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42 Engaging English Activities For High School

December 27, 2023 //  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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

english class activities for high school

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

english class activities for high school

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

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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

english class activities for high school

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

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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

english class activities for high school

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

Great Ideas And Tips For Teaching Poetry. Poetry reveals many aspects of life that they may not get to experience or witness first hand. Poetry may speak some ‘truth’ about how others live and that helps build empathy with our students. Read on for 6 ways you can set your students interest ablaze for poetry! Grades 4-12 | Middle School ELA | High School English

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

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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

english class activities for high school

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

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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

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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 

english class activities for high school

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 

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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!

Learn More: Now Spark Creativity

36. Graphic Essay

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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

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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

Pinterest Pin for blog post: How to Host a 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 

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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

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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

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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! 

Learn More: Building Book Love 

42. Literary Puzzle Pieces 

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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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25 High School English Activities You’ll Want To Try Right Away

Think outside the box.

Examples of high school English activities, including teen slang summary of the Crucible and grab bag of objects to personify.

Engaging middle and high schoolers can sometimes be tricky. How many times have you planned (what you think is) a cool and exciting lesson, only to walk away feeling pretty bummed and discouraged when your hip activity is a bust? Believe me, I get it. I’ve tried English activities for high school that I am positive (most) of my kids will love and appreciate. I’ve attempted to make English relevant and fresh. I’ve even tried to choose vehicles like social media that fit into their lives. As I plan, I often think, “Man, I would have loved having this kind of stuff when I was in school!”

Sometimes, my efforts fall flat. Other times, I hit a home run. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve finally figured out some techniques that consistently work. Here are my favorite English activities for high school.

1. Pretend you are an alien from another planet

As an alien, you don’t understand human emotions. Ask students to explain what happiness is to alien you. They will try to use other emotions to explain happiness, so you will need to kindly remind them that you don’t understand those. Someone will figure out that what you are looking for is figurative language (e.g., happiness is a Diet Coke at 11:30), and then, mission accomplished. This is one of my favorite mini-lessons to do because when I start class with “I am an alien from another planet …,” some give me weird looks, but most don’t even flinch because they’ve already witnessed enough of my shenanigans to think it may be true.

Try it: Alien From Another Planet Activity at TPT

2. Embrace the season and let it dictate your unit

Short stories with photos written by students

I change things up every year, but most recently I created a unit around “Spooky Season.” We read “spooky” stories and watched suspenseful short videos to evaluate how authors and storytellers employ devices that heighten the suspense for the audience. In these high school English activities, we analyzed theme and character development and compared different mediums all under the umbrella of Spooky October. As always, what works for my school and grade level may not work for everyone, but some of my students’ favorite spooky short stories were “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Landlady.”

3. Write your own spooky story

Bags labelled characters/suspects, location/scene of the crime, and props

After reading from our mentor texts and learning how to create suspense, we write fictional narratives that will haunt your nightmares … just kidding—I wanted to add a bit of drama. They pull from grab bags I create of different character names, setting ideas, and props they can use to create their own terrifying tale.

Try it: Spooky Story Starters at TPT

4. Turn everyone into a poet with blackout poetry

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Thanks to Austin Kleon , poetry is cool and accessible. If you haven’t heard of blackout poetry already, it’s created by taking a newspaper or loose book pages that can no longer be repaired and creating a poem using certain words on the page. Then, you black out the rest. I’ve done this every year and have changed my approach each time. Sometimes I give students free rein and let the words speak to them, and sometimes I’ll give them a specific topic I’d like them to create a poem around. I love to see 25 different variations of “courage” through poetry.

Try it: Blackout Poetry at We Are Teachers

5. Use emojis in class

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When teaching a complex concept like symbolism, use symbols that are already part of students’ daily life. Assign each small group a word or theme and then have them choose an emoji to symbolize that message. Have kids sketch them out on the board and explain why they chose that symbol, or turn it into a full-on art project and display them around the room.

Try it: More Fun Ideas for Teaching With Emojis at We Are Teachers

6. Go hunting for mechanics, usage, and grammar errors

Doing a quick search of these kinds of fails on the internet will provide you with a great deal of content. You can turn those fails into a slideshow while the class finds the errors and corrects them, or you can assign a few to each small group to tackle. 

7. What’s better than a one-pager?

Drawing of a mockingbird with words

The name speaks for itself here. There are so many variations of one-pager assignments that you could do, but the one that I like is to use one-page as a blank canvas for them to demonstrate their understanding of developing theme and symbolism. They sketch out symbols and images that are significant to the book they are reading and include text evidence to support their inferences and takeaways. 

Try it: One-Pager Template at TPT

8. Play reviewsical chairs

When I first started teaching and was looking for solidarity, understanding, and inspiration, I found love,teach . In one of her blog posts, she suggested playing reviewsical chairs to prepare for a test. It is like musical chairs, but you review. When the music stops, someone is without a chair and they have to challenge someone else for their chair by answering a review question correctly. This is a fan favorite in middle and high school.

9. Play the flyswatter game

I love a fun review game. This one requires you to put up answers around the room (e.g., character names, dates, themes, symbols, storytelling devices, etc.). Then, you divide the class up into two teams. Have them send two representatives up to the front and arm them with flyswatters. I normally tape off a box that they have to stand in while I read the question. Then, the first person to hit the correct answer with their flyswatter wins the point. This game is intense and so fun! Make sure you move any book bags or obstacles that may be tripping hazards (for me this is just air).

10. Listen to podcasts and discuss them together

Not all teenagers are familiar with podcasts, but it’s a great way to introduce lessons in an interesting way. And so far, my students have reported really enjoying them. In fact, I’ve even had students come back and tell me they’ve continued to listen to a podcast series on their own after we’ve concluded our lesson.

Podcasts encourage students to be actively engaged, because the information being shared must be processed and visualized by the students as it’s being said. I usually prepare questions for them to answer as they listen, and then facilitate a discussion afterward. In my classroom, this sometimes leads to mildly heated debates, which is a learning experience in and of itself.

Try it: List of Educational Podcasts at We Are Teachers

11.  Introduce “chapter chats”

Loose sheets of paper with writing on them

My students love being in charge of leading “chapter chats” in small groups. By encouraging them to be leaders in discussing specific book chapters, they take ownership in a whole new way. I’ve really enjoyed watching my kids come up with thoughtful questions, bring food to connect to something that happened in the text, and even create fun games that encourage their classmates to recall information from the chapter. Chapter chats are great high school English activities to assess those speaking and listening standards while also making them read critically because they are in charge of facilitating the discussion. 

Try it: Chapter Chats at TPT

12. Let your students be podcasters

Student drawings

Last year, I finally decided to let my students create their own podcasts. I’ve wanted to do this for years but logistically was not sure how to execute. It took a lot of planning on the front end of the assignment and organizing where to find places for them to record (makeshift sound booths), but we did it! They had to pitch their topics and get a red, green, or yellow light. Then, they had to research, cite evidence, write a script, and finally produce their own podcasts. We listened to the episodes and answered questions on the “listening guide” that they created. I loved this assignment and will definitely do it again. 

13. Throw parties with a purpose

We just finished reading The Great Gatsby , and since throwing lavish parties was Gatsby’s thing, we threw our own 1920s soiree. I divided my students into small groups to do research on their assigned topic (historically accurate fashions, refreshments, ambiance, guest list, etc.) and then deliver presentations. The students were responsible for assigning each other parts, complete with instructions on how to dress and what food or beverage to bring. They even provided each participant with a lexicon (specific vocabulary) to use at the party. This assignment was fun, and it also covered many standards, which is a win-win for me!

 14. Give speeches as characters

Envelope with words speeches for speech unit

After watching a number of TED Talks and studying what contributed to an effective performance, my students wrote and delivered speeches of their own. They drew prompts for characters with different occupations giving different types of speeches (e.g., Beyoncé giving a Grammy acceptance speech). I found that my students were much more confident and comfortable speaking when given permission to act like someone else. This activity was a hands-down favorite event for my eighth grade students. Those speaking and listening standards can be tough to master, and high school English activities like this helped us get there.

15. Read, solve, and create murder mysteries

Envelope with words murder mystery and papers

My students in both middle and high school love true crime. I’ve created murder mystery activities for high school English that fit really well with literature units and that focus on making inferences, writing, and using textual evidence. Once the premise of the mystery is determined, students create their own case files, evidence, and clues for their classmates to solve. I’ve had them pull from bags of evidence, locations, and possible suspects to add another element of fun and challenge. It’s simple, but they really like pulling things from mystery bags. This activity is also an excellent support for students who struggle with finding a starting point.

16. Read children’s books

I know many high school and middle school teachers who use children’s literature in their classrooms to introduce literary devices. Inspired by Ludacris , I once rapped Llama Llama Red Pajama in my creative writing class before I had students write children’s books of their own. I am sure there is footage of this out there living sneakily on someone’s camera roll, but thankfully, it hasn’t surfaced.

Try it: Famous Children’s Books at We Are Teachers

17. Use magazine clippings for found poetry

Magazine clippings pasted on paper to make a poem

Give students some scissors and a stack of magazines, newspapers, or books to look through. Have them cut out words and phrases they like and then arrange them into their own unique work of poetry.

18. Perform plays

Just this week, one of my sophomore students asked me what we were going to be reading next. We just finished 12 Angry Men . She said she wanted to do another play. Then, another student chimed in and agreed. Plays are appealing for many reasons. Plays allow us to study literature without having to tackle the entire length of a novel. Plays allow students to become characters and perform. Plays invite students to let out their inner thespian. My students take on roles and commit to them. 

19. Pique interest by doing First Chapter Friday

Row of popular books

It may seem uncomfortable reading aloud to your secondary students, but I am telling you, they still enjoy it! Read an exciting first chapter from books that you hope they pick up and read on their own. First Chapter Fridays are especially great activities for high school English if you have an expansive library of books for them to choose from.

Try it: First Chapter Fridays at We Are Teachers

20. Have them create SNL -style satirical sketches

Box of wigs and hats

When I teach my students satire and parody, I show them examples of school-appropriate satire. Then, we discuss why it is satire. After we get the hang of it, I have them write and perform them. I also happen to have a weird collection of wigs and costumes in my room that may help them get into character. Funny wigs are always an asset!

21. Write a summary of what they are reading incorporating teen slang

Crucible book next to sheet of paper with a teen slang version of the book printed on it.

My juniors are reading The Crucible and the language can be tricky for them. After a long weekend, I was worried they would forget what we read so I decided at 1 a.m. to write a Gen-Z summary of Acts 1 & 2. They may have called me cringey and told me to burn my paper but it made them laugh and they understood it so it was a W (as the kids say.) Afterwards, I thought it would be a fun assignment to have them write the same style of summary for Acts 3 & 4. It forces them to go through and truly understand the dynamic relationships in the play and how the events are unfolding. Then, they get to flex on everyone with a summary that slaps. 

Try it: Teen Slang Every Teacher Should Know at We Are Teachers

22. To build background knowledge, create fun stations

High school English classroom set up with station activities.

At the beginning of a short story or a novel, give your students the background knowledge they need by setting up stations for them to visit. When I had planned for my students to read Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, we had some ground to cover before diving in. I set up stations that gave background information on who Poe was, what Carnival was, information about the Catacombs, vocabulary that they’d encounter and need to know, and finally questions that focused on heavy topics they’d see dealt with in the story.

Some of these stations were videos they watched that were posted as QR codes, some were articles they had to read, and some were discussion questions they chatted about and then wrote down their consensus. To make it vibey, I added dollar-store battery-operated candles, scattered plastic skulls around, and turned down the lights with a spooky playlist playing.

23. Get them talking and thinking by using anticipation guides

Anticipation Guide worksheet on desk with blue pen.

