If you are like me, you might be starting the second semester which means planning your first week of class activities. Having to start over can be a great thing but at the same time, you just don’t have that same excitement that the beginning of the year brings. So, what better way to get back some of that joy than having your first week of lessons planned for you? Maybe you have already started your second semester but haven’t really dived into your first unit. Wherever you are at the beginning of the semester planning, think smart, not hard, and steal my ideas for the first five days so you don’t have to think about what you are teaching for a week!
Need something ready to go immediately because you are frantically searching for something right now? Friend, I have you covered. Check out my First Day Class Activities Stations. In this print or digital resource, students will be allowed to choose how they get to know about your class and how they share about themselves with you as the teacher. Each station includes easy-to-use directions, links to necessary paperwork, templates, printables, and examples of these activities on the first day of school. Even if you have already started your class, you could use these stations as a great end of week getting to know you activity. The slides can be customized to your needs! Now that you have the first day planned, keep reading to see the first five days of lessons that I teach my students.
Surviving the First Week of School
Feeling the Teacher Burnout
Why is January so much more complex than August? I can think of several reasons why the second semester never feels the same. Every January, when the second semester starts, I feel overwhelmed and tired. Oh so tired! The thought of having to start over with my classes, train my students on my expectations, and build new relationships with 60-70 students feels like too much. Plus, where I live it is dark, cold, and bleh! Not great for this sun-loving, heat-seeking teacher. We are about to enter the dark days my friends… I don’t mean the daylight-deprived mornings; I mean the hardest months of teaching. Are you feeling the same way? Is that joy-stealing burnout nipping at your nose? (Oh to be back in the Christmas season). If you think this way too, you are not alone!
Finding Teacher Motivation
So, if we are all staring out our windows praying for sunlight and warmth, how do we get ourselves in good head space? Finding that teacher motivation in these months is a challenge! However, I know that thinking smart, not hard is the way to go. Think about the fact that we are starting over as a positive! We have already completed a test run of our curriculum in the fall. That means we have a great idea of what works and doesn’t work. We don’t need to plan day by day because we have an outline to follow.
I think having lesson plans and ideas ready to go is what makes life so much easier in these months! Knowing that I can refer to my notes and agendas from the first semester and take what I need makes my life easier. And easier is what we need for teacher motivation this month! Even better, I’m sharing with you what I do my first five days so you can take those lessons and implement them right away. Keep reading below to see how I start my second semester!
First Week of English Class Activities
Day #1: First Day of Class Activities Stations
Repeat after me: “Stations Are My Friends!” We all know that the first day of the new semester is a tough one. Trying to share the expectations of the course, learn about your students, and bring that Razzle Dazzle is exhausting. Especially if you are the one doing all the work! That’s why I switched to the first day of class stations. Now I introduce myself, share about each station, and let my kiddos do the work.
Here are my first day of class stations:
- Canva Creation: Have students create a Getting to Know You Profile slide on Canva to help them share about themselves. We want to get to know our students and learn all of their names quickly but more importantly, we want to make connections with them.
- Syllabus Signing: Students will scan a QR Code with my Meet the Teacher pdf and they can look over all the important information. Once students know what I expect, I have them scan a QR code for my Syllabus Google Form where they will answer questions about my expectations and then sign (write their name as consent for their understanding of my expectations). I now have all my student signatures in one Google Sheets area for future reference.
- First Day of Class Selfie: High school students love taking selfies and I wanted to give them a chance to take a cheesy “First Day of School” pic and use me as an excuse for why they are doing something so lame. We all know they secretly love these types of pics but don’t want to admit it. I challenge my students to do something in the picture that shows off their personality so I get to know them even better.
- Wonders and Worries: Creating a “Wonders & Worries” Digital Box is a great way to allow students to showcase their voices with no repercussions. Not all of my students are going to be outgoing and I wanted to give them a place to share their thoughts and ideas too. This “Wonders & Worries” box asks students to scan a QR code and complete a Google Form where they can share their thoughts on this school year, this class, or me as a teacher.
