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42 English Activities For High School: Challenges, Writing Practice, Games, Discussions, And Resources

March 27, 2024 //  by  Jill Webb

Are you an English teacher looking for learning games and activities to help enliven your English language arts teaching? We know that sometimes teenage students can easily lose interest. So, don’t be a boring teacher—bring a few unique ideas into your lessons to keep them invested! Below is a list of fun and creative activities for high school students. It includes a variety of English language learning experiences—from poetry to writing and more! If you’re ready to engage your students while helping them increase their language skills, read on!

1. Paint Chip Poetry

This is a fun activity that’s easy to understand and set up. This game will challenge your students to use paint names to create beautiful pieces of poetry. A mix of paint chips, poetry prompts, and “variation cards” to keep things interesting makes for a unique way for your kids to experiment with words and poetry. It’s also great to add to your classroom party game stash!

Learn More: Amazon

2. Figurative Language Challenge

You already know that nothing beats repetition when it comes to helping your high schoolers grasp new concepts—but coming up with new ways to practice concepts can be time-consuming! This bundle includes simple challenges to get your students practicing different types of figurative language; it includes metaphors, similes, alliteration, and more. Editable worksheets and slides review the concepts for your learners—then, they task them with developing their own examples. These activities are great for inclusion classes because they work in stations.

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

3. Six-Word Memoirs

This writing activity sounds simple but is deceptively challenging: writing six-word memoirs. Explain to your students that briefer writing demands greater attention to each word. Then, reinforce this lesson by having them each write their own memoir—in only six words! This activity is an innovative writing challenge, a hands-on introduction to memoirs, and a surefire way to get to know your teens and help them connect with each other. Plus, you can display their final creations along with corresponding images of their choosing. 

Learn More: Six-Word Memoirs

4. The Break-Up Letter

Need a clever and relatable creative writing exercise ? Try this letter-writing activity with a hilarious twist. Rather than write a typical letter, your students will be asked to write a break-up letter! These printable prompts are a perfect way to get your teens thinking about how well they explain themselves in their writing.

Learn More: Presto Plans

5. Pop Sonnets

Here’s a fun way to fill some extra time with your teens—while also reinforcing their understanding of Shakespearean language. This clever book is full of familiar pop songs—rewritten the way Shakespeare might have penned them! “Translating” lyrics they already know will help your high schoolers practice and better grasp the language in Shakespeare’s plays.

6. Listening Skills

We all know it’s important to teach young kids how to listen; it can be easy to forget that your high schoolers still need guidance and practice to be good listeners! Be sure to emphasize this essential school and life skill with your teens—this blog post gives some concrete, tangible ways to teach and encourage active listening skills. Challenge your students to honestly complete a self-assessment of their own listening skills. Then, use these exercises to work together to improve their scores!

Learn More: The Secondary English Coffee Shop

7. Reading Bingo

A lot of the activities on this list are about class and group work—but there’s no getting around the value of good old-fashioned independent reading. Gamify your teens’ reading by distributing Bingo cards. Then, offer a prize for the first student to read all the books on the card or in a certain pattern! All you need to do is edit the cards to match your readers’ level and let the competition begin!

Learn More: Spark Creativity

8. Poetry Slam

Poetry can get a bad rap in high school—help your students get more engaged by making sure they know it’s not all love poems and sonnets! A poetry slam is an ideal way to expose your teens to a new medium. Inviting your high schoolers to perform their works for the class helps build their confidence and gives them a voice. You’ll be surprised when you see the smooth-talking skills of your kids!

Learn More: Teacher of Vision

9. Truth or Dare Grammar

If you need an easy lesson plan to review grammar, look no further. This fun game for your teenage learners will help get them invested in grammatical skills! You—and your kids—already know how to play truth or dare. This editable version is grammar-themed and school-appropriate. It’s a perfect activity to pull out at the end of the day when you still want to reinforce your kids’ learning.

10. Book Spine Poems

Have you heard of book spine poetry? It’s exactly what it sounds like; your students can arrange the text they find on book spines to craft surprisingly insightful poems! All you really need is a collection of books, but these simple worksheets will help your kids organize their work without having to carry around a stack of books. If you don’t have enough books on hand for everyone, never fear—turn this into an online game and allow them to “hunt” for titles online!

11. Soccer Ball Questions

You don’t need to be in the hot seat with questioning skills when teaching a lesson! Make one of these Socratic soccer balls—just add question prompts to a regular soccer ball. When it’s time to get your teens to practice their Socratic questioning skills, all you need to do is have them roll the ball and pose a question based on the first prompt they see.

Learn More: Building Bo o k Love

12. Black-Out Poetry

Here’s another great activity for your lower-intermediate learners—this black-out activity will challenge your students to use a page of a book to create a poem by blacking out specific words. Surprisingly, the rigid constraints are a creative way to help your teens who may struggle to find inspiration or with writer’s block. If you have early finishers, ask them to find fun images to pair with their fresh poem.

Learn More: Arapahoe Libraries

13. Review Game

A quiz challenge is a great way to review all the material for key lessons. In this fun game your learners will play a “Let’s Make a Deal” game—based on the popular game show. You’ll act as the game show host and make deals with the teams. This downloadable resource includes editable elements so you can customize the game and prizes for your own classroom.

Learn More: The Hungry Teacher Blog

14. Balderdash

Balderdash is a class board game for a reason. This small-group game will get your high schoolers laughing as they try to trick each other with made-up definitions for uncommon words. It’s a fun, unexpected way to teach new vocabulary while getting your students thinking critically and creatively! You can use a regular version of the game or just create your own using online resources.

Learn More: Boardgame Geek

16. NYT Crossword

A classic—and much beloved—game in the US is the New York Times daily crossword! Did you know there’s also a student version? Printing off one of the puzzles is a great, no-prep language exercise for your more advanced English classes.

Learn More: The New York Times

17. Inklewriter

Inklewriter is an innovative tool that can be used to get your students working individually on their creative writing. The free app makes use of interactive writing—sort of like a classic Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story made high-tech. The prompts and questions will guide your teens while still challenging them to flex their creative muscles as they create their own unique stories. 

Learn More: Inkle Writer

18. Book Raffle

A book raffle tradition will help to get your lower-level class invested in reading—especially if your students don’t have many of their own books. All you’ll be doing is inviting your kids to compete for the chance to read specific books; creating excitement around a fundamental language activity in the process—independent reading! To get started, simply select a few books—they can be new or ones already in your class—and introduce them all to your learners. Then, your readers can enter their names in draws to win reading rights to their favorites. Once you have a few book raffles under your belt, feel free to modify the process to make it work for you and your teens!

