you could go anywhere for one day, real or made up, where would you go?
Why ask it
'Real or made up' is doing a job. It puts a wizard school, the inside of a video game and the moon on the same footing as a famous city, so the question never turns into a list of who has traveled where. Ask what they would do in the first hour, and keep the answers for a writing prompt.
If you could meet anyone, from history or alive today, who would it be and what would you ask them?
Why ask it
The name tells you who a student admires. What they would ask tells you what they are curious about, which is the more useful half. Expect athletes, musicians and game designers alongside the historical figures. In a history or science class, narrow it to people from the unit.
If you were principal for a day, what is the first thing you would change?
Why ask it
Longer recess and no homework come first, so ask for a second answer once those are out of the way. That round is where you hear what really bothers students about the building: the lunch line, the bathrooms, too little time between rooms. Pass the sensible ones on, and tell the class you did.
What is the best joke you know that you could tell in a classroom?
Why ask it
The condition in the second half saves you from having to stop anyone midway. Give a day's notice so students can come prepared, and let them read the joke from a slip if they want. Groaning counts as applause. A joke to end each day that week takes a minute and gives the quiet joke-collectors a turn.
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
Why ask it
Everyone has an opinion within three seconds and nobody is hurt by losing. Send yes and no to opposite walls, then make each side write its definition of a sandwich and test it on a taco. If you teach writing, this is claim, evidence and counterargument with nothing at stake.
If you were stuck on a desert island, which three things would you bring?
Why ask it
Settle the rules before you ask, because the first hand up will want to know whether a boat counts. Banning boats and phones makes the answers better. Then put students in fours and tell each group it may keep only three items between them: the argument over what to drop is the real activity.
Would you rather be able to pause time or rewind it by ten seconds?
Why ask it
Students who pick rewind nearly always have an exact moment in mind, and those make quick stories. Have them vote by moving to opposite sides of the room, so the whole class answers and nobody has to speak first.
Which animal would make the worst possible class pet?
Why ask it
The reverse question is funnier than asking for the best one, and the youngest classes can answer it as easily as the oldest. Ask for the reasoning: 'a giraffe, because of the ceiling' is the kind of answer you are after.
Would you rather the school had slides instead of stairs or moving walkways in every hallway?
Why ask it
Somebody will ask how you get back up a slide, and that is the best part: hand the problem to the class and let them design the answer. In a one-floor school, swap the slide for a zip line across the yard.
What would be a good name for a band made up of the people at your table?
Why ask it
A two-minute table task that gets a group negotiating and laughing before you ask it to do real work together. The names tend to stick, which gives you team names for the rest of the term.
What sound should the school bell be replaced with?
Why ask it
Students will demonstrate, so pick your moment. The bell is the one thing everybody in the building shares, and the suggestions need no explaining: a goat, a game-show buzzer, a single slow clap.
What is the best smell in the world?
Why ask it
Everyone has an answer within seconds and none of them is embarrassing: rain on hot pavement, bread, a new book. Good for the last two minutes before a bell, and as a start for descriptive writing.
Which character from a book, movie or game would you least want as a partner on a group project?
Why ask it
Students have to think about what the character would be like to work with, which is closer to analysis than they will notice. It also gets the class describing bad group-work habits out loud with nobody in the room being accused of them.
What is a small thing that annoys you far more than it should?
Why ask it
Teenagers will go for ten minutes on wet sleeves and slow walkers. Set one rule first: things, not people in this room. Share yours, and make it something harmless.
What should a vending machine sell if it couldn't sell food or drinks?
Why ask it
Expect spare pencils, phone chargers, five more minutes and a nap. Then ask what each item should cost. A class will price the nap far above the pencil, and arguing about why is economics without the vocabulary.
What is something that is fun for exactly five minutes?
Why ask it
Bubble wrap, a swivel chair, a new pen. It is quick and nobody needs a clever answer. The follow-up, 'and what is fun for five hours?', tells you what each student gets absorbed in.
What everyday object is badly designed, and how would you fix it?
Why ask it
Students are expert users of bad design: backpack zippers, ketchup packets, desks with the bar in the wrong place. Asking for the fix turns a complaint into a problem the student starts to solve.
Where is the line between a hill and a mountain?
Why ask it
It can't be settled without first agreeing on a definition, which is the whole value of it. Let the argument run for two minutes and close with a vote, not a ruling from you. Then ask who gets to decide such things in real life.
If our classroom had a secret room behind the board, what should be in it?
Why ask it
The answers go two ways, a nap room and a snack bar or a lab and a library, and the split is worth a laugh. With younger classes, have them draw the floor plan. Nobody has to share anything about themselves to take part.
