1. Here’s the game plan for Day 2! Let’s go!

2. When you come into class, please do the following immediately:
Welcome to Mrs. McMath’s English class!
When you come into class, please do the following immediately:
Get a book from the classroom library. It can be the same as yesterday or a different one.
Turn in your First Day First Impressions assignment to the black tray at the front. (If you weren’t here yesterday, that’s ok.)
Have a seat in a desk.
Begin reading your book.
If you brought your spiral, put your name inside of it and put it in the correct basket at the back.
If you have a question, write it on a sticky note and put it on my computer screen.
When students walk in, this is what they see. Remember, never more than 3-4 steps each day.
Remember students can always talk to you via the sticky note procedure modeled on the first day.
Make allowances for students who weren’t there the first day.
Be clear about what they should be doing when you come in.
Allow about 10 minutes or more of independent reading time as soon as the bell rings. For any new students, go around and make your personal introductions like you did yesterday.
WHY:
Establish Expectations; Students expect that when they come in the board is going to tell them what to do. Be consistent with that! Also, establish that when you say work is due, you’ll follow through with that expectation.

3. You’ve Got to See...
Instead of book talks, use a movie trailer based on a book. This tells your students that good readers read a book and then go see the movie. And that’s ok! Movies are fun! (Not as good as books though!)
I choose one that I know my students haven’t seen yet. This one works well since I have the book in my classroom library and it comes out later in September.
WHY:
Build Relationships: We love to talk about movies. This gives you a chance on Day 2 to bond over movies.
Establish Expectations: Students know that you’re a reader and you are going to EVERY DAY talk about your own reading with them.
Gather Data: Ask students what other movies based on books they watched over the summer, etc.

4. And now for something completely different
Without talking…
Line up chronologically by birthday
Get in groups based on eye color
Line up alphabetically by last name
Get in groups based on how you got to school today
This isn’t a traditional ice breaker. No one likes ice breakers. Even most teachers don’t like to do them in professional developments. Your students would rather be out catching Pokeman. Not doing trust falls with kids who pick their noses. Be creative. How can you get students to INTERACT without the ol’ two truths and a lie or get-to-know-you bingo.
In this exercise, students use non-verbal communication to collectively accomplish a challenge. Let the board explain! No lengthy directions!
After they complete a task I encourage them and their hard work, establishing that I’m their cheerleader along the way! You can challenge them to compete against the “times” other classes completed the tasks in, or just do it for fun.
WHY:
Build Relationships: They work together to accomplish a task and are forced to interact in the process. This is often the first step in a relationships between students.
Establish Expectations: Establish that much of our communication this year will be nonverbal. We will have to be experts at reading each other.
Gather Data: Who are your leaders? Your innovators? Your competitors? Your followers? This exercise will definitely highlight those.

5. Sports Aliens Video games Siblings Books Music Movies Christmas
It’s a Date
With your partner, spend 60 seconds talking about...
Sports
Aliens
Video games
Siblings
Books
Music
Movies
Christmas
Fast food
Traveling
Form a chain where each student is facing a student. This can be seated at desks or standing.
Put each topic on the board while students discuss anything they want about the topic. If you hear some lulls, throw out a question that sparks more conversation. (114 seconds is my chosen amount of date time because my room number is 114.)
After each topic, students move to their next partner in the chain. Any number of “partner finding” transitions would work if you don’t prefer the chain method.
You can participate in this or be gathering data as you listen to students’ conversations.
WHY:
Build Relationships: This forms a memory between two students who might have spent the entire year never talking to each other. So if you learn nothing else about that peer, you at least know that he believes in aliens. It’s a start.
Establish Expectations: Students know that you expect cooperative learning.
Gather Data: Listening to the student conversations gives you more info about your students.

6. Boy Poet Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZydRFvgTg
I introduce this by asking my students if they would rather study nouns or spend time writing about anything they want. When the overwhelming majority chooses self-selected writing, I show them this video.
I ask what we know about Max. Eventually someone says he probably reads a lot. We discuss that we are not only readers, but in turn, writers in this class. And we will write creatively rather than listening to lectures about nouns. Because there are better ways to teach writing.
WHY:
Build Relationships: When you share your own philosophy of teaching writing, students can connect with you and start building that relationships. By sharing your own personal feelings and goals about what they’ll be learning, you’ve started that connection.
Establish Expectations: You’re setting the tone for how writing instruction will be handed.
Gather Data: In the discussion about Max, see which students participate if you choose a whole-class discussion. If you have them talk with a partner, observe and gather data about their responses. Which students make that automatic connection between good writing and being a reader?

7. Sentence + Picture Telephone
A cow jumped over the moon.
A bald man wore a horse hat.
Back up what you just said with this writing exercise. It’s just like the old game telephone, but with writing and drawing.
Arrange students so they can easily pass a paper in a snake like way throughout the room. Use the example on the board to explain that everyone will write a creative sentence. They’ll pass their sentence to the next person who will draw a picture of the sentence. Then they must fold the paper down to cover up the sentence so that only the picture shows. When they pass it to the next person, that person will write a sentence describing the picture they interpret. I encourage students that the worse their drawing skills are, the better sentences that makes!
Continue for around 10 minutes. At the end return the papers to the original writers. Volunteers can read some of the silly progressions. This is a good final activity for the day since as you monitor the clock you can have it be as long or short as you like.
This is an exercise I ALWAYS do with them!
WHY:
Build Relationships: Students being silly together is a great bonding experience!
Establish Expectations: Students know that you expect cooperative learning.
Gather Data: Identiy some students who are naturally gifted at creative writing or drawing. The looser type of activity this is lends itself to telling you which classes can currently handle less structure.