Learn More: Brown Bag Teacher

19. Writing Prompts

Writing prompts are a classic classroom tool to jumpstart creative writing. Provide your students with this list of enticing prompts that are sure to help them produce literary genius. To get them started, you can let them pick their own from the list or assign them at random. Either way, you’ll have a low-prep way to get great results from your high school writers. 

Learn More: Small World

20. Vocab-Zee

This language-themed twist on the classic game of Yahtzee is a great rainy-day activity or sub plan for your class. Put your students in groups and provide them with copies of the game instructions. Then, they’ll take turns rolling the dice and performing vocabulary-based actions based on their roll. 

Learn More: Go Sadlier

21. Body Biographies

Help your pupils become masters of character analysis by assigning these eye-catching body biographies. Prompt your young writers to examine the different characteristics of each character—both tangible and intangible—and use them to create a character analysis. The visual aspect of the posters makes this activity more engaging than a written description and encourages your kids to search for different elements of character roles in the text. Not only will your students love doing this, but you’ll also be able to display their body biographies for reference. 

Learn More: Study All Knight

22. Podcast Pairings

Consider pairing relevant literary podcasts with your classroom texts/discussions. Introducing a different medium into your teaching toolbox is an excellent way to change up your methods and better engage auditory learners. These podcasts are sure to give your students different perspectives on the topics and ideas that are introduced and discussed in your classroom texts. 

Learn More: Building Book Love

23. Keyhole Book Scene

This is a clever visual way to emphasize the importance of different characters’ points of view. Having your students create a keyhole book scene gives you the opportunity to check your students’ understanding and comprehension of a story. Ask your learners to illustrate a scene from one of the texts they are reading—from the perspective of someone looking into the room through a keyhole. You can base the assignment on a specific character’s point of view or let your kids choose the perspective themselves. They should be encouraged to include different text elements and imagery to show what exactly the specific book scene “looked like” in their minds. 

Learn More: The Room Mom

24. Crime Stories

Have you ever considered engaging your high school literacy students with creepy crime stories? Your teens can pick a real-life criminal and use their investigative skills to determine motives and other crime components. Then, have them choose a medium—blog, podcast, research paper, etc.—to present their perspective. The real-world aspect makes these narratives particularly compelling—and your learners will be so engaged in the crimes that they won’t realize how much hard work and learning they’re actually doing!   

Learn More: Besp o ke ELA

25. Song Lyrics to Teach Paraphrasing

What teenager doesn’t love music? Here’s a great way to use this to your advantage! Print off lyrics to popular songs that your students will love. Then, challenge your kids to go through the lyrics and attempt to paraphrase what the song is saying, using their own words. This will help them get a better understanding of what their favorite songs are about as well as give them practice in their rewording skills.

Learn More: Mondays Made Easy

27. Selfie Fingerprint Poem

Poetry can be a tricky topic to introduce—and a particularly hard one to get your high schoolers excited about. With this fun fingerprint poem, your students can use colors and stanzas to create a poem that represents themselves and is as unique as their fingerprints. This is a great way to get your students excited about introducing themselves and things that they consider to be important. 

29. Funny Short Story Study

Looking for something to break up the heavier literary units you have planned this year? This diverse bundle of hilarious short stories is perfect for teaching your students short and sweet literary concepts such as sarcasm, irony, foreshadowing, etc. 

Learn More: Hopefully Home

30. Thought Bubble

Do your students need help delving into the thoughts of the characters you’re reading about? This simple thought bubble exercise will get your high schoolers engaged in deeper-level thinking. All they have to do is imagine what a character in a book, a short story, or even an image is thinking. Then, they can write it in a thought bubble on a sticky note. Getting into the habit of considering characters’ inner thoughts will encourage your readers to pay more attention to the text and make stronger connections with the stories.

Learn More: The Thinker Builder

31. Escape Rooms

Make learning fun for your high school English students by incorporating escape room activities in your classroom! You can download an escape room kit online that incorporates concepts from books your students are reading in class—or design your own! An escape room is an interactive way to encourage teamwork among your kids and enhance their understanding and application of the texts you’ve covered. 

Learn More: Teach Nouvelle

33. The What If Game

The what if game is sure to get your students’ creative juices flowing! This group activity is fun and easy to set up. You’ll start by dividing your learners into groups of four to five, giving every group three cups—one for characters, one for settings, and one for actions. The groups will begin by brainstorming examples for each category and placing them in the cups. Then the real fun begins! Have your kids take turns drawing papers, one from each cup, and combining them in “What if?” questions. The last step is to use their what if question as a story prompt, being sure to fully explore the character, setting, and action they’ve drawn. Your high schoolers will enjoy the mix of group brainstorming and individual writing—and produce their own literary masterpieces in no time!

Learn More: Bespoke Classroom

34. Hexagonal Thinking 

Hexagonal thinking is another dynamic group brainstorming activity—and a great way to help your students think critically about texts and make broader connections. After reading through a story with your class, separate your students into groups. Then, give each group a series of blank paper hexagons and have them fill in various themes, characters, quotes, and even simple drawings. Once they’re done, task your kids with working together to arrange the hexagons in a web—in a layout based on logical connections between the cards.

Learn More: Now Spark Creativity

35. Mock Trials 

Help your students examine a text through mock trials. After reading through a story, pick a student to be the prosecutor (or a group of students to be a team of prosecutors) and a student to be the defendant (or team of defendants). Give your kids time and tips for drafting their arguments, and then select a jury from their classmates. When everyone is ready, it’s time for the trial! You can be the judge, critiquing your students’ logic and powers of persuasion. Your teens will have so much fun playing their roles that they won’t even notice the preparation and research involved!

36. Graphic Essay

Looking to shake up your students’ essays? Graphic essays are a clever way to introduce visual elements into a traditional writing assignment. Your students will use pictures and symbols to convey certain portions of the story. It’s a helpful way to engage visual learners and encourage all your kids to think and express themselves in new ways. They’ll appreciate the chance to inject their work with their own creativity—and the break from normal essay writing! 

Learn More: Living in the Layers

37. Elements of Fiction Stations

Get your class up and moving around the room with these informative stations that teach the basic elements of fiction. At each station, your learners will delve deeper into elements of fiction such as setting, conflict, characters, point of view, and plot structure. You can have your kids visit these stations during certain time periods or even different class periods. 

