I was 21 years old
when I first stepped into a classroom as a teacher. I was so nervous
about how the students
would perceive me, and so uncertain
about what I was doing that I had precisely
one goal for the first day: Get through it.
I
managed to achieve that modest goal. But over the course of the next couple of
decades of full- time teaching, I have become much more aware of the extent to
which the first day of class sets the tone for everything that follows.
On
that first day, your students are forming a lasting impression not just of you
as a teacher but of your course, too. Their early, thin-slice judgments are
powerful enough to condition their attitudes toward the entire course, the
effort they are willing to put into it, and the relationship they will have
with you and their peers throughout the course.
So
that first class meeting is a big deal. You want to give the students a taste
of the engaging intellectual journey they will undertake in the coming weeks —
and you have great flexibility in how you go about it.
As
you devise your plan, these four principles can help you decide which
activities and approaches will best draw your students into the course and
prepare them to learn.
Too
many courses are presented to students as boxes of content: “British Literature
From 1800 to the Present,” “Inorganic Chemistry,” “Principles of Sociology.” We
walk into the room on the first day of the semester, open this box of knowledge
and skills for the students, hand it over, and expect them to give it back
three months later in the form of an exam. The first class meeting usually
affirms that approach. We tell students all about what we will cover throughout
the semester, even though they might have no particular or prior interest in
our subject matter. The first day is the best day to spark your students’
curiosity.
Instead,
consider the first day as your best opportunity to spark students’ curiosity
and invite them into a fascinating intellectual journey. Highly effective
instructors recollect what first fascinated them about their discipline, pay
attention to what fascinates students today, and make a connection with those
issues at the opening of the semester. Such instructors reflect upon why the
course should matter, and work to convey the significance of its content to
students as well as to their world beyond the classroom.
We
teach human beings who are inspired by wonder, driven toward community, beset
by fears and anxieties, and influenced in countless other ways by aspects of
their lives beyond the purely cognitive. For both you and your students, those
emotions will be at a peak on the first day of the semester, and they can have
a significant influence on what happens in your classroom.
You
can support those emotions on the first day by fostering a sense of community
in the room — even one filled with several hundred students. The intellectual
journey you are taking together comes in the form of a caravan, and while you
might be the leader, you want all of them to contribute to the learning
experiences you will be creating for them. How do you convey that ?
- Humanize yourself to the
students. Talk with as many of them individually as you can, and
provide opportunities for them to meet and communicate with one another.
Humanizing yourself can take the form of humorous asides, occasional
self-disclosure, or a more formally narrated description of your own
intellectual journey.
- Greet each student, if you
can. That’s impossible if your course has an enrollment of 200, but
it’s easily done in a class of 20 or 30. Instead of standing at the front
of the room and calling out students’ names from the roster sheet, get to
class early and walk around, asking students for their names and a fact or
two about themselves. Let them know you’re glad they have joined you for
the semester.
- Giving students the opportunity
to communicate with one another does not have to take the form of the
dreaded icebreaker. Instead, divide students into pairs or small
groups, give them a simple task to complete, and offer a brief injunction
before they start: “Make sure you introduce yourself before you start
talking.”
The
more comfortable the students feel with you and with one another from the
beginning, the more comfortable they will be participating throughout the
semester.
You
don’t have to wait until the second class meeting for students to start
learning in your course. But that doesn’t mean you have to jump right into
content delivery on the first day. Here are two ways to get them learning on
the first day.
- Ask students to try a cognitive
task before they are ready. That’s one of the most effective ways to
spark learning. This trying-before-they’re-ready can take many forms: It
might involve attempting to solve a problem before they have the skills
they need to be successful, or working to complete a challenging task that
they will face again at the end of the course. The idea is to require
students to draw upon whatever knowledge they might bring into the room.
Moreover, the students’ partial or unsuccessful attempts to complete the
task will give you a clear view of the current state of their
understanding — knowledge you can use to shape the opening weeks of the
course.
- Invite students to think about
the course from a metacognitive perspective. (But
don’t
freak them out by using the word “metacognitive.”) In other words: What
kinds
of learning strategies will they have to use in order to be successful in the
course? What kinds of support will they need
from you to make those strategies
work?
