Teacher's Desk

20 Conversation Starters to Have with your Students

Making a connection with students is a great way to show you care. Here are some great conversation starters to find out more about your kids (they also work well with colleagues and family members).

<p><em> <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>What’s your perfect weekend&quest; <em>A good way to find out what activities they enjoy&comma; whether they like to be with people or on their own&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Do you have a bucket list&quest; What’s on it&quest; <em>Find out what excites students&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s the strangest animal&sol;thing you have ever seen in the wild&quest; <em>A great way to find out about places they’ve visited and what they see as unusual and noteworthy&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>If you were going to design an app&comma; what would it do&quest; <em>Find out what they see as missing or lacking in the world around them&comma; and what solutions they can come up with&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>When you were little&comma; what did you want to be when you grew up&quest; <em>Less threatening than asking then what they want to be <u>now<&sol;u>&comma;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s the best gift you have ever received&quest; Worst gift&quest; <em>Find out what’s important to them and what they value&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What dish can you cook really well&quest; <em>Opens up possibility of other questions&comma; such as who taught them to cook&comma; family traditions&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Did your parents ever tell you any white lies growing up&comma; like the icecream van only plays Greensleeves when it’s run out of icecream&quest; <em>Kids love a chance to laugh at themselves and take a dig at their parents without getting in trouble for it&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s a popular show&comma; movie&comma; song or trend that you secretly hate&comma; why&quest; <em>People get passionate about things they dislike&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What country do you really want to visit and why&quest; <em>A great way to see what interests and inspires people&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s your favourite time-wasting activity&quest; <em>Everyone has a guilty pleasure and usually people are happy to talk about it for a laugh&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s something I don’t know about you that might surprise me&quest; <em>Kids don’t often get a chance to brag about non-academic achievements&comma; plus this is a great way to start a conversation that might challenge how you see the student&period; <&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>If you could own a shop or business that sells anything&comma; what would it be&quest; <em>Find out what is important to kids&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What one thing on the planet do you wish we could get rid of&quest; <em>It might be spiders or nuclear weapons&period; It might be exams or people who chew with their mouth open&comma; you learn a lot when people talk about their hates and fears – excellent as a group conversation starter&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s your favourite room or space in your house&quest; <em>Find out what activities they enjoy when they’re not at school&comma; and their home life without being too direct&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>What’s your party trick &lpar;weird talent&rpar;&quest; <em>Be prepared for seeing some weird things&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Books or movies&quest; <em>And then follow this up with &OpenCurlyQuote;favourite book&sol;movie and why&quest;’<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>If you could only have one meal&sol;cuisine for the rest of your life&comma; what would it be&quest; <em>A good way to find out what they enjoy&comma; how adventurous they are with their food&comma; and probably about their home life without being invasive&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Do you think travelling changes people&quest; <em>A good way to find out where they have travelled&comma; if they plan on travelling when they’re older&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>If you were going to design the perfect show-ride by combining two other rides&comma; what would it be&quest; <em>Find out what thrills and fears people have&comma; see how analytical and creative they can be&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;

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Shannon Meyerkort

Shannon Meyerkort is a freelance writer and the author of "Brilliant Minds: 30 Dyslexic Heroes Who Changed our World", now available in all good bookstores.

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