Learn More: Hey Natayle

38. Figurative Language Tasting

Who doesn’t love to eat tasty snacks while learning? Get your students actively involved in your delicious and savory lesson using a few snacks. Explain to your kids that the objective of this lesson is to practice using different figurative language elements to describe both the taste and feelings of snacks. Then, let the fun begin! Distribute the snacks to your young gourmets—along with prompts that challenge them to describe the tastes using various types of figurative language. It’s sure to help your high schoolers develop a taste for descriptive writing!

Learn More: It’s Lit Teaching

39. Explode the Moment 

Are your kids having trouble expanding their thoughts and ideas during writing time? With this activity, your students will be challenged to expand or “explode” the moment they are writing about. For example, if your learner writes “The park was fun,” they’ll be prompted to explain the entire moment at the park, using sensory imagery. This is a relatable method to encourage your high schoolers to consider the “who, what, where, when” portions of their writing.

Learn More: Raise the Bar Reading

40. Figurative Language Sort

Even though this activity was created with younger children in mind, that doesn’t mean your high school students won’t be engaged and excited to participate. You’ll need to prepare for this activity by collecting some interesting pictures and writing sentences about them using different types of figurative language that you’ve studied in class. To begin, give your high schoolers (individually or in a small group) one of the pictures, along with the related sentences. Then, task them with categorizing the sentences based on the type of figurative language. Lastly, encourage those who finish quickly to come up with their own examples for each category!

Learn More: Teaching with a Mountain View

41. Movement in the Classroom

One way to make learning especially memorable for your students—and re-energize them if they need it—is to get them moving and actively participating in the engaging lesson. This doesn’t have to be complicated or require a lot of prep; you can find simple ways to add movement to work you’re already doing. For example, don’t just give your high schoolers a list of discussion questions; print out the questions and place them around your classroom. This will get your kids up and moving as they talk to each other! 

42. Literary Puzzle Pieces 

Sometimes a simple visual can give your students a new perspective on their work. Help them understand literary themes by comparing them to jigsaw puzzles—drive the point home by having them create their own paper puzzle pieces as they discuss the themes in your texts. First, put your high schoolers in small groups and give each group large paper puzzle pieces. Explain that each puzzle piece represents an element in your book; as they fill in the pieces they’ll be “solving the puzzle” of understanding your text. You can use this activity in different ways depending on the needs of your class, combining group discussion with independent work. It’s an ideal, hands-on discussion prompt to help your kids better grasp the subject material.

Learn More: Learning in Room 213

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If you’re looking for a fun group project for 4 or more kids, wacky abstract word art activity is just the ticket. Offering  writing practice  and grammar review, this isn’t your average art project.

Kids practice building sentences with different parts of speech, then create paintings of the silly mad-lib sentences they come up with. In an unexpected fun twist, at the end they get to rip up their paintings and arrange them into wild and unique abstract collages.

Autobiographies

In this fun project, you ask the students to detail their life history in an interesting tone. To avoid monotone, ask them to only include those events in life which they consider adventurous or unforgettable. 

Ask them to highlight emotions rather than timeline. 

You can add a twist to the exercise by asking them to write their ideal future life in an epilogue.

This project will focus on verbal communication skills. 

Ask the students to select a book or excerpt from a book to read. You can assign a genre to keep the communication streamlined. 

Students can take turns to give a short review of their reading together with their viewpoints about it. They can talk about the moral values of the characters or change endings or events to discuss if the plot becomes more entertaining with these changes. 

Check out these ideas on how to run a successful Book Club !

Class Magazine

This is a perfect project for all classes in middle and high school. You can take it to the next level by asking the whole school to start a competition for the best class magazine. 

You can ask your class to select a theme of environmental, health, literary, or societal topic. 

Then ask them to gather all skills; idea-generation, writing, design, and presentation. You will get the most benefits if you make it mandatory for every student to produce content for one page of the magazine. (You can include the advertisement activity within the activity of class magazine.)

Comic Strip 

This is another extensive project that will not only win the hearts of your students but also allow you to assess their creative capabilities. 

Ask them to illustrate interesting events from their lives, or imagination, in the form of comic strips. 

ALSO READ: SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR ANY LANGUAGE CLASS

This activity is similar to the comic activity given above. The only difference is the increased detail that is required in drama writing. An absence of images adds the obligation on the students to describe scenes and expressions. 

Again, students can describe any life event from their reality or imagination. 

You can later ask the students to act on the best dramas to improve their verbal and non-verbal communication. 

Paper Mache Activity

In this messy yet super fun project, students make paper mache futuristic Earths or other imaginary planets as described in science fiction.

This was my cross-curricular activity based off of our Literature reading of  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  and a unit topic in English about the environment and recycling. Of course, you can do paper mache for any lesson or unit that you have!

This article gives you the step-by-step instruction on how to do paper mache in the classroom!

Editorial/ Fan Letter

Editorial is one of English project ideas most suitable for high-schoolers while fan letters work for learners from all English expertise levels. 

Ask your high-schoolers to analyze a societal issue that is close to their heart. Next, they need to define the problem from the viewpoint of aggrieved parties. Ask them to write out the problem and get it published in a local or national newspaper. 

(Be ready to proofread and edit the piece before they send it to relevant personnel.)

Younger students can write fan letters to their best actors, authors, and singers. 

This is another English project which will combine societal, and practical, understanding with English learning. In this project, the students will learn problem-solving skills. 

Ask them to understand a societal or scientific problem. Once they have understood and defined this issue, they have to provide a solution to this problem. 

In the end, they have to present their solution together with the need which gave rise to it in front of the class. (You may want them to include a video presentation with visual effects .)

This activity is one of my students’ favorite s not only because it’s fun but also because it facilitates their learning. I tried this project on two literature readings I had before (The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe) and both achieved the same fantastic end.

In this project, students are tasked to illustrate the setting or a specific part of the book in the form of a three-dimensional miniature scene. Students will pick a favorite scene from the story they are reading and decide how they want to represent it using the materials given (above) and a variety of design strategies.

This writing exercise contains the most fun among all the given projects. You will excite their creativity as well as their inner critic.

Start by inquiring about the literary work which fascinates or inspires them most. 

Ask them if they can add humor to that piece. Let them edit a single character or scene or if they want they can give a humorous outlook to the whole plot. 

Fables 

This open-ended English writing project will ask the students to select one event in their life. This event should be intriguing as well as contain a life lesson. 

Then, they have to retell this piece in third person pronoun. Ask them to keep the tone conversational as well as engaging. 

In the end, ask them to write a conclusive moral of the story. 

POPULAR: 5 Project-based Learning for High School English

Self-Portrait Project

These self-portrait ideas were part of a short project that went really with my middle school ESL class so I thought I’d share them with you.

