Overview

As instructors, we want our students to be challenged academically and master the course material. Yet we also want to support our students to have fulfilling lives and meaningfully contribute to their families and communities. Many students report not feeling this broader support from college instructors, which can limit their engagement with the course material. By incorporating messages that show you recognize students’ broader lives, students can become more engaged in the course and achieve greater academic success.

Below you can find a checklist for composing messages you might consider incorporating to communicate your broad support for students’ lives, in addition to example messages that prior instructors have included in their courses.

It is common for instructors to employ this practice as students complete assessments such as quizzes and exams.

What does this practice look like?

(Kindly provided by Eric Smith & David Yeager)

These guidelines can be used to compose messages of broad support.

Acknowledge. Recognize that students have lives outside the classroom, which can impact their lives within the classroom.
- Sample text: “We acknowledge that many students are facing challenges this semester, either in your personal lives or in your courses. We are working to make the course responsive to each of your needs.”
Connect. Provide students with interactions which have the stated purpose of getting to know them and understanding their interests, values, goals and past experiences.
- Sample text 1: “Know that the entire teaching team makes the time for office hours because we enjoy getting to know you and seeing you grow as leaders in your fields...”
- Sample text 2: “You don’t need to have a specific idea or burning question to come to office hours – come chat about anything on your mind, or show up even when you don’t have anything in particular to discuss.”
Include. Clarify that success in your course is open to all students, with success not solely being defined by final grades but also defined as learning and improving from where they start from.
- Sample text: “We are truly impressed by how much you’ve learned and how much work you’ve done so far, even in the midst of a challenging semester. Just remember we’ve set high expectations for this course because we believe you can go far in your lives and careers, and we are working hard to make the course manageable for you.”
Provide a purpose. Explain that your goal is for them to learn things (information, habits, ways of thinking) that they can use to make a contribution outside of the course, now and/or in the future, and/or use to meet important personal goals in the future
- Sample text 1: “The teaching team is here for you and we want to support you in your college career and beyond.”
- Sample text 2: “We can help you think through how [topic] can be used to address real-world issues you care about.
Be attuned. Give evidence that you are in tune with students’ reality.
- Sample text: “We have talked with students facing uncertain housing situations, unexpected financial challenges, and many other stressors.”
Prove. Say what you have in place to support students, and explain that it is in place because of your care for them as people.
- Sample text: We’ve been really trying to make sure that there are many opportunities to help you with the material and also for us to get to know each of you. For example, hearing what you shared on the surveys throughout the term has been incredibly helpful to us. We care about you and your perspectives and we make changes to the course based on what you have experienced.
Recommend. Share relevant resources with students. Be sure to note that if students can’t get the help they need, you are willing to help guide them and advocate for them.
- Sample text: “We recommend a few resources that many of our students have said they benefited from: [Add links to mental health center, student services, other relevant supports].”
Offer. Emphasize your willingness to continue to be supportive of students’ well-being and success if the available resources are insufficient. Don’t just give students a list of resources and imply that it’s out of your hands.
- Sample text: “If you're ever not getting what you need from these resources, please contact me or the instructional team, and we can figure it out together.”

Tips

Additional components:

Compliment students when possible
Be direct and clear with performance feedback
Signal personal attention to student progress
Clarify that course difficulty is a sign of respect and supports student goals
Offers of help/advice should not feel punitive or only for struggling students- they are intentionally designed supports for all students
Normalize students’ experiences- other students are likely going through similar things

Examples

These examples are adapted from the practice as implemented by TxMI Fellow, Dr. Stacy Sparks.

Following Quiz 1

Spoke with the entire class about improvement: Students were encouraged to review their quiz to see what they missed, thinking about their study methods and how they might try to adapt their study methods to better learn the material in this course.

Following Quiz 2

Sent individualized emails to students who fell into four different categories:

Improvement and Passed: These students improved their quiz score by at least 10% over quiz 1 and scored at least 70% on quiz 2.
High Score: These students earned 85% or better on quiz 2. (If they earned 85% or better AND improved, they got the “Improvement and Passed” email instead of this one.) This was not my targeted audience for improvement, but responses from fall semester emails indicated students were incredibly appreciative of being recognized.
Improved but Did Not Pass: These students who improved their quiz 2 score at least 10% points over their quiz 1 score, but still earned less than 70% on quiz 2.
Non-Passing: These students earned less than 70% on quiz 2. (If they scores <70% but showed improvement, they got the “Improved but Did Not Pass” email instead of this one.)