Which strategies have been effective, or ineffective, for them in the past?
For example, ask students on the first day to
reflect upon the best and worst
classes
they have taken in your field (or related fields), and to describe what
made
those courses successful for them, or not. Put their responses on the
board. Then invite them each to draw up a list
of individual actions they will need
to
take to do well in the course, and a list of actions they would like to see
taken
by
you and their peers. Those lists can be shared and discussed in class, or
afterward on the learning-management system. Don’t
mistake content delivery
with
teaching and learning. Find ways to engage students in activities that cause
them
to reflect and process.
Whichever
approach you use, the most important element is basic: Set aside a chunk of
class time on that first day for students to engage in cognitive work of some
kind. Writing class? Have them write on the first day. A problem-solving
course? Have them work on a problem. A discussion-based class? Get them
talking. The point is that if you want your students actively engaged in
learning throughout the semester, actively engage them in learning on the first
day.
The
previous three principles will guide you in devising creative, engaging
activities for the opening day. But you can’t ignore the fact that students
will bring a host of expectations — things they will want to know right away —
into the room with them. What shape will the course take? What materials will
they have to buy? What tests, projects, and other assignments will they be
required to complete? Are there any special obligations (such as field trips or
community service) that might differentiate your course from a typical one?
An
important practical reason for answering those questions on the first day is
that not all students who show up will remain enrolled. Although you might be
tempted to take it personally, my experience as an academic adviser suggests
that students tend to switch in and out of courses during the first week
because of logistical issues in their academic and personal lives. A student
might discover on the first day that three of her courses require extensive
amounts of writing, and decide to postpone one of them until next semester, so
as not to be overwhelmed with deadlines. Or a student might switch into another
section after he discovers that you have a required field trip that conflicts
with a family wedding.
So
allot at least some time of Day 1 to outlining the parameters of the course
beyond subject matter: materials, assessments, policies, key dates and
deadlines. You’ll have all of that information handily available to you in the
form of your
carefully constructed syllabus. I don’t
recommend reading the entire syllabus aloud in the first class. Give students
copies in print and online, and then highlight the major elements. Set aside
time for questions. Some teachers give students a no-points syllabus quiz on or immediately after the first day of class,
ensuring that they get familiar with the most important aspects of the course.
To put the four core principles into practice
requires a few practical considerations
before the semester starts. Doing some advance
work to familiarize yourself with the
students, the space, and the technology
available in the classroom will support the
activities you have planned.
The Students
Some
years ago, I planned a first-day activity that asked students to think about
what they had learned in their previous classes. I learned from that experience
the importance of taking a close look at the roster in advance of my planning,
and uncovering whatever I could learn about the students before the semester
began. At my place, the roster lists only the class year and contact details of
each student. But even that basic information helps me understand the level
at which I should pitch the opening of the course, and the kinds of
first-day activities or examples that will resonate with the actual students in
the room, instead of the ones I imagined would be there.
Before you walk in the
room, you should have looked over your class roster, including
reviewing names and
photos if possible.
Being
able to recognize and make connections with students on the first day will go a
long way toward creating that strong sense of community in the course.
When
I was a new teacher, still suffering from an excess of first-day jitters, a
senior faculty member gave me some advice that had always worked to calm his
own nerves. He would go to his new classroom a few days before each semester
and get to know the space. He would make a full walking circuit of the room,
getting himself comfortable with every corner, every angle, every perspective.
That allowed him to teach more confidently on the first day.
I’ve
been following that practice myself ever since — not only in my courses, but
also when I have to give presentations at conferences or on other campuses.
This ritual not only helps alleviate those first-day nerves but also informs me
what kinds of adjustments I am going to have to make that semester for group
work or other class activities. I see how much board space I have, whether the
seats and chairs or table are fixed or have wheels.
Get
a preview of the room before the semester begins. Stand at the front and say a
few words. Write something on the board, then walk to the back of the room or
sit in a seat. Envision yourself in the shoes of your students.
If you plan to use any technology in support
of your teaching — either on the first day or during the semester — you
will, of course, want to test it in advance. How many times have you
sat groaning inwardly while a conference presenter stands at the front of the
room with some technological issue that should have been addressed
before the start of the presentation?