My students were able to come up with three products in one activity: a mind map, a self-portrait and an essay. The unit topic was about “Identity” or “Personality” but I guess this will work for general descriptive adjectives lesson as well. 

Charts 

If you want to include futuristic touch to your English lessons, include a thing or two from STEM subjects. One great way is to ask them to explain or detail a mathematical chart. (You can come up with variations in this original plan. For example, you can ask future businessmen to interpret graphics related to market studies.)

See, if they have enough vocabulary and concepts to comprehend and convey the message to their fellows. 

Fictional Pen-Pals

Just like fan letters, this activity asks the students to write letters to their favorite characters in fictional and non-fictional worlds. 

Ask them to pinpoint the era, region, settings they like most in a given novel or historical account. Next, they would show interest in one of its characters and the reason for this interest. 

In the end, they need to write a letter to this character praising or advising him/her regarding his/her role in the piece. (You can reply on behalf of that character if you think the point made by the student inspires further dialogue.) 

Book Trailer Project

Book Trailer Project  is a digital storytelling activity for middle school or high school students after they finish reading a book. Students need to take the key idea from the book to create a short video that persuades people to check out a book they have read.

Doing the book trailer project requires students to summarize, synthesize and analyze the book and put that analysis in their trailer. Furthermore, having students create book trailers is a great way to incorporate  technology in the classroom  and encourage reading. Thus, book trailer project is a great alternative to boring book report assignments, and can easily be done individually or in groups.

So these are some of creative English project ideas you can use in your English class to prompt your students to express their creativity and language skills. These are fun, practical, and learning-inducing. 

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10 Essential High School English Lessons to Teach

In today’s society, it is important that students can use their critical thinking skills in their everyday lives. The perfect place for students to learn how and to practice critical reading, writing, arguing, and even listening is the high school English classroom. Here are 10 critical high school English lessons and skills that teachers should be teaching their students!

1. High School English Lessons to Teach: Rhetorical Appeals

When students learn about rhetorical appeals and can identify them in a text, students gain a much stronger understanding of the text, its purpose, and why the author wrote it.

Learning about and understanding rhetorical appeals also helps students become stronger writers themselves.

This unit includes a presentation for direct instruction and student activities to use throughout the school year.

2. High School English Lessons to Teach: Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies are everywhere, and once students have a solid understanding of them, our students will be able to think more critically.

This logical fallacies unit includes a presentation for direct instruction and student activities.

3. High School English Lessons to Teach: Synthesis Writing

When students learn how to synthesize information, they use multiple sources to prove a point. True synthesis requires critical thinking skills and the ability to read and understand multiple texts simultaneously.

This synthesis writing unit includes multiple topics and links to articles to make assigning a synthesis essay in your classroom a breeze!

4. High School English Lessons to Teach: Email Etiquette

I make it a priority to teach this unit to my students every single year toward the beginning of the year. Ever since I started teaching email etiquette to my high school students, my inbox is a much friendlier place.

This email etiquette unit includes a presentation for direct instruction and student activities to use throughout the school year.

5. High School English Lessons to Teach: Paraphrasing, Quoting, and Summarizing

One of the best ways to teach students how to become better writers is to teach them the difference between paraphrasing, quoting, and summarizing, and then to teach them how to integrate all three skills together in one paper.

This writing unit helps students learn how to do so. It includes a presentation for direct instruction that will help you teach your students how to paraphrase, quote, and summarize the text. It also contains student activities that can be used again and again.

6. How to Annotate Text

This annotating text bundle includes three separate text annotation lessons: annotating text, annotating fiction, and annotating poetry. Each unit works together, but each lesson also focuses on key elements for the genre.

Just like teaching email etiquette, this is also a staple lesson in my high school English classroom.

7. High School English Lessons to Teach: Peer Editing

Peer editing is an essential skill that helps students be better writers and editors. However, for students to know how to peer edit, we first must teach them how to peer edit.

This peer editing stations and rotations activity includes direct instruction that helps students learn the art of peer editing and a proven stations and rotations method to help students effectively edit their peers’ papers.

I make sure I incorporate peer editing into all of my high school English writing units because it is such an important skill and part of the writing process.

8. High School English Lessons to Teach: Thesis Statement Writing

This thesis statement writing lesson includes everything teachers need to teach their students how to write a thesis statement.

It has a step-by-step and color-coded presentation and student activities to help them work through writing a thesis statement. You’ll come back to this lesson year after year.

9. High School English Lessons to Teach: Research Paper Writing

I feel like I am always telling students that the researching part is the most difficult part of the research paper writing process.

Students must learn how to research topics and compile their research into a well-organized paper.

This research paper writing unit includes a presentation with a step-by-step guide to help students navigate the tough research paper waters.

10. High School English Lessons to Teach: Speaking Skills

I like to give students about five minutes to quickly write their responses, and then we dedicate some class time to sharing responses and engaging in a class conversation with one another.

These ten high school English teaching resources are sure to help you not only get through the school year, but engage your students and build them into stronger, more confident critical thinkers, writers, and scholars in your classroom.

If you are looking for must-teach middle school ELA lessons, check out this blog post!

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Classroom culture , lesson plans, 5 first day of school activities for high school english.

I know it’s tempting to run to your old standby when you’re looking for first day of school activities for your high school English class, but I’m here to tell you: there is another way! You don’t need to read the syllabus to your students OR voice any expectations at all during your first lesson. You can certainly do those things, but they don’t need to be done on the first day. Let the first day be all about community and connection. I have 5 great ideas for you to kick off your year cultivating your best classroom culture yet.

#1: Review Email Etiquette

In my 15 years of teaching, this was almost always my go-to first day lesson for a general ELA classroom. You’re sneaking in a little bit of content in an engaging way, but also getting to know your students a little bit and gathering a writing sample. (They barely even notice or groan about it, either! Win!)

I first spend about 10 minutes reviewing professional email expectations. (I know you wouldn’t be shocked at how many students need this refresher!) We take a few notes, but I make sure it’s just that- a few.

Then, my favorite part, I show a good amount of examples and non-examples. We all have a good laugh at some of the poor souls who have emailed me complete nonsense in the past who are now immortalized in my presentation for future students. This is always the part students remember and sometimes I even bring them up later if a student commits any of the same offenses. I gently ask, “Hey, remember when we learned about email etiquette?” The light bulbs almost always immediately flash.

Next, I check for understanding with a little, no-stakes quiz. This is usually a good time to practice routines for technology if I decide to do this through Google Forms (which I usually do!).