If this class had to enter a competition together, what would we have the best chance of winning?
Why ask it
The answers show how the class sees itself, and 'talking' will come up. Ask for a second round of serious answers, because a class that can name something it does well together starts to act like a group.
What is the most interesting fact you know that most people here probably don't?
Why ask it
This is the moment for the student who collects facts about sharks or train lines and rarely gets to use them. If a fact sounds doubtful, make checking it somebody's job and hear the verdict tomorrow.
If you could make one thing in this room ten times bigger, what would it be?
Why ask it
It needs nothing but a look around, so even a student with no ideas today can point at the stapler. Ask what would go wrong and you have a quick lesson in consequences, or in scale if you teach math.
What game, real or made up, should count as a school sport?
Why ask it
'Real or made up' brings in the students who don't play any sport and makes them the inventive ones. Ask what the rules are and how you win, and somebody will want to try it at recess.
What would be the title of a movie about this school week?
Why ask it
A Friday closer. It is also a mood check in disguise: 'The Longest Tuesday' and 'Nobody Brought a Pencil' tell you how the week felt without anyone being asked directly.
What is a word you like just for the sound of it?
Why ask it
Quick, fine for any age, and it works in any language a student speaks, which gives multilingual students something to show off. Write the words on the board and say them together.
What is the hardest thing in the world to draw?
Why ask it
Hands, horses and bicycles tend to win. Then give everyone sixty seconds to draw the winner badly on purpose, which gets a nervous class laughing at the same thing instead of at each other.
What food is overrated, and what food would you defend against anyone?
Why ask it
Food opinions are a safe thing to argue about, and students hold them fiercely. Keep it to opinions about the food itself, not what anyone eats at home or brings for lunch.
Reflection
What is the most important thing you learned today?
Why ask it
Ask for one thing, in the student's own words, written in the last three minutes and handed to you at the door. Before the next lesson, sort the slips into 'got it', 'nearly' and 'not yet'. The three piles tell you whether to move on, which a room of nodding heads never does.
What is still confusing after today's lesson?
Why ask it
The wording matters. 'Any questions?' gets silence, while asking what is still confusing assumes that something is and makes it normal to say so. Collect answers on slips with no names, and start tomorrow with whatever comes up most. 'Nothing' from a student whose work says otherwise is your cue for a quiet word.
How sure are you that you could do this on your own tomorrow, with no notes?
Why ask it
Following along in class and doing it alone are different things, and students often can't tell which one they have until asked. Take it as a show of fingers, then set one unaided problem and let them compare the result with their prediction.
What would be a good headline for today's lesson?
Why ask it
A headline forces a choice about what mattered most, which a summary lets students dodge. Read five aloud. If they all name different things, the lesson had no clear center, and that is feedback for you.
What did you change your mind about during this unit?
Why ask it
It treats changing your mind as an achievement, which many students have never been told it is. If nobody changed their mind about anything, check whether the unit asked them to think or only to collect information.
Which piece of your work from this unit are you happiest with, and what makes it better than the rest?
Why ask it
The second half makes students name what quality is, in their own terms. Compare their reasons with your grading criteria: where the two differ, they have not yet understood what you were looking for.
If you had one more week on this project, what would you spend it on?
Why ask it
Students point straight at the part they know is weakest, which a general 'what would you change?' rarely gets. Ask it before grades go back, while they are still thinking about the work and not the grade.
What was the hardest part, and what did you do when you hit it?
Why ask it
What they did next is the part you are after. 'Skipped it', 'looked back at the example' and 'asked someone' are all strategies, and hearing them aloud gives the rest of the class options they had not thought of.
What feedback did you get that you actually used?
Why ask it
This checks your work as much as theirs. If hardly anyone can name a comment they acted on, the comments are not being read, and class time set aside for responding to them will do more than writing longer ones.
What are you still wondering about now that the unit is over?
Why ask it
Finished units still leave questions, and these are sometimes better than the ones the unit set out to answer. Post a few on the wall, and open the next unit with one if it fits.
How did you prepare for this test, and would you do it the same way again?
Why ask it
Ask once before results come back and again after, and let students compare their two answers. A student who only reread their notes and was surprised by the score learns more from that gap than from advice about study methods.
On this quiz, where were you sure and where were you guessing?
Why ask it
Have students mark each answer with a check for sure or a question mark for guessing before you go over it. The answers that were sure and wrong are the ones to reteach, since those students did not know there was anything to ask about.
What from another class helped you with this one?
Why ask it
Students rarely notice when graphing from science rescues them in math, or when a history essay goes better because of English. Naming it makes the skill portable, and the answer is worth passing on to the colleague concerned.
