The first weeks of school can feel like a tug-of-war: you want to learn names, pronouns, and personalities—and you also feel the pressure to “get into the curriculum.” Here’s the good news: you don’t have to choose.
When your opening lessons invite students to share who they are while doing real reading, writing, and discussion, you build a classroom culture that supports academic growth all year. Below are practical, teacher-friendly routines and activities you can use right away to blend meaningful content-area work with getting to know your students—without sacrificing standards or structure.
Learn Who They Are (Quickly) with Interest Surveys That Actually Inform Instruction
Student interest surveys work best when they do more than collect “favorite color” facts. Aim for questions that help you teach: reading identity, strengths, supports, and what makes school feel safe and doable.
Keep it simple: a one-page survey (paper or digital) you can skim in under a minute per student—then use immediately for grouping, book recommendations, and conferencing.
- Reading identity — “When do you actually enjoy reading?” “What makes reading hard?” “What’s one book (or story/game/show) you couldn’t put down?”
- Choice + access — “Do you prefer print, audio, or both?” “What topics do you want more of in class?”
- Support preferences — “When you’re stuck, what helps: examples, partner talk, quiet time, sentence starters, teacher check-in?”
- Community needs — “What should your classmates know about how to work well with you?” “Anything you’d like me to know to help you learn?” (Include an optional “private to teacher” prompt.)
- Content-area curiosity — “What are you curious about in science, history, sports, art, or the world right now?”
Teacher move: After you skim surveys, create a simple “class snapshot” on a sticky note or spreadsheet: topics students care about, common reading barriers, and a list of students who requested check-ins. Use that snapshot to choose mentor texts and plan supports in Week 1—not Week 9.
To keep your classroom identity-safe, pair the survey with an opening message: “You get to choose what you share publicly and what stays private. My job is to help you learn well, and this helps me do that.” That one sentence builds trust and sets boundaries students can rely on. This might be a good time to address that if a student says something the teacher needs to report, they are obligated to do so.
Identity-Safe Openers: Low-Stakes Sharing + High-Value Literacy Skills
“Getting to know you” doesn’t have to mean putting students on the spot. The goal is belonging, not forced vulnerability. Choose activities that let students reveal as much (or as little) as they want while practicing real ELA moves: claiming evidence, making inferences, and writing with purpose.
Try one of these in the first 3–5 days:
- “I Am From” micro-poems (choice-based) — Provide a menu of line starters (foods, sounds, places, people, sayings, routines). Students select 6–10 lines, draft in class, and can submit privately or share one favorite line. You teach imagery, specificity, and revision—without requiring personal disclosures beyond what students choose.
- Artifact inference — Students pick (or you provide) a neutral “artifact” image (sneaker, ticket stub, library card, soccer ball, sketchbook). They write a short paragraph that makes two inferences about the “owner” using text evidence from the image. Later, students can connect it to themselves if they want—or keep it fictional. You’re teaching inference, evidence, and elaboration from day one.
Identity-safe tip: Always offer an “opt-up” sharing structure. Example: “You may pass,” “You may read a partner’s line instead of your own,” or “You may share your writing without explaining it.”These openers send a powerful message: your room is a place where students can participate fully, even if they’re shy, new, multilingual, or still figuring out where they fit.
Identity-Safe Openers: Low-Stakes Sharing + High-Value Literacy Skills
The fastest way to protect instructional time is to teach routines early—then let those routines do double duty all year: standards-based practice and steady relationship-building through conferences, feedback, and talk.
A practical first-weeks rhythm (adjust to your schedule):
- Start with a 3–5 minute “Do Now” that invites voice — Quickwrite prompts like “A time you learned something the hard way…” or content-area prompts tied to your first unit (“What makes a claim convincing?”). Collect occasionally for formative data, not a grade.
- Read something short, strong, and discussable — A poem, flash nonfiction, a short story excerpt, or a compelling article connected to science/social studies themes. Students practice annotation, central idea, and citing evidence—while you learn who jumps in, who needs processing time, and who thrives with sentence starters. *One of my favorite first of school read alouds is “A Mouthful” by Paul Jennings.