Now, it’s time to practice! I have students write an email both to me and a family member. You can have them practice on paper or write actual emails to you. (I make a folder and sort them to read later.) I tell them in the email to me they MUST tell me three things about themselves. This provides a few important things: practice writing professional email, a few personal tidbits for you to learn about your students, and a writing sample. First day perfection!

#2: Create Reader Timelines

This is one of my favorite ways to open to a room full of readers. It’s especially powerful in an ELA elective course where you know you’re dealing with students who love to read. Enter: The Reader Timeline Project.

Early memories as a reader are so powerful- both positive ones and negative. Many people can identify core memories that made them into a reader (or made them hate reading!) and it can be a really compelling activity to explore them.

For this activity, have students identify a few core memories of their experience with reading. This can be particular moments, books, etc. They choose the memories and then create a timeline with images to share with the class. This can be done digitally using Google Slides or on paper with some coloring supplies. I usually give kids a choice so they can work with the medium that fits them best.

Then, have everyone share their timelines. You’ll love what beautiful discussion can blossom from reliving students’ experience with reading. Make sure to include a few memories of your own!

#3: Share Your Enneagram Type

Another one of my favorite ways to introduce students to my class is with Enneagram types. (Hello, fellow 8’s!) A lot of them have a vague idea of what the Enneagram is or has heard of it before, but don’t really know any details. I make sure to include a reading with comprehension questions here so we’re definitely including some ELA skills on the first day. Then, of course, we take a quiz to find our types and share them out. I have students create a little “Enneagram profile” that connects their type to elements of pop culture.

You can check out a detailed post I wrote on the Enneagram for Angela Watson’s website, Truth for Teachers, here . You can also see my full, no-prep resource so you can implement this activity today right here .

#4: Help Your Students Discover How They Learn

This is a newer activity in my arsenal, but it was very successful when I ran it last year. This is especially powerful if you have a remediation class or students who don’t typically view school in a positive light. Showing students that there are many ways you can be smart not only empowers them, but also shows them that you’re a safe space for them. I had many students tell me how much they loved this activity when it was done!

I call this activity the Multiple Intelligences Learning Profile Project . This project teaches students all about Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, directs them on how to find their own unique combination of intelligences, and then allows them to create their own learning profile to display their findings. Not only is this a great way to get to know your students, but you could easily make a very attractive bulletin board out of the profiles!

#5: Review Content (In a FUN Way!)

As an ELA teacher, I am always hyper aware of how content-specific language students forget over the summer. One of the first things I do is usually take it WAY back and review parts of speech. (Even with my upperclassmen sometimes… #iykyk)

An easy way to do this is with my Silly Stories resource (just like Mad Libs). Students think you’re just doing something fun when really you’ve found a sneaky way to make sure they remember terms they need to know. This is a great activity to have in your back pocket any day, but it’s especially handy for a first day block. (Those last 15 minutes can be killer when you’re re-adjusting your pacing!) Grab a few sets and print them off just in case.

You can do something similar with ANY content. Review games or escape room activities are also great ideas.

What’s your favorite way to introduce your students to your class? Sound off in the comments below or follow me on Instagram or Facebook to join the conversation!

Happy teaching!

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Students read a nonfiction text and build their comprehension through writing prompts, supporting a series of claims with evidence sourced from the text. Quill challenges students to write responses that are precise, logical, and based on textual evidence, with Quill coaching the student through custom, targeted feedback on each revision so that students strengthen their reading comprehension and hone their writing skills.

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8 Literary Themes and Lessons for High School

Teaching literature in a high school English class? Themes are, no doubt, an important component of any literary study. When English teachers select stories for our curriculums, we should take into consideration how the overall messages of the texts we choose impact our students. Young adult literature is brimming with character-shaping literary themes we can analyze with teenagers.

Let’s explore a solid list of themes worth teaching in high school classrooms as eight experienced English teachers share how they approach them in meaningful ways. Within these lesson plan ideas, you’ll find a mixture of classic and contemporary texts – covering a wide span of reading levels – that can effectively be used as vehicles for these weighty themes. Read about the first four in this post, and then jump to the second post to be inspired by the rest.

Reading & Writing Haven shares a lesson for teaching students about prejudice using  To Kill a Mockingbird.

Many young adult novels deal with themes of racism, discrimination, and prejudice because these issues have historically been so prevalent in our society. To a degree, they haven’t gone away. One of the best ways teachers can affect change is by helping students view others with compassion and love instead of prejudice and hate. In my freshman English classroom, I use  To Kill a Mockingbird as the vehicle to study this theme.

Before we begin, we always have a discussion about prejudice. I write the word in the middle of a web, and I ask students:  What do you know about this word?  As students begin to contribute ideas, I write them down…each idea branching off of another. Upon finishing, we watch  The Sneetches  and analyze some questions that provide a thematic foundation, which is a perfect framing activity for  To Kill a Mockingbird .

Even though this cartoon might at first appear elementary, the symbolism and message get to the heart of many serious issues in the world today. While simple in design, this lesson always provides a platform for a rich, meaningful discussion.

Read about how Doc Cop uses critical reading units to teach empathy.

Empathy requires the epitome of higher-order thinking: the ability to  create  an alternative reality to see life from someone else’s perspective. Teaching empathy as a theme, therefore, can be a challenge. The way I approach this theme in my classroom is through perspective-taking practices. When students learn multiple perspectives, they begin the journey to apply those perspectives to new contexts leading to empathetic views and self-reflection. Critical reading is closely connected to this type of higher-order thinking and perspective-taking. Therefore, I use multiple perspectives, also known as a literary theory or lenses, to study literature.

One of my favorite resources to apply multiple perspectives to literature is my Critical Reader’s Complete Novel Study . This multiple perspectives resource can be used with any book to give students the tools to build perspective-taking skills and garner empathy. Sound interesting?  Read more  about critical reading and download a free guide to get started.

AMERICAN IDENTITY

OCBeachTeacher has the perfect American literature unit to help students own their identities.

How does being American influence one’s identity? As a teacher of American Literature, I love starting the semester with my unit which introduces students to American voices and ideals through poetry, music, and art.  It exposes students to diverse American authors such as Barbara Kingsolver, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes. Though these authors are from different time periods, races, and genders, they all create speakers who are greatly influenced by their country and its traditions.

This unit gets students thinking about who they are as individuals and as Americans.  In a culminating assignment, “Name Yourself, Sing Yourself, or Proclaim Yourself,” students create self-portraits and write poems about themselves; it gives me and their classmates an opportunity to know them better.  Moreover, it sets high expectations for close reading and literary analysis while also encouraging creativity.

