From Conversation to Creation: A Back-to-School ELA Activity
The first week of school is full of introductions. Students are learning their schedules, figuring out classroom routines, and, most importantly, trying to figure out who they will spend the next year learning alongside and from. I like to use this time to get students talking and collaborating right away, but without putting anyone on the spot.
This low-stakes Venn diagram activity is one of my favorite ways to start the year because it does so much more than help students get to know one another. In one block period, students are talking, listening, taking notes, organizing ideas, collaborating, and presenting. These are all skills we will continue to practice throughout the school year.
Start with What You Know
For the bell ringer, students move around the classroom and respond to five prompts:
- Favorite food
- Favorite place
- Favorite person
- Favorite activity
- Favorite entertainment
They can write or draw their responses. This gets students moving and thinking while giving them some personal information to use later in the activity.
Partner Conversation
Next, I assign students a partner. Early in the school year, I intentionally avoid having students choose their own partners. This gives them an opportunity to work with someone they might not otherwise approach and removes the anxiety of figuring out “Who am I going to work with?” I made the pairing random and easy – find the person with the same color dry erase marker as you.
Once they are partnered, students participate in five short, three-minute conversation rounds. Each round focuses on a different topic:
- Favorites & Likes
- Places
- Activities
- Family & Friends
- Entertainment
Students talk, listen, and take notes about their partner’s responses. I provide question stems and model the conversations before they begin, which gives my English Language Learners a structure for participating in the conversations. These scaffolds can easily be adjusted or removed for more advanced classes. However, I find even higer-level students benefit from clear models and structure early in the school year.
From Conversation to Organization
After the conversations, students use their notes to create a Venn diagram comparing themselves with their partner.
Before they begin, I show them a teacher model so they can see what the finished product might look like. Students then work together to add:
- 5 unique things they learned about their partner
- 3 things they have in common
This is also a subtle introduction to an organizational tool that students will use throughout the year. A Venn diagram isn’t just something we complete during the first week, but it becomes a visual way to organize similarities and differences, compare ideas, and prepare for writing in response to literature later in the course.
Collaborate, Create, and Share
Once their Venn diagrams are complete, students present them to the class as a way of introducing their partners. Instead of simply saying their partner’s name and a favorite food, students have something meaningful to share because they have spent time listening and organizing what they learned. To support my English Language Learners, I provide sentence stems, model, and give them teacher-supported time to draft their presentations on a notecard.
The activity mirrors the work we will do all year in ELA: We collaborate, we create, and we share. And because the content is personal but low stakes, students are practicing those skills without worrying about whether their answers are “right.”
End with a Listening Challenge
I like to finish the class with a quick listening quiz. Students have about 30 seconds to write down the name, or names, of classmates who fit descriptions they have just heard:
Who is…
- from Venezuela?
- loves cats?
- plays soccer?
- works at Walmart?
Suddenly, students are looking around the room and realizing, Oh! I know who that is!
It’s a simple way to reinforce the information they heard during the activity while continuing to build classroom community.
Why I Keep Coming Back to This Activity
By the end of the lesson, students have had multiple opportunities to speak with a classmate, practice active listening, organize information, work collaboratively, and stand in front of the class to share. But perhaps the most important outcome is less academic: students leave knowing a little bit more about the people in the room.
For me, that’s exactly what I want from a first-week activity. We are already doing ELA, just without the pressure of calling it ELA yet.
We talk. We listen. We organize. We create. We share. And along the way, we begin to build a classroom community.
Kelly Virgin is a WCWP teacher leader who teaches high school English for the Kennett Consolidated School District.
