COLLEGE TEACHING, 58: 39–42, 2010 Copyright C  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 8756-7555 print DOI: 10.1080/87567550903245631 ARTICLES Initiating Student-Teacher Contact Via Personalized Responses to One-Minute Papers Gale M. Lucas Northwestern University Teachers have used many different techniques in efforts to augment engagement given the strong engagement-learning link. Teacher-student contact is one of the most effective tools for fostering engagement; however, some teachers find it hard to initiate contact in a way that seems natural. I present one method of initiating student-teacher contact: replying individually by e-mail to students’ concerns raised in one-minute papers. I argue that, although this technique may require a greater time-commitment, the effort is worthwhile; it allows teachers to gauge and address students’ misunderstandings effectively, and, at the same time, it can help teachers to establish contact with students in large classes or with quieter students and even help uncertain teachers to establish contact in a natural way. Keywords: one-minute paper, student-teacher contact, technology, student learning, teaching techniques Student engagement is perhaps the most obvious predictor of learning (Kuh 2003, 25); students’ learning increases to the extent that they engage with and thus study the material. Although various techniques have been adopted in hopes of increasing student engagement, quality student-teacher con- tact is one way to increase student engagement; besides fos- tering engagement, this contact can be life-altering for the student (Kuh 2003, 29). Students’ lives can be transformed by discussing their career plans with faculty or working with faculty on outside projects. However, instigating student- teacher relationships in order to develop them to this point is not always easy; indeed, for some teachers, especially tenta- tive or new teachers, the initiation of contact is hard. Even seasoned teachers can sometimes have difficulty approach- ing quiet students or establishing student-teacher contact in larger classes. Making personalized responses to one-minute papers offers a solution to this difficulty. The one-minute paper is one of the most widely used tech- niques across various types of higher education classrooms (e.g., Chizmar and Ostrosky 1998, 3; Cross & Angelo 1993, Correspondence should be sent to Gale M. Lucas, Northwestern Uni- versity, Department of Psychology, Swift Hall 102, 2029 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208, USA. E-mail: g-lucas@northwestern.edu 152 & 370–1; Davis 2001, 350; Davis, Wood, & Wilson 1983, suggestion 95; Kloss 1993, 62–3; Stead 2005, 119). In this task first reported by Davis, Wood, and Wilson (1983, suggestion 95) and popularized by Cross & Angelo (1993, 148–53), students take a small amount of time at the end of class to answer questions such as “what was the most impor- tant thing you learned today?” and/or “what question remains unanswered?” (different variations on these questions have also been used; Cross & Angelo 1993, 370–1; Davis 2001, 350; Kloss 1993, 62–3; Mosteller 1989, 10–21; Stead 2005, 119–20). Traditionally, teachers have found this low-effort, low-cost technique (Cross & Angelo 1993, 148; Kloss 1993, 60; Nilson 2003, 193; Stead 2005, 126) to be useful for tak- ing attendance (Davis et al. 1983, suggestion 95; Stead 2005, 120), for confirming that students understood the lecture’s main points and, if they did not, for identifying issues that need to be addressed during the next class to correct these misunderstandings (Cross & Angelo 1993, 148; Davis 2001, 56 & 350; Davis et al. 1983, suggestion 95; Kloss 1993, 60– 1; Nilson 2003, 142; Stead 2005, 120). This technique was also originally designed to encourage active listening and improve students’ writing (Davis et al. 1983, suggestion 95; Cross & Angelo 1993, 153; see also Hobson & Schafermeyer 1994, 425; Wilson 1986, 199; Stead 2005, 119–120). Em- ploying the one-minute paper can provide additional benefits