OPPRESSION 

Engaging and Effective   has unique suggestions for using  Night to teach students about oppression.

Unfortunately, oppression still happens in various forms around world; one of the ways to help prevent the spread and occurrence of oppression is to understand how and why it happens. This lesson was created for the novel  Night –  a memoir about a Jewish teenage boy’s experiences during the Holocaust .  Towards the beginning of my  Night  unit, I include a lesson on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to help students understand how the Nazi’s maintained control at the concentration camps by oppressing their victims.

First, I go over what motivates people and how they move up and down through the different levels of Maslow’s pyramid. We discuss how the first chapter of the book includes different examples of oppression coming from the Nazis, and how these forms of oppression resulted in lost levels on Maslow’s pyramid.

I then have students closely read the first half of chapter three of  Night . This is where Elie and his family are processed at Auschwitz. The students use different colored highlighters to identify instances of oppression that ultimately take away different levels of the hierarchy pyramid:  the hair cutting and uniforms takes away their esteem, the killing of babies takes away their sense of safety, and the separation of family takes away their sense of belonging.

By the time the first day at the camp is over, Elie explains: “We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us.” Since the students have identified quotes showing how each level is taken from Elie, they can now understand how the only thing that motivates Elie is food and a desire to not be separated from his father. This also helps later in the book as we see Elie and other sons begin to break under the oppression they’re enduring and turn on their own fathers. When my students get to the end where Elie does not go to his dying father, they really understand how oppression changed him to react this way.

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20 Writing Prompts For High School Seniors [PDF Included]

Hello, high school seniors! Are you struggling to come up with ideas for your next writing assignment? Do you find yourself staring at a blank page, feeling uninspired and unmotivated?  

Well, fear not! We have compiled a list of writing prompts that will help kickstart your creativity and get those words flowing. Today’s high school students have to engage in a lot of writing, particularly in their academic settings. And the only way to get better at it is through continuous practice.

Writing skills are bound to improve with a daily writing habit. Whether you’re a budding novelist, a poet, or a nonfiction writer, these prompts will spark your imagination and give you the inspiration you need to write your next masterpiece. So grab your favorite pen or laptop and let’s get started!

Writing prompts for high school seniors

• Write a letter to yourself in middle school. What would you want them to know?
• Write an essay about what role technology plays in your life
• Write a story about how peer pressure affects all of the characters in the story
• Select your favorite song lyric and turn it into a poem
• Write an ode to your favorite subject in high school
• What is the state of the globe now that global warming has reached its worst point?
• Write a poem including something from each year of high school
• What is trending on social media currently and what are your views regarding it?
• What will you miss the most about high school?
• Write an ode to your high school friends. 
• Reflect on a defining moment in your high school career and how it shaped you as a person.
• Write about a challenge you faced during high school and how you overcame it.
• Imagine that you are giving a graduation speech to your peers. What advice would you give them as they embark on the next phase of their lives?
• Write about a person who has had a significant impact on your life and why they are important to you.
• Reflect on a time when you had to make a difficult decision and how you came to that decision.
• Write about a skill or talent that you developed during high school and how it has helped you grow as a person.
• Imagine that you have the opportunity to travel back in time and give advice to your freshman self. What would you say?
• Write about a book, movie, or song that has had a profound impact on your life and why it is meaningful to you.
• Reflect on a time when you had to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. What did you learn from the experience?
• Imagine that you are interviewing for your dream job. What skills and experiences have you gained in high school that make you a strong candidate?

Transforming your writing from meh to marvelous: Tips and strategies for high schoolers

Writing can be a daunting task, like a high-stakes game of Jenga where one wrong move could send everything crashing down. But fear not, my fellow word-wielders! With a few tips and strategies, you can stack your ideas into a towering masterpiece without breaking a sweat.

From brainstorming to editing, it’s all about finding the right balance and not being afraid to take risks. So grab your pen (or keyboard) and let’s dive into the wild world of writing! 

• Start with a plan: Before you begin writing, take a few minutes to brainstorm and outline your ideas. This will help you organize your thoughts and make sure your writing stays on track.
• Be concise: High schoolers often have a tendency to be wordy in their writing. Try to be as clear and concise as possible, and avoid using unnecessary words or phrases.
• Use active voice: Active voice makes your writing more engaging and direct. Instead of saying “the ball was thrown by John,” say “John threw the ball.”
• Use strong verbs and adjectives: Using strong verbs and adjectives can help make your writing more vivid and engaging. Instead of saying “the car was fast,” say “the car zoomed down the road.”
• Edit your work: Take the time to review your writing and make sure it is free from errors. Read your work aloud to catch any awkward phrasing or grammar mistakes.
• Get feedback: Share your writing with others and ask for feedback. This can help you identify areas where you can improve and make your writing stronger.
• Read widely: Reading widely can help you develop your writing skills by exposing you to different writing styles and techniques. Make a habit of reading regularly, both for pleasure and for academic purposes.
• Practice, practice, practice: Writing is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. Set aside time each day to write, even if it’s just for a few minutes. The more you write, the better you will become.

Furthermore, high schoolers can also be indulged in some creative writing activities , to help them facilely sail through the turbulent waters of high school.

Writing prompts can be an excellent tool for high school seniors to enhance their writing skills and discover their unique writing styles. Writing prompts can be used for personal expression, college applications, scholarships, and even future careers. By practicing writing prompts, students can build their confidence and writing abilities, which can benefit them in various aspects of life.

Writing is an essential skill that can never be overlooked, and it is critical to learn how to express oneself in writing effectively. So, high school seniors, embrace the power of writing prompts and creative writing topics , and who knows, you might end up discovering your passion for writing and becoming the next great author, journalist, or blogger. Happy writing!

Sananda Bhattacharya, Chief Editor of TheHighSchooler, is dedicated to enhancing operations and growth. With degrees in Literature and Asian Studies from Presidency University, Kolkata, she leverages her educational and innovative background to shape TheHighSchooler into a pivotal resource hub. Providing valuable insights, practical activities, and guidance on school life, graduation, scholarships, and more, Sananda’s leadership enriches the journey of high school students.

