We’ve all been there. It’s the first day of school and we are looking at 150-220+ new students and we have to send home the disclosure statement and go through the syllabus. But is that really the best first day lesson we could be giving?
First Day Impressions Matter
Don’t you want to stand out in the sea of rules and signatures and forms students receive on the first day of school? I know I do.
That is why I always start the year with a lesson that makes the first day fun and gives students a preview of what my class will be like. I’ve wrote about my first day lesson plan for my mythology classes before, so now I am going to share how I start my ELA classes and what my first day lesson plan is.
PS - I love baseball
One thing I love to do is watch baseball games. I love the ball parks, the fans, the food, the smell of the grass, and the sound of the bat when it hits the ball for a homerun.
To share a little bit of what I love, my first day lesson is to have students choose their own walk-up song. If you didn’t know, baseball players will choose a song that plays as they walk out to bat or for relief pitchers to walk out to. Fans and players love it!
Check out this video to see what I mean.
But we need to teach Literary Analysis in the First Day Lesson
While I want this to be a fun activity, I also want to teach something. So I use video clips of walk-up songs to teach tone and mood. Students watch the videos and identify, then analyze the tone and mood of the music and the lyrics.
I feel like this helps students get a feel for what kind of teacher I am and what class work is like in my class.
During the lesson they will work in partners and in small groups. Within the lesson plan, I embed teaching the routines and procedures of getting into groups.
After they watch videos and discuss the tone and mood in the songs, students get the opportunity to choose their own walk-up song. Of course they need to be school-appropriate songs. 😉
After choosing their song, students analyze the lyrics and write about the tone and mood of their song.
Lesson Plan + Literary Analysis + Routines and Procedures + Baseball = Engaged Students!
I’ve done all the work for you and found the video for you as well. You can purchase the lesson plan and student notes on TPT.
Building Community
All this to be said – the best part of this lesson is the community I get to build in my class. I learn a lot about the students through their song choice and responses to the questions.
But the magic really happens throughout the year. I usually have 40-42 students and over the course of the year, about every other day, I play a student’s walk-up song as they come into class and get settled and work on the starter. I’ll share information about students from their getting to know you survey as well.
Try it out in your class!
