Tag Archives: first day

Things That Have Worked for Me: First Day Talk Questions

Part of a short series of posts discussing activities, strategies, or materials that have worked for me in my teaching. Maybe they can work for you, too…

The Thing:

First Day Small Group Questions

This is another in my attempts to “teach something” the first day that doesn’t require much prep (or any books) on the students’ part. I print a series of questions related to the themes of the class (for a class on Religion in America, examples might be: “America has no official national religion. Why do you think this is important?” or “Do you think religion has solved or created more problems in American society?”). I cut these up into individual slips of paper.

The first day of class, I put students in pairs or small groups and give each group a question. They have a few minutes (never more than 5) to just talk about the question among themselves. After the time is up, I ask them to pass their question to another group. This continues for an allotted amount of class time, or until all groups have a chance at all questions.

When done, I work through the list of questions, simply asking pairs to share a little of what they talked about as each comes up. Discussion proceeds from there.

Why It Works:

1 – It gives students a head start.

Again – this stems from the advice I was given to hit the ground running the first day. I create the questions, so I make sure they are topically and/or thematically appropriate to what’s coming throughout the semester. This means students will have dealt with themes & topics in a low-stakes way even before most start reading or watching material. After all, nothing is turned in or graded – just talked about. If I do require written records, it’s usually just to view any unshared responses. Savvy students, however, will know to look for answers to or discussion of these early questions as we go. In some ways, it’s a “coming attractions” reel students can participate in.

2 – It’s a group builder that’s not floof.

The pair/group aspect get students talking to each other right away. They can get to know one another and some things about what their peers think, but without obvious “icebreaker” vibes. This works as an icebreaker, though, because students inevitably start finding points of agreement (or sometimes contention!) or start sharing experiences to make points. Just as it’s a low-stakes way to start learning the themes of the class, it’s a low-stakes way to start learning about their classmates.

3 – It’s another way of building a shared language.

I always record some aspect of what we discuss. This gives me a fund of responses and thoughts to draw on later in activities or lectures. “Remember some of the reasons you thought it was important for America to have no official religion? You may be happy to know the Founding Fathers agreed with you!” Or “The first day, y’all were worried about the place of women in American religious life. Turns out you’re not alone…”

In this way, the exercise can be used to build some continuity into the class and give us a shared discussion history. I always find it useful to let students see how things in a course build on each other, and this lets that happen, since these questions they deal with the first day come back again.

It’s worth noting that this is also adaptable to an online setting, using forums or breakout videocall rooms.

Things That Have Worked for Me: Working Definitions

Part of a short series of posts discussing activities, strategies, or materials that have worked for me in my teaching. Maybe they can work for you, too…

The Thing:

Working Definitions as a Class Exercise

The basics of the activity is just this: the first day, with most (if not all) materials unseen/unread, I ask the students to write a short definition of a key course concept. Usually this is formed as a question. For religion courses, it was almost always: “What do you think religion is? What does it do?” For my world literature course themed around freedom it was usually: “What do you think it means to be free?” And for a business ethics course it was: “What do you think ‘business’ is? And what is/are ‘ethics?’” And so on.

In traditional in-person settings, I’d ask this to be written on a piece of paper students could set aside or turn in. In online settings, I’d set this up as an online forum thread. The point is to create a copy that can be returned to later.

It is always important to me that this be informal and off-the-cuff. It is never homework; I don’t want students overthinking or being tempted by research or aphorism-gathering. Part of the value is getting them to articulate where they are with the concept in an honest, practical way.

In person, after a 5-10 minute writing period, I start asking students to share and record their responses on the board to review and discuss. I would also collect the papers at the end of the class period to check the responses of those not comfortable sharing aloud.

The most common thing I do is hold on to the papers, and then hand them back half-way through or at the end of the semester and ask students to revisit what they wrote. Discussion centers on questions such as: Would you change what you wrote? Why? Did particular materials or exercises from the class change your mind? If you wouldn’t change, what things we’ve studied back up your view? And so on and so on.

Why It Works:

1 – It’s an easy first-day exercise.

Some of the best advice I got early in my teaching career was to actually teach something the first day of class. This is an easy way to do that, because it gets students thinking about class concepts without requiring materials. Everyone can participate. It’s also interactive; while I can ask follow-up questions or nudge for refinement of the definitions, the discussion starts from where the students start it. Heaven knows students get talked at plenty on first days! I’ve found they welcome a chance to participate.

2 – It’s useful – to all of us.

Students get to hit the ground running. They know up front what we’ll be dealing with, and they have a head start thinking about it. They get practice formulating and expressing a view. They get to recognize where they stand and also learn where classmates stand.

I as the instructor get two samples of where students are – with the concept itself and with how they express things. I also know what I do and don’t need to cover, since I see where everyone is beginning with the class concepts. I have a ready-made benchmark to refer to later (as I often do; see above).

All of us start with a unique shared vocabulary. No two groups have all the same answers, but each group shares its own. I can refer to these definitions in lectures, build on them with later activities, work them into essays or test questions, and so on. Again – I’ve found value in having these sorts of things created in common and not just given to students by me. Student ownership of material and of some class structures is a common theme in these Things That Have Worked; these definitions are a way for students to take ownership of class ideas – and, often, shape where discussions go.

3 – It encourages self-knowledge and self-assessment.

To do this, students have to figure out where they stand on an issue. Because it is an open-ended exercise, there is no judgment involved – we are simply hearing and examining different views. It’s low-stakes but also important. Hopefully they learn that being clear matters more in this case than being “right” about the issue. It’s also an early lesson on making space for differing views and testing how well they coexist.

The revisiting aspect allows students to reflect both on their own thoughts but also on the implications of what we’ve studied – and it encourages them to see the course as something that can affect their thinking (not just their GPA). Of course, there is also no “right” to the reassessment. If their views don’t change, they don’t – but, ideally, they have to think a little about why.

When this has worked, it’s been a fun way to share ownership of the class, to get to know my students better, and to sneak a little second-order thinking into their experience. I define that as a win.