All-Purpose Needs Check

Students share and vote on their learning needs and expectations for a course or lesson using a four-quadrant board.

Procedure

1. Explain that you want to confirm or identify students' needs to make the course as useful as possible.
2. Draw two intersecting lines on the board. Write "Speaking," "Listening," "Writing," and "Reading" in the four quadrants (or other headings relevant to the course).
3. Ask a volunteer student to write suggestions on the board in the appropriate quadrant. Encourage them to hand off to another student after a while.
4. Students call out items for the volunteer to write down. Don't correct language — focus is on communication.
5. When each quadrant has a list, students raise hands to vote for the main items they need as you call them out.
6. Discuss results. If doing this for a whole course, prepare a course outline reflecting the decisions and distribute it next lesson.

Tips

• Use early in the course (even the first meeting) to help plan content and establish priorities.
• Can also be done mid-course to adjust the current course while it's ongoing.
• Digital alternative: use a tool like Padlet with columns instead of quadrants.
• For voting, tools like Mentimeter or Poll Everywhere work well.
• Remind students of any exam-related or advertised course focus if needed.