An easy way to get your students excited about the next story you’re going to read is to have them complete an anticipation guide. This is a great way to preview the topics that will point to themes in the story they’re about to read. It’s also a great way to start some good discussions before getting into the text. They’ll have a better idea of what they’re supposed to be taking away from the literature if you guide them in a way that’s engaging before reading. My favorite anticipation guide is from The Most Dangerous Game. I teach at a school where hunting is very popular so when we go over the questions, I’ll have them sit or stand if they agree and then each side will share their explanations as to why they chose what they did. 

24. To teach figurative language, create a weird grab bag

White paper bag filled with objects to describe with personifcation.

When my students struggle with figurative language, I put them into groups of three or four. Then I throw weird things in a bag, and one member of their group chooses an object from the bag. Once they pull out their fake mouse or rubber duck or whatever item they’ve selected, they have to write a few sentences using personification that is inspired by the object they grab. Then, they choose their favorite sentence and write it on the board for the class to see. We’ll then go through everyone’s sentences to check to make sure we’re using personification correctly and to inspire creativity! If they can write incredible sentences using personification about an Expo Marker, they can definitely challenge themselves in their own writing. 

25. For all the Swifties out there, analyze Taylor Swift

Print out of Taylor Swift song lyrics with notes analyzing them.

Will there be haters? Yes. Be prepared to shut them down swiftly. In my poetry unit, we analyzed “All Too Well.” Taylor Swift is an incredible songwriter. Her songs are an English teacher’s dream. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t speak for all English teachers but any and all Swifty English teachers will agree. You can choose other music too! We’ve also analyzed Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” 

If you liked these activities for high school English, check out these 10 Playful Tricks To Engage High School Students .

Plus, sign up for our free newsletters to get all the latest teaching tips and ideas, straight to your inbox.

Finding English activities for high school that engage and excite your students can be a challenge! Here are five that should do the trick.

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My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the classroom and really think about why they worked.

Here are nine of my top activities from this previous school year.

SWIFT Poetry Analysis Collaborative Poster Projects

As a way to have my students practice their poetry analysis skills while also building their self-efficacy, my students worked on these collaborative posters.

Using the acronym SWIFT (structure/symbolism, word choice, imagery, figurative language, and theme and tone), my students analyzed a variety of poems about a similar subject. Not only did the read and annotate the poems, but they also identified each of the SWIFT elements, provided a quote, and explained how each element impacted the poem. 

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

Once students complete the poetry analysis posters, we spent some time in class conducting informal presentations. Student groups presented the posters. I completed this project with my sophomore classes.

Why this worked: Students collaborated with one another to help each other as they worked on a new skill. 

For more information about this project, you can read this blog post.

Hero’s Journey Literary Project

Toward the end of my short story unit with my sophomores, I like to review the Hero’s Journey archetype. We watch a quick video, discuss the various stages of the Hero’s Journey, use some familiar animated movies as examples, and then my students work together to create this Hero’s Journey poster.

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

Usually, they work together in small groups of three, and I give them about two days in class to work on the assignment. Once my students are done with the poster and have demonstrated that they understand the archetype, we read a short story as a class and analyze the Hero’s Journey elements of that story.

Why this worked: Students were able to choose their own Hero’s Journey story for this project, so that generated a lot of student interest. Whenever kids get a say in what they do, there is more buy-in.

Rhetorical Appeals Learning Stations

Rhetoric is one of my favorite units to teach. I love reading significant and persuasive speeches with my students and teaching them how to analyze the language. I love seeing that moment when they get it -that moment when they realize just how powerful language is. 

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

This year, I added rhetorical appeals learning stations to my rhetorical analysis unit. For this activity, students spent one station analyzing ethos, one station analyzing pathos, and one station analyzing logos.

Why this worked: Adding movement and collaboration to the classroom is a great way to break up the monotony of traditional learning. Students learn best when they are active participants in the process.

You can see more about my rhetorical analysis unit here.

Intro to Transcendentalism Exploratory Posters

Before my juniors started learning about transcendentalism, I had them explore the five tenets of transcendentalism as an inquiry-based introductory activity. 

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

For this activity, I placed my students in small groups, and I assigned each group a different tenet. This type of poster project is a quick one, and I don’t even give my students an entire class period, roughly 55 minutes, to work on the poster. As I explain this activity to them, I make sure that I emphasize that I am looking for content. I want to see that they explored the tenet and that they are beginning to understand it.

For the posters, students wrote their own definition of the word, three synonyms, a quote about the tenet, and a visual representation.

Once students completed the posters, the groups presented their posters to the class as the class took notes on the five tenets of transcendentalism.

Why this worked: This introductory activity was student-focused. The students were in charge of their learning, and they essentially became the experts of their group’s tenet. Furthermore, they were also responsible for teaching their peers about the tenet they researched. I completed this activity with my juniors.

Listening Skills ELA Test Prep Escape Room

In my state, juniors take the standardized state test -the SBAC. This test contains a listening portion of the test that requires students to listen to nonfiction articles and answer comprehension and analysis questions.

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

To help my juniors prepare for this test, they completed a listening-skills escape room. This escape room is one of my favorites because it closely imitates the state test. My students listened to an audio file. In fact, I had them listen twice and also take notes to practice good test-taking skills. Then, my students worked together in groups of six to complete all of the tasks.

Escape room days are always a blast. They are high-energy, fast-paced days that engage even the most reluctant learners.

Why this worked: Escape rooms are one of the best ways to engage students. I’ve done a handful of escape rooms in my classroom, and I always have 100% participation. It is amazing.

You can see more about my ELA Listening Skills Escape Room here.

Short Story Collaborative Review Poster Projects

This short story poster project has quickly become a staple in my classroom. At the end of our short story unit, and before we take a comprehensive test on all of the stories we read, my students work together in small groups to complete short story collaborative review posters.

IMG 2445

Each group is assigned a different short story that we read in class. They then go back and review their designated short story and identify and analyze various literary elements. I also have my students include a summary of the short story as well. Since this serves as our review, students usually have about a class period and a half to work on their posters. I encourage them to divide and conquer; I also emphasize that I am looking for content over aesthetics.

When students complete their posters, each group presents the poster to the class. Since I do this as a review activity before our end of unit test, presentations are a bit more formal. I require student groups to come up to the front of the classroom to present. I also require every student to present an aspect of the poster. As students are presenting their posters, the rest of the class takes review notes to help them prepare for the unit test.

Why this worked: This is a fun and engaging student-centered review activity that generates discussion about the texts. Since we already read, studied, and analyzed the text in class during the prior weeks, students are able to dig a little deeper and discover more about the text.

Dialectical Journal Concepts

When I teach novels, I like to have my students complete notebooks as they read. The notebooks contain two main elements: dialectical journals and basic comprehension questions that we answer together in class as we read (one, to keep up engagement as we read, and two, to help prevent copying and cheating. If we answer the questions together in class as opposed to assigning them as homework, students are less likely to text each other pictures of the answers). 

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

For the dialectical journals, I provide my students with a handful of big-picture thematic concepts that all relate to the novel. For each dialectical journal entry, students write and cite the quote, explain its significance, and then connect it to one of the concepts. I do this because once we are done reading the novel, students will then have categorized quotes pre-selected that they can use for their essay at the end of the novel.

Why this worked: When I plan my units, I like to plan backward. I always have the end-goal in mind. With that said, I make sure that the concepts we use are ones that students can apply and discuss in their essays.

You can read more about how I assign dialectical journals and even download a free template in the classroom in this Secondary English Coffee Shop blog post.

Lord of the Flies Mid-Novel Review Escape Challenge

I love the day when my students compete against one another in this Lord of the Flies review activity. When I assign this activity, my students need to place all of the events in chronological order from chapters 1-6. I have them complete all six chapters together at once because it is more challenging.

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

This activity works well because it generates authentic conversation about the story. Students review the events of the story, which then helps them prepare to read the final half of the story.

Why this worked: It is a fun activity and the kids get super competitive. Since students complete this activity in their teams, they are already familiar with working with one another. Plus, it gets pretty intense. The kids debate and even argue about the events in the story.

You can see more about my Lord of the Flies Mid-Novel Review Escape Challenge here.

Lord of the Flies Team Competition

Teaching novels from the literary canon can be a bit cumbersome sometimes, especially if students cannot relate to the characters or the conflict. One way that helps overcome this is by teaching Lord of the Flies as a team challenge. 

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

I started doing this a couple of years ago, and I keep refining my challenge. It still isn’t quite where I’d like it to be, but it sure is fun.

Before we read the novel, I place my students into six groups of six students each. I carefully group my students to make sure that each group is pretty even in regards to ability level; this is especially helpful in my inclusion classes.

As we read the novel, my students compete in a variety of activities that assess and challenge their literary knowledge. Some of the challenges include a map-making challenge, mask-making challenge, quiz challenges, and the mid-novel review that I mentioned above.

Why this worked: This is a fun and engaging way to get through a pretty tough text. Because they are working together in teams, the students have more ownership in their learning.

To read more about how I game-ify Lord of the Flies, check out this blog post.

My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

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English Basics

Fun Activities For English Class High School

Looking for fun activities for English class high school? Try playing Pictionary, a Classroom scavenger hunt, or a group story! In fact, these ideas are guaranteed to keep students engaged. Just make sure you have enough time to try all of them! There are countless ways to have fun while learning English. Here are some ideas to get you started. And if none of them work for you, here are some more that will make your class a hit!

Group story

If you’re looking for fun activities for English class high school students, you’ve come to the right place. These games can help your students practice their grammar and parts of speech. “Mad Libs” is an example of a game that tests students’ knowledge of grammar. The blank sentences of the story are actually parts of speech and synonyms, so students must choose the right words to complete the story.

A classic English class activity is the Classroom Scavenger Hunt, which can be adapted to suit any high school English class. Before starting a Scavenger Hunt, however, you will need to do some pre-planning. First, you will need to know the procedures and expectations of your classroom. Once you have these in place, you can create worksheets that contain questions about each label. Ten or more labels can make a great scavenger hunt. In addition to being fun for students, a Scavenger Hunt is an excellent way to review classroom procedures.

Another fun activity for your English class high school students is a 3 Things Writing Activity. You’ll need to have each student choose three things and describe them to their partner. You can make the activity silly or use the day of the week to tie in with the topic. For example, you can write an alien with a big square head and seven arms, and four tiny eyes on its head. This activity will help students develop their writing skills and critical thinking skills while having fun.

A similar activity is the Assassin Game, where one student is seated in the middle of a circle. Then, the other students in the circle have to guess which student sticks their tongue out. The student who correctly answers the question wins, while the student who fails to guess the answer has to switch places with the seated student. While the Assassin Game is a popular one, it can be tricky to keep students interested for long.

An interactive activity can be useful for improving speaking skills. Often, students find the monotony of the daily lecture or activity boring. To make the class more exciting and lively, assign fun activities for the students. These activities can be played in teams and can even be peer graded. This can be especially useful if the students have a desire to travel. However, it may not be a good idea to do these activities without a teacher’s approval.

Another game that requires students to use their vocabulary is the impromptu speaking exercise. In this game, students are divided into two teams. They each select a number. In the first round, the students have to answer the statement with no preparation. The goal is to stay as clear as possible for 45 seconds, while the other team listens for hesitations and grammatical or vocabulary mistakes. Correcting mistakes earns them a point. Another activity is the desert island game. The students must describe what they find on the island and describe it to their teammates. The last person standing is the winner.

Classroom scavenger hunt

A classroom scavenger hunt is a fun way to review material and get students moving. The scavenger hunt requires students to look for clues in a room and write the answer. The students will have fun completing the puzzles and earn points for the teacher as well! To create a classroom scavenger hunt, use photos of faculty members or old yearbooks.