Get into the classroom before the first
day and test everything you might conceivably use throughout the semester. Plug
in your laptop and make sure you know how to ensure it will appear on the
classroom screen. If you’re going to show a video, check the volume. If you’re
going to use activities that require students to use a connected device, ensure
that the room has good wireless connectivity.
And remember that teaching technologies are
not just digital — any tool that will support your teaching counts as
technology. Make sure the board erases, the chairs can be moved, and that you
have a space for your materials at the front of the room.
The Wardrobe Question
Like
it or not, students will notice what you are wearing and how you present
yourself on the first day of class. If you wear casual clothes, encourage
students to call you by your first name, and put the desks in a circle, you are
forming a different impression than if you wear a three-piece suit, and stand
at a podium. Neither of those impressions is necessarily right or wrong, but
they do have implications for the level of authority you project in the
classroom.
Your appearance is
your first impression; make sure it says what you intend for it to say.
Some
faculty members wish to project a strong sense of authority, emphasizing their
expertise and leadership. For them, more-formal attire and forms of address
will support that perception. Others wish to present themselves as informal
guides or companions on the course journey; casual dress and a relaxed
manner can help convey that.
Don’t
think you have to hit all four of the core principles in the first 50 or 75
minutes of the semester (although doing so is less difficult than you might
imagine). Some well-designed activities can allow you to hit two or three at
the same time. The following strategy
demonstrate how a set of well-designed first-day activities can put the
principles into practice.
- After introducing himself/herself,
the teacher offers students the opportunity to ask any question about him/her
they would like. Those questions vary wildly — from whether he/she has
pets, to what would be the outline of the course, or how many years the
teacher is in the profession.
- Then the teacher hands out a
“document packet” of sources related to a single historical event.
- Students are put
into random groups — selected in advance by the instructor
— and asked “to put the sources in the order that makes the most
sense to them, and tell the story the sources supply.” This activity takes
15 to 20 minutes. Afterwards, each group is asked to share their story
with the class.
- No two stories end up alike.
History changes as more sources are found, old ones are re-examined, and
new theories suggest new interpretive frameworks. For the duration of the
term, every student in the class will be a working historian, putting
sources together to understand one part of our collective past.”
- The teacher finishes the day by
distributing the syllabus and assigning students their first homework
assignment: Annotate the syllabus with comments and questions. This serves
dual purpose: allowing the teacher to introduce the skill of
annotation and encouraging a close reading of the syllabus. The teacher
and the students discuss their annotations in the next class session.
Whatever
you do on Day 1 will require some follow-up. Here are three pathways you can
use to extend the reach of your first-day activities.
A
quick and easy way is via your institution’s learning-management system. Record
a brief, informal video to convey your impressions of what students produced or
discussed in class. Show your enthusiasm for a great start, remind them about
any conclusions drawn, and point them to aspects of the course that will
connect to the first-day activities. If you don’t like making videos, do it in
writing. You could supplement both approaches with links to relevant resources,
articles, or videos.
In
either case, finish your response, recorded or written, by pointing forward.
How does what you accomplished on that first day set the stage for what will
happen on the second day, the third, and beyond?
Or,
you can do all of that in person on the second day of class. Produce a
PowerPoint with the key findings from your first meeting. If the students
created a list of activities that would help them succeed in the course, pull
their ideas together into a one-page handout for successful learning.
I
always like to close the course by pointing students back to where we started —
in part, because I like to show them how far they have traveled in their
learning. In my survey course, on the first day we do a group brainstorming
session. On the final day of class, when I show them images from the first day,
they can see how deeply their knowledge has grown.
From the start think
about how to connect the first day to the last day, and vice-versa.
Your
efforts to link back to Day 1 will have the greatest impact if you can show
students visually what they did. So put that on your agenda, too, for the first
class. Take pictures of the board that day. Make copies of worksheets or
surveys they filled out. Keep discussion-board posts or videos preserved
throughout the semester. Now pull those bits of evidence together into a
quick presentation.
Whatever
you do on the first day of class, get beyond the goal of just getting through
it. A little time invested in first-day planning can have a lasting impact.
Start the semester off by fostering students’ curiosity, supporting their
learning, and giving them a preview of how they will be engaging with you and
one another, and with the course content, throughout the
semester.
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