Special Person is a good way to get to know your students. Since it has been extensively described and blogged about (check out this process document and other free stuff by Bryce Hedstrom), I will focus this post on sharing my favorite resources for the classroom:
- Which questions to ask?
- Mapping of possible questions based on your students proficiency level
- Special Person Interview Posters for Novice learners
- Do students take notes during the interview?
- They don’t have to but here is a good low accountability graphic organizer. This can be easily turned into a study guide if you want to formally assess your students, or a souvenir yearbook of our class if you want to give them something special.
- What to do after Special Person?
- If a student has a pet, you can follow-up with a Pet Picture Talk
- You can play a game while formatively assessing their comprehension
- You could even turn the process into an input-based project (here is the rubric)
Happy interview!
