Getting to Know Your High School Students

During our inservice week, the Alabama State Superintendent, Dr. Bice, challenged us to spend our first week of school getting to know our students. This through me for a little bit of a loop, because I have always started my school year with grammar reviews and summer reading discussions. In an effort to be a team player, I began looking through my old writing files and activities for ideas on how to get to know my students while laying the foundation for my school year.

In the age of social media, high schoolers have become somewhat narcissistic. Because they constantly update their every feeling on Facebook, take pictures of their every move on Instagram, and record every 6 seconds on Vine, they often forget to engage in conversation or dialect with the people around them every day. Many times, I have students who assume that I have read all about them on his/her Facebook page or that I follow him/her on Instagram, so why should I dare ask him/her to engage in conversation that forces him/her to explain who he/she is in more than just a Tweet or status update. In an effort to narrow the gap between my students' public persona on the world wide web and get to know their story, I found a few fun/easy writing projects for them.


                    The Worst Song I Ever Loved

I stumbled across this assignment a couple of years ago when I was teaching English 101 at Jacksonville State University. I had a particularly difficult class that did not enjoy classroom participation, so I tried to pull them into the writing lessons by assigning this paper topic and adding a speech component to it.

I assigned this to my 10th grade Pre-AP class and they loved it! They were so excited about sharing their songs and stories at the end of the week that many of them finished their final draft in record time in hopes that I would pick them to share first.

A very un-detailed lesson plan:

Day 1- Review of the writing process/brainstorming. Students used their mobile/computer devices to find the worst song they every loved. For homework, they had to find the lyrics to the song of their choice.

Day 2- Outline and rough draft. The students had to create an outline/brainstorm of their choice. Many of my students enjoy the freedom I give them to create an outline that makes sense to their personal writing process. After my students finished their rough drafts, they asked a classmate to proofread their writing.

Day 3- After having their rough draft proofed by a classmate, I met with each student individually to assess their progress and talk to them about their presentation on Thurs/Friday. I really enjoy getting to talk to each one of my students about his/her writings, because most of them really do want to write well. While I was meeting with each student, the remaining classmates either completed their proofing, began preparations for their presentation, or completed their journal entry assignment for that week (I will add that file to this post.)

Day 4- Final draft is due and presentations begin! For their presentation, the students had to provide the lyrics of the song on either a power point or handout. Many of them also brought a CD or Ipod with the song so that we could listen to a little bit of it. We had a wonderful time listening to their stories about how much they loved Hanna Montana or why they know every word to any and all High School Musical songs.

Day 5- Presentations continue.

This was a really fun activity for my students, because they got to tell their story about a small part of their past that sticks with them even today. We laughed a lot and sang a lot during presentation day!

Information:

The Worst Song I Ever Loved

This assignment is to write a personal essay on The Worst Song I Ever Loved. Just how you define The Worst Song I Ever Loved is an important part of the assignment. Some might use the term “guilty pleasure,” something you liked but somehow thought you shouldn’t like it for any number of reasons. Maybe you really love the theme to Rocky II, Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” It might be a song most other people hate, or one that runs counter to your own usual tastes. You and your friends might like emo rock music, for example, but when you’re alone, you find yourself singing along to Fergie’s “Girls Don’t Cry.” It could be a song you heard over and over again at a job, and eventually found it to be “your jam.” It could be a song that, although horrible to your ears, brings back a poignant or meaningful memory in your life.
Either way, your job in this assignment is to answer the question: What was the worst song you ever loved?
When, where, why, how, and with whom did I first hear the song? If you don’t remember, try; write “I must have first heard this song “when/where/because]…”
What did you do back when you loved this song? Activities? Friends you hung out with?
What kinds of clothes was I wearing when I heard this song? What group of friends did I have? Did I dance to this song?
Why did I/do I love this song? Try: “I think I loved this song then because…”
Do you still love this song, even though it is now considered horrible/not hip/differs from your current tastes?
When and how did I realize or teach myself that this was the worst song I ever loved?





Other Fun and Easy Essay Topics

* A childhood event that shaped your attitudes about a person, school, a sport.
* An incident that exposed you to danger.
* A work situation where your role as employee clashed with your personal values.
* Your first day at a job.
* The key play of an important game.
* A story repeatedly told by a friend or family member.
* The incident that caused you to quit a job, end a relationship, or make a decision.