- DJ Station: At this station, students will add song suggestions (school appropriate of course) that I will consider adding to our class playlist. Once again, I use a Google form for simplicity, and because they know their name will be attached to it, hopefully, no inappropriate song suggestions.
- Classroom Expectations: In this station, allow students to create a list of classroom expectations. Students can focus on anything: behavior, procedures, seating, etc. Classroom ownership is so important for high school kiddos. They feel like they are adults but most of the time get no say in most of their day. By giving them a chance to add expectations that they think are fair will allow them to feel like this is their community. I also tend to find that students set harsher rules and regulations than I normally have for my classroom.
- Crafting and Creating: This station is all about creativity. Think of this station as your mom’s craft room. Bring in markers, glitter, stickers, Play-Doh, colored paper, paint, and anything else you have lying around. Their only task: create something. Once they are done, ask them if you can snap a pic of it or better yet, keep it displayed in your classroom. Make them feel proud that you love what they created.
I promise you that these stations will fill your time and you will have done 5% of the work. Not bad for your first day! Remember that even if your first day has come and gone, you can use these activities at the beginning of the semester as a getting-to-know-you-and-the-class kind of day.
Want to learn more about how I implement this first day of class activities? Check out my 7 Amazing Activities for the First Day of Class in High School blog post.
Day #2: Ted Talks The Danger of a Single Story
Today is all about critical thinking and the purpose of my course. First, I want to establish why we do what we do in my English class before we get started with what we are going to learn. My English 10 courses are considered World Literature so I take some time having students consider what it means to think about other voices, ideas, and perspectives outside of our experience. This lesson is all about perception, identity, and allowing other voices in. I use Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ted Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” to spur our discussion.
Here’s my “The Danger of the Single Story” Lesson Plan:
1. Perception Journal Prompt: I love having my students start off the day writing about what they know best: themselves. I ask them to write about how they want to be perceived and how others perceive them. The focus is on the difference between those two ideas, and how we try to place others in a category without knowing them.
2. Starburst Identity Chart: Facing History has a great resource called the Starburst Identity Chart. The handout has arrows pointing in and out of the center. Students place their names in the middle of the chart. Arrows pointing outward are the traits, values, and characteristics that students want to be known for. The arrows pointing inward are the ways that people make judgments or place labels on the student. Without sharing the specifics, we then chat about how dangerous and frustrating the labels placed on us can be.
3. “The Danger of a Single Story” Ted Talk: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” is a powerful speech. Adichie discusses how if we only believe one story that we have read or heard, we will become close-minded and shut off. While students are listening to the Ted Talk, I have them complete Sketchnotes to keep them focused. Students can create a list, write sentences, or draw pictures to help connect what they are hearing to these questions. After the video, students have a chance to chat in small groups about what they added to their Sketchnotes. We then discuss Adichie’s message as an entire group. Students have three prompts on this graphic organizer:
How does Adichie describe herself?
How do others describe Adichie?
What is Adichie’s message for her Ted Talk?
4. “The Danger of a Single Story” Writing: Since we are just starting the semester, I want to check in on my students’ writing to find a baseline for our work this year. I prompt my students to write a well-developed paragraph focusing on the message that Adichie shares in her Ted Talk.
Day #3: Short Story Introduction
Now that students know the purpose of our course, we are ready to start our first unit: Short Stories. This unit will only last a few days because in 9th grade, my English students spend lots of time analyzing short stories for different purposes. Furthermore, I want to just take time to review the literary elements and focus more on their constructed response writing.
1.“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Short Story First Reading: We start by reading “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. This story is written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The story focuses on a couple Pelayo and Elisenda who find a destitute old man with wings. Thinking he is the angel of death coming for their sick child, they lock him in the chicken coop. The next day, the entire village comes to stare at the man and Pelayo and Elisenda realize they can make money off this attraction. As people from all over come to visit the old man with wings, they treat him horribly by throwing things at him, stealing his feathers for healing, and even burning him with a brand to see if he is still alive. Pelayo and Elisenda become rich and built a mansion. The man does get to move out of the old chicken coop when it falls down which allows him to finally heal his wings and escape.
