High School English First Day Activities Middle School ELA Curriculum 9th Grade

Perfect for back to school with high school or middle school ELA students, this EDITABLE, NO PREP, GOOGLE SLIDES activity bundle is the perfect way to get your school year off to a smooth start! This activity bundle will help you set clear rules and expectations while getting to know your students and building a positive classroom community and culture. Inside, you'll find fun, simple first day (or any day) icebreakers and activities, a syllabus template & scavenger hunt, an expectations powerpoint, fun creative writing activities, a mini-unit on growth mindset ...and more!

This back to school bundle works best for ELA classes at the middle school and high school level. If you'd like something less subject-area specific, try this 3-week BACK TO SCHOOL BUNDLE!

This activity bundle includes resources designed to work for both DIGITAL and PRINTABLE formats.

What is included in this resource?

✅ Five week pacing guide (EDITABLE!) so you can save time and stay organized

✅ Detailed lesson plans with step-by-step directions

✅ Editable done-for-you materials that are ready to go

✅ Engaging activities your students will love

✅ Templates, scaffolds, graphic organizers, and differentiated versions to support all learners

✅ Icebreakers, syllabus template, & syllabus scavenger hunt to introduce the course and build community

✅ Growth mindset & gratitude activities to set the tone

✅ An Active Reading & SSR mini-unit to support reading skills

✅ An identity unit with poetry and short story excerpts to put reading strategies into practice PLUS matching creative writing activities to build community

What's included the curriculum?

• Week 1: Intro to the Course
  • Icebreakers (first day icebreaker, speed dating, gather round 4 corners, & postcard collaborative creative writing activity)
  • Syllabus template & scavenger hunt
  • Rules & expectations

• Week 2: Growth Mindset (SEL) Mini-Unit
  • Growth Mindset 4 corners intro activity
  • Growth Mindset expository article & annotation activity
  • Growth Mindset one pager activity

• Week 3: Active Reading Strategies & SSR
  • Intro to the 7 active reading strategies
  • 7 active reading strategies in action
  • Intro to SSR

• Weeks 4 & 5: Identity (SEL, reading strategies, & creative writing activities)
  • "What is Identity" intro activity
  • About Me one pager activity (optional)
  • Six Word Memoir writing activity
  • "Where I'm From" - George Ella Lyon
  • "My Name" - Sandra Cisneros

What is a Growing Bundle?

A growing bundle means I am still adding resources to this bundle. You pay for the current resources and get access to any new resources I add for FREE! Each time I add a new resource to the bundle, I will notify all buyers (and raise the price for any new buyers in order to reflect the new value of the bundle). This is the lowest price this bundle will be offered for, so the sooner you buy the more you save!

Activity Duration:

The activities in this bundle will take about 5 weeks total, depending on how teachers choose to conduct each activity or project.

Final Notes and Details:

Please note, this activity is created in GOOGLE SLIDES and is EDITABLE so you can meet the unique needs of your students.

**This resource is a PDF with links to Google Slides documents. However, the documents can also be downloaded from Google Slides as POWERPOINT files or PDF files if you prefer (file, download as, choose your format)

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Other Products You May be Interested In:

✩ END OF THE YEAR MEGA BUNDLE

✩ INTRO TO SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE MINI UNIT

✩ POETRY UNIT: AMANDA GORMAN'S THE HILL WE CLIMB (and other poems)

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Terms of Use:

This work is copyright. Your single-user license which allows you to use this resource with YOUR students only. If you'd like to share this resource with a teacher-friend, please provide them with a link to my store, so they can download their own. Thank you for being part of the Teachers Pay Teachers community and for supporting a fellow teacher!

Cover Credit: Thank you to Aneta Designs for the watercolor strokes in the product cover!