The 3-day workshop I am attending this week has given me so many ideas that I want to use the first day with my students that I think I'm going to have to keep them there for about 12 hours!
A word of warning: I don't spend time on routines and procedures--my students know the expectations and all but 2 or 3 know me. Here's my list for the first couple of days (I'll have the kids for 100 minutes/day): Overview of Routines--lockers only before class, agendas signed at end of day, water okay, washroom sign out, I'll begin lesson 5 minutes after bell to come in after lunch (5 minutes) Placemat Activity—Rules for group discussion Read Aloud: The Three Wishes (4-day lesson plan focus on inferring, asking questions, summarizing) Personal Inventory Multiple Intelligences Survey What makes good writing—sticky activity Begin to decorate Writers’ Notebook covers Introduce Moodle and LiveBinder DRA Reading Survey Introduce Reading Response Journals and complete first entry
Mrs. C, what a great first day! I teach 7/8 reading. Would I be familiar with "The Three Wishes"? Is it in your textbook? Thanks for the info!
Typed wrong--should be "The Three Questions"--a picture book by Jon Muth based on Leo Tolstoy's short story. A good basis for setting classroom climate as well as the focus on reading strategies. If you'd like me to send you my 4-day plan PM me you email address.
Ask the question: What makes good writing? Students write their ideas (single words or phrases) on sticky notes and each group posts their stickies on chart paper. They then sort the stickies into groups or categories and try to name their categories. We'll follow up with a whole class discussion. We'll revisit this later in the week to start to develop Learning Targets for writing.
Mrs. C, you're one of those teachers who make kids want to grow up and become teachers!!! Sounds like a lot of fun!
I always start with so many ideas and then my brain fries in the first week and I forget everything. I try to make a running list of strategies I can use when I am burnt out and just silent reading and answering questions sounds like a good idea every day. (Which it is, sometimes.)
Oh no...one more day of workshop and 4 more ideas to add to my first week list! (Although, it is nice to have the problem of too much and not enough).
Yes, the "Shakespearean insults" will be saved for one of those days when we've been stuck inside for too many days in a row because of the weather. (curriculum connections: vocabulary, work solving skills, oral language, punctuation, tone of voice, awareness of audience)
Personally, when I do this, I give the students a bunch of words that Shakespeare used in his insults, adjectives and nouns, and then they have to make up a phrase "You (adj) (adj) (noun)" Then they have to look up the words to see what they mean. Then I have them look for insulting phrases in whatever text we are reading.
I'm not sure of the details. But Cathy types up a list of, I don't know, a dozen or so insults from a variety of Shakespearian works. The kids have use them on teachers. (Yes, they're mostly smart enough to choose the right situation, and most are so embarassed they ask first.) The teachers sign off on the assignment. It's just so very funny.
The one I have is similar to what silverspoon described--3 columns of about 20 words each, the first two columns are adjectives and the third a noun. The students need to choose a word from each column to create an "insult" (e.g. "You are a twangling, cony-catching puke-stocking") . At my workshop this week, we went around the circle, with each of us giving and getting an insult. It leads to much laughter!
I'm in the same place. At this point I have so many good startup ideas that if I use them all I won't actually teach any subject matter until October.
Gee, shucks! I like to have fun and I want my students to have fun too. Don't get me wrong, there is lots of hard work that happens in my class and I have high expectations, but there's lots of laughter as well.