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Building Book Love

First Day of School Activities for High School and Middle School English

Here are my favorite first day of school activities for high school and middle school English:

Use Rhetoric to introduce Yourself on the first day

You can grab my slides templates here: ELA First Day: Back to School Stations, Meet the Teacher, Syllabus, Icebreaker

Do an ELA THEMED GET-TO-KNOW-YOU ACTIVITY

sET UP FIRST DAY ACTIVITY STATIONS

Get ELA students excited about reading

This back to school activity is my favorite because it helps build excitement around reading from day one! I implement 10 minutes of free choice reading at the start of class every single day, so naturally, I want my students to choose a book on our first day of English class. I allow students to browse my classroom library and check out a book on the spot, or they can try their luck at one of the new and exciting books that I have in the book raffle! The book raffle works like this: display your new or highly sought after books and have a cup under each book. After you talk up the books, students can come through and add their name to the cup if they want to enter for a chance at first dibs on checking it out. This would work extra well if you had one copy of the book for each class, but I didn’t and it still built excitement for reading amongst all of my classes!

Here’s a close up of the process:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ashley Bible 📚 English Edu (@buildingbooklove)

I start this book raffle tradition on the first day of school and then continue it throughout the year. It’s really fun to do themed book raffles, and you can take a look at my Halloween and Valentine’s Day themed book raffles in the linked posts.

Promote classroom ownership on the first day of ELA

First day activities for middle schoolers or high schoolers provide the perfect opportunity to signal classroom ownership. You can do this through décor and norm which I’ll outline below, but another fun way to add ownership is by having students brainstorm your classroom playlist. Music in the classroom can create cues and change energy levels. In our book Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning , we even discuss how music can serve as flashbulb prop to help students remember a lesson.

Set up a worry or “I wish my teacher knew” box :

Back to school can be an exciting but also stressful time of year for many students. To get them in the practice of acknowledging their stress and worries, set up a worry box based on this article from Harvard: Two Techniques for Reducing Stress  . However, be warned. Some silly answers you make you laugh while other serious answers will make you sob. You can decide if you want this to be anonymous or not, but if they leave a very worrisome anonymous note, you will have no way to address. it.

Go on a classroom scavenger hunt

While going over procedures and classroom materials is a necessary first day of school task, it doesn’t have to boring! Simply turn it into a scavenger hunt instead! Students in this station walk around the room to find all of their supplies and will even complete a few subtle icebreakers along the way such as “find Mrs. Bible and tell her your favorite time of year.” If you want an editable version of this scavenger hunt, you can find it in my First Day ELA Resource .

Condense Boring First dAY eNGLISH cLASS aCTIVITIES

There are lots of housekeeping items that need to be taken care of on the first day of middle school or high school ELA class. If possible, condense these tasks into a first day station stop.

Cutting my syllabus down to a one-page infographic has ensured that I relay all of the important information AND that my students actually read it. For this station, I have students read their syllabus and do prompts that it says such as “Sign up for Remind.”

Make classroom decor with ELA STUDENTS

While I love creating a magical place to learn for students , I also think that it’s important for each student to be represented in their classroom. For the past five years or so, I’ve done a dictionary get to you activity that turns into a book page banner that I leave displayed all semester long. You can look at the pictures below for an idea, and also read more about how to make this craft here: Get to know you activities for secondary ELA students 

Have students help you create the rules

When I implemented some flexible seating last year, I knew that I would need to have rules, but I wanted my students to come up with the rules. This honestly worked out better than I could imagine. You can read all about how this element of surprise add more joy in my room throughout the year here in: Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning .I just set up a station in the living room area and let students write down the rules they thought were fair. I then went through each class and tallied the opinions. The majority won in favor of rotating days for flexible seating. Therefore, I just had to make an easy system and follow it. Since I had group tables around the room, each group had their day to use the flexible seating. Monday was table one and so forth. I was able to accomplish this because I made sure that every student had a desk. The flexible seating was extra seating. This type of rule brainstorming works with other classroom rules as well!

If you want to save time and enjoy the rest of your summer break, be sure to download my First Day ELA templates here! This bundle has everything you need for a fun, stress-free first day that sets the tone for the rest of the year!

Do you want exclusive ELA teaching ideas and free resources? Let me send you a Building Book Love Letter!

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Essay Assignments That Actually Engage High School Writers

Cookie-cutter essays may reflect students’ attitude toward the assignment, not their writing ability. Here’s a way to make that stack of grading more rewarding.

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Have you ever been three papers into reading a stack of essays and realized that they were all pretty much the same? Years ago, after reading the 100th cookie-cutter essay on characterization in Of Mice and Men , I realized that the agonizingly boring essays were not really my students’ fault—they were the predictable result of the assignment that I had given them. Ever since then, I’ve striven to prepare students to produce writing that I truly enjoy reading. It took me some time and experimentation, but here are the keys I’ve discovered to getting students engaged and creating writing that is a joy to read.

Connecting Readings to Students’ Lives

After 25 years of teaching, I’m still having epiphanies about how to engage students. One such realization is that if I want students to dig into anything I’m teaching in my classroom, I must find a way to help them connect it to something else they already know or care about.

It was my husband, Joe, a history instructor at a local community college, who helped me realize this with an assignment he gives, aptly named the Connections Paper. He gives students a handful of documents, both primary and secondary, and asks them to discuss how the documents relate to each other, how the documents help them make sense of the past, and how the documents help them make sense of the present.

This deceptively simple task prompts students to connect seemingly distant events to their own world and gives these events richer dimension and meaning. I became determined to replicate this connection with my students in my high school English classes.

Providing Real-Life Models and Choices

In Writing With Mentors , Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell detail how to use “the work of real writers and the real reading you do every day” to support student writing. One of the projects that excites my students the most is our podcast unit , and one reason it works so well is that students use writing produced for real audiences—not just their teacher—to guide their own writing about a topic of their choice.

The mentor text method consists of students breaking down the structure and techniques used by the writer in a particular piece of writing, and employing some of what they find to create their own original pieces. Although we use podcast scripts in this particular assignment, this method has possibilities limited only by the mentor texts you can find. From résumés to lab reports to poetry to video game reviews, students can learn to write anything, and the fact that they are using writing produced by people outside of classrooms is incredibly engaging for them—and for teachers as well.

Another reason mentor texts are so engaging and effective is that they provide students with choices in how they will develop their writing—they can choose which of the writer’s moves to use in their own writing. After sharing and analyzing some carefully selected podcasts with my students, I encourage them to bring in ones that tie into subjects that they are particularly interested in. They not only learn more techniques for creating their podcast but also see the diversity of topics and formats that current podcasters use.

Finding Different Approaches to the Research Paper

There are many other ways to build choice into writing, and I use some of them in my Education Synthesis paper with my American Literature students. We begin with an essential question: What is the purpose of education, and how well is the U.S. fulfilling that purpose? Students read several pieces of writing that touch on that topic and take notes on anything they notice that answers the question.