Divide the class into teams. Assign captains to each team, divide the class into teams. Assign each team a clue to find the treasure chest, and have students work together to identify the object. Make sure the children understand they are not supposed to collect the treasure but rather identify it with a partner. It’s not essential to have a large number of each item; they are meant to be fun!

Another classroom scavenger hunt is the alphabet scavenger hunt. For this type of scavenger hunt, students have to search for items beginning with the letter of their choice. To make the game more challenging, call out random alphabet letters. Once students have found the letters, they have to write the items in big letters and hang them on their designated walls. They must return to their seats when the timer rings.

A classroom scavenger hunt for English class is a fun way to introduce new vocabulary. The students can search for new words in context as they try to locate them. For more creative ideas, visit Education World for free printable scavenger hunt lists for high school and grade schools. You can also adapt the scavenger hunts to the needs of your students. So, whether you are teaching English class high school students or middle school students, make the activity fun and memorable!

Another great idea is to have a winter scavenger hunt. The students will love scavenger hunts during the winter months. They’ll be glad to get outside. And they’ll love the beautiful scenery. Another great idea is to go out during recess with the hunt. Encourage students to compete with each other to find all the items in the least amount of time.

Another option is to plant words in their assignments or orally directed tasks. Try to find as many as 15 of the same words as possible. This way, students can help each other out naturally. A great way to do this is to use an icebreaker by encouraging students to give compliments to one another. And once they are done, they’ll be ready for the next level. When they’ve gotten the hang of it, they’ll have a good time learning about their peers.

When used as a fun activity in an English class, Pictionary can be a great way to teach vocabulary. The game is based on a point system, where teams earn points for correctly drawing a word and defining, illustrating, and connecting it to other course content. Students should adjust the rules of the game for different age groups and artistic levels. Students can also generate a list of vocabulary terms that challenge them and choose words that are challenging for them to learn.

To play Pictionary as a fun activity for an English class high school, students should prepare a sheet of paper with six columns. At the top of each column, students should write the word they wish to draw. Then, they should pass the colored marker to the next team member, who will then write the word. The remaining students will try to guess the word. For fun, students can make a list of vocabulary words that relate to the topic.

Pictionary is a fun game for all students and can be used for different age groups. Young children, teenagers, and adults alike enjoy playing this game. Using the game in an English class high school is an excellent way to reinforce vocabulary and improve students’ memory skills. Using a set of Pictionary cards and a board, teachers can create a classroom activity that incorporates vocabulary and other skills.

The game can also be used to teach prepositions of movement. It is best played in a small group of five or six students, so that each team is tested on its vocabulary. For the best results, prepare the game beforehand by providing 20 common items. You can also use backpack items that are commonly found in the classroom to create a fun game. However, you should remember to keep the game quiet and monitor students closely.

To play Pictionary as a fun activity for an English class high school, students can divide themselves into teams. The aim of the game is to guess a word within three minutes. Correct answers earn points, and the team with the most points wins. Once students have mastered the game, they’ll be begging their teachers to play it again. With enough time, the game can be repeated as many times as necessary.

Another way to introduce Pictionary to your students is by making a game that tests their drawing ability. Students can practice their skills in drawing while they’re learning vocabulary in the classroom. Pictionary can also be a great way to introduce the concept of critical thinking in an English class. In addition to playing the game, students can also use it to encourage creativity. When paired in a group, the students can practice their writing and communication skills by creating stories that engage the class.

Related posts:

  • Why English is the Best Language to Learn?
  • Top 5 Classroom Games For Teaching English
  • Creative English Activities For Students
  • English Class Activity Ideas – How to Use Games to Warm Up and Cool Down Your Students?

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english class activities for high school

9 New Year’s Activities for High School English

  • November 29, 2023
  • AP Literature , English 11

Starting school again in January is hard.  Most of us have had a long(ish) break.  In my part of the country it can be anywhere from a 6 days to two full weeks depending on where the holidays fall.  In other parts of the country, the break is sometimes three weeks.  And, to top it off, it’s January.  It’s dark.  The weather isn’t great.  But what if you had a pile of New Year’s Activities for students to get everyone back into the flow of everything school.

9 New Year's Activities for high school English--ideas for reflections and goal setting.

Don’t Jump Right Into Instruction

As school teachers and students, we are lucky enough to have two new years.  We get the new school year in August or September and then we get the new calendar year in January.  Often at the start of the school year, we are so focused on establishing routines that we don’t have time to be reflective.  Starting January with New Year Activities give us the perfect opportunity to be reflective and focus on what’s ahead.

Additionally, sometimes the few weeks we have in January are timed awkwardly between having finished a unit before leaving in December and the start of a new semester (which sometimes means new groups of students).  

And let’s face it, everyone likes to ease back into school, especially in the deepest part of winter.

I have invited some guests to share some ideas along with a bunch that are mine.

New Year’s Reflection Activities

The first days after the return from winter break are the perfect time to do a little New Year’s reflection. These New Year’s Activities all include a New Year’s reflection allowing students to look back at the old year and then set intentions for the New Year.

The One Word Project

This is a great opportunity to focus on choosing a word for the new year instead of a making New Year’s Resolutions.  In a true one word project , students go beyond just selecting a word.  Instead, they take some real time to explore the word. 

In the post where I introduced how I use The One Word project in high school English , I talk about how I start them out selecting a word in September and then once a month, we return to the word with a writing prompt.  However, in the reviews for the TPT product , teachers have shared using it over a shorter time frame, completing it in a week, a month or over the course of two months.  The important thing is for students to really spend time with their word so that it becomes part of their experience.

New Year’s Activity: Word of the Year Digital Vision Board for Middle or High School

Amber Walther of Success through Literacy has a variation of The One Word Project with her vision board activity. This is a no prep lesson to help with back from break blues with a digital word of the year vision board for middle school or high school.

Begin by teaching students what a word of the year is. Then they can choose from the over fifty words included in the vision board assignment .

Instructional videos walk students through the lesson and through the technology skills needed to create a digital vision board. Videos allow the activity to be done asynchronous or in centers while the teacher can individually check in with students while they are working. This is especially helpful if you have students who may not have had an enjoyable break at home. 

Mrs. Walther loves using this lesson with her students as a way to help them set an intention for the new year. Self-reflection questions are provided to use throughout the year to help students check in on their word. By having students select a word, it provides a grounding framework for students as the school year progresses that you, as their teacher, can help guide them along to. 

A list of 9 New Year's Activities to do in High School English classes including the one word project, digital vision board and several poetry ideas.

New Years Activity: Top Ten One Pager

This is how I am starting on January 2 this year.  Students will spend the period reflecting on last year.  They will use this one pager template to focus on a variety of “Top 10s” for the previous year including events, music, books, songs, movies, etc.  Most importantly, they will reflect on their most important moments in the previous year.  

Additionally, they will set a few goals for themselves.  Not New Year’s Resolutions, but long-term goals for the year.  These are big ideas that they will have to work toward. 

The template is all set up for them, and they can choose from a variety of layouts in addition to being able to choose to count up or down depending on how they are thinking about the lists.

They will use color and use The Top Ten One Pager to celebrate the previous year.  It’s a great visual way to reflectively  look at the year that has passed as well as the year to come.  This would also be a great activity to use at the end of the school year.

Get your Top Ten One Pager New Year’s Activity.

Teaching Reset: Exploring It’s a Wonderful Life for Reinforcing Classroom Community

Danielle at English Classroom Architect is passionate about helping teachers to combat and avoid burnout through streamlined systems, collaborative and engaging lessons and units, and support for maintaining appropriate boundaries.

If you want a way to start the year that is low stress for you and gives students opportunities for context building, thoughtful reflection about their goals for the year, AND connections to previous and future themes, some activities around the heartwarming holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life may be the approach you didn’t know you needed. 

In her FREE It’s a Wonderful Life private podcast series , listeners can expect an enriching exploration of It’s a Wonderful Life designed to provide ideas and resources for teachers to start the year off right. Each episode is carefully crafted to offer a seamless transition plan, providing educators with the tools needed to ease students back into learning after breaks without overwhelming themselves. 

Not only will teachers have a plethora of ideas to start the year with this classic film, embedded in the podcast is an activity for students to reflect on the goals and challenges of the characters in the film and also think about their own lives and set some goals and create an action plan for the new year.

Looking Back to Move Forward: The End of the Semester Reflection Your Students Need

Coming back from break can feel overwhelming. But Becca from The Teacher Rewrite has just the resource for you. Whether you are nearing the end of your course or reaching the halfway point, this End of the Semester Reflection is perfect for you. 

This reflection isn’t just your run-of-the-mill survey. In this one-pager, students answer prompts that allow them to share their favorite parts of the class and their proudest moments. This resource includes easy-to-use directions that help students offer advice, ponder their success, and suggest improvements. 

Now, why is this gem particularly awesome for the new year? As students bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, this activity helps them set intentions, refine their goals, and step into the upcoming year with a clear vision. It’s not just about looking back; it’s about gearing up for success in the months ahead. So, if you’re looking to infuse thoughtful reflection into your classroom and set the stage for a fantastic new year, this resource has your back!

New Year's Poetry Activities for high school English.

Focus on Poetry for the New Year

New Year’s Poetry is a perfect way to reengage students in January. Students can use the poetry to ease back into academics while using it for New Year’s Reflection and more.

New Year’s Poetry Mini Unit

There is so much poetry written about the new year.  It’s incredible actually.  A quick New Year’s Poetry Unit can be a great way to engage students in New Years activities while still being semi-academic.

You can use the New Year’s Poetry to focus on reader response, collaborative annotations, close reading, term review and so much more.  This works well following one of the more reflective activities like Top Ten One Pagers and Vision Boards.  

I start with the Top Ten One Pager and then move into some close reading on New Year’s Poetry .

New Year’s Poetry gives students the opportunity to examine how other people are thinking about the transition to the new year.  It can help them to work on social emotional learning by looking at the New Year through another’s eyes.  And it is another way to ease students back into academics.  For more, check out my New Year’s Poetry Mini Unit .

New Year’s Activities Including Poetry Analysis and Personal Affirmations Activity

Embarking on a new year often calls for a unique approach to engage students from the get-go, and Julia at Around the World With Mrs. C’s favorite way to kickstart the learning journey is through a three-day exploration focusing on the renowned poem “Invictus” . This specially crafted activity seamlessly intertwines literary analysis with Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), offering students a robust start while setting the tone for a positive and supportive classroom environment.

Day one dives deep into the poem “Invictus,” unraveling its layers through thorough analysis and discussions. Delving into the poet’s intent, students also uncover how the poem serves as a personal affirmation, nurturing mental fortitude during challenging times.

On day two, a segue into the concept of affirmations for inner strength unfolds, igniting the students’ enthusiasm as they craft their own empowering mantras. The classroom comes alive with enthusiasm and creativity.

Day three fosters a Schaffer paragraph analysis, delving into the poem’s tone, thus refining the students’ analytical skills and deepening their understanding of the poem’s emotional resonance.

What Mrs. C especially loves about this activity is that it’s not just about understanding poetry – it’s about boosting your emotional smarts too. It’s setting up a classroom that’s all about supporting each other and starting strong in academics. It also gives students the tools to set their intentions for the year ahead!

What can the new year bring? More poetry to start!

Lesa from SmithTeaches9to12 loves poetry! She writes about it all the time on her blog and includes tons of ideas to include poetry throughout the year. 

And there’s no better time than the start of the new year to focus on poetry! “The Year” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox is short, impactful, and accessible to students. We’re not talking about a Shakespearean sonnet to get back into learning in January! It is the perfect New Year’s Activity for High School English.

Present the poet — her life is fascinating — and share the poem . Students read it and make note of figurative language, the tone/mood of the poem, as well as the overall message. You could have them complete a scaffolded analysis activity using a TP-CASTT graphic organizer. 

