First Days of School: Learning Names & Making Friends

Names matter. As one of eleven children, I had to be patient while my father recalled my name to ask for more iced tea: “Cathy, not Chris, Sue, not Tom or Joe, Mary, Julie, Clare —- ” And I’d remind him. “Sarah! Yes, Sarah! More tea, please.”

And in school — the same. My maiden name is Aikman, and as you can imagine, every elementary school roster for over a decade had an Aikman. Sometimes I was Clare. Sometimes I was Julie. Sometimes I was “an Aikman” or worse: “that Aikman kid.”

So I get it that teacher ed programs and educelebrity tweets urge educators to learn students’ names quickly (also here) and accurately because a name is a “big deal.” Of course, teachers “never want to do anything that makes a student feel ashamed or embarrassed.” Educator Jennifer Gonzalez, the creator of the website Cult of Pedagogy, puts it best: “Mutilating someone’s name is a tiny act of bigotry.” Thus, I offer here an activity for teachers of all aged students to use the first week of school, including higher ed (as I will use this activity in my own classes at Oklahoma State University– yay).

To be clear, however, the activity that follows is not about the teacher getting to know students’ names but for the students to know and say the names of their peers. The classroom has never just belonged to the teacher, and if we want to nurture a sense of belonging in our classrooms, students’ relationships must come first.

The classroom has never just belonged to the teacher, and if we want to nurture a sense of belonging in our classrooms, students’ relationships must come first.

Say My Name

Lesley Roessing wrote a blog post for Ethical ELA about nameplates. I loved this article because students create nameplates with images of their interests. I revised this to flip who created the nameplates a few years ago, but last year, I tried something new.

First, students wrote their first name with a phonetic spelling on one side of the nameplate, then inside their nameplate, they wrote where they attended elementary school. Because they were seventh-graders in their first year of junior high, some students knew one another and others knew no one, especially those homeschooled or who attended parochial school.

I collected the nameplates and then partnered the students with a classmate who did not attend the same elementary school. I modeled how to introduce themselves with a *handshake and by saying and repeating names: “Hello, Sarah. Nice to meet you, Sarah!”

Then, we prepared for the house party.

House Party

What do you ask people when you first meet them? What do students want to know about their classmates? Together, we brainstormed some questions: What music do you like? What are your hobbies? What is your favorite snack? What do you love to do more than anything? Hate? Favorite YouTuber? Do you have any pets?

Then, I modeled how to house-party chat with the questions: What do you love to do more than anything? And then the follow-up for elaboration: Tell me more about that. Because English language arts is all about stories, the goal was to get their partner to tell stories.

I turned on some music, and the house party began. I walked around and listened in on the names and stories. I nudged people to try different follow-up questions. Because we brainstormed so many questions, there was a lot to talk about on that first day, and time flew by. Before students went to their next class, I asked them to repeat names again in their farewell: “Thanks, Sarah. See you tomorrow, Sarah.”

Podcast: Meet X

The next day, I asked students to write what they remembered about their classmates — names and stories. I asked them what kind of writing they’d have to do if they were going to introduce their friend to the class, and they knew it was informative but that they would also be telling a story of how they met their friend (narrative). I asked if anyone knew of or ever created a podcast — a digital, audio file made available on the internet for downloading or sharing usually in a series. And so I said that we were going to make a podcast– well it was going to be an audio-visual file — and the series would be “Meet X” (X is the classmate).

To prepare for the recording, students wrote a script with a lead (how they met X), body (a few facts with details), and conclusion (why knowing classmates matters).

Next, students took selfies with their partners and created slideshows with images to support what they learned about their classmates. They practiced pronouncing one another’s name and then recorded a 1 to 2-minute video using Screencastify to introduce their person to the class. We posted these on our blog (Kidblog) and then spent a little time each day meeting our classmates, putting names and stories with faces.

In response to the Meet X Series, students wrote connections and appreciations in the comment section of each post — noting speaking skills and choice of images to support content, too. (There are lots of standards in this informational-narrative, multigenre, multimodal project– linguistic, visual, audio, spatial, and speaking and listening, by the way.)

Meet Harini and Jill

The most important step in creating this project was meeting Harini because this whole project couldn’t have been done unless you knew your partner well. What I most enjoyed about this was making a new friend. 

Jill

The most important step in creating this project was “interviewing” our partner because if we hadn’t gotten to know our partner, we wouldn’t have had anything to write about. Also, getting to know our partner helped us meet new people, that we otherwise might not have gotten to meet. What I most enjoyed about this project was writing the script because I got to use my imagination to create a script about someone else. Instead of making a strictly informative biography, we made a fun way to capture our partner’s personality! I chose the quote “A simple hello could lead to a million things” because if you never even attempt to say hello to a person, you will never truly get to know them. You will never know their true personality. Sometimes a hello could eventually lead to friendship. If I had never said hello to Jillian I might have never gotten to know her fun and exciting personality! A hello really can lead to a million things!

Harini

Direct Address All Year Long

You may learn every student’s name the first week of school. That is great, but will your students know the names of their classmates? Does that matter? You bet it does. I have been in classrooms where students, 180 days later, are not able to say the names of their classmates? Why is that? The “our” was not nurtured.

The direct address is my answer to you. At the beginning of every class, in every class discussion, in every think-pair-share, in every seating chart, and at the end of every class, invite your students to say names: Good morning, Jill. How are you, Harini? Jill, that was an interesting interpretation. Harini, I never thought about it that way. Will you be my partner, Jill? Would you like a piece of gum, Harini? Have a great day, Jill. Have a great day, Harini.

Names emphasize and value the people with whom we will share our learning. This first-week activity positions student-relationships as central and essential to the class. It values communication (talk and listening), movement (approaching others, finding space to talk), and curiosity of our shared humanity.  The experience was inter-dependent rather than individual, which is how I hope our learning community will be this school year. It also de-centered me and my role.

A Recitation

In the last weeks of school in 2019, we created portfolios. We collected, curated, reflected on our learning, and to take breaks or assign peer review partners, I often asked students to circle-up in alphabetical order or by birthday. One day I asked, “How many of you think you know every class member’s first and last name and can pronounce the names accurately?” A dozen hands shot up. And I have to tell you how beautiful it was to witness a student standing before each of their class members, look them in the eye, and say their full name.

Student work is shared with written parent consent and student assent.

*Invite students to teach classmates about culturally appropriate greetings or decline shaking hands if touch is uncomfortable.