Improvement and Passed Email

Dear [Student name],

I am writing today because I noticed you dramatically improved on your quiz performance from Quiz 1 to Quiz 2.   Congratulations!  

XXXX is definitely a step up in difficulty from XXXX. I’m sure it took a lot of hard work and persistence to learn the material this thoroughly, especially given the stresses many of us have had to endure over the past few weeks.   

Have a wonderful day.   I look forward to seeing you in class soon!

High Score Email

Dear [Student name],

Congratulations on your excellent score on Quiz 2!

XXXX is definitely a step up in difficulty from XXXX, You have shown a solid understanding of the first half of this unit, which will serve you well as you move on to the next topics.  I’m sure it took a lot of hard work and persistence to learn the material this thoroughly, especially given the stresses many of us have had to endure over the past few weeks.  

Have a wonderful day.   I look forward to seeing you in class soon!

Improved but Did Not Pass Email

Dear [Student Name],

I am writing today because I noticed you dramatically improved on your quiz performance from Quiz 1 to Quiz 2.   Good job!  

XXXX is definitely a step up in difficulty from XXXX.  Based on the improvement in your quiz scores, I am guessing you have been working to adapt your study methods and find the ones that work best for you for our class.  I also know that you would like to continue this improvement.  My encouragement to you is this:  During a normal semester we have just a single exam per unit.  You have a bonus here of having quiz 2 serve as a checkpoint halfway through the unit.  You can certainly improve your understanding of the material and your skills at working these problems!  

The first thing you should do is go through your quiz, see which items you missed, and figure out why you missed them.  We are happy to answer questions about the quiz in any of our office hours.  Additionally, I’ll be doing a review of XXXX at (specify time & place).  Once you get behind or miss one concept, it can seem hard to catch up. The good news is that often it is just one or two misconceptions that might be keeping you from understanding a lot of the material, so it is well worth your time to go back and learn from what you missed.  I have confidence you can do this.  I know it isn’t easy and I know that being online may make it more challenging, but one step at a time you can learn this material fully and greatly improve your problem-solving abilities.

My office hours are Mondays 12:30-1:30 and Tuesdays 3-4.  I switched to these earlier-in-the-week office hours due to student comments last semester, but attendance is much lower than the later-in-the-week office hours.  Use that to your advantage:  these are a great time to get questions answered!  Our office hours are open drop-in times – you do not need to make an appointment; just show up to ask questions and listen to the questions and answers from other students.  The entire list of office hour options is posted as a link on our Canvas page. 

Have a wonderful day.  I look forward to seeing you in class soon on!

Non-Passing Email

Dear [Student name],

I am writing today because you scored below 70% on Quiz 2.

XXXX is definitely a step up in difficulty from XXXXX. On top of that, you may have had to deal with challenges (specify). My encouragement to you is this:  During a normal semester we have just a single exam per unit.  You have a bonus here of having quiz 2 serve as a checkpoint halfway through the unit.  You can certainly improve your understanding of the material and your skills at working these problems!  

The first thing you should do is go through your quiz, see which items you missed, and figure out why you missed them.  We are happy to answer questions about the quiz in any of our office hours.   Additionally, I’ll be doing a review (specify material to be covered, date, time, and location).  Once you get behind or miss one concept, it can seem hard to catch up.  The good news is that often it is just one or two misconceptions that might be keeping you from understanding a lot of the material, so it is well worth your time to go back and learn from what you missed.  I have confidence you can do this.  I know it isn’t easy and I know that being online may make it more challenging, but one step at a time you can learn this material fully and greatly improve your acid-base problem-solving abilities.

My office hours are Mondays 12:30-1:30 and Tuesdays 3-4.  I switched to these earlier-in-the-week office hours due to student comments last semester, but attendance is much lower than the later-in-the-week office hours.  Use that to your advantage: these are a great time to get questions answered!  Our office hours are open drop-in times – you do not need to make an appointment; just show up to ask questions and listen to the questions and answers from other students.  The entire list of office hour options is posted as a link on our Canvas page. 

Have a wonderful day! I look forward to seeing you in class soon!

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