The subject of the poem is also perfect for the new year because it’s all about what is to come that’s good (or not) for the new year! Use this to extend the lesson by having students set goals, predict highlights for their year, or even offer advice to their future self (SEL activity). 

Lesa’s advice for the new year? Grab this ready-to-go lesson plan to start your year with poetry!

New Year Poetry for High School English in the New Year.

Create a New Year’s Activities Mini Unit

It is really easy to take a few of these and combine them to make a 1-2 week unit.  This year, my students will be starting with the Ten Things One Pager on the day we come back from break and we will follow it up with a few New Year’s Poems.  Then we will do our January One Word Project prompt which is to revisit our words and choose a new one if they want to. You can easily build a unit that will help you to reengage your students through activities to ring in the new year. And if you are just looking for something that can set a relaxing, meditative tone, you could offer your students New Year’s Coloring Pages with Inspirational New Year’s Quotes .

Additional Resources for New Year’s Activities

Mud and Ink Teaching’s Top Nine (Instagram Style Reflection)

Determinations for the New Year (Another one from Lesa at Smith Teaches 9 to 12)

The One Word Project (a blog post that goes into greater detail)

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New Year’s Top Ten One Pager

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ESL Lesson Plans for High School: 4 Exciting Activities to Get Your Students Speaking Confidently

What does it take to build ESL lesson plans tailored for high school students?

It’s actually pretty simple: They need to be fun, challenging and rewarding for both you and your students.

More practically, they need to help students work together as a group  while also building their own identities .

In this post, we are going to look at four effective lesson plans that’ll boost your ESL high school students’ confidence with English. 

1. ESL Vision Board

2. hobby charades, 3. where would you go, 4. hero awards, the key to teaching esl for high school.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Your ESL high school students will gather their favorite magazine clippings and words relating to their English future. This lesson plan allows students to set English goals in a fun and powerful way .

The ESL Vision Board activity may extend to two days, depending on class time. It is good to carve out about two hours for this lesson plan to be fully effective. You will need to compile a variety of magazines for your students to browse and cut pictures and words out of. Many places like doctor offices, corporations and libraries will often donate outdated magazines for this activity.

A Closer Look at the ESL Vision Board Lesson Plan: 

  • Practice. Put your class into small groups of three or four. Each group will have a stack of magazines they will browse through together. This will allow them to communicate in English and discuss their individual language goals with others. 
  • Production. Once the student groups have a good plan in place with photos and English words cut out, let them loose to get creative. You can keep them in groups to enhance the communication aspect of the activity as well. Once their ESL Vision Boards are complete, they will present them in front of the class during the second hour of the lesson plan.

Your rowdy class of ESL high school students has a lot going on. They are studying to earn that high school degree, keeping up with friends on social media and filling their free time with loads of hobbies.

So what better way to apply practical English than discussing hobbies? The Hobby Charades lesson plan can be easily completed in one hour, and you can always extend it to two classes if your ESL high school students are excited and engaged.

Take an hour and develop a fun worksheet with pictures and designated areas for your students to list their hobbies and make sentences with those. Here is a great ESL teacher resource for you to draw from.

To spark creativity, put a few pictures of hobbies at the top of the worksheet. Then make a line down the center of the worksheet, serving as the two areas your students will use to put their hobbies on paper.

Half of the Hobby Charades worksheet will be for brainstorming and writing hobbies down. You can label this at the top as “Hobbies to Explore.” The other half of the worksheet will be for those Hobby Charade sentences. You can label this half of the worksheet “Hobbies in Action.”

A Closer Look at the Hobby Charades Lesson Plan:

  • Presentation. Once your Hobby Charades worksheet is complete, fill one out yourself and share it with your class. Then you will pick one student to act out one of your hobbies, letting his or her classmates guess what it is. This will give your students a clear idea of how to write and explain their hobbies.
  • Practice. Pass out the worksheet and let your students add their favorite hobbies and write complete sentences. 
  • Production. Once all students have completed their worksheets, separate your class into two groups and have students from Group A exchange their worksheets with students from Group B. Then one student from Group A will act out a hobby from a student’s worksheet from Group B, and his or her teammates will need to guess what that hobby is. This will continue until the hobbies run out or class time finishes.

Nearly every high school student has travel on their mind. They are growing into adulthood and want to explore the world and experience cultures different from their own. Where Would You Go? is a fun lesson plan to get your ESL high school students chatting about their English future.

After all, many of your students may have aspirations to travel to English-speaking countries and strut their ESL skills in a powerful way. You may even be teaching ESL to foreign students in a native English-speaking country. 

A Closer Look at the Where Would You Go? Lesson Plan:

  • Presentation. Think about where you would go (if you could go anywhere), then prepare a short presentation for your students. This will allow them to begin thinking about where, why and what . You may even find an opening question useful to start the conversation, such as, “What are some places in the world that interest you?”
  • Practice. Next, let your ESL high school students do a bit of brainstorming. Let them think on their own and also encourage them to ask you and other classmates questions. Here are a few example questions for travel. 

The Hero Awards ESL lesson plan is a great way to get your high school students thinking deeply in English, as well as having them think about what values a good person has. 

This lesson plan is perfect for two one-hour classes, which will give your students time to prepare their presentations.

Your students will need to choose one person, past or present, to be the recipient of a Hero Award. However, you will need to present your own person first. You can use this information  to draw ideas for this lesson.

A Closer Look at the Hero Awards Lesson Plan:

  • Presentation. First things first, show your ESL high school students a picture of someone with a Hero Award. Explain to your students what that person has done, and why you chose them to be your Hero Award recipient. This allows your ESL high school students to begin thinking about their very own presentations.
  • Practice. After your presentation, open the classroom up for questions, then pair your students up and let them begin their Hero Award creative process. They can discuss, collaborate and bounce ideas off their partners. They can also begin practicing their presentations with their partners toward the end of the class period.
  • Production. Students will present their Hero Award and also take any questions from their classmates. This will give them invaluable public speaking skills they can use with both English and their native language.

Your ESL students are not only learning the skills they need to succeed after high school. They are also engaged in developing their personal and cultural identities and figuring out how to fit in as adults. It is important to harness this energy: Combine their urges to identify themselves with ESL lesson plans , and you have your teaching work cut out for you.

Teaching ESL high school students can be a very rewarding moment in any teacher’s career: You get to be part of your students’ growth into adults and often help them achieve their goals of reaching university-level academia.

To make your lessons even more relatable—these are teenagers, after all—you can also show them popular English videos and articles related to the activities. For instance, FluentU’s English program has hundreds of diverse video clips from movies, TV series, songs and more, and they’re all learner-friendly because they come with interactive subtitles and quizzes.  

Take advantage of these unique resources for your high school students and get them learning English in fun and exciting ways!

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english class activities for high school

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Fun English Activities for High School Students

Fun English Activities for High School Students

Reading Activities for High School

Learn about these fun English activities for high school students

  • High School Reading Activities

These reading activities focus on skills and comprehension and work with just about any piece of literature. Assessing Individual Comprehension in a Group Setting One of the difficulties when reading as a class is individual assessment during reading. This fun activity engages students and allows for individual assessment. Individual white boards work best, although large slices of paper work in a bind.

  • Give each student a small dry erase board and a marker (give explicit instructions for when marker use is appropriate).
  • At strategic points during the story, stop and ask a question.
  • Instruct students to write their answers on their dry erase board.
  • When all are finished, tell everyone to hold their boards in the air. You can also go row-by-row.
  • Other options include students writing their own question or comment, writing a one sentence summary of a particular passage, or drawing a specific scene.
  • In many cases, student answers and questions will spark classroom discussion.
  • Tally points and make it into a game.

Increasing Student Engagement Before, During, and After Reading Another problem for extended group reading time is keeping students engaged. Here’s an activity that should help.

  • Assign students into pairs (the quickest way is to match each student in one row with a student in the adjacent row).
  • At certain points in the story, instruct students to stand up and face their partner.
  • One student is partner A and the other is partner B. This activity is more fun when you assign each partner a name from the selection you’re reading. For example, the student with longer hair is Juliet; the other is Romeo. Kissing, however, is prohibited.
  • Instruct partner A to tell partner B everything he or she knows about _____________; or instruct partner B to explain to partner A what just happened in the story; or instruct partners A and B to have 2-minute conversation acting like characters from the story. The options are endless.

Getting Students to Share Their Opinions about Reading Sharing thoughts and ideas about literature with the class can be intimidating for high school students. However, sharing in a small group of peers is significantly less intimidating. This activity will get students thinking critically without fear of embarrassment.

  • Assign a set of questions. The questions should require high-level thinking and an answer of 3-5 sentences. You may want to display a rubric delineating your expectations.
  • Listen to students whine and complain while inwardly giggling.
  • Put students in groups of four.
  • Instruct students to answer questions as a group. Emphasize quality over quantity. In other words, four really good answers will get a higher score than six OK answers. This will encourage group discussion instead of divide and conquer.

Additional Activities

  • Class Debate - Pick an issue or character from the story and have a debate. Be sure to set the ground rules first.
  • Graphic Organizers - There’s a reading graphic organizer to help students practice just about any skill–compare/contrast, decision-making, cause and effect, problem/solution, summarizing, chronology, making predictions , for example.
  • Construct a Test - Tell students to make a multiple choice quiz over a reading selection. Tell them to focus on higher level thought.
  • Create a Crossword Puzzle - Read a book. Make a puzzle. This is a great reading review activity.
  • Make a Movie Poster - This forces the students to make connections to their world. They are, for example, forced to picture the story’s characters in order to match them up with a modern day movie star.
  • Create Poetry

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Do you have any other fun English activities for high school students? Please share yours in the comments section below. Image by  Jonny Lindner  from  Pixabay

This post is part of the series: Mini-lessons to Improve Reading Skills

Emphasize skills with these reading skills mini-lessons.

  • Two Mini Lessons on Cause and Effect in Reading
  • A Mini Lesson on Making Predictions in Reading
  • Lesson Plan on Using Context Clues to Understand Nonsense Words

TheHighSchooler

10 Warm-Up Activities For High School English

Welcome, fellow adventurers of the mind, to a world of linguistic whimsy and grammatical games! As a high school student, you are probably familiar with the dread of walking into an early morning class and having to dive right into the lesson without any sort of preparation. But fear not, just like bell ringers, with the right warm-up activities, you can start your English class off on the right foot and set the tone for a successful and engaging lesson.

In this wondrous world of linguistic lunacy, we will explore various activities that will test your critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. From unraveling scrambled sentences to creating alphabet stories, from guessing games to storytelling marathons, we will traverse through a landscape of language, where words come alive, and creativity reigns supreme.

So, whether you’re a seasoned wordsmith or a budding linguist, whether you love the sound of your own voice or prefer to listen and learn, there’s something here for everyone. Let’s dive into the depths of language, and emerge victorious as masters of the written and spoken word. Are you ready to let your linguistic prowess shine? Let’s begin!

High-energy warm-up activities for high school English

1. word association.

Word Association

Let’s get our creative juices flowing with a fun game of word association! We’ll start with a word and take turns saying words that are associated with it. Who knows where this game will take us?

In this activity, start by writing a word on the board and have students take turns saying a word that is associated with the previous word. For example, if the first word is “cat,” the next student might say “dog,” and the next might say “pet,” and so on. Encourage students to be creative and think outside the box.

As a variation, you could also play the game with categories, such as “things you find in a kitchen” or “types of animals.” This game will allow students to enhance their vocabulary, and hence, can be a suitable SAT Prep Activity .

2. Alphabet Story

Alphabet Story

Get ready to put your storytelling skills to the test with Alphabet Story! We’ll start with the letter A and go around the room, each adding a sentence that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. Are you up for the challenge?

