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A Fantastic First Day in Secondary ELA

It’s the first day of high school.  As a student, you meet anywhere from 4-8 teachers that day.  Everyone is the same - they greet you, seat you, read the rules to you, and regurgitate their boring, overpopulated syllabus to you.  High school is obviously a BORE!  

Although it took me several years to understand, I’m now a firm believer in classroom first impressions.  Your first day of class should set the tone for YOUR classroom for the rest of the year.  If you are not a “stand in front of the room and lecture” kind of teacher, don’t be that teacher on the first day!  If you want your students to be able to interact with each other throughout the year, a silent first day is not the way to go.  

My Freshmen & Sophomore English classes are communal daily. There is always instruction, inquiry, practice, collaboration, assessment, and reflection. Even though the first day comes with its required “housekeeping,” there is no reason the structure can’t mimic a typical day in your classroom.  Here is how I do it. 

Greet students the door

Greeting students is not only a way to create a warm, loving environment, its also mandatory at many schools.  On the first day of school, I shake every student’s hand and ask their name.  This creates the culture I desire - one that accepts students and shows that I’m truly interested in them. 

Have a Collaborative Do Now! Activity Posted

Students will see a Do Now! activity daily when they enter my classroom, so why not set the tone early?  By implementing this on the first day, it provides me the opportunity to mention in passing that there will be an assignment posted daily that should be completed as soon as students enter the room.  I also get the opportunity to praise those who recognized that there was an assignment and started it without direct direction from me.  Throughout the year, my Do Now! activities focus on grammar, vocabulary, or writing instruction, but on the first day, I plan a low-stakes, collaborative activity.  Making nameplates is a fun way to get students out of their desks (to get supplies) and brainstorming with each other (for some of the requirements).  

Get my nameplate instructions and template on TPT!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/All-About-You-Nameplate-4710179  

Another benefit of the nameplates:  I have students put their nameplates on their desks for the first couple weeks of school so I can memorize them.  

Walk Around the Room

While students complete their nameplates, I walk around the room (something I do in my class without fail - I’m not a “front of the room” kind of teacher).  I take roll by checking their nameplates, I ask questions about the symbols they chose to represent themselves; I try to make a connection to each student.  AND...I take notes on those interactions.  A short conversation now can give me tidbits of information that help me remember students’ names and can provide a connection between the student and myself in the future.

The Must-Do’s

Unfortunately, my school requires teachers to read certain pages out of the handbook each period on the first day.  I try to sandwich those “housekeeping” tasks in between MY plans.  That way, I’m doing what the administration wants, but I’m not sacrificing the establishment of my classroom culture. 

Syllabus Overview

I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH - DO NOT SPEND TIME ON CLASSROOM RULES & PROCEDURES ON THE FIRST DAY!  

No high school student wants to sit through that 4-8 times on the first day of school!  I have a Rules & Procedures Scavenger Hunt that I give students on the 2nd or 3rd day of class that gets them moving around the classroom while discovering my policies & procedures. That said, students need to know a little bit about you and the supplies needed for the class.  Years ago, I abandoned my dated, text-only syllabus and crafted a graphic, creative syllabus each year. 

Comment below if you’d like to receive a FREE link to my Canva-created syllabus to edit for yourself!

I spend a few minutes going over those items plus my expectations for the class. NO MORE THAN 10 MINUTES - OR YOU WILL LOSE THEM! As the first grade of the class, I ask students to read the rest of the syllabus for homework and bring it back signed the next class period.  This encourages students and parents to read through the syllabus on their own and that means you don’t have to waste precious time reading it to them!  Want to take it a step further?  Create a quick Google Form to quiz them on the important points on the syllabus the next class period!

Assignment

Whether or not you have time to complete an assignment of the first day of school will depend on the length of your class period.  If you have 80 minutes or more, you may opt for a quick assignment to peak student interest and set the pace of learning for your classroom.  My go-to first-day assignment is the reverse poem, “Lost Generation” by Jonathan Reed.  (Assignment coming to TPT soon!)  In the first reading, students read the poem top to bottom and it sounds as though the poet has no hope in his generation.  If read from bottom to top, the tone of the poem completely changes.  This is one of my favorite assignments of the entire year and one of the most memorable assignments for my students.  It piques their interest because the reverse nature of the poem completely blows their mind.  I also use this to begin introducing basic annotation techniques, including my annotation kits (blog post on those coming soon).

Wrap Up

With any time left after the assignment, I work in a casual whole-class discussion about the poem and about how they can relate it to their generation. To reflect, we talk about the discussion process and my expectations for future discussions including how they individually contributed to the discussion.  

In conclusion, not only does this planning set the pace of your classroom, but it also takes the focus off of you.  I realized early in my career that a room of 33 teenagers staring at you can be intimidating.  This approach allows me to mingle with my students more individually on the first day of school and takes some of the first-day jitters away from me. 

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