The document provides guidance on how to teach an effective first day of class. It outlines four key principles: 1) foster curiosity, 2) create community, 3) engage in learning, and 4) set expectations. For each principle, specific strategies are suggested, such as sparking student interest in course content, getting to know students individually, asking students to complete a cognitive task, and reviewing course policies and assignments. The document also recommends preparing for the first day by learning about students in advance and ensuring any technology works properly. Following the first day, instructors should summarize key points and student work for the next class to build on initial lessons.

1. How to Teach a Good First Day of Class
Advice Guide
By James M. Lang
Chronicle of Higher Education
James M. Lang is a professor of English and director of the Center for Teaching
Excellence at Assumption College. You can reach him by email
at lang@assumption.edu. Follow him on Twitter @LangOnCourse. His latest
book is Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons From the Science of Learning.

2. Our work with this resource
• Review 4 core principles that can shape your planning for the first
day.
• Share logistics of what to do before a successful first day, including
managing the space and technology and getting to know your
students.
• Provide suggestions for follow-up activities.
Application: Discuss examples of what a good set of first-day learning
activities might look like in our disciplines and/or our classes.

3. Four Principles
1. Foster curiosity
2. Create community
3. Engage in learning
4. Set expectations

4. Principle No. 1: Curiosity
• Do not begin the first day of the semester by immediately handing out the
syllabus.
• Instead, spark students’ curiosity about the content first, and then demonstrate
— with a review of the syllabus — how the course content can help satisfy their
curiosity.

5. Curiosity:
Invite students into a fascinating intellectual journey
• In his book, What the Best College Teachers Do, Ken Bain argues that instructors should build and
present learning experiences around deep questions and problems.
• Highly effective college instructors:
• recollect what first fascinated them about their discipline,
• pay attention to / ask what fascinates students today, and
• reflect upon why the course matters, and convey the relevance of its content to students and their world
beyond the classroom.
Do Now: Apply this strategy to your 1st Day plans

6. Principle No. 2: Creating Community
We do not simply teach content; we teach people. Emotions can have a significant
influence on what happens in your classroom.
1. Humanize yourself to the students. Talk with as many of them individually as you can
and provide opportunities for them to meet and communicate with one another.
Humanizing yourself can take the form of humor (be careful), occasional self-disclosure, or a more
formally narrated description of your own intellectual journey.
2. Greet each student, if you can. Get to class early, ask students for a fact or two about
themselves: class year, major, hometown. Let them know you’re glad they have joined
you for the semester. Use an interest survey.
Do Now: Apply this strategy to your 1st Day plans. What emotions are
you likely to be feeling? How will you manage/share them?

7. Principle No. 3: Learning
• Strategy 1: Ask students to try a cognitive task before they are ready.
• Require students to draw upon whatever knowledge they might bring into the room.
• Ask them to attempt to solve a problem before they have the skills they need to be
successful, or work to complete a challenging task that they will face again at the end of the
course.
• As they retrieve and work with that knowledge, they are creating what the authors of Make It
Stick: The Science of Successful Learning call “fertile grounds” for new knowledge and skill
acquisition.
• BONUS! Formative Assessment: Students’ partial or unsuccessful attempts to complete the task
will give you a clear view of the current state of their understanding — knowledge you can use to
shape the opening weeks of the course.

8. Learning, continued
• Strategy 2: Invite students to think about the course from a metacognitive
perspective. (But don’t freak them out by using the word “metacognitive.”)
• What kinds of learning strategies will they have to use in order to be successful in the course?
• What kinds of support will they need from you to make those strategies work?
• Which strategies have been effective, or ineffective, for YOU and for STUDENTS in the past?
• For example:
• Ask students on the first day to reflect upon the best and worst classes they have taken in your field (or
related fields), and to describe what made those courses successful for them, or not. Put their responses on
the board.
• Invite them each to list individual actions they will need to take to do well in the course, and a list of actions
they would like to see taken by you and their peers. Those lists can be shared and discussed in class, or
afterward on the LMS.

9. Learning, continued
• Strategy 3: Set aside a chunk of class time on the first day for students to engage in cognitive
work of some kind.
• Writing class? Have them write on the first day.
• A problem-solving course? Have them work on a problem.
• A discussion-based class? Get them talking.
• If you want students to actively engaged in learning throughout the semester, actively engage
them in learning on the first day.
• Link to Creating Community: Divide students into pairs or small groups, give them a simple task
to complete, and offer a brief injunction before they start: “Make sure you introduce yourself
before you start talking.”

