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This article shares how attendance questions can focus a group and get them ready to learn. Attendance questions are a good habit to begin the day with.

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Taking attendance shows which students are physically present-these questions direct them toward active learning.

iStock.com/monkeybusinessimages

Taking attendance is usually a five-minute task at the start of a class period, but in my classroom, it can sometimes take much longer-on rare occasions, it can even take up an entire class period.

This happened recently when, for 75 minutes, students listened respectfully to each other. No one snuck a peek at phone messages. No one left the room for a washroom break. Not a single student looked bored. There was no technology involved.

All I did was take attendance.

Stretching Our Minds

It's been decades since I stumbled upon the power of what I call the attendance question. I asked each student in my high school English class to tell me what he or she thought the color of silence was while I took attendance. The question was meant to get them thinking metaphorically just before a poetry lesson, but I was surprised to notice the students' interest in each other's responses. Curious about this, I began to use similar open-ended questions in other classes. In social studies, I asked what was wrong with the world. In psychology, I asked about students' favorite childhood toys. In math, I'd ask, "What is the color of 2?"

The most important characteristic of my attendance questions is that there are no right answers. In a setting where being right is critical for success, the attendance question is abnormal enough to get students' attention.

When we trace back the meaning of attend through Old French ( atendre) to its Latin root ( attendere), we can see that when we attend, we are "stretching our mind toward" something. The attendance question gets students to pay attention through inviting them to stretch their minds toward a question which has no right answer.

When we take attendance, we are essentially asking each student, "Are you here?" But are students actually present when their minds are elsewhere? By asking the attendance question, I am indirectly asking my students, "Who are you? How are you? What matters to you?" Through their consideration of a response, I hope they stretch their minds toward presence in the classroom.

Creating a Sense of "We"

The kind of attendance question that I ask will change over the course of the semester. At the beginning, the questions are safe and easy to answer, but toward the end of the semester, they might keep students talking long after the bell.

Questions at the beginning of the semester may be:

What's your favorite food/movie/book/celebrity/season?

What was the best part of the summer?

What was the most beautiful/interesting thing that you saw this morning on your way to school?

What's the taste of happiness/the shape of sadness/the smell of joy?

Questions like these help students to see similarities and differences among their classmates. They can begin to see a "we" in the classroom: We like pizza, we like summer, we're Vancouver Canucks fans. I love watching students who have never spoken to each other discover that they love the same things or that they see sadness in the same way.

Because learning is fundamentally a social and emotional experience, achieving this sense of we is critical before students fully engage in classroom activities. A sense of we creates safety and makes it more likely that a student will risk moving out of his or her comfort zone to try something new-and ultimately learn.

However, it's one thing for a teacher to know this and quite another to actually create a space where students feel safe and comfortable. Even with a plethora of how-to advice on creating community in a classroom, it can be difficult to know what will work best for any particular group of students. But whether the classroom is in Africa or Canada, taking attendance is what all teachers do everywhere, and it's through this simple act that any teacher anywhere can begin building community in his or her classroom.

The type of question that I ask is linked to how cohesive the classroom community is at the time. After those first "getting to know you" questions, I introduce this one: "How is the weather in your world?" If students are feeling stressed or tired, they may answer "stormy" or "cloudy." If they're in a good mood, it's "sunny." The answers give me a sense of the general mood in the room, and I can adjust my lesson in response. (Giving a test makes no sense when the general weather report includes storms with lightning and thunder.)

The attendance question that took up the entire 75 minutes recently was: "Have you ever had the experience of wishing you were the opposite gender in a particular situation?" Students will only answer this type of question authentically if they feel safe. That my students felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable in their answers was a result of months spent learning about each other through responses to attendance questions.

Recognizing What Matters

After decades of finding different ways of asking students, "Are you here?" I'm still learning about the impacts of the attendance question in my classroom. If I forget to ask one, students remind me. And if I post one on our work schedule and then don't ask it, I get lots of complaints.

If you'd like to try this in your classroom, here's an important caveat: Never directly link the attendance question to any curricular content. If you do, the question becomes a test of knowledge and not an invitation to stretch the mind. It wouldn't be an invitation to attend or be in attendance.

More often than not, I've finished taking attendance in the first five minutes of class. But on those days when that process becomes much longer, it's always worth the extra time getting to know who my students are and what matters to them.

