Four Ideas for Checking In

The video describes four different ways to check in:

1. Text chat: Ask students “How are you feeling today” and they type in the chat, and you read some of their contributions aloud and react to them.
2. Visual: Show students a page/slide with several pictures in tile mode, and ask students to select which one represents how they’re feeling right now; students can share in the main room via annotation or chat or speaking, or in pairs or trios in breakout rooms.
3. Annotation: Show a slide with a triangle or one or more spectrum/a with different possible feelings, and students choose via annotation how they are feeling today.
4. Word cloud: Use a polling tool (example in the video is slido), ask students to choose one word or short phrase to describe how they’re feeling today/now. The tool creates a word cloud, enlarging words that are repeated several times.

Example prompts for each quadrant:

• You can create content-based prompts for each quadrant. E.g. after a class reading, students can reflect on a key thing they learned, a big question they have, a word or quote they enjoyed, and how the reading made them feel.
• List 7 things you’ve seen, heard, felt/did, and compose a small drawing.
• What have you noticed & observed, so what seems important about that data, now what’s needed next.
• In times of grief/trauma: Yes it is true that [Affirmation]… It is hard because [Despair]… I will always remember/I will never forget [Reconnection]… Now that I have shared my loss, it may be possible to [Active Hope]…