10. Learning, Wrap Up
• Strategy 1: Ask students to try a cognitive or ‘challenge’ task before they
are ready.
• Strategy 2: Invite students to think about the course from a metacognitive
perspective.
• Strategy 3: Set aside class time on the first day for students to engage in
the cognitive work of the class (writing, discussion, etc.).
Do Now: Apply one or more of these strategies to your 1st day plans.

11. Principle No. 4: Expectations
• Use Day 1 to outline the parameters of the course beyond the subject
matter: Address the course materials, assessments, policies, key dates and
deadlines.
• You’ll have all of that information handily available to you in the form
of your carefully constructed syllabus. Give students copies in print and
online, and then highlight the major elements. Set aside time for
questions.
• Some instructors give students a no-points or low-stakes syllabus quiz on or
immediately after the first day of class, ensuring that they get familiar with
the most important aspects of the course.

12. What about BEFORE and AFTER the first day of class?

13. BEFORE the first day:
Get to know your students.
• Do some advance work to familiarize yourself with the students.
• LMS, Course Photo Roster
• Send a message, or post an announcement, before the first class asking students to
introduce themselves — via a discussion post, a short video they make with their phones
or laptops, or an email sent directly to you with some basic information about
themselves.
• Being able to recognize and make connections with students on the first day will create
that strong sense of community in the course.
• BONUS! The more you know about your students, the more you can link the course
content to their goals and interests.

14. BEFORE the first day:
Get to know the classroom.
• Do a walk through of your classroom. Teaching technologies are not
just digital. Make sure the board erases, the chairs can be moved, and
that you have a space for your materials at the front of the room. See
how the classroom has been set up for social distancing.
• Test the technology. If you’re going to show a video, check the
volume. If you’re going to use polling or other activities that require
students to use a connected device, ensure that the room has good
wireless connectivity.

15. AFTER Day One
Point forward: How does what you accomplished on the first day set the stage for
what will happen on the second day and beyond?
• Use the LMS:
• Record a video to convey your impressions of what students produced or discussed in class. Show your
enthusiasm for a great start, remind them about any conclusions drawn, and point them to aspects of
the course that will connect to the first-day activities.
• If you don’t like making videos, do it in writing. You could supplement both approaches with links to
relevant resources, articles, or videos.
• Use the Next Class and Beyond
• Produce a PowerPoint with the key findings from your first meeting, or a word cloud with students’
impressions of the course content.
• If the students created a list of activities that would help them succeed in the course, pull their ideas
together into a one-page handout for successful learning.

16. Last Do Now!
After the 1st Day:
• How will you use what you accomplished on the first day to set the
stage for what will happen on the second day, the third, and beyond?
• How will you summarize what you learned about your students?
• How will you summarize and share students’ work?

17. Check In: Did you complete all 4 ‘Do Now’
prompts?
1. Curiosity: How will you spark student interest?
2. Community: How will you foster a sense of community?
3. Learning: How will you engage students in meaningful work?
4. After the 1st Day: How will you use what you accomplished on the first day to
set the stage for what will happen next?
Go to the Discussion Board and
post at least two strategies you’d
like to try on the 1st day. Explain
why you’re going to try them.

18. Resources
Online Guides From Teaching Centers
• “Make the Most of the First Day of Class,” posted by Carnegie Mellon University’s
Eberly Center Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation.
• “First Day of Class,” posted by the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
Videos
• “First Day of the Semester: Good Activities,” posted by Discovering the Art of
Mathematics, a group that offers ideas for teaching math to liberal-arts majors.

19. Resources
Books
• On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching, by yours truly. See especially
the chapter on “Week One.”
• McKeachie’s Teaching Tips (14th edition). See Part One, Chapters 1-3.
• Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, by Linda B. Nilson. See especially
Chapter 7.
Articles
• The First Day of Class: A Once-a-Semester Opportunity, published in Faculty Focus by Maryellen Weimer on
August 21, 2018.
• “Ten Tips for Dealing With Nervousness on the First Day of Class Faculty,” published in Faculty Focus, by
Delaney J. Kirk, on August 14, 2018.