What helped you most this week: the explanation, the practice, working with someone, or something else?
Why ask it
Tally the answers on the board so the class can see that people learn from different things. If one option gets almost no votes for several weeks, it is either not working or not happening often enough to judge.
What is one thing from this unit you want to still remember a year from now?
Why ask it
It makes students sort what mattered from what was only on the test. Their choices are also a fair review list: put the most common ones on a slide and come back to them a month later.
What is one thing you did this week that made the work harder for yourself?
Why ask it
Private writing only, and it must never cost them anything. Students know perfectly well when they sat next to the wrong person or left it until the last night, and writing it down themselves lands better than hearing it from you.
What did someone else in the class say or do that helped you understand?
Why ask it
It shows students that an explanation from a classmate counts as learning, and it tells you whose explanations are landing. Read a few aloud without names if the helper might be embarrassed, and with names if they would enjoy it.
What grade would you give your effort on this, separate from the result?
Why ask it
Compare their grade with your own impression. Where the two match, there is nothing to discuss. A student who rates their effort high on work you saw as rushed has a different picture of what effort means, and that is the conversation to have.
Which activity this week did you not want to stop when time ran out?
Why ask it
An indirect way to ask what was absorbing, and it gets past the polite answers that 'what did you enjoy?' collects. If the answer is always the practical work or always the discussion, you know what to build the hard content into.
What turned out to be easier than you expected?
Why ask it
Good for confidence, particularly in a subject students arrive afraid of. It also shows where you gave more support than the class needed, which is time you can spend elsewhere next time.
End of term
What is your favorite memory from this class?
Why ask it
Give it a minute of quiet first, because the first memories to surface are the loudest ones. Many will have nothing to do with the curriculum: the day the projector fell, a joke that ran all year. That is fine. Have each student write theirs on a strip of paper and you have a display for the last week.
What can you do now that you couldn't do at the start of the year?
Why ask it
Hand back the first-week goals before you ask, if you kept them. Students forget how much was new at the start, and seeing their own handwriting ask for a skill they now use without thinking is better evidence than anything you could say.
Which lesson or activity from this year will you remember longest?
Why ask it
It is rarely the lesson you spent longest planning. Tally the answers and keep the top three in next year's plan, whatever else changes.
What advice would you give a student starting this class next year?
Why ask it
Have them write it as a short letter and read a few to next year's class in the first week. It is also the most honest description you will get of what your class demands, written by people with no reason to flatter you.
What is one thing about how this class runs that I should not touch?
Why ask it
Ask this before you ask what to change. It tells students you want a fair account and not only complaints, and it protects the routines that work from being dropped when you redesign things over the break.
What should I change or drop next year?
Why ask it
Anonymous, on paper, and after grades are final so nobody thinks honesty carries a risk. Look for what several students say independently and set aside the single outlier, kind or unkind.
What was the hardest thing we did this year, and are you glad we did it?
Why ask it
'Glad' separates hard and worthwhile from hard and pointless. If most of the class is glad, keep it and tell next year's students so. If most are not, the task may need more support, or it may need to go.
When did this class feel most like a team?
Why ask it
Students name specific days: the fire drill in the rain, the group presentation that nearly fell apart. It ends the term on what the room did together, which matters most to the students who did not shine individually.
What surprised you about this subject?
Why ask it
Students who expected to hate it and did not will tell you why, and that reason is a good opening line for next year's reluctant class. No surprises at all means the course matched its reputation, for better or worse.
What are you most proud of from this term that isn't a grade?
Why ask it
Ruling out grades pushes students toward things like speaking up for the first time, finishing a long book or helping a group through a bad week. Write some of these into end-of-term comments, where they mean more than a number.
Which topic do you wish we had spent more time on?
Why ask it
Sometimes the answer is the topic they loved and sometimes the one they never quite got. Ask which it is, because the first is a pacing choice for you and the second is a gap to flag for their next teacher.
Looking at the question you wrote in the first week, did this class answer it?
Why ask it
This only works if you kept the cards, so decide in the first week. Where the answer is no, say so plainly and point the student to where an answer can be found. An unanswered question handed back with a lead makes a good last day.
What is one habit from this class that you will take with you to the next one?
Why ask it
Students name the routines that worked for them, such as checking the example before asking or keeping a list of new words. Hearing each other's answers reminds the class that the habits leave with them even though the room does not.
If you put your first piece of work from this year next to your latest, what would you notice?
Why ask it
Do this with the actual work on the desk, not from memory. The difference in length, neatness or accuracy is usually plain to see, and a student who spots it for themselves doesn't need you to tell them they improved.