This activity is a fun way to encourage students to practice their storytelling skills. Begin with the letter A, and have the first student start with a sentence that begins with that letter. For example, “Allison was walking through the park when she saw a strange creature.”

The next student would continue with the letter B, “Before she could get a closer look, the creature darted off into the bushes,” and so on. You could also make it more challenging by adding a rule that each sentence has to be a certain number of words or have a specific theme.

3. Pictionary

Pictionary

It’s time to let our inner artists shine with a game of Pictionary! One person will draw while the rest of the team tries to guess what they’re drawing. Who will be the best artist in the room?

In this classic game, divide students into teams and have one student from each team draw a picture of a word or phrase while the rest of the team tries to guess what it is. For example, if the word is “ocean,” the student might draw waves, a beach, or sea creatures. This game encourages creativity and teamwork and can be a fun way to start a lesson on descriptive writing.

4. Sentence Scramble

Sentence Scramble

Let’s put our critical thinking skills to the test with Sentence Scramble! I’ll write a sentence on the board but scramble the words out of order. Can you work together to put it back in the correct order?

This activity can be a great way to help students understand grammar rules and practice critical thinking and problem-solving skills. You can write a sentence on the board, but scramble the words out of order, and then have students work together to put the sentence back in the correct order. This can be a fun and engaging way to reinforce parts of speech, sentence structure, and other grammar concepts.

Debate

Get ready to flex your persuasive muscles with a debate! You’ll work with a partner or small group to argue for or against a topic. Can you convince the other side to see things your way?

This activity can be a great way to help students develop critical thinking, communication skills, and personality, as well as the ability to respectfully disagree with others. You can assign students to break into pairs or small groups and debate a topic of your choice, or you can let them choose their own topics.

They can be related to politics , fashion, lifestyle, health, etc.  Encourage students to research their positions and present their arguments in a clear and persuasive manner. This can be a great way to build confidence and encourage students to think critically about important issues.

6. One Word at a Time

One Word at a Time

Let’s work together to create a story with just one word at a time! We’ll go around the room, each adding one word to the story. Who knows where our imagination will take us?

This activity can be a fun and engaging way to get students thinking creatively and working together. You can start the story with a sentence, and then have each student add one word at a time, going around the circle until the story is complete.

This can be a great way to reinforce vocabulary and grammar concepts, such as sentence structure, parts of speech, and more. To make it more challenging, you can limit the number of words each student can add, or set a theme for the story.

7. 20 Questions

20 Questions

It’s time to put your detective skills to the test with 20 Questions! You’ll work together to guess a place, or thing or solve a mystery by asking yes or no questions. Can you narrow down your options and solve the mystery?

This classic guessing game can be a great way to encourage critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills in your students. You can choose any place, thing, or mystery for the students to guess, and they can ask yes or no questions to try to narrow down their options. This activity can also be a fun way to reinforce vocabulary and grammar concepts, such as synonyms and antonyms.

8. Who Am I?

Who Am I?

Let’s see if you can guess who you are with a game of Who Am I? You’ll ask yes or no questions to figure out which famous person or character you are. Can you crack the code and discover your identity?

This activity can be a great way to get students thinking creatively and working together. You can choose any famous person or character for the students to guess, and they can ask yes or no questions to try to figure out who they are.

This activity can be especially effective in reinforcing vocabulary and grammar concepts related to adjectives, as students will need to ask questions that describe the person or character.

9. Mad Libs

Mad Libs

Get ready to get creative with Mad Libs! We’ll fill in the blanks of a story with our own words and see what hilarious and wacky stories we can come up with.

This classic fill-in-the-blank game can be a great way to encourage creativity and reinforce vocabulary and grammar concepts. You can provide students with a story or passage with keywords removed, and then have them fill in the blanks with their own words. This can be a fun way to practice using parts of speech correctly, and can also lead to some hilarious and creative stories.

10. Tongue Twisters

Tongue Twisters

It’s time to practice your pronunciation with Tongue Twisters! We’ll try to say these tricky phrases as fast and accurately as possible. Can you become a tongue twister master?

This activity can be a great way to help students develop their pronunciation skills and work on enunciation. You can choose any tongue twister for the students to practice, and they can take turns saying it out loud until they can say it clearly and accurately. This activity can also be used to reinforce vocabulary and grammar concepts related to pronunciation and phonetics.

Warm-up activities are an essential part of any high school class, be it math, English, or history. They can help students start the day on a positive note, build community and camaraderie, and set the tone for the rest of the class. By incorporating creative and engaging warm-up activities, high school English teachers can help their students develop critical thinking skills, improve their writing and communication abilities, and foster a love of literature and language.

These activities don’t have to be complicated or time-consuming, but they should be relevant, interesting, and challenging enough to capture the attention of high schoolers. With the right mix of fun and educational activities, teachers can create a dynamic and exciting learning environment that helps students reach their full potential. So, don’t underestimate the power of a good warm-up activity – it can make all the difference in a successful high school English class.

english class activities for high school

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ESL Activities

ESL Games, Activities, Lesson Plans, Jobs & More

in Icebreakers + Warm-Ups

ESL Activities for First Day | ESL Icebreakers and Introduction Games

Let’s talk ESL first day activities. If you need some help figuring out what to do for the ESL first day of class, fear not! Here are some of my top recommendations for ESL activities for the first day, along with ESL introduction activities and games.

esl-first-day-activities

ESL first day of class

If you’re looking for ESL getting to know you games for the First Day of Class , you’ve come to the right place. I’ll give my top 10 first day ESL activities so you can get your semester started off on the right foot.

By the right foot, I mean the awesome way-students and teachers start getting to know each in a fun, engaging and interactive way. Set the tone for the rest of the semester during that first day and have a productive English classroom right from the start.

ESL First Day of Class

Without further ado, here are my favourite ESL icebreakers for the first day. Some are suitable for teenagers and adults, while others are great for young learners. Of course, there are some first-day English class activities that work for all ages.

Oh, and if you’re looking for things to do in the last class, have a look here: Last day of school activities .

The goal of the first day of an ESL class should be for the students to get to know each other and the teacher, as well as feel comfortable. The teacher can also explain the classroom rules and expectations for the upcoming year as well as explain about tests and assignments.

esl-first-day-class

First day of an ESL class

ESL Activities for First Day

Check out some of these activities to break the ice in your English classes. And then get ready for a great school year ahead! I’ve used all of these with success over my years of teaching. Get beyond the “Jolly Jackie” and “Sleepy Steve” adjectives introduction and use these ones that are just so much better.

#1 First Day of Class Icebreaker: Ball Toss

Ball toss is an extremely versatile activity that lends itself to just about any topic or context. It also happens to work particularly well as an ESL activity for the first day of class. Use get to know each other type questions, dependent on the age and level of your students. This activity is best for children or younger teenagers though and not adults. Kids love it!

For a big class, you can create two teams, with two balls, roughly divided down the center of the class.

Quick tips: A beach ball is ideal for this in order to prevent injuries! And, you can also require students that have played to sit down in order to be sure that each student has had a turn.

Another quick tip: Use a permanent marker to write the word on the ball, or it’ll rub off too easily when the ball gets thrown from student to student.

Do you want to find out more about one of the best first-day-of-school activities for ESL students ? Check it out right here for all the details you need to know:

Ball Toss ESL Activity

esl-icebreakers

ESL Icebreakers

#2: Group Therapy-ESL Icebreaker Activities for First Day

Group Therapy for English learners is a fun way for adults to introduce themselves. It’s done in the “AA” style, where students have to say something like, “My name is ______, and I _______.” The last part of the sentence is what students struggle with in English. I usually give students a minute or two to think of their idea so that you don’t put anyone on the spot on the first day.

It’s ideal for helping students feel like they’re not alone in their struggles with English. Don’t forget, you can have a turn too, with whatever language you’re studying.

It’s one of our top activities for the first day of English class . You can learn more about it right here:

ESL Group Therapy

39 ESL Icebreakers: For Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want to Start their English Classes Off...

  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 54 Pages - 11/10/2015 (Publication Date)

#3 English Introduction Games: Find Someone Who Bingo

This is one of my favourite ESL introduction games. It’s a really fun way for students to learn a little bit more about their classmates, and you as well.

cropped-bingo-graphic.jpg

As far as what terms students can use for each square, the sky’s the limit. You can either allow them to choose their own or allow them to select from a list of questions.

You can find out all the details about this getting to know each other activity here:

Find Someone Who Bingo

#4 First Day English Class Activities: The Expert ESL Speaking Activity

If you teach higher-level adult students, “The Expert” is the perfect ESOL icebreaker. It requires students that are capable of holding 5-10 minute conversations with a partner. The best part about this activity is that students talk about things they’re an expert in, making the conversations very interesting and fun. Be sure to point out that students should try to divide their time talking evenly about each person’s interests.

Another thing that I love is that preparation for this one is non-existent. It’s always good to have a few of these in our back pockets as teachers, so keep this in mind for higher-level, advanced learners in case you get an extra class thrown at you last minute.

If you have some way to contact students before your course begins, you can ask them to bring in some pictures or objects related to these things. It makes it a bit more fun than using just words.

At the end of the activity, you can have students present about 1-2 of the most interesting things they learned from their discussions.

Does it sound like the right ESL icebreaker for your class? Click the link below to find out more about it, including all the steps to set it up, and some teaching tips so you can avoid the most common mistakes:

The Expert ESL Activity

#5 ESL First Day Icebreaker for Beginners: Toilet Paper Icebreaker Activity

I’m sure you’ve played the popular Toilet Paper Icebreaker before (perhaps with candy). It’s fun for ESL students too! Your students will have to guess why they’re being asked to choose a number of squares of paper. It’s quite mysterious and fun, simple and easy to set up.

I like to add a twist to it and get students to ask questions too. Playing games like this makes learning interesting. Find out more about one of my favourite ESL introduction activities:

Toilet Paper ESL Icebreaker Activity

#6 ESL Icebreakers First Day of Class: The Name Game

If you have low-level students and want to help them learn and remember each other’s names, the name game is a good choice. You have to say the sentence, “My name is ____, and I ______.”

The last part can depend on the level of students, but it can be something they like, what they did last night, etc. Then go around in the circle, repeating the sentences and adding another one. They have to use the correct names, as well as words/verbs so it can be challenging.

This is also a nice ESL vocabulary or English grammar game . Just adjust it so that it suits whatever you’re teaching.

#7 First Day of School Activities: Just a Minute ESL Speaking Activity

This speaking activity that focuses on fluency lends itself to just about any topic under the sun. However, for the first day. you can ask that students introduce themselves.

Then, require the rest of the students in their group to ask at least 1-2 follow-up questions for the person for some fun interaction and to make it a bit more than just a speaking activity (also requires close listening). Then, at the end of the activity, you can have each person introduce someone in their group to the class (works best for smaller classes).

You can find out more about Just a Minute, suitable for a variety of topics in this short video:

#8 ESL First Day of Class Activity: Introduction Survey

ESL-surveys

You can use surveys for various things—jobs, home life, hobbies, travel (More ESL Travel Ideas here) etc. but this one should have questions related to introducing yourself and your personality.

My favorite thing about ESL surveys is that they hit all four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) as well as grammar. It’s also a good way to reinforce new vocabulary. We love that here at ESL Activities! Language teaching made fun.

However, it’s not for total beginners and is best suited to intermediate to advanced-level students.

Check out the link below for an example survey and more details about how I use them. It’s one of the best activities for a first English class with adults. Find out more here:

ESL Introduction Survey

ESL Listening Activities for Teenagers and Adults: Practical Ideas for English Listening for the...