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Building Community With Attendance Questions

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Taking attendance shows which students are physically present-these questions direct them toward active learning. iStock.com/monkeybusinessimages Taking attendance is usually a five-minute task at the start of a class period, but in my classroom, it can sometimes take much longer-on rare occasions, it can even take up an entire class period.

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When wanting students to work together, they must first know each other. Use S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to teach students how to properly introduce themselves to their peers. This is a valuable skill for all students.

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Before you continue reading this article, and if you have not done so already, take a look at my photo below.

Do I look trustworthy? Kind? Attractive? (Potential Answers: Yes, maybe, and perhaps his wife thinks so).

Without having to think much about it, perhaps never having met me, and based solely on a small photograph, you made conclusions about me.

You likely encounter dozens of unfamiliar faces on a daily basis and you are able to form first impressions "spontaneously and with minimal cognitive effort" (Ambady &Skowronski 2008). It is what humans do. In fact, Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found it takes only but a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger (Wargo 2006).Humans are exchanging thousands of little bits of information with each other within moments, all unconsciously (Fast 1970). Advice: don't try to fight it and start consciously thinking of these things, you'll just look silly!

If we have such little time to form that first impression, how are we to convince someone of something they assumed we were not? If someone believes I am a blubbering idiot from the first impression, how can I convince them I am quite intellectual? How do I prove to a stranger that my wiry frame does not make me meek? (True struggle.)

If I care enough in a given situation to ensure that my new onlooker makes the most positive first impression possible, there are several things I can do that may aid in that process. In fact, it has been shown that even a poor first impression can be overcome by a series of positive traits (Ambady & Skowronski 2008).

To better understand this, it is first important to note that most of us are naïve interpreters of body-language. We ascertain most of our general assumptions of kinesics from media, what we are taught, and repetitive behaviors. Dr. Birdwhistell, professor of research in anthropology at Temple University, has stated that "'no body position or movement, in of itself, has a precise meaning'" (Fast 1970). In other words, slouching does not necessarily signify boredom or apprehension, as we often associate it with. Nonetheless, it is worth exercising commonly accepted conventions in day to day interactions with people, especially when trying to make a positive first impression!

Over my time as a teacher and professional development presenter, I have been in the people business-both young and old. I have worked on developing the skill-as I will argue it is-of making positive first impressions, more specifically when meeting someone new. Taking my experiences - plus the research and thoughts of business, psychologist, and education publications (Pitts 2015; Clark 2011; Goman 2011) - I have derived an "action" list for the first seven seconds you meet someone, and designated it as S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

S - Shake hands: Not too hard (you might break a hand), not too soft (no one wants a floppy fish), and certainly do not shake the fingers. Instead, interlock the webs between the thumb and index finger and clasp.

P - Posture: Stand up straight, shoulders back, chest out. People believe that a person standing tall is more confident and aware (Fast 1970).

E - Eye contact: Look into the eyes of the person you are meeting the entire time you approach and shake hands (this takes practice).

C - Charm: Smile, raise an eyebrow, use a head nod. These are small actions that express interest and charisma.

I - Introduce yourself: People like to know your name, a simple "Hi, I'm [your name]" is a great icebreaker.

A - Ask a question: "How are you?", "What brings you here?", "Don't you hate this snow?" are crucial to beginning a conversation and show interest in your unknown companion.

L - Lean in & Listen: Do not lean in too much. Personal space may be invaded and the first six things you did will wash away. A slight lean in from a couple feet away shows interest and helps you listen to the speaker and respond appropriately.

This mnemonic device is not meant to be a rigid sequence of events that occur, but rather a set of actions that when put together, smoothly and naturally come across as confident and professional. Many of these proficiencies require practice over time, which is why I feel it is vital to begin teaching them at an early age.

As an educator, finding time to integrate S.P.E.C.I.A.L. into my teaching day was challenging since there was already so much to cover, but over time I found natural ways for the skills to be introduced and practiced.