I have each student decide if they want to mark up the short story digitally or printed. Students who want to use their iPads move the pdf of the short story to an app such as Notability so they can mark up the text. I have printed copies for students who want a physical copy to read. Next, I have students choose one color and mark it at the top of their color-coded key. This color will represent the elements of the plot. We quickly review the plot diagram so that students are refreshed on what they are searching for in the story. As I read the story, students mark up the six elements of the plot. Once I finish reading, I give students time to search for these elements because some students just like to listen to the story before they start highlighting.
2. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Plot Kahoot: Once students have marked up the text, we do a quick comprehension check by playing “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” Kahoot. Next, students answer multiple-choice questions about the plot to see if they understand the story. If you have not used Kahoot before, it has a free basic version that allows students to compete against each other as they answer the questions projected on your screen. I always reward the top five candy so they are more motivated to answer the questions and do their best.
3. Plot Diagram: Now that I know that students have marked up the text and have some idea of what happened in the story, we move on to the plot diagram. Students use my Plot Diagram for a Story graphic organizer. Next, students will work in small groups of 2-3 to find the most important part of the story for each plot element. They will also need to find a cited example from the text to support their answer. After 15 minutes, we come together as a class to complete the plot diagram graphic organizer together. We debate any student response that differs and I allow the class to vote on what they think is the most important part.
4. Literary Elements Review Part #1: We are now ready to start reviewing literary elements. First, I have taken the top nine most common literary elements and created a Literary Elements Bundle just for you. I have included mini-lessons for each element and graphic organizers as well. We spend the rest of the day reviewing some of the literary elements and completing graphic organizers as a group.
We focus on:
First, I ask students to take out another color highlighter. At the top of their color-coded key, we mark this color as “Literary Elements”. For each activity, I first use the definition handout for each term as a review. Next, students then highlight an example(s) of that literary element in their story. Finally, we complete the graphic organizer as a class.
Day #4: Literary Elements in a Story
Today, we continue working on the literary elements review using the story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”. I ask students to take out their second color highlighter that we started using yesterday. We are going to continue to search for literary elements in the story. If you want ready-to-go review handouts and graphic organizers with an answer key for the short story “Dead Men’s Path”, check out my Literary Elements Bundle.
1. Mood & Tone Lesson Plan: Even though mood and tone are two separate literary elements, I find that it helps students to teach them together. We start with finding the mood of the story with cited examples using my Mood graphic organizers. The mood is always easy to start with because it is based on how the reader feels.
Once we have established the mood, we move on to tone. It takes more time for the students to understand that tone focuses on how the story is presented. I have created a Tone Word handout that separates the tone words into positive or negative tones to help them see the difference between tone and mood. Too often the same words can be used and that is confusing to students. We then complete this Tone graphic organizer as a class.
2. Characterization: We focus next on studying the protagonist of the story. I find that using the S.T.E.A.L. method works best because it covers the main parts of characterization and is easy to remember. First, we review characterization together and then complete this Characterization in a Short Story graphic organizer as a class.
Here are the main parts we examine:
- Speech: What significant thing does the protagonist say?
- Thoughts: What does the character believe?
- Effect on Others: How do the other characters react to the main character?
- Actions: What is one significant action that the main character does that impacts the story?
- Looks: How is the character physically described?
3. Author’s Style: Examining the ways in which an author writes their story is an essential skill found in the standards. We first discuss several examples of different author styles to help students see what we look for when analyzing this literary element. We then worked together to find the author’s style using my Author Style Lesson Plan graphic organizers. In these handouts, we examine diction, details, voice, and syntax to determine the overall style of the piece.
4. Symbolism in a Short Story: Finding symbols in a short story is our next literary elements focus. We first discuss all the different types of symbols commonly found in literature. Then, we examine a few different symbols from the text and discuss what they represent in the story. We use this symbolism in a short story mini-lesson to look at the common symbols and find our own in the story.