  • 85 Pages - 02/02/2020 (Publication Date)

#9 First Day Activities for English Class: Puzzle Finder

Puzzle Finder is a fun ESL activity that gets students up and out of their seats, mingling with their classmates. The best part about it is that it gives students a reason to talk to each other. It’s challenging too!

Students have to describe the piece of the puzzle that they have in order to match with someone else in the class. I prefer this style of activity, as opposed to a race or board game of some kind. The goal of the first day is for people to get to know each other and create an atmosphere of cooperation.

You can find out more about it this warm-up for English class right here:

Puzzle Finder ESL Activity

#10: More ESL Introduction Activities

There are even more ideas for ESL intro activities here:

#11: Me Too!

Another activity to consider for the first day of English class is this simple one that requires absolutely nothing in the way of preparation or materials. If that’s not some ESL teaching gold, then I’m not sure what is.

The way it works is that students have to say a fact about themselves that they think some, but not all students will have in common with them. Want to know more about it? Find out all the details here:

Me Too! ESL Speaking/Listening Activity .

#12: Small Talk Activities

Small talk is how people get to know each other at work or other social events. So, why not do some small talk activities on the first day of English class, too? It’s also an important skill for our students to master. Here are some recommendations that you’ll want to take a look at:

ESL Small Talk Activities .

#13: Opinion ESL Games and Activities

What better way to get to know someone than to share some opinions about things, right? If you agree, then you’ll certainly want to check out some of our best ideas:

ESL Opinion Activities .

#14: Introducing Yourself Activities: Show and Tell, With Pictures

Show and Tell is one of my favourite ESL getting to know you activities.

This is often a good ESL activity to do in the second class after you have a chance to tell students to bring some pictures from home. I usually tell them to bring 3 pictures that show things that are important to them. I give some examples of family, a pet, their house, a hobby, etc.

Then, if you have a very small class, each student can show their pictures and share a couple of sentences about each one. Or, put students into groups of 4-5 if you have a bigger class.

Alternatively, if you want to do this on the first day of class, you can have students draw by hand a few small pictures. Of course, this one is very easy to adapt to various levels by changing the length of time that students are required to speak for (2-3 sentences or 1-2 minutes).

#15: Find Something in Common ESL Icebreaker

Try out this quick activity for the first day of class. Students have to find something that they have in common with each of their classmates.

The best part is that it’s super simple and requires absolutely nothing in the way of preparation and no materials except for a pen and paper. Find out all the details about one of my favourite ESL getting to know you activities:

Find Something in Common ESL .

#16: Classroom Scavenger Hunt

Create a list of items or locations within the classroom. Divide students into pairs or small groups and give them the list. They must work together to find and check off the items or locations within a specified time limit. This activity helps familiarize students with the classroom and promotes communication.

#17: Cultural Exchange

Ask students to bring an item or picture that represents their culture or country. Each student takes turns presenting their item to the class and explaining its significance. This activity promotes cultural awareness, understanding, and appreciation.

#18: Classroom Rules Discussion

Engage students in a discussion about classroom rules and expectations. Create a list of rules together as a class, emphasizing respect, participation, and a positive learning environment. Discuss the importance of these rules and the consequences of not following them.

#19: Vocabulary Speed Dating

Divide the class into pairs and assign them a specific topic (e.g., food, hobbies, travel). Give each student a set amount of time to ask questions and gather information from their partner. Afterward, rotate partners and repeat the activity with a new topic. It’s ESL beginnings, made easy.

#20: Classroom Tour

Take students on a guided tour of the classroom, pointing out important areas such as the bookshelves, resource materials, computer stations, or the language learning center. Explain how these resources can be used throughout the course.

Student Introduction Activities

If you want to do some introduction activities for students, here are a few of the top ideas:

Name Tag and Introduction

Have students create name tags with their names and a drawing or symbol representing something they like or enjoy. Then, they can introduce themselves, explaining their name tag symbol and a little bit about themselves.

Two Truths and a Lie

Each student shares two true statements and one false statement about themselves. The rest of the class guesses which statement is the lie. This is a great icebreaker that encourages interaction.

Interview Partners

Pair up students and have them interview each other. They can ask questions like “What’s your favorite food?” or “Do you enjoy playing sports?” Then, they introduce their partner to the class.

Timeline of Life

Have students draw a timeline of their life with key events or milestones. Then, they present their timelines to the class, sharing important moments, such as when they started school or their first memorable trip.

Hometown Presentation

Ask each student to create a brief presentation about their hometown, including information about its location, culture, and attractions. This helps them practice describing places.

More ESL Icebreakers

ESL icebreakers

Are you looking for some fun warm-ups or icebreakers for your English classes to start them off in style? Then you’re most certainly in the right place. Keep on reading to find out all the details you need to know.

Maybe you’re kind of like me and always dread the beginning of the new semester. Sure, it’s fun getting to know your students, but it’s often just so awkward when the students don’t know each other, or you. This is especially true in a place like Korea where students are often naturally shy and reluctant to speak to people that they don’t know.

Help out your students (as well as yourself!) by using some ESL icebreakers that will help everyone get to know each other on a more personal level. They’re fun, engaging and your students will love them. You’ll love how much less stressful the first class or two is if you use these games and activities.

Designed to Get Students Talking

Some of the games and activities are designed to get the students talking to each other, and making some personal connections. If you use these kinds of things in the first few classes, you’ll find that the rest of your semester goes much more smoothly as students will feel like your class is a community of sorts.

Some of the activities are cooperative, team-based ones where the students have to work together to complete a task . This will help them feel like they’re part of the group and that they have something to contribute to your class. Plus, they’re just really fun!

Either way, I know you want to start your semester off on the right foot and now it’s easier than ever to do that with these ESL icebreakers for Teenagers and Adults.

Get 39 ESL Icebreakers: For Teenagers and Adults Today

I know you’re tired of wasting time. That’s why I wrote a book that will save you a ton of time when you’re planning your lessons. There are more than three dozen interesting, engaging, and awesome ESL icebreaker activities and games. It’s lesson planning made easy. This is because you can actually use all of them in your classes.

You can buy this book on Amazon. Click the link below to get either the digital or print book. You don’t need a Kindle reader to get the (cheaper!) digital book. You just need to download the free Kindle app onto any device.

It’s lesson planning made easy, guaranteed. Are you ready to get yourself some ESL awesome? Click the link below to learn more about the book on Amazon:

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ESL First Day of Class FAQs

There are a number of important questions that people have about the first day of an ESL class. Here are the answers to the most common ones.

What Can I Expect on the First Day of an ESL Class?

On the first day of an ESL class, you can expect plenty of nervous students who are uncertain about what the course will be like and if it will meet their needs. As a teacher, the most important thing is to make a good first impression, set the tone, as well as establish a good rapport and connect with the students.

How do you Introduce Yourself on the First Day of Class?

If you’re required to introduce yourself on the first day of class, you can do the following. Stand up, smile, speak with confidence, share your name and why you’re taking the class as well as a hobby that you have.

esl-first-day-of-class

First day English class activities

What are the Qualities of a Good ESL Get to Know You Game or Activity?

There are some excellent ESL ice-breakers and also some terrible ones. Hopefully the ones on this list are some of your favourites. Here are some things to look for when choosing what to do on the first day of class with your students:

  • Choose activities that require low risk. For example, have students talk 1-1 with each other instead of in front of the entire class of students they may not know that well.
  • They require students to mingle and get to know at least a few of their classmates.
  • They don’t require students to divulge very personal information. Things like hometown, hobbies, favourite foods are ideal. Things like religion and political opinions or family situation are not.
  • They’re fun! Nobody likes doing cheesy, lame ESL ice breaker activities so make sure they’re fun, and also that they give students a reason to talk to each other.

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For English Teachers of Teenagers and Adults Who Want...

What are the Goals of the First Day of Class for ESL?

There are a number of things you’ll want to accomplish on your first day. It’s important because this class can kind of make or break the rest of the semester. During that first class, you’ll want to:

  • Make sure that students know your name, and at least some of their classmates.
  • Ensure that you’re on your way to memorizing students’ names.
  • Assess the level of the class so that you can gear your lesson planning towards that.
  • Build rapport and trust, as well as make a good impression. Hopefully the students will have confidence in your abilities as a teacher. Wear professional clothes!
  • If it’s a for credit class at a university for example, you’ll want to make sure that students know your policies, as well as how information about assignments, attendance, tests, etc.

Quick note: if you’re never been in that specific classroom before, arrive early so that you can get familiar with the technology and other equipment like lights and air conditioning. Or, check it out the day before.

What to Do on the First Day of Class?

There are a few key things to do on the first day of any class. They include the following:

  • Arrive early and welcome the students
  • Get to know each other with some ice breaking activities
  • Establish key routines and rules so that the rest of the semester runs smoothly
  • Reinforce positive behaviour
  • Deal swiftly with negative behaviour

esl-icebreakers

ESL first day of class icebreakers

Have your say about these ESL First Day Activities

What are your thoughts about these ESL introduction games that go way beyond hangman? Leave a comment below and let us know. Or, do you have any ideas that you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. This will help other teachers like yourself find this useful resource.

Last update on 2022-07-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

english class activities for high school

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook Pinterest TikTok LinkedIn Instagram

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Samantha in Secondary

5 First Day of School Activities for High School English

July 13, 2022 by Samantha H.

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.

first-day-of-school-activities-high-school-english

#1: Review Email Etiquette

first-day-activities

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!

english class activities for high school

#2: Create Reader Timelines

english class activities for high school

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!

english class activities for high school

#3: Share Your Enneagram Type

enneagram-activity-high-school

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 .

english class activities for high school

#4: Help Your Students Discover How They Learn

multiple-intelligences-activity

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!

english class activities for high school

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

first-day-of-school

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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Here you can find a wide range of short activities to use in your secondary classroom. All of our activities are designed around themes engaging and relevant to secondary learners and can be used to complement your school curriculum, giving students an opportunity to develop their English language and skills in motivating and enjoyable ways. Written by young learner experts from around the world, our activities are easy to use and aim to give your students the skills and confidence they need to enjoy learning English.

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12 Fun ESL Speaking Activities for Teens or Adults

Every language teacher knows that speaking is a core skill to teach and practice, but sometimes it can be challenging coming up with creative or engaging ESL speaking activities and games. You can use them to improve the community feeling inside the classroom , too.

Let’s dive into nine quick, easy, and fun ESL speaking activities for teenagers and adults you can integrate into your lessons or use in speaking clubs.

They are designed to be high-quality and enjoyable – and mostly suitable for online lessons, too.

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They don’t need much preparation, but will get your students talking and help them to hone their conversational skills without even thinking about it.

ESL Speaking Activities for teens and adults

1. Interview Pop

2. word racing, 3. guess who or what i am, 4. would you rather…, 5. how-to presentation, 6. living memory, 7. video talk, 8. talk about your weekend, 9. timed discussion, 10. debating club, 11. taboo words, 12. story chain.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group or Individual

This is a great one for students to have fun and be creative. Put students in pairs, or you could also carry this one out in a one-one lesson.

Students choose one person they want to interview. It can be anybody of their choice, and the person doesn’t necessarily have to be alive still.

I tell students to choose someone they know a lot about or who they admire because then they’ll have more material to talk about when the speaking part of the activity comes around.

Give each student a list of ten to fifteen verbs. (Can be the same list or different) See the example:

Each student has to choose five verbs from their list.

They make a different question using one of their five verbs in each question; these questions are made for the person they want to interview.

Each question will have a different verb.

For example, let’s say a student chooses Barack Obama. They have to make five interview questions for Barack Obama, each question using a different verb from their list.

Here are some examples:

  • How did you decide you want to become president?
  • Did you want to continue being president after your term finished?
  • What did you love about being the president?
  • What would you change about the USA?
  • What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as president?

