The First Day of Class

Preparation for the first day:

Know your course syllabus (and beyond). For some courses, graduate teaching assistants/instructors are provided with a syllabus. Or you may be developing a syllabus for the class. In any event, you need to be very familiar with the details of the syllabus. Where are the books available? How much do they cost? Is there a curve? What are your expectations for papers? How difficult are the exams? Many of the student’s questions will require you to provide answers that go beyond the written syllabus.
Meet with the course director. This meeting may occur during an orientation session or you may need to make an appointment with the faculty member who is the course director for a class. Ask questions about the goals, grading policies, and expectations regarding the course.
Set your office hours. Check with your department to determine the number of office hours you are expected to keep. It is important to choose office hours that are convenient for you and your students and to actually be in your office at the times you have announced. If you will not be able to hold your office hours, let your students know (preferably in advance). Consider holding your office hours in more student-oriented environments like Brady Commons.
Observe the first day of class of an experienced teacher. If your class meets later in the day or not on the first day, it could be helpful to attend the class of an experienced colleague to see how he/she handles the first day of class.
Visit your classroom. Try out the classroom by checking to see where the lights are located, how to operate the equipment, how loud you must talk in the room. It helps to reduce your anxiety when you have some familiarity with your surroundings.
Make a list of what you want to do on the first day and the materials you need to take to class. This insures that you will be organized and won’t forget something you meant to do.

The first day sets the tone

The first day sets the tone for the rest of the semester. It is essential to get the class off to a good start. There are a number of significant goals that a teacher must attend to on the first day, including establishing rapport, creating a positive learning environment, handling administrative details, and generating excitement.

Establishing Rapport

Introduce yourself. Students need to know that you are personable and accessible. You can begin to establish rapport by taking time in the first class to tell your students about yourself. You should tell students what you want to be called because they are often confused about what is appropriate. Tell them something about your background, your enthusiasm for teaching this course, how you got interested in this subject matter.
Learn student’s names. Students will work harder and respond more if they believe that their instructors are interested in them as individuals. Learning student’s names is the first step in establishing that interest. There are many ways to learn student names.
Gather information about students. You collect information about students to help you adapt your course to their needs. Think about what kinds of questions you might want to ask your students (e.g., Have you taken any other Writing Intensive courses? Is this course a required course or an elective? What is your year in school?) Some instructors have students record this information on index cards. Others ask students to complete a pre-test to determine what students know about the subject before starting the course.
Arrive early and/or stay late. Small talk with students is a way to establish that you are accessible. It is never too early to let students know this---you can do this on the first day. Many times this will provide an opening for students to ask questions they will not ask in class.

Creating a Positive Learning Environment

Promote opportunities for student interaction. If your course will involve discussion, the first day of class should create an opportunity for interaction. You can ask students to interview another student and then introduce that student to the class. You can divide the class into groups to discuss a general topic related to the course (e.g., a History professor asks the class to generate a list of the ten most important historical events with justifications for their inclusion on the list and a Sociology graduate assistant asks students to read five case studies to determine which illustrate deviance).
Facilitate future contact between students. You can create a list of e-mail addresses of students in the class or you might consider developing shared e-mail contacts among small groups of students to share missed homework assignments and facilitate study groups within your class.
Encourage students to ask questions. You can divide your class into groups to review the syllabus and then ask each group to generate questions. Asking for questions, providing students with the opportunity to generate questions, and treating them with respect from day one will encourage students to ask questions in your course.
Ask students to write reactions to the first day. This request also sets the tone that you are interested in receiving feedback. This anonymous feedback solicits questions students still need to get answered and what they think went well.

Handling Administrative Details

Write course number, section, and title on board. This helps students to figure out whether they are in the right place. It makes everyone feel a little more secure.
Take attendance and respond to requests for overrides. You should have a course list of the students enrolled in your class. Take attendance and figure out who is present that is not on your list. If the class list was printed some time ago, it may already be out of date and you may have some students who are actually registered in your class but who are not showing up on your class list yet. Check with your department about how you can verify these registrations and how you should respond to requests for overrides into your class.
Review any pre-requisites. If your class has pre-requisites that are necessary before students can enroll in the course, be sure you make this clear on the first day.
Review syllabus. Hand out a written syllabus on the first day. Highlight the essential components (e.g., attendance, assignments, grading) but do not read the syllabus to the students. Ask whether there are questions about any of these basic elements of the course.

Creating Excitement about the Course

Introduce the course. Explain the objectives of the course and why it is important for these students to be excited about learning this material.
Be enthusiastic about the course. Let your students see that you think this material is fascinating.
The Burning Question. One way to create excitement about the course on the first day is to introduce a burning question that you ask students to begin to think about related to your course. This question should draw students into the material. You can ask students to brainstorm the questions they would like to answer on the topic covered in the course and then structure a part of the course to address these issues.
The Video Clip. Another way to create excitement is to view a relevant video clip to foster discussion on an interesting topic that will be covered in the class.

After the class

Review student names before the next class period.
Reflect on your experience. What went well? What would you like to improve next time?

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References

Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for teaching: The first day of class. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. Available: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/firstday.html

First Day of Class. Available:
http://www.pitt.edu/~ciddeweb/FACULTY-DEVELOPMENT/TA_HANDBOOK/chapter2

For More Information on the First Day of Class:

Online Resources

Brooks, C. Welcoming students on the first day. Video Clip (Requires Real Player) http://www.cte.iastate.edu/resources/visitsFirstDay.html

Lieberg, C. Ten Unspoken Questions from New College Students During the First Days of Class. Available: http://www.uiowa.edu/~centeach/resources/ideas/greatbegin.html

Print Resources

McKeachie, W. J. (1999). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers. Houghton Mifflin: Boston. Chapter 4: Meeting a Class for the First Time, pp. 34-41.

Contributed by Dr. Pam Benoit (Assistant Dean, University of Missouri Graduate School)

Ways to Learn Student Names

The name game. Students tell something about themselves that begins with the first letter of their first name (e.g., I’m Beth and I like bananas). The next person must repeat all those who have come before until the last person must identify all of the individuals in the room. Finally, after completing a complete circle around the room, students are identified at random to see how many names can be identified in the group.
Human bingo. Each student writes down a piece of information about him/herself on a small piece of paper and passes it in. Then every student makes a grid with a number of squares equal to the number of students. The squares need to be large enough that a piece of information can be written into each square. This information is read out one at a time as students place the information into the “Bingo grid.” Then when the grid is complete, students are asked to find the individuals that belong to each one of the squares by interacting “normally” with their classmates. When they find the individual, they get that person to sign their square and move on to a conversation with someone else. At the end of the Human bingo game, the teacher determines who has identified the most people in class (the teacher also plays) and then each person tells which square belongs to her/him.
Photo cards. Students are asked to bring in a small photo that is attached to an index card with the student’s name. Some instructors have also asked students to include other information on the card (e.g., major, e-mail, phone number, and something interesting about themselves). Some instructors take the photos in class rather than asking students to bring them.
Name cards. Teaching assistants prepare name cards from large index cards and ask students to place these cards in front of them to help them learn their names.
Seating charts. Instructors find it easier to learn names if students sit in the same place (it would also be helpful if they never changed clothes!)
Introductions. In large classes, instructors have asked 6-8 students at each class to introduce themselves and then worked on learning these names.

Contributed by Dr. Pam Benoit (Assistant Dean, University of Missouri Graduate School)

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