Skip to Content

Getting-to-Know-You Writing Project


June 29, 2011

Elaine Fedderke, a ninth grade English teacher in Defiance, Ohio

Found In: back to school, building trust & community, language arts, written composition

On the first day of school, I list six statements about myself. Three of the statements are true and three are false, in no particular order. I ask the students to decide which ones might be true about me. After they have made their decisions, I explain which are which. Then I have the students make six true/false statements and trade with a partner to decide which are which.

The final step is to choose one of their true statements, and use it as a topic sentence and compose a paragraph about it. I collect their writing samples and use them to get a handle on their writing ability right away on the first day. I can skim them as the next class is doing statements and paragraphs and not really have any papers to grade.

 

RATE THIS ARTICLE

Average User Rating (0 users)

3 stars
of 5.

Your Rating

Classroom Management

Getting to Know Each Other

By Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer

Aids and activities to help teachers learn student names and to help students learn their classmates’ names in the busy first days of school.

Advertisement

Advertisement