I’m sitting in a large lecture hall at Indiana University, where our professor is showing us how the dance steps to a Polish mazurka (one… LIFT on two… down on three…) can inform our sense of rhythm in performing Chopin’s mazurkas. An additional series of live demonstrations in what is clearly a well choreographed opening day of class ends with a pithy admonition: “May the course be with you!” Over 20 years later, and I still remember that opening day more clearly than so many others.
Have you ever had this experience? Did an instructor ever make a memorable first impression? How did it affect your interest in the course? (If so, I’d love to hear about it!).
Oftentimes, our first day of course is there to address the ‘need to knows’ (what is often called ‘administrivia’). This is an understandable approach, as we have an ever increasing number of institutional policies to cover, due dates, and other expectations. We want to set the tone and to make our expectations clear. This is all good!
In the past few weeks, we’ve talked about thinking deeply about your course, and I’ve shared a few planning structures to frame your day-to-day planning. Should the first day be any different? Well, that depends. In the ‘12-week plan for a 15-week course,’ the opening weeks you free up from content can be given over to ‘onboarding,’ which sounds a bit corporate but echoes the logic of syllabus day: there’s stuff you need to know, and I’ll tell you, and then we’ll move on.
Yet, the first day is a unique opportunity. If you want students to participate throughout class, does it make sense to preclude discussion through a recitation of the syllabus? I don’t want to prescribe a correct approach to the first day of class, but I want to give you a few options to spur your thinking: what kinds of interactions do you want to set a precedent for on the first day? How do you get students curious about what the semester will bring?
I’ll keep my appeal brief (after all, it’s the first week of classes and there’s a lot to be done!), but I’ll say this much: the more we know about our students’ knowledge of and beliefs about our content, the better. The more we can establish some social connections, the more likely we are to interact with each other through the semester. Finally, the more we give students a chance to ‘do something’ within the scope of the course, the more we invite them to see what’s possible within the context of your course.
We needn’t develop elaborate first day routines (though they can be crowdpleasers, as my experience suggests). However big or small your activity is, it’s a step on the path to a more active classroom. However you want students to engage throughout the semester, how can they get started here, today, now?
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions: asmith@pcad.edu
Links to Resources on the First Day of Class:
University of Virginia Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Teaching Hub Resource Collection: The first day of class
University of Iowa’s Center for Teaching: Seven ideas for setting your first week of class up for success