While I usually just come up with the verbs myself, you can also find  some verb lists  online, along with a list of people for your students to choose from.

While the students are making their questions, go through the class and help students fix the grammatical mistakes.

This is a great activity if you are practicing  question formation  as a grammar topic with your students.

The students then give their partner the questions that they wrote and then assume the role of the person they wanted to interview, while their partner asks them the questions they just made.

So this means that each student answers the questions from the perspective of the person they wanted to interview, as their partner asks them the questions.

Go around and listen for mistakes.

You could also then have students report to the class the person their partner chose and how they responded to the questions.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group

A very interactive and high-energy ESL speaking activity. Many students get so into it and excited that they won’t even notice they are speaking in a foreign language and won’t even have time to think about making mistakes.

All you need to prepare for the game is to write down 15-20 vocabulary terms you want to practice with your students, each term is written on a different small slip of paper. Give a stack of these slips to each group.

You can also let the students write down the vocabulary (for example on the last topic they’ve learned) but then some words might be double and they also might not think of the words you want them to practice.

Divide your students into groups of three or four and explain the rules of the game.

One player from the first group starts. This student then has one minute to explain or define as many words written on their slips to their own group as they can, without saying the word they have on the card.

They want their group to guess as many words as possible in one minute.

Each time the members of the group guess a word, they put the card down, which gets them a point, and then they take a new card and repeat the same thing.

Once the minute is over, the next group takes their turn.

After the minute is up, each group counts their points and the group with the most points wins that round.

If you have time to play more rounds, after all, words are guessed, put them back in the basket and let them play again, although this time they can only use one word to explain the word on the card, for example, a synonym or a word they associate with the word on the card.

An example might be that if the word on the card is ‘handcuff’ then they say the word ‘police’ and the other students have to guess the word ‘handcuff’.

Students only get one guess. Once a student guesses, the student must move on to the next card, whether the word was guessed correctly or not.

In the last round, they act out or pantomime the words on their cards.

Here’s a list with even more fun ESL vocabulary games for adults and kids.

While there are many other good vocabulary-charades type games that can be done with both younger and older students, this one has been my favorite.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

This is a very simple but effective activity with no preparation needed and can be played in two versions.

It’s usually more suitable for lower-level students but can also be used in intermediate or upper-intermediate students, especially for the other variation of the activity described below.

In version one, one student thinks of a person – it could be someone in the class or a famous person, someone that everyone is likely to know – and the rest of the class asks them yes or no questions about the person until they can guess who it is.

The student who guesses the person with the least amount of questions wins.

In version two, one student goes in front of the door, while the rest of the class decides on a person. Then the student comes back in and has to ask the class yes or no questions until they can guess who the person is.

Another variation of this game is to put students in groups and describe themselves from the perspective of an object, and the other students must guess what that object is in the quickest time possible.

Each student in the group writes down an object and then speaks from the perspective of that object as if they were actually that object.

For example, if one student chooses ‘handcuffs’ they would say something like:

  • “The police put me around somebody’s wrists when they break the law.”
  • “I have two round rings with chains connected them.”
  • “I am on a person on their way to prison.”

Students shouldn’t do any gesturing or acting on this one because that will give it away. The student who is able to guess the most objects correctly wins.

The reason I like this one more is that the students have to get a little bit more creative about expressing their ideas and they also tend to have more fun with this one.

Student level:  Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group or Individual

This is a great way to practice ‘would’ in the conditional form.

There’s a lot of different ways you can organize this one. One of the easiest ways is to just come up with some of your own ideas (5-10 should be enough), type them out, and cut them up into cards.

Go around the class and have a student draw a card, read it aloud, and then call on another student to answer it.

The goal is to make the “Would you rather”  questions funny, crazy, interesting, or controversial. Think about what kind of questions you think would be fun to discuss if you were learning a foreign language.

Bookmark our list of 110 “would you rather” questions, and you will never run out of great questions to discuss.

Here are a few examples:

  • Would you rather give up your mobile phone or your pet?
  • Would you rather have $50,000 that is legal or $150,000 that is illegal?
  • Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the most intelligent?
  • Would you rather have your first child when you are 19 years old or when you are 45?

As stated before, you can make up your own. If you are doing a specific topic for your lesson, then you can try to make them as closely related to the topic as possible.

For example, if the topic for your lesson is  Meet the World’s Oldest Ice Hockey Player , then you might want to prepare some ‘would you rather’ questions about age or about hockey:

  • Would you rather stop aging at 17 or 35?
  • Would you rather date someone ten years older or ten younger?
  • Would you rather be a famous football player or a famous hockey player?

Give each group or pair of students the same card and have each of them state their opinion about the topic on the card.

You can give them a few minutes to take notes on their opinion and what they want to say before starting. Then students go around and say their opinion and support their argument.

This is one is sure to bring some good conversations and even laughs in your class.

You can also teach phrases on how to express opinions, such as:

  • “In my opinion…”
  • “I believe that…”
  • “In my eyes…”
  • “From my point of view…”

In addition to this, you could also assign students to make their own “Would you rather…” topics for the class or other groups. Make sure they keep them appropriate!

Help facilitate the conversations and ask follow-up questions while students are speaking.

This activity is great for a number of reasons: it’s simple to assign and explain, effective for students to develop speaking, and fun because it’s on a topic they’re interested in.

It’s also practical because they’re teaching the class how to do something or how something works.

Basically, all you need to do for ESL speaking activities like this one is have students choose some topic. It can be any appropriate topic according to their wishes.

Then they give a five-minute presentation on that How-to topic.

In order to get students cooperating together, you could also put them in pairs and have them decide on and organize the speech together.

Here are some of the ones my students have done before and they turned out to be great:

  • How to cook [a food]
  • How to play [a sport]
  • How to travel cheap
  • How to do a magic trick
  • How to live healthily

There are some  great tips  you can share with your students on giving a presentation in a foreign language.

Have students prepare the speech at home or during the lesson, and then have them present their topic during the next lesson.

You could take notes on their speaking or pronunciation mistakes while they present and go over them after the presentation.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

This is a game based on the classic board game “memory” designed for lower-level students.

Two students go out of the room (Student A and Student B). The rest of the class gets together in pairs.

If you have an uneven number of students, one group can be in three.

Each pair chooses a word according to the learning objective.

For example, if your students are learning about food, then in pairs they will mutually agree on a meal or a food they both like. Then the two students come back into the classroom and these two students play against each other to gain points.

To gain points, Student A starts off and asks any student in the class “What do you like eating?” and that student answers “I like eating…”, and then Student A asks another student what they like to eat.

If the second student likes the same thing, then Student A gets one point. Then Student B goes and tries to match the pairs based on the food they mutually chose together.

This is a fun game to practice vocabulary and simple phrases.

You can make the game more interactive if students make gestures and movement demonstrating the type of food. For example, they gesture peeling a banana if the food they chose is ‘banana’.

Other good questions are:

  • What is your favorite subject?
  • What do you like doing in your free time?
  • What time is it?

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group or Individual

Find a YouTube video topic that you think would be interesting for your students. I would choose a relatively short video (two to five minutes), or something like a TedTalk.

Make some preview discussion questions about the topic presented in the video, go through them with students before watching, and then watch the video together.

You can then have some questions prepared based on the video content and some post-discussion activities while going through some of the important vocabulary terms from the video.

Students tend to love working with videos and there are so many good ones out there nowadays.

Using video is effective because it brings the outside world to your students, and they can generate some great discussions in class, inspiring students to speak their mind and share their opinions and ideas.

Browse our full archive of ESL resources and printables.

Student level:  Beginner to Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

This activity is a better choice if your students are happy talking but maybe are a bit nervous speaking in front of a class:

Split the class into pairs.

Students need to discuss their weekend with their partner.

Use only English!

You need to be observant with this type of activity. Keep an eye on each student’s talk time. 

If you are finding some students are much more talkative than their partners, maybe set a time limit for how long each student can talk for before switching. This ensures that everyone gets a fair chance to practise.

Information gap activities are great to practice conversation; get more ideas here.

This is another simple yet great activity for building confidence in speaking!

Give the student a topic card, for instance, “Talk about your favorite place.” or “What’s your favorite band or artist?”

The student has a certain amount of time to prepare some ideas for what they will say.

The student then has to talk about that topic for a chosen amount of time.

When starting out with this activity, make sure to give more time for preparation and less time for the presentation. 5 minutes of preparation time and 1 minute of the presentation should be plenty. 

With time, you can reduce the preparation time or increase the presentation time.

Prepare a list of controversial topics, and two opposing views about each topic.

Split your students into pairs or small groups (each with an even number of students). Split each groups into two parties. Assign a topic to each group: each party has to hold an opposite view.

Give them some time to prepare arguments for their standpoint. 5 to 10 Minutes should be enough.

Then let each group debate their topic in front of the class. One party starts voicing their first argument, then the other answers.

Each statement shouldn’t exceed 30 seconds – use a stopwatch with a countdown, so students know when they have to stop.

The debate is over after a set time – for example 5 minutes – or when the parties stated all their arguments.

After each debate, the whole class votes which party was more convincing and won the debate.

If it’s an individual lesson, you and the student play the opposite parties – no final vote then.

Make sure to prepare topics according to the fluency level of your students. The topics can be rather serious and controversial, or fun and weird.

Here are a couple of examples:

Current and serious topics:

  • Classroom instruction vs. Homeschooling
  • Self-driving cars: smart or dangerous
  • Buy local vs. buy online
  • Death sentence: yes or no
  • iOS vs. Android

Fun and weird topics:

  • Vanilla vs. chocolate ice-cream
  • Get up early vs. go to bed late
  • Have no kids vs. have 5 kids
  • Travel to Mars vs. to the earth’s core
  • Sommer vs. Winter

Student level:  Beginner to Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

Finally, and absolute classic activity. Split your students into groups, each with at least 3 three students.

Prepare a list of words. For each word, think about 3-5 words which can be used to describe the original word. These can be synonyms, adjectives or any kind of related terms.

  • Weather – rain, cloud, sun, forecast, outside
  • hungry – food, stomach, eat, restaurant, thirsty
  • to run – fast, quick, walk, race, legs

Write the words on cards.

Now, one student has to take one card and explain the word to the other in their group. Here’s the catch: He must not use one of the words on the card (also, no parts or variations of the words.). He must not use gestures, facial expressions or voices. He has to circumscribe the word using other verbal expressions.

The rest of the group have to guess the word. Set a time for each round, like one minute. One group has to guess as many words as possible within that time; each guess is one point.

When the explaining student uses one of the taboo words (or other taboo means), he has to skip the current word and continue with the next card.

Count the points after each round. Then, the next group has its turn. The game is over, when each student in each group had their turn to explain words. Sum up the points; the group with the most wins.

Other possible game modes: Let the groups guess one word alternating, and set a 30 seconds time limit for each guess. Or let a student explain a word to the whole class, and who guesses it first, gets a point.

Student level:  Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group

This activity does not only help students develop their speaking and listening skills, it also fosters critical thinking skills, creativity, and imagination.

Here’s how it works:

  • Divide the group into small teams of 3–4 people each.
  • Give each team a starting sentence, such as “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away.”
  • Set a time limit, such as 5 minutes.
  • Each team must take turns adding one sentence to the story, building from the previous sentence.
  • The team that completes the most coherent story within the time limit wins.
  • To make it more challenging, you can also include a specific vocabulary theme for the story, such as “animals” or “travel”, or you can include a twist, such as “the story must be a horror story”.
  • After the activity, teams present their story to the class.
  • Encourage the class to ask questions about the story to the teams.

6 thoughts on “12 Fun ESL Speaking Activities for Teens or Adults”

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Thank you so much! Some of the suggestions I have already used with my students, but I did get new tips too! will try them out.

