Getting to know you activities for one-to-one classes
On the first day of class, teachers usually enjoy learning a little bit more about the students they will be working with. It doesn’t matter if it’s a group of students or a one-to-one class, getting to know you activities may do wonders to break the ice, welcome students and, of course, get to know them a bit more. So, if you’re teaching one-to-one classes online this year, here’s a list of four activities to get to know your students better.
- Ask me a question
- Guess what?
- One truth and two lies
- Nine squares
All the activities use the collaborative whiteboard Google Jamboard. There's a link to get a copy of these activities in the end of the article so you can personalize them and work with your students.
Ask me a question: it’s a simple activity that consists of a deck of cards with questions. To see the question, select the post-it note with the question mark and drag and drop it to the blank square next to it. The first question will be revealed. You can ask the question to your student and vice-versa. Do this until all the questions have been asked. You can edit the copy in the link to write your own questions and/or add more.
Guess what?: there are six facts about the teacher and two circles. The student should try to guess how each piece of information is related to their teacher’s life. If the student is right, the teacher will move the word to the green circle; if it’s wrong, the teacher will move to the red circle. The teacher can then add more information about each fact and tell the student why some facts were wrong. Now it’s your student’s turn. They will write their own facts and the teacher will try to guess how they’re related to the student’s life.
One truth and two lies: similar to the previous activity, but here, one sentence is true and two are false. The learner will drag and drop the sentences to the corresponding box and the teacher can talk a bit about each piece of information. Then, your student will do the same: they will write three sentences and the teacher will guess which is true and which are false. What’s nice about this activity is that you can change the number of truths and lies: two truths and two lies, two truths and one lie, and so on.
Nine squares: you can play it like tic-tac-toes as the idea is to challenge both teacher and student to place three thumbs up on a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row. Each square has a word and the learner has to guess how each word is connected to the teacher’s life. If the learner is right, they get a thumbs up, if not, they get a thumbs down. The aim is to have three respective marks in a row. Then, your student can edit the grid and write their own words so the teacher will try to guess and get three thumbs up in a row.
These four online and collaborative activities promote interaction for one-to-one classes. Each activity can be adapted to suit your own context, and can be extended with extra questions and comments that may come up while doing them. Hope you enjoy and have fun!