Back-to-school season is always such a hectic time of year. New rosters. New faces. Sometimes new curriculum (been there, done that). Add to that classroom set up (assuming you actually have time to do that), beginning of the year meetings, PD, and those bloodborne pathogen videos everyone loves (bonus points if you have them playing AS you’re setting up your classroom), and those pre-school workdays fly by. That’s why it’s crucial to have some back to school activities in your back pocket.
But. If you’re like me (and probably a lot of students), the thought of sitting through one more round of Two Truths and a Lie or “Find Someone Who…” BINGO is enough to set your teeth on edge.
If that’s you, then keep reading for some different back to school activities for high school students.
ESCAPE ROOM
I have long had a soft spot in my heart for escape rooms. I love a good puzzle and putting together all the clues and hints to solve a riddle. While most people associate escape rooms in the classroom with review before a summative (think novel or standardized testing), they’re also a great low-stakes way to review skills and get a feel for what the students remember – and what gaps you’ll need to fill in along the way.
You can create an escape to review specific standards or general skills, such as figurative language or rhetorical devices. What you’ll need:
- list of skills or standards you want to review
- a series of puzzles, riddles, and tasks for students to complete
That’s it. I personally like to include a narrative component in my escape rooms to increase buy-in, but that’s not necessary. For example, in my back to school escape room, students act as literary detectives, using clues to find the stolen Great American Novel (yeah, I know. Real creative title there.)
One of the great things about escape rooms is that you can make them as simple or complex as you’d like. They’re the perfect fun way to sprinkle in some review as well as collaboration (and maybe even a little friendly competition).
LITERARY ANALYSIS PERSONALITY QUIZZES
I don’t know about you, but I can’t resist a good magazine “What _________ are You?” Quiz. Do I need to know what kind of pasta I am (tortellini) or which Friends character I most resemble (Monica) or which city I should live in (Jacksonville, FL [only a few hours away from me] )? No. Will I still waste my time taking those quizzes. 100% yes.
Why not engage students with these seemingly time-wasting quizzes while also introducing them to new books with literary character personality quizzes? Students answer a series of multiple-choice questions on things like conflict management, strengths, and pet peeves. The answer they choose the most reveals their literary counterpart.
In addition to putting new titles in front of students, these quizzes are a great place to start for independent reading suggestions or building your class library. Plus, they help students see themselves in literature, thereby making them more likely to pick up a book.
IDENTITY ACTIVITIES
One of my go-to activities for the past few years came from Betsy Potash at Spark Creativity. A few years ago, I was introduced to her hexagonal thinking activity, which I immediately fell in love with. After using it for summative assessments for Purple Hibiscus and The Crucible, I decided to switch it up and use it as a first week of school activity.
Here’s how this works:
- Give students a hexagon. Mine were divided into six sections, but you could do as many (or as few) sections as you want.
- Students put a word and/or image in each section. The words/images correspond to a category, such as: favorite subject, favorite food, favorite tv show/movie, favorite type of music, favorite vacation or bucket list place.
- Students look for connections between the hexagons, taping them together once connections/similarities have been found.
When I do this, I start with students taping together the hexagons of just the people at their tables. Then, we take each table’s hexagons and tape them together based on connections. Finally, the class hexagon trail goes on the wall, taped to another class. The end result is this:
If you’re looking to jump right in with curriculum-based activities, then try identity poetry.
Two great poems for this are “I, Too” by Langston Hughes and “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon. Students can read and analyze these two short poems and discuss how each poet views themselves. These are great poems for any unit about identity, or as an intro to an essential question about identity.
My year-long essential question is “To what extent do stories serve as mirrors and windows into life?” Identity poetry is a perfect tie-in to this – how our identities are shaped by various factors and how students can relate to these factors.
The best thing about identity poems such as these is that they are another low-stakes way to review key skills, such as poetry analysis.
TED TALKS
Another first week of school activity to consider is incorporating multimedia by using TED Talks. TED Talks are a great way to hit those listening standards. The key is having something for students to do while they are listening. For that, I turn to one of my favorites. Visual notes.
We all know that many students today have the attention span of a gnat. Plus, they have trouble making connections between what they’re reading/listening to and their own lives. Giving students a set of active viewing questions and application prompts helps them focus on what’s being said and gives them a reason to actually pay attention.
Everyone knows, and loves, “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. And with good reason. It’s one of my go-to TED Talks and the first one-pager students complete.
If your students have already done “Danger”, or you’re just looking for something different, let me suggest:
- “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”. This short TED Talk focuses on resilience and growth mindset. Plus, it’s only about 7 minutes long, so it’s perfect for a short day or to ease students back into the whole sit-for-extended-periods-of-time-and-focus thing.
- “How to Get Your Brain to Focus”. This TED talk doubles down on the idea of overstimulation and distraction, and encourages students to be bored. Shocking, I know. In this talk, Chris Bailey advocates for purposefully seeking boredom in order to reset your brain and allow for creativity. Perfect for those students who *always * need to entertained.
- “Inside the Mind of Master Procrastinator.” As a procrastinator, this talk made me feel seen. And also a little called out. Presenter Tim Urban talks about the “instant gratification monkey” and the rollercoaster of dopamine highs and lows that procrastinator’s experience. A great SEL lesson for students trying to figure out why their brain does what it does.
So there you have it. Some fresh takes on back to school activities for high school students. If you want all of these activities in one spot, then check out this Back to School Activities: High School ELA Beginning of the Year bundle.
What are your favorite first week of school activities for high school? Comment below and let me know.
And as always, happy teaching 😀
Heidi