Social Media All About Me Templates

I found an awesome getting to know you activity on Ms. M's blog. (Highly recommend!) It asks students to write about themselves and their experiences using social media templates like Facebook and Instagram. Very creative! The templates are available on the blog or here.

From the Teaching in Room 6 Blog

Life Map

A Life Map is a timeline that asks students to make the timeline go up for good events and down for bad events. It is also similar to a concrete poem in that it takes the shape of an image specific to that person.

I have had students complete Life Maps for themselves and for others that they researched. The rules are always the same. I usually make an example of my own Life Map for students to get to know me. This is a great beginning of the year activity to learn about students. Then it can be used throughout the year as a tool for summarizing text and research.

"We Wear the Mask"

I have read "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar with my students just about every year. The poem has many levels, but we discuss the idea of wearing a fake smile while feeling very sad on the inside. After analyzing the poem with my students, I ask them to create their own mask of symbols that represents their true selves. I have had some amazing masks, and I wish I took photos of them all! I just did the lesson again today. Usually, I give specific symbols that I want to be represented on the mask, like an animal that represents you, a food that represents you, etc. This year, I left it open. I would recommend giving specifics because most of the masks today were pretty similar to my example. I also add an explanation writing assignment where the students have to explain how each symbol represents them. Here are the lesson materials that I use. I make a model for the students to get to know me too. Check out the student masks of symbols below.