Besides AP Lang, one of the classes I teach is ninth grade English. I’m in a small district, so I have all three freshman sections at the high school. When I was hired, I asked for the freshmen. I love having one foot in upperclassmen English with motivated, college-bound seniors and the other foot in underclassmen English. Freshmen bring a curiosity and joy to high school. They aren’t the top-of-the-heap eighth graders anymore, and everything is a new experience.
I’ve taught freshmen for many years, but every school culture and every group of kids is different. Here are five things that have worked for my freshmen in the first few weeks of school. If I taught sophomores or regular-level literature classes, I’d use them there too.
1. Introduce routines one at a time
I started at a new school this year, and a big HVAC project meant I couldn’t get my classroom fully set up before the first day. (I did find a baker’s rack bookshelf someone had left by the dumpster, and my husband carried it up to my second-floor room.) Because the room wasn’t ready, I had to come up with some routines on the fly, like where students keep their books and what stays in the room.
That turned out to be a good thing. In past years, I’d have the whole room ready, and on the first or second day I’d say, “Here are five routines we’re going to do every day.” It was chaotic, and I’d get frustrated. But that’s a lot to take in when students have eight classes a day, each with different rules about what to bring and where to put things. That’s especially true for ninth graders, who are still figuring out high school.
This year the routines showed up one a day over the first few days, and students have followed them much better. It made me wonder why I haven’t always done it this way. We scaffold content, and routines deserve the same structured, gradual introduction.
2. Narrate the wait time
My freshman classes are my biggest, and my room is deep. Like every classroom, each class has a few kids who are quick to raise a hand and others who are reluctant even when they know the answer. I’ve used this strategy for years, and I’ve found myself using it a lot more this year. It helps me with wait time.
Say I ask, “What adjective describes the main character in paragraph 10?” and two kids raise their hands. Normally I’d call on one of them, they’d say “nervous,” and we’d move on. Instead I say, “Okay, two people know.” More hands go up. “Five people know. Let’s see if we can get at least half the class to find that adjective. Remember, an adjective is a describing word.” More hands go up because some of them needed that reminder. “Two thirds of the class. I bet if we wait a little longer, more people can find it.”
While I wait, I’m walking around, and I notice that one student is in a different story and another doesn’t have a book. When I finally call on someone, it’s usually one of the last students to raise a hand, because I want to check in with the more reluctant kids. It isn’t a game. It just gives everyone time to process, so the same few students aren’t answering every question. It works in any class and any subject.
3. Give sentence stems for summaries
Our first assignment bombed, and that was on me. My freshmen use the myPerspectives series, which I’ve used for years. Physical textbooks are hard to find anymore, and these are consumable workbooks that students can write in. We read a short nonfiction article, and students were supposed to write a summary. The directions in the book were vague, and I just told them to write four sentences and bring it the next day.
The summaries were all over the place because I hadn’t given them much support. I had taken something for granted. My previous students came up through a junior high that used the same series, where their teacher trained them in objective summaries. These students didn’t have that background.
So I made a handout with sentence stems for nonfiction summaries and for fiction summaries, and we did a model correction together. I told them this one was on me, and I didn’t put that first assignment in the grade book. Then I had them fold the handout in half and tuck it into the summary assignment page for the next story in their textbook. When we got there, it was, “We need to write a summary. Look what’s in your book.” Their summaries were much better with that support. We’ll grow out of the sentence stems eventually. Summary writing may not be something they’ve done a lot of, and that’s fine. This is our time to learn it.
4. Highlight every part of multi-part questions
Literature teachers love multi-part questions disguised as one question. The analysis questions after each story in myPerspectives are a good example. Here’s one: “1a. Cite details in the opening paragraph that describe the bay and the beach. b. Why does the bay draw Jerry’s attention? What does it represent to him? Explain.”
It looks like a two-part question, but it really has four parts. Part B has two questions plus a prompt to explain, which means “do more,” and students might not know that. In Part A, “cite details” means they need to quote the text.
Since this was our first one, I had students get out highlighters and mark each section of the question. I also had them write on their paper that “cite” means “quote.” They groaned when they saw how much they had to do, but they had plenty of time for it. In the past I’ve had students read the first part, answer it in half a sentence, and move on, so this was eye-opening for a lot of them. I told them they’re always welcome to highlight the parts of any prompt I give them. They don’t have to, but it’s another strategy in their toolbox.
5. Stickers
Not every teacher needs to do this one, but it has been working for my freshmen. I’m talking about die-cut laptop and water bottle stickers. I usually buy themed packs on Amazon: highland cows, football players, cars, sneakers (a popular category), and some aesthetic, cutesy ones. The fastest I ever went through a set was a SpongeBob pack a couple of years ago. Teachers shouldn’t be expected to buy incentives for students. Still, you can get big packs for about five dollars, and depending on how many students you have, they can last a while.
I switched from candy to stickers for two reasons. First, there are a lot of food allergies, and I’d rather not have food in the classroom. Second, I would eat all the candy in my desk.
On the first day of school, one of my stations had students pick a first sticker for their English folder. Because I have such a range of categories, it became a way to learn what students are into. One student grabbed the car envelope and told me right away that he hates reading and doesn’t like English. Then he named every car from the outline of the stickers. Now he’s my car guy, and we talk about cars. It’s a good way to connect with students who don’t want to talk.
One caution: preview every sticker in a pack, even if it says it’s for kids or school. You’ll find some with odd English translations that say inappropriate things, or decorations featuring certain plants that are not ferns. Pull those before students see them.
The stickers have been motivating enough that students ask what they can do to earn one, which reminded me to build in challenges. For the summary of our first short story, I challenged them to use three of our six vocabulary words correctly. It wasn’t required, but if they did it, they earned a sticker. Out of my 50 or so freshmen, at least 40 tried and succeeded. A couple of students got two words in, and we talked about where they could fit a third. I don’t hand them out every day. I save them for things like tests, meeting a goal, or a challenge like that one. But stickers are surprisingly motivating for high school kids.