Some of the texts I’ve used in the past include essays, short stories, poetry, videos, comics, and articles:

• “School Is Hell” cartoons by Matt Groenig
• “Superman and Me,” an essay by Sherman Alexie
• “Changing Educational Paradigms,” a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson
• “The Bees,” a poem by Audre Lorde
• “Learning Like a Jungle Tiger,” a video by Trevor Ragan
• “Shoulders,” a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
• “On Listening to Your Teacher Take Attendance,” a poem by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
• “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” an essay by David Sedaris
• “A Talk to Teachers,” a speech by James Baldwin
• “James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in a Time of Turmoil,” an article by Clint Smith

After reading the texts I provide with the essential question in mind, students begin to formulate an answer, which will become the claim in their argumentative essay. They then branch out on their own, seeking more research to support their argument, and occasionally adjusting their claim as they discover more evidence.

The instructions for the final paper are simple. It must include:

• a thesis in the introduction that answers the essential question: What is wrong with our educational system, and what changes can we make to improve it?,
• evidence in the body paragraphs to support their claim from multiple sources, including the ones we read as a class and ones they found on their own, and
• students’ own commentary explaining how the evidence supports their argumentative claim.

The resulting papers are refreshingly full of students’ own ideas and reasoning and free of the stilted repetition of facts, summaries, and half-page quotes that I used to dread when collecting essays. When given the opportunity to make real-life connections and choose what they will write about, my students astound me with their engagement in and ownership of the writing process, and reading their work is now a whole lot more rewarding.

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20 One-Pager Examples, Plus Advice for Using Them With Your Students

A single page of notes can be a real game-changer.

One-pagers and Sketchnotes have become incredibly popular in recent years, and it’s easy to see why. Rather than just jotting down words on a page, students use one-pagers to visually represent key points and takeaways. They’re fun to create and have a real impact on memory and comprehension. Here’s how to use them, plus lots of terrific one-pager examples to inspire you and your students.

What Are One-Pagers?

One-pagers invite students to think deeply about a text and produce a single page to represent its most important aspects. They usually include some images, doodles, or other graphic elements, giving them the alternate name Sketchnotes . One-pagers are often full of color and may include more images than words, depending on the student. They’re most commonly used in ELA classrooms but can be helpful in other subjects too.

This note-taking concept was pioneered by AVID , a group that seeks to prepare all students for college. As one-pagers caught on, teachers found that students who used one-pagers made a deeper connection to the text and had better retention of key concepts. AVID’s guidelines encourage students to share their one-pagers with one another, helping to inspire learning in a variety of visual ways.

How To Get Started With One-Pagers

One problem teachers face when encouraging kids to use one-pagers is that some students don’t feel “artistic” enough. They may also not know where to start. When teaching kids to use Sketchnote one-pagers, provide more direction at first. Start by showing kids one-pager examples (see below). Ask what they notice about these Sketchnotes. Some characteristics they might note:

• The information and images fill the whole page.
• They’re colorful and full of illustrations.
• The illustrations don’t need to be expert, they just help emphasize a connection.
• Words are carefully chosen to highlight key concepts.

Some kids will take the idea and run with it right off the bat. Others will need a little more help. In this case, offering one-pager templates like these from Spark Creativity can really help.

You can also share these specific directions from AVID , which provide guidance on what to include on each page. Giving students a clear list of what to cover will increase confidence and free them up to be creative. For example, in English Language Arts, you might ask students to:

• Sketch one visual symbol that represents the text’s main theme.
• Write out two quotations that show the author’s style.
• Include a sketch and a sentence representing the setting.
• Make connections between the text and current events using sketches and text.
• Examine one or two main characters and their development.
• Identify three symbols through sketches or text.
• Include a statement about one thing they connected with in the reading.

One-Pager Examples and Ideas

Here are some outstanding one-pager examples on a variety of texts and topics. Note the incredible array of styles, which you can use to remind kids that there’s no one right way to use Sketchnotes. Encourage them to be creative!

Simple DNA One-Pager

We like this one-pager example because it shows students that you don’t need to be an expert artist to create something meaningful.

Poetry One-Pager

Here’s an example of how a template can provide students with strong guidance to get them started. This one-pager has more words than illustrations, but it’s still colorful and engaging.

Digital One-Pager

One-pagers can go digital too! Try a whiteboard tool like Jamboard to make the process easy.

The Outsiders One-Pagers

Take a look at these two different one-pager examples, one handwritten and one digital—and both effective

Symbols One-Pager

Here’s another terrific way to use a template. Students can sketch the symbol, then add in handwritten notes for more info.

Beowulf One-Pager

This note-taking option really gives artistic students a chance to shine! Just make sure they add enough information (graphic or text) to help them make connections with what they’ve read.

The Great Gatsby One-Pager

Sketching characters from books can bring them to life for readers. Highlight a few quotes that truly express their personalities.

Power Profiles One-Pager

Students can use one-pagers to demonstrate what they know. They make interesting alternatives to essays or book reports.

Because of Winn-Dixie One-Pagers

Note that although each student used the same basic template (hand-drawn too, so don’t worry about making copies!), they each created something different and meaningful to themselves.

Fahrenheit 451 One-Pager

Encourage students to add at least some images to their Sketchnotes, even if they’re as simple as stick figures or outlines. This engages different parts of the brain than just writing words does, and it deepens recall.

Letter From Birmingham Jail One-Pager

Even when writing text, try to use a variety of colors and styles for emphasis. Just shading a background can draw the eye to something important.

Geography One-Pager

One-pagers are terrific for comparing and contrasting information, like this one comparing how geography affects the lives of people in China and India.

The Running Dream One-Pager

We love the idea of adding a word cloud to a one-pager! If you’re making a digital version, try these word cloud generators .

Intro One-Pager

One-pagers are such a fun way to do a getting-to-know-you activity on the first day of class.

Frayer Model Vocab One-Pager

The Frayer model graphic organizer is a terrific lead-in to more creative one-pagers, and a nice way to get students more comfortable with the format.

Inaugural Address One-Pager

The main image choice can set the tone for an entire one-pager analysis.

USA One-Pager

Don’t be afraid to try one-pagers in any class, for any topic!

Want to share more one-pager examples or ask for advice? Join the conversation in the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, get our free reading comprehension strategies bundle ..

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High Speed Ferry from Trabzon to Sochi? - Sochi Forum

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High Speed Ferry from Trabzon to Sochi?

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Are there special transportation services from Trabzon, Turkey, to Sochi for the Olympics?

I would like to take a high speed ferry on Saturday (15/2) morning and return to Trabzon in the evening.

Any assistance is appreciated!

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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