What is one goal for next term, and what is the first step toward it?
Why ask it
The first step is the part to push on. 'Read more' becomes 'pick a book before Friday'. Goals written in the last week are forgotten over a break unless the first step is small enough to do before it starts.
What will you miss about this class, and what won't you miss at all?
Why ask it
The second half is what makes the first half honest. Students who are allowed to say they won't miss the vocabulary tests will also tell you, and mean it, what they will.
What did you learn this year about how you work best?
Why ask it
Compare the answers with the first-week ones about working alone or in a group. Some students will have changed their minds, and saying so helps them choose better in classes where nobody asks.
What would you like your next teacher to know about you as a learner?
Why ask it
Written, and passed on only with the student's permission, so ask for that on the same card. It gives the student a say in their own handover, which otherwise happens between adults without them.
What do you wish you had asked for help with sooner?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone has an answer, and hearing that is useful to the students who thought they were the only ones struggling. Follow with 'what stopped you?', since the reasons tell you how to make asking easier next year.
How to use these with a real class
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Picking the question
One question, asked properly
A single question that every student answers does more than five that three confident students answer. Choose one, decide in advance how the answers will be collected, and give at least ten seconds of thinking time before anyone speaks.
Match the group to the moment
Get to know you questions are for the opening days and for any time the class list changes. Check-ins fit the first two minutes of a lesson, Fun fits the last two or the slot after a test, Reflection belongs at the end of a lesson or unit, and End of term is for the final week, once grades are settled.
Adjust for age
Younger children do better with choices built into the question and a sentence starter on the board. Teenagers will often write what they would not say in front of the room, and will take a silly question seriously if you ask it with a straight face. Most of the list works across ages with a change of wording, and a few notes say where a question suits older or younger classes.
Answer it yourself
Go first, briefly. Your answer shows how long and how personal an answer should be, and students copy that level closely. Keep yours short and light, so the bar is one anyone can clear.
Ways to collect answers
Around the room, with a pass
Good for fun questions and one-word check-ins. Say before you start that 'pass' is a complete answer, and that you will come back at the end to anyone who wants a second go. Without that, going around the circle is a countdown for anxious students.
Partner first, then share
Give students a minute to answer to the person next to them, then ask a few to report what their partner said. Everyone has spoken, and reporting someone else's answer is far less exposed than giving your own.
On a card or slip
The right format for anything about how a student learns, how the class is going or how they are feeling. Decide before you hand the slips out whether names go on them, and say so. Read them the same day.
Vote with feet or fingers
For either-or questions, send each choice to a side of the room. For scales, use fingers held against the chest. Both get an answer from every student in under a minute without anyone having to speak.
No names for feedback on you
Questions about your pace, your comments and what to change next year get straighter answers with no names attached and nothing riding on them. A box by the door or an online form both work. Ask after grades are in.
Keeping it safe for the whole room
What this list leaves out
There is nothing here about vacations, weekends away, what students own, who is at home, breakfast, bedtime or health. Those answers depend on a family's money and circumstances, and a child should not have to reveal or disguise them in front of classmates. The broadest questions here, on free time and on what a student is thankful for, come with a note on keeping the answers small. If you add your own questions, test them the same way.
Following up in public
When an answer is flat, odd or sad, thank the student and move on. The curiosity is right and the moment is wrong. Find them later, away from the others, with something low-key like 'you said stormy this morning, anything I can do?'
An answer that worries you
A check-in will occasionally surface something serious. Most schools have a procedure for this and a person responsible for it, and the rules on what staff must report vary by place, so find out how it works where you teach before you need it. Don't promise a student secrecy you may not be able to keep.
Fun that lands on a person
Funny questions go wrong when the joke turns on someone in the room. Set the rule once, 'things, not people in this room', and enforce it the first time it is tested. After that the class mostly holds the line for you.
Doing something with the answers
Keep the first-week cards
Several End of term questions depend on answers from the first week: the goal, the question for the class, how each student likes to work. Collect those on cards with names, put them in an envelope, and write in your planner for the last week where the envelope is.
Act on one thing and say so
When students tell you the pace is too fast or the instructions are unclear, change one thing within a week and tell the class it came from their answers. A check-in that never leads anywhere teaches students to stop answering.
Leave reflection ungraded
Once a reflection carries a grade, students write what they think you want to read. Give credit for completing it if you must, and respond to the content with a comment or a conversation.
Change the question, keep the routine
The same check-in every day becomes a ritual answered on autopilot. Keep one format for a few weeks so students learn it, then swap the question while the routine stays. Let students suggest or choose the question now and then.