Middle School English Teachers?

How do you start the year? Do you do a lot of getting to know you stuff or do you jump right into the curriculum? What unit do you start the year off with?

Re: Middle School English Teachers?

I believe last year I started out by talking about how to choose a good book and what good readers do while they read... very basic stuff. I think the first unit was fiction. We read fiction stories and worked on writing them... developing a characters, scenes, etc.

I had special ed but the whole grade covered the same thing.

Re: Middle School English Teachers?

I am going to do the baseline writing. And since I am also expected to make the kids do goals, I might try to liven it up a bit and make them do collages (or "vision boards" a la Oprah and The Secret )

From there I am going to start the curriculum. Our first unit is science fiction. There are a few stories I really like and I feel like they lend themselves well to teaching literary elements. Also, one of the stories, "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury, is a good springboard for discussing how kids should treat each other- something I want to establish early.

Re: Middle School English Teachers?

In my school we have a summer reading project so we begin the year with that and lead into a writing unit. I teach ESL so I do a modified version of the English classes but add many more getting to know you activities into my day so that students feel comfrottable.

In my husband's school they start with their summer reading review and in years past have jumped into ELA prep. Not sure what they are plannign for this year yet.