Helpful Beginning of the School Year Activities for English

You’re ready to start thinking about your beginning of the school year activities. Good for you. Starting to think about it is half the battle! Now you’ve moved on to the big question: What’s the best way to start the school year?

Do you assume your students remember nothing and you need to start from scratch?
Do you expect a minimal summer slide, but nothing too much to worry about?
Have you got so much to cover, you hit the ground running and hope everyone hangs on?

It's time to start thinking of beginning of the school year activities you can do with your middle and high school ELA students.

It can be hard to figure out the right balance to strike when you’re planning those beginning of the school year activities. We’ve found high-interest activities that introduce or review foundational skills are a great way to start the year in a middle or high school ELA classroom.

In this episode, we’re sharing some of the beginning of the school year activities, lessons, and units that have worked best for us in both our standard-level classes as well as our PreAP/honors/AP-level classes.

Links to Beginning of the School Year Activities

Identifying Themes and Writing Theme Statements Review and Practice uses Disney Pixar short films to review theme. Designed for 8-10th grade, it was still good practice for AP Literature students!
Writing Strategies for Secondary ELA – Supporting Claims Using Textual Evidence is for those who might be looking to jump right in with content. This activity works with any character-focused short story. We suggest bringing in a high-interest story to grab students’ attention.
An Easy Introduction to Interpretation Using the Art of Norman Rockwell is a great beginning of the school year activity to help your AP English Literature students see how important it is to support interpretive claims using evidence. Consider selecting some of Rockwell’s less nuanced paintings for PreAP/honors classes.
Is there anyone who doesn’t love Will Arnett’s portrayal of Batman? In Supporting Theme Using Character Analysis, students watch The LEGO Batman Movie and create a theme statement for the film based on Batman’s character change over the course of the film. This is our go-to as far as beginning of the school year activities because it touches on lots of things we want our students to be working on and thinking about over the course of the whole school year.

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Digital Daily Agenda Template for Google Slides
Infographic Syllabus/Class Expectations Template
All About Me Activity Template
Identifying Themes and Writing Theme Statements – Review and Practice
Bonus! This or That Icebreaker Activity

This will be a lifesaver!

Episode 16: Helpful Beginning of the School Year Lessons and Units

Links to Beginning of the School Year Activities

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