FIRST DAY. Here we go again,I thought, the first day of fourth grade. I always got a little nervous on the first day of school. I knewa lot of the other kids who would be in my class, and I had heard that the teacher was nice. There would still be a lot of new things, though. We would have new rules and new routines. We would have new information to learn in all of the subject areas. There would also be some new things that I wouldn't expect, like maybe they moved the classes to different hallways. It was exciting, too, but that didn't mean I wasn't anxious.We lined up outside, and for the first week the teachers held up signs with their names to help us find the right spot to line up. I knew where the fourth graders lined up, and quickly spotted the name "Mrs. Richardson" on one of the signs. She would be my new teacher for the year. As I got in line, I said hello to the friends I hadn't seen all summer. Mrs. Richardson walked down the line, introducing herself to her new students.She stuck out her hand and said, "Hi, I'm Mrs. Richardson. What's your name?""Allison," I answered, and shook her hand."It's nice to meet you, Allison. How was your summer?""It was good. I got to go to the pool a lot," I said."That's great, Allison. Thanks for speaking in complete sentences! That shows me that your writing is probably very nice," complimented Mrs. Richardson before she moved on to the next student. It felt great to be complimented by my new teacher! As we entered the classroom, Mrs. Richardson showed us where to put our supplies. Then we gathered on the carpet. "Our class needs to work together very closely in order to complete the many exciting projects we're going to do this year. You'll be working with each other frequently, so I want to make sure we're all on the same page. I want to know what is important to you, what you value, in your classroom, teacher, classmates, and yourself. Please take a minute and think to yourself about your values." We all sat quietly. Then Mrs. Richardson gave us a partner, asked us to introduce ourselves to each other, and asked us to share our thoughts with each other. The ideas my partner and I came up with were respect, honesty, teamwork, and fairness.After sharing with our partner, Mrs. Richardson asked two pairs to work together to decide on three values and write them down. Our group chose respect, cooperation, and fairness. When the groups were done, each group had a chance to present their ideas, and we voted on which three we would use as our classroom values. I liked how we worked together to choose the values that would guide our classroom!
1.Retell the story in your own words. // 2.How would a different setting have changed the story? (For example, if "First Day" had been set in the future, would all of the events and materials they used be the same?) // 3.What does "values"mean in the short story? How do you know? // 4.How would a different point of view have changed the story? // 5.How did the class choose their classroom values? Do you think that was the best way for them to choose? Why or why not?