- Teach one discussion structure and repeat it — Pick one: Think-Pair-Share, “Save the Last Word,” or a simple discussion ladder (respond → build → challenge). Repetition makes students feel safe and makes your facilitation easier.
Collaborative discussion that doesn’t spiral into chaos
Use discussion tools that teach students how to talk, not just “talk more.” Post 6–8 sentence frames and keep them consistent the first month.
- To build — “I want to add on to ___’s idea because…”
- To clarify — “Can you say more about what you mean by…?”
- To disagree respectfully — “I see it differently. In the text, it says… which makes me think…”
- To connect — “This connects to ___ because…”
- Write daily, revise weekly — Build a routine where students draft often and revise something small on a schedule. Revision is where rigor lives—and where relationships grow when students realize your feedback is coaching, not criticism.
*One of my own children wrote drafts in a “stream of conscious” method–just whatever she thought in whatever order she thought it. If you only read her first draft, you would think she was unable to write coherently. Give students the opportunity to revise and polish so those that need time to reorganize and revise can show you their real writing skills.
Choice-based reading (even if you’re starting a whole-class unit)
Choice reading doesn’t require a full independent reading program on day one. In the first weeks, focus on access and momentum.
- Book tastings — 8–10 minutes, 4–6 books, students record “try next” titles and why. Your goal is not perfect matches; it’s a short list of “maybe” books.
- Multiple entry points — Offer print + audiobook options, graphic novels, short story collections, and high-interest nonfiction. Normalize all formats as real reading *I am a firm believer in starting your independent time with EVERYONE–including the teacher, para, etc. reading for a set amount of time (no more than 10 minutes). After reading I tell about what I read and ask if anyone else wants to share. If they do I take notes–and try to follow up with some kind of qppropriate question/comment the following day. (For example: How did character X solve their problem?” or “Did the book get more interesting as you got further into it?” After students have developed the habit of reading and are quietly reading durig the allotted time, I begin the two minute conference routine. Eventually (sometimes this takes 6 weeks) I can work for a longer time with an individual student. I highly caution about starting this too soon. Be sure the expectations are clear and the independent reading procedure is well-established first.
- Two-minute conferences — Circulate and ask: “What are you trying next?” “What do you want the book to do for you—make you laugh, teach you something, pull you into a world?” Write one note per student over time.
Rigor shortcut: Keep choice reading academically grounded with one consistent response move: students cite a line they noticed (quote or moment) and explain what it shows about character, topic, or craft in 2–3 sentences.
These routines let you learn students’ preferences, stamina, and skills while they practice the exact habits that will carry them through essays, discussions, and assessments later.
READING SPECIALTY has several products available on Teachers Pay Teachers which can help with the back to school ELA/Reading Classroom. Check out the resources below.
Description
This lesson is great for kids in either an online or in-person classroom.
- academic focus
- differentiated passage
- comprehension questions
- getting to know you questions
- school-home connection
Wanting to start your class with both an academic focus AND get to know your students without giving them one more survey, find someone who, 2 truths and a lie, or other activity which they will have completed in multiple other classes before they come to yours? This resource is for you. There are two differentiated passages. Using three readability formulas, these passages have averaged a reading grade level of 6.5 and 8.8 Select the one closest to your students or differentiate. You might even let students choose the one they want to read. Both cover the same content and prepare students to answer the same questions.
The passage gives a brief history of schools. Following the passage there are questions/activities which cover a wide-variety of topics and provide a catalyst for discussion and getting to know your students.
Activities covered include:
Academic questions about the article to start your class with an academic focus
Questions to help you know your students and their interests
A question to begin student thinking/discussion about rules/norms
A home/school connection question asking students to find out about school in the lives of older adults
A question designed to elicit student feedback on at-home learning, perhaps providing insight into the experience/obstacles for the student
A question designed to give a snapshot of student writing
Begin you year with the perfect combination of academic learning and purposeful questions designed to help you know your students and facilitate discussion.
To view this resource available from TPT click here.
Part of blog post was created using AI.