#1st-5-Days ~ Setting the Stage for a Year of Historical Inquiry ~ Day 1

As the popularity of the #1st5Days twitter hashtag can attest, teachers know the first week of class is essential for laying the groundwork for a successful school year. As tempting as it is to dive right into heavy content while the students are fresh and enthusiastic from summer vacation, the first week of school is often better spent helping students acquire the skills, habits, and classroom routines that will promote effective classroom lessons in the months ahead.

Before planning the first week, it helps to review what is expected to be the biggest challenges. As a 9th grade teacher, my students are transitioning to a new building, as well as adjusting to new expectations, and the "high stakes" nature of high school. Research into previous assessment data reveals a high number who have performed several notches below grade level in reading and math comprehension, as well as a group who are consistent high performers. Experience tells me that both of these groups will be reluctant to adopt the inquiry-based pedagogy I have in store for them this year. The first five days are designed so that students understand what studying "history" means, with the following objectives (source=SHEG):

• We rely on evidence to construct our accounts of the past.
• We must question the reliability of each piece of evidence.
• Any single piece of evidence is insufficient.
• We must consult multiple pieces of evidence in order to build a plausible account.
• Accounts/narratives differ depending on one’s perspective. (This last objective not addressed until day 2.)

In addition, with the first week's lessons I am instilling classroom routines and behavior expectations while promoting a relationship of trust between teacher and student.

Day 1

Desks are arranged in groups, attendance sign in sheets and class letter (a syllabus of sorts, but written in "dear student" format) are on hutch. I am in the hallway directing lost students, and greeting those in my class. "Welcome. Please sign in, take a letter from the stack, and read it while you are waiting for the class to arrive." When all have arrived, students are told to put letter away, to be read and shared with parents as homework. Students are told that the details about the course expectations will be discussed tomorrow, but our goal for today is to 1) learn who is Ms. Buell and 2) learn the definition of history. "But before we begin our year together, there is one thing you all need to know. I will never tell you the answer. So, who is Ms. Buell? Your first task is to discover who I am." At this point I pass to each table group a large envelope with documents from my personal life: letters, photos, newspaper clippings, rosters, invitations, certificates, postcards. From these documents, students much construct a timeline of significant events from my life.

The beauty of this activity is that within the first 10 minutes of class students are working. I am not talking, they are working with each other, doing the work of historians: pouring over the minute details of a letter written in 1974, a postcard addressed to an out of state city, a funeral program, and a photograph of 100 sorority girls. Soon, they figure out that I am married, and therefore had a maiden name, and that I have children--but putting these events on a timeline requires pulling information from multiple sources. As students work, I move from group to group with the roster, introducing myself to each student and beginning the process of learning my class. After working for about 20 minutes, I ask the students to share with the class their findings. No one gets me 100% right. They mix up the names and birth dates of my children. They are thrown off by the college acceptance letters from schools I didn't attend, but for the most part they have each learned something personal about me, and they all know that I trust them with my personal artifacts, which is a great first step toward them trusting me!

Next, I show the class a PowerPoint that reviews the definition of history as "an account of the past" and shows the bullet points above, which hopefully make perfect sense given the work the students have just completed. The PowerPoint has 1 slide -- I use the overhead projector and slide presentations sparingly, so again, I am setting the tone for the year with this activity as well.

Finally, during the last 5 minutes of class, I ask the students to reflect on why today's class was a success. I explain my theory that they did well today because they came to class READY to learn. This is an acronym I use to explain my class rules. I point to a poster on the side board that describes the acronym in more detail with the rules be Respectful, be Encouraging, be Attentive, be Deliberate, be Yourself. 

More on the READY to learn rules, and the process of historical inquiry will be reviewed during days 2-5, but Day 1 is a success because every student is leaving class looking forward to the next time they see Ms. Buell!