Here are some practical approaches to incorporate S.P.E.C.I.A.L. into your day-to-day routines and curriculum:

Greeting the Students in the Morning - Stand at your door as the students enter so that your body is positioned to greet the students entering while still monitoring the students already inside. Set the expectation that before a student enters the room, they are to provide you with a proper greeting and handshake to start the day. If you are an administrator, position yourself by the school entrance and greet the students as they enter the building with a "S.P.E.C.I.A.L." welcome each morning (and drench your hand in hand sanitizer promptly afterwards).

Welcoming Guests into the room - As either a rotating weekly job or permanent position in the classroom, establish a system that when a guest comes into the room (e.g. administrator, parent, visitors) the designated student leaves his or her seat and welcomes the visitor with a proper greeting. The assigned student does not have to ask for permission to do this and instruction continues all the while.

Stand When Responding - To practice making eye contact, posture, and charm, have your students stand up when they speak in class. Encourage students as they are speaking to make eye contact with as many classmates as possible during their response. To gauge success, poll the class afterwards and ask "How many of you did the speaker make eye contact with?" This practice also increases students' ability to be heard and seen while speaking, while building confidence in their comfort to stand up in front of others.

Group Discussions - For those teaching in Common Core states, you know that "Speaking and Listening" under the Language Arts standards is a vital strand to increasing students' ability to communicate. Many teachers meet these key ideas by having students work in small groups during times such as guided reading or literature circles, or in a larger group setting such as Socratic seminars. To engage the students in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. process during this, have students greet each other as the converge at a table with a proper handshake, and then have students evaluate each other's ability to listen to classmates, respond accordingly to comments and questions, maintain eye contact, demonstrate engaging body posture, and exhibit signs of affirmation when someone speaks (such as a head nod). This can, of course, be implemented within any content area during an interactive discussion or group work.

The keys to proper and effective implementation of these skills are giving students opportunities to practicing them and providing immediate and constructive feedback. Do not offer false praise! If a handshake felt like a limp French fry, have the student firm up the grip. If the students' eyes were fixated on their blinking sneakers, have them reintroduce themselves with proper eye contact right away. Remember, practice makes permanent!

In the text and technology-driven society we live in today, we must not forget the soft-skills that matter most when looking to get jobs, meet a future companion, and most importantly, make a strong first impression.

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S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Introductions: Teaching Soft Skills to Our Students | Edutopia

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Before you continue reading this article, and if you have not done so already, take a look at my photo below. Do I look trustworthy? Kind? Attractive? (Potential Answers: Yes, maybe, and perhaps his wife thinks so). Without having to think much about it, perhaps never having met me, and based solely on a small photograph, you made conclusions about me.

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Engagement cards are an idea that my work team came up with. These cards are a typical deck of cards but they also offer interesting questions - some serious and some fun - as a way for students to get to know each other.

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TPS is a great strategy to use while in the field. This can be done at a meal, on the bus, before or after visiting a site or museum.

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The Think-Pair-Share strategy is designed to differentiate instruction by providing students time and structure for thinking on a given topic, enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with a peer. This learning strategy promotes classroom participation by encouraging a high degree of pupil response, rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response.

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1-3-6 is a great grouping strategy that is helpful when wanting to share what has been learned, introduce new ideas, and get feedback from a larger group.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What makes the 1-3-6 process successful?

2. Why is it valuable to have students work individually before forming groups?

3. How does working in groups of three prepare students for working in groups of six?

School Details

Alief Early College High School
2811 Hayes Road
Houston TX 77082

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Collaborative Group Work with the 1-3-6 Protocol

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Students in Kevin Sevin's AVID class work individually, in groups of three, and finally in groups of six. By working individually, students have a chance to dive into the assignment before collaborating with others. In groups of three, students hear each others' thoughts and then pair up with another group to form groups of six.

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This video shows how the simple act of having students face each other can lead to better outcomes with group work.

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Thought starters

1. How could you use physical position to encourage other behaviors?

2. Ms. Duvoor says this strategy helps her classroom feel more academic. Why?

3. How does partner work help students become better at document analysis?

School Details

Summit Preparatory Charter High School
890 Broadway
Redwood City CA 94063

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Reading Like a Historian: Turn to Your Partner

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High school teacher Shilpa Duvoor explains how she has students physically turn towards their partners to facilitate collaboration. Shilpa describes how providing a physical structure for group work has increased engagement and productivity. When working on document analysis, Shilpa has seen the benefits of students grappling with documents together and articulating their thinking during group discussions.