Memo to Teachers: Shake Up the First Day of School

Examiner column for August 26.

    Have you forgotten the anxiety of the first day of school? The fitful sleep of the night before--worrying about friends, what you’ll wear, your new teachers? All this is followed by a day where teachers enumerate rules, expectations, and details about what you can and can’t do during the coming months. Bummer.

    My high school students often confided that the first day was such a sleep-deprived blur, they never could remember all the “essential” information thrown at them by teachers and principals. After more than a decade of playing along with the typical first day scenario, my teaching partner and I decided to shake it up. We created a hands-on activity based on summer reading, and postponed talk of rules and textbooks until the second or third day. Our lesson became the talk of the lunchroom!

            The three-hour activity was based on George Orwell’s “1984,” assigned as summer reading. We replicated each of Orwell’s repressive four ministries and divided the class in fourths so they could pass through each one in small numbers.

            Keeping in mind that Orwell’s ministries are the opposite of what they seem, the Ministry of “Plenty” asks students to become the College of William and Mary admissions committee, faced with choosing between several equally qualified candidates. In the Ministry of “Peace” students write and talk about famous quotations on war. In the Ministry of “Love,” where characters are tortured, students brainstorm a list of ways they feel “tortured” on the first day of school. And in the Ministry of “Truth,” where Winston and Julia rewrite history according to government whim, students recount a painful school experience, then rewrite it so it has a happy ending.

            Students love many aspects of this activity. Instead of the teacher being the focus the first day, students are the focus. They are able to share their writings and ideas—especially welcome on a day when they simply want to get to know one another. Students are allowed to admit that the start of school can seem like torture. Plus, they can rewrite an embarrassing experience and discover that others have experienced similarly mortifying moments, just aching for a “do over.”

            The academic plus of the “Four Ministries” lesson is that it reinforces the scary warnings of “1984.” As fun as it might be to rewrite history, students are aware of the dangers of fictionalizing experience. Choosing who will be accepted to an elite Virginia school shows them how competitive college admission can be, how difficult it is to ration something in scarce supply--and how misleading the title “plenty” is.

            Every teacher can craft a lesson that taps into students’ desire for sociability on the first day, and their limited attention spans given all the anxieties associated with the new school year. And the lesson needn’t be a gimmick, like the “name game,” divorced from learning. The key is to make the day active, social, and student-centered—with no lists of rules to dampen the upbeat mood. (There will always be time for rules and expectations the following day.)

            Ultimately, your students may even look forward to the coming year in your classroom—a gift without equal.