First+and+Last+Day+of+Class

**//Many of us are winding down as the school year ends and/or gearing up for the first day of summer school. What do you do on the first day of class? How about the last day of class? Share effective practices, materials, ice-breakers, lesson plans, activities, etc., that get your class off to a good start or that successfully wrap up a term.//**


 * Submitted by Susan Gaer:**

The first day of school for me is all about learning my students’ names and developing community in the classroom. I bring in a slide show of my life and share it with the class. I learn everyone’s names by playing games with them. I bring in chocolate and give chocolate to the student who can learn everyone’s name in the class first. The name game: Divide students into groups and have them learn the names of the people in their group. Next have one person from each group write the entire group’s names on the board. I try to guess who is who. After we have done this with each group, I dare a student to try and get the whole class correct. If they do, they get chocolate. If they don’t someone else tries. I do this until one person can do it and they get a bag of chocolate to share with the whole class. Finally, I try it and sometimes I win chocolate and sometimes I don’t.

PS While students are learning names, I run around with my cell phone snapping pictures to really study their names at home.

The last day of school is all about celebrating. We celebrate and eat and dance and bring closure to the class. There is no lesson for the party. We just do it.

Like Susan, I bring a camera the first day and take everyone's picture. By the end of the second day of classes, I usually know all my students' names (sometimes as many as 60 new names!). Works wonders for visual learners like me!
 * Submitted by Kristi Reyes:**

One ice-breaker activity that I do on the first day of class is this (checks listening comprehension, gets them speaking to one another, can be followed up with a writing diagnosis): 1. Have students fold a sheet of paper four times (eight squares) 2. In the first square, tell students to write first name 3. Square two: students draw a picture that symbolizes where they are from (map, geographical feature, landmark/monument, cultural symbol, etc.) 4. Square three: " " family situation (single, married, # kids) 5. Square four: first initial of one person who is very important in student's life 5. Square five: " " job or career goal 6. Square six: " " favorite food 7. Square seven: " " favorite hobby, sport, pastime 8. Squre eight: goal or dream for the future

Then students use the sheet to introduce themselves in pairs or small groups. We do a debriefing, and then I have the questions projected (what is your name, where are you from, etc.), and students write answers in sentence or paragraph form. Their writing informs me on the writing ability of students in the class on the first day. The following day, I distribute some of the common errors found in their writing for an error correction exercise and mini grammar lesson.

Also, if not the first day of class, then sometime during the first week, I like to introduce the idea of goal setting and having students consider why they are taking the class (other than to simply "learn English") and make some concrete goals for the term. One site has a great page for this is English Club's How to Learn English (see []). There are tips for students as well as a learning contract you could have students fill out and a learning agenda they could follow to make sure they are taking steps toward fulfilling their goals.  Also, I want to recommend these videos for anyone who has a high concentration of student from Mexico (many of us, I guess). I have materials I have created -- I would be happy to share. They are for intermediate and above students, but they are excellent true-life success stories and would be great to use at the beginning of a class and/or when disucssing goal setting.  Of course, these two are men.
 * Esteban Toledo (pro golfer who came from very humble upbringing in Mexicali -- golfed against Tiger Woods and lives in Irvine, CA): []  (click Watch the HBO Special)
 * Dr. Q (similar story -- now he is one of the top brain surgeons in the USA): []  (video with transcript)

I saw this story on Oprah a few years ago... woman immigrant this time. Iranian who moved to U.S. at a young age, became a very successful business woman, and then realized her girlhood dream of going to space. First Woman Tourist to Space... Very inspirational. Here are some video links. I haven't created materials for this topic yet. [] [] [] [] [] []