Building Rapport

As all teachers know, it is important to get to know their students and build a positive rapport with them. Each piece of information that the teacher acquires creates a more solid framework for the teacher to identify and meet the needs of students (Burden,  2013). Paul Burden (2013) describes the different types of information that teachers should gather to get to know their students:

• Academic needs, abilities, and interests. What type of learner are they? What are their scores from achievement tests i.e. standardized testing and reporting (STAR) tests? What are their weaknesses and strengths in their academic work?
• Special needs, disabilities, or learning problems. Do they have an individualized education program (IEP)? Any problems with their health? Does the student have any disabilities, emotional, physical, or intellectual?
• Diversity. Which way does the student prefer to learn? Are they an ESL, english as a second language, learner? How does the culture and/or socioeconomic status (SES) relate and influence student's learning and behavior?
• Interests. What do they like? What are they interested in? What are their goals? What do they do in their free time?
• Difficult or atypical parent custodial arrangements. The family unit has many different facets and it is important to know if there are any special considerations or conditions exist. Who should be called for emergencies? Who is allowed to pick up the child? Are the students parents going through a divorce and are disputing custody over the child?

It is even more important to do the same with special needs students. Some students have communication barriers that make this difficult i.e. non-verbal, use a communication device, ESL.

A GoTalk and a PECS book

From the video and the pictures of the devices you can easily see that many of the words needed to find out important information may be unavailable or difficult to find out from the child. Do not forget the importance of observations, and of course, parents. There is much you can find out from watching students at different times and in different situations. You may notice that Bob loves to play with blocks, or that Alice is humming a song, or Taylor is scripting (reciting lines) from a movie. Each of those creates what is on the child's mind, what they like to do, and their interests. It is easy to set up situations in the classroom to find additional information about your students (Burden, 2013). In the early elementary setting you could have various puzzles out and observe what the student gravitates towards. Students could draw a picture and that could show what they value. Students are constantly sharing who they are, and with communication being 97% nonverbal, one just needs to pay attention. Parents are a HUGE resource on information regarding their children, all is needed is the opportunity to share what they know. A questionnaire could be sent out regarding students strengths, weaknesses, what makes them unique, parents desires for the school year (Burden, 2013). Take in this information and add it to what you observe to make a full picture. Students with special needs may have different behaviors depending on the environment they are in and what demands are placed on them, so what parents share about their child in the home may not align with what you see in the classroom. This does not negate the parents knowledge as an expert of their child, it just creates a better picture of the whole child.

Personalities are very different and that may have a positive or a negative impact on building rapport with the student. From personal experience I have had the most satisfaction when I have worked with students that are difficult. The key is getting to know them and making what is important to them important to you.   I had one client who constantly scripted her favorite shows, one being adventure time, and that is all that she would want to do. The show was much better than doing lessons. I noticed she would choose a certain character and recite all of their lines, so I chose another character and recited those lines. She got very excited when I would do this and we acted out the scene. Later we would act out different stories, i.e. the three little pigs, at home. Once she mastered that we would go to the park and get all of the children at the park to act out the story. Her goal was to increase interactions with peers and the park was a great place to see the fruition of all of the hard work to get to know her likes and interests. Without that foundation going to the park would be a different location for her to do the same thing- script a scene to herself on her own.

Resources

Burden, P. (2013). Classroom management: Creating a successful k-12 learning community (5th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.