Day #5: Writing Literary Analysis
Now that we have reviewed the main elements, we are ready to write our first literary analysis paragraph. For my students, this is a new skill that we will continue to work on for the whole semester. We will focus on writing a theme analysis paragraph because I find theme to be a good starting place for analysis.
1. Themes in Lit: We start off class today discussing the definition of a theme. I want to give students a simple method for identifying a theme as they read. We first discuss the difference between a theme subject and a theme statement. Most students think that theme subjects are themes but they are just the starting point for finding a theme. We also reference a list of common theme subjects to help us get started. Check out my Themes in Lit graphic organizers that we use for this lesson.
2. Finding Theme in a Story Story: Students need to take out their “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” short story. They will also need a third color highlighter for today. They will label this color “Theme” in their color-coded key. We then start by deciding on a theme subject as a class for our theme graphic organizer. After we decide on a theme subject, we work together to create a theme statement. Once we have a theme statement, we then go back into the story to highlight examples of the theme in our third color. We then complete a theme graphic organizer with our cited examples.
3. Writing Literary Analysis Mini Lesson: Since my students have not written literary analysis yet, we start by discussing the levels of analysis.
- Level #1 Analysis: Summary of what can be found directly in the text.
- Level #2 Analysis: Inferences made from the text that help support the main argument of the writing
- Level #3 Analysis: Synthesis of the inferences made to connect the text to larger implications
We then use an example analysis paragraph to highlight and identify the three levels of analysis in a paragraph. We also break down each student in the paragraph to understand each sentence’s purpose in an analysis paragraph. Check out my Writing Literary Analysis resource for this ready-to-go lesson. We are now ready to write our own literary analysis paragraph.
4. Short Story Literary Analysis Paragraph: We are now ready to write our first literary analysis paragraph. We use the Analysis Paragraph Elements handout to write out each sentence together. Furthermore, we already have our theme statement which becomes our topic sentence. Also, we have our evidence so the main focus will be the analysis sentences. I have students try their own analysis sentences first and then we pick the best ones to add to the paragraph. By the end, each student has a great literary analysis paragraph example that they can reference when they write their own analysis paragraphs.
How to Differentiate These First Week of Classroom Activities
Here are a few ways you can adapt this lesson to fit your students’ needs:
Adjustment #1: Varying Story Reading Levels
Want to accommodate your students’ individual reading needs? You can adjust these lessons by providing a different story for your students to read. Want to make it less obvious that students are reading varying texts? Complete this first week of class activities in small groups instead of a class. Check-in with each group to go over their responses and confirm they are on track with their reading comprehension and writing.
Adjustment #2: Literary Elements Jigsaw
Instead of working altogether for all of the literary elements mini-lesson, assign students different literary elements. Assign a literary element that fits your student’s reading level and ability. Once students have been assigned a literary element, have students work with like-assigned literary elements to complete their graphic organizers. Once they complete their graphic organizers, they can present their ideas to the class so that students end up with the answers to all the literary elements.
Adjustment #3: Independent Literary Analysis
Think your students can handle more of a challenge with their first literary analysis paragraph? You can challenge students to find their own theme and their own examples, and complete their own analysis. Once students submit their paragraphs, provide feedback and have students rewrite their paragraphs to improve their analysis writing.
More First Week of Class Ideas
How to Teach Literary Elements in a Story in an Engaging Way
How to Create a Fun and Thrilling Short Story Lesson for High School
Want an Outstanding First Day of School Activity for Your High School Students?
How to Set Up a Writer’s Notebook for the School Year Effectively
Whether you are starting off the school year or a new semester, I hope you can take my first five days of lessons to make your first week a little easier. I would love to hear what new ways you use these ideas for your first week. If you have some new ideas or new ways for your first week of lessons, tag me or send me a DM @theteacherrewrite on Instagram. You can always see what other great things I am working on in my classroom by checking out my blog. If you do decide that you want to start using these strategies right away check out my First Day Class Activities and my Literary Elements Bundle resources so you can start tomorrow. Let’s make your first week of class activities the best yet!
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