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Great ideas to get my hgh school students speaking. Thanks so much

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Great… These activities are really interesting ones and are helping me a lot. Thank You So Much for Uploading….

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Great activities! Greeting from Mexico.

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Thank you! This is very clearly written with a lot of additional ideas. Useful! :)

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Thanks so much for sharing. Lots of new ideas for me.

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100 ESL Games | Ready-To-Use ESL Activities For Your Class

Welcome to our ESL Games page, where you can find many games for teaching English. These ESL games are great for teaching English both in the classroom and online to kids and beginner English language learners. Our ESL games are absolutely FREE! Simply show them from this website or from our YouTube Channel. See below for all the latest ESL games available. And don’t forget to check out our other FREE resources including,  Flashcards ,  Board Games ,  Worksheets ,  Lesson Plans , and  PowerPoint Games .

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Below you will find over 100 free ESL games on many different topics for kids and beginner English language learners. Browse through the games below, which are arranged alphabetically, or search our whole site for resources.

  • Action Verbs Game
  • Alphabet and Phonics Games – A to Z
  • Alphabet And Phonics Games – The Phonics Train Game
  • Animals – ‘What Am I? Quiz’
  • Animals Vocabulary Game
  • Animals Hidden Picture Game
  • Animals – How Many..?
  • Animals – Farm Animals Guessing Game
  • Animals – Sea Animals Guessing Game
  • Animals – Pet’s Guessing Game
  • Bathroom Vocabulary Game
  • Bedroom Vocabulary Game
  • Body Parts Game For Kids
  • Choose Your Gift Game – Adjectives
  • Christmas Game – Guess The Christmas Food
  • Christmas Game – How Many Snowmen?
  • Christmas Telepathy Game
  • Christmas Quiz – ‘What Am I?’
  • Christmas Vocabulary Game
  • Classroom Objects Game
  • Clothes Vocabulary Game For Kids
  • Clothes Guessing Game
  • Color Games For Kids
  • Compound Words Game – Guess The Emoji
  • Countries – Guess The Country From The Food
  • Countries – Guess The Country From The Picture
  • Countries – Guess The Country From The Map
  • Daily Routine Activity
  • Describing Appearance Game – Draw A Monster
  • Directions Games
  • Easter Game For Kids
  • Emoji Game – Spot The Odd One Out
  • Family Members Game
  • Feelings And Emotions Game
  • Food – Guessing Game 1
  • Food – Guessing Game 2
  • Food – Top Five Quiz
  • Food – ‘What Am I?’ Quiz
  • Fruit And Vegetables Guessing Game
  • Future Tense Activity
  • Hangman Alternative – Save The Teacher
  • Halloween Find The Odd One Out Game
  • Halloween Guessing Game
  • Halloween Game – Pass The Pumpkin
  • Hobbies and Interests Game
  • ‘How Much Is It?’ Game 1
  • ‘How Much Is It?’ Game 2
  • ‘How Often Do You…? – Adverbs Of Frequency Game
  • Idioms Guessing Game
  • Jobs – ‘What Am I?’ Quiz
  • Jobs Vocabulary Game
  • Jobs And Occupations Guessing Game
  • Jobs Telepathy Game
  • July 4th Game
  • Kitchen Vocabulary Game
  • Living Room Vocabulary Game
  • Logo Quiz – Odd One Out
  • Magic E Words Game
  • Musical Instruments Quiz – Guess The Instrument From The Sound
  • New Year’s Resolutions Game
  • Opposite Words Game
  • Parts Of The House Vocabulary Game
  • Past Tense Game – Mystery Box
  • Past Tense Irregular Verbs Game
  • Past Tense Regular Verbs Game
  • Person Place Or Thing Quiz
  • Phrasal Verb Quiz
  • Places Around Town Game
  • Prepositions Memory Game
  • Prepositions Of Time Game – At On In
  • Present Continuous Tense Activity
  • Present Continuous Guessing Game
  • Present Simple Tense Review Game
  • Present Perfect Tense – Review Game
  • Restaurant Vocabulary Game
  • Riddles For ESL Students
  • Rooms Of The House – Telepathy Game
  • Rooms Of The House – Vocabulary Game
  • Seasons Game For Kids
  • Some or Any – Review Game
  • Speaking Activity – Level Up Game
  • Sports Vocabulary Game
  • Sports – Winter Sports Vocabulary Game
  • Sports Quiz
  • Summer Quiz
  • Superlatives Quiz
  • Telling The Time Game
  • Thanksgiving Game – Guess The Thanksgiving Food
  • Thanksgiving Quiz – What Am I?
  • There Is / There Are Game
  • These / Those Game
  • This / That Game
  • This / That Telepathy Game
  • Top Five Quiz 1
  • Top Five Quiz 2
  • Top Five Quiz 3
  • Transportation Vocabulary Game 1
  • Transportation Vocabulary Game 2
  • Valentine’s Day Game For Kids
  • Verb ‘To Be’ Activity
  • Weather – How’s The Weather Game
  • ‘What Am I?’ Quiz – Easy
  • ‘What Am I?’ Quiz – Funny
  • ‘Whose Is It?’ – O/X Game
  • Winter Clothes Vocabulary Game
  • Winter Top Five Quiz

More ESL Games

On Games4esl you can also find many other kinds of ESL games and lesson materials including PowerPoint Games , Online Quizzes , Board Games and Board Game Templates ,

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Home > TEFL Blogs | Learn More About TEFL > Top 15 Games For Teaching English In The Classroom in 2024 [Updated]

Top 15 Games For Teaching English In The Classroom in 2024 [Updated]

english class activities for high school

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Games and enjoyable activities are integral to teaching English as a second language. Whether you instruct adults or children, games will enliven your session and leave your students wanting more. You can use games to warm up the class before your lesson, give pupils a break when handling a complicated topic, or kill a few minutes after the course. There are potentially thousands of games you can play with your students. Games can be used to test vocabulary, practice conversation, and learn tenses, among other things.

This collection of the top 15 games for teaching English in the classroom in 2023 that every teacher should be familiar with will help you get started and feel ready.

The class has assembled, and you are ready to face your students. This is your new batch starting today, and you are all excited about meeting the new lot. They will become a team in no time, and then suddenly, it will be time to say goodbye. The length does not matter, what matters is the quality time spent to ensure that your students excel in their aim of learning English as a Foreign Language (ESL) by the end of these sessions. If you want to learn games for English class to make your student learning easier then this blog will help you.

You get to meet a set of new people every time, and each batch is a little different. The challenge for you is to understand the needs of each individual and train them as a team.

How do you achieve it?

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Do you find that sometimes there is extra time left when you have covered the lesson plan?

Did you ever underestimate how long the planned lesson will take?

Do you wonder how to break the ice in the initial days and create a seamless team?

The learners should work together and help each other. This not only breaks down their barriers but also eases your burden; they figure things out amongst themselves.

There will always be the ones who will be open and happy to participate. Then the bunch that is a little hesitant will need a little bit of time to mix up. And last but not least, the reluctant lot, maybe shy, maybe less confident whatever the reason, decide to zip up. You have drawn the cards and now have to create a harmonious blend. What do you do? 

We all anticipate the best always, and thus, you hope this time everyone participates in the class. You are the teacher, so there must always be aces up your sleeve. Your task is to ensure everyone is on the same page and you can reach out to everyone. 

Popular teaching strategies available are always games for teaching English. There are many different varieties and you can choose the most appropriate one for the occasion. The plus point of most of these is you can adapt to most of the skills, be it grammar practice like a noun, adjectives, verbs, or something simple, a lexical resource practice.

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english class activities for high school

You always wonder about ways to interact with your class and are always ready to find new ideas. The interaction must include fun elements and be not only about the lesson elements. Rather it should be fun, and creative, and provide the elusive quality of including the entire class and keeping them engaged.

You often find yourself wanting to engage with these individuals. Still, you can’t think of a way to authentically do so until it dawns on you—the eureka moment, You should play a game and thaw the ice today and then the momentum will continue after the class all the students start to know each other.

The games for teaching English are a priceless learning tool. Not only these games for teaching English are an awesome way to revise recently learned topics, but also perfect for warm-up activity, a fantastic refresher after a period of intense hard work, and even as a reward once your students get to know and love these!

This afternoon you should remind yourself of the value games play in helping students connect and learn, even though there will be a language barrier. This is a lesson I learned first-hand while training a bunch of people (not teaching them language skills). Games for teaching English are not only a very powerful tool to help build genuine connections but they can also be successfully used to teach language skills to a room full of expectant learners.

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Here’s a Video to Understand Useful Games you can Use to Teach English

Teaching ESL in class, especially abroad, is not very difficult if you have a range of interesting, engaging, and student-oriented activities (read games) at your fingertips. There are many games for English class to choose from, but I have made the final selection based on utility, responsiveness, ease of use, and considering any props that you may need to prepare before the class.

So, let us Look at the Various Games for Teaching English in the Classroom.

1. charades.

Charades

Charades’s objective is that it is a guessing game in which players give clues with actions and gestures. It’s one of the  great English games for students of all levels, who are not yet confident or skilled enough to produce descriptions. The focus of these English games in class is to teach English simply on recognition and learning vocabulary. It is an exercise you can include during the main class to impress the knowledge.

Many of us will have played Charades at many a party, but the version played in ESL class is slightly simplified. Instead of acting out different syllables, students just make the action that gives a clue to the word or phrase. As such, the game can be designed to practice particular types of vocabulary, e.g., sports and hobbies, emotions and feelings, health problems, etc.

In Charades, one student stands up and acts in front of the class and enacts the word or phrase. The class is divided into two or four teams, which might be fine with students, and each team sends different representatives at each turn. There will be a time limit set for the answer. The team that guesses the maximum correct in the minimum team wins based on the points assigned.

2. Countdown

TV game shows can be a brilliant place for ideas for Games for teaching English to adults. One of the easiest English games for students that can be adapted is the classic British program called Countdown. The Players either play individually or can make teams, and then they take turns selecting a consonant or a vowel to select nine random letters. Then using these letters, they have to make the longest word they can. It can be an interesting challenge, so it’s best enjoyed with higher levels, but students often get into the spirit of the game, and the competition can get heated. Thus it is one of the ideal games for English classes for more reserved students.

This game lends itself particularly well as a starter activity for a class with maybe a few late students. However, you are not aiming to encourage this because students work on their own and there can be several short rounds people can join in as they arrive with minimum disturbance to the class. You can up the ante by stipulating the word to a specific part of speech, e.g., noun, adjective, etc.!

Read Also:     TEFL Vs TESOL

3. Liar, Liar

Liar liar

Telling tales has been part of all cultures since time immemorial. I grew up with fairy tales first from my country, then around the world, once I could read. Now, but telling tales is another matter altogether.

Who does not enjoy making up all sorts of tales? It allows students to practice their speaking, grammar, and listening skills while having a laugh riot in the class and could be one of the best games for teaching English. So here is how it goes….. this is a fast-paced game of quick wit and ideal for a smaller class size otherwise, it would take up the entire class time! 

So, the students form a team in pairs and are tasked with introducing the other team members. They should present the other person with their name, try to talk about their likes and dislikes, hobbies, and family information, etc. But the catch to this is that they can make up any story about their partner. It can be entirely made up or can have a mix-up of truth and false. The other student must pay close attention to the description (mind you this is meant to be their details), then listen carefully and say, “Liar!” whenever they find a lie. That student now will correct the other person. 

For example, “This is John. John is from Las Vegas.”

John (not really) then shouts, “Liar! My name is Jack, and I am from London.”

Students then switch places once the introduction is complete. This can be a lot of fun and the students get to know each other better. This game for English class can be used as an icebreaker or for a practice session.

4. Concentration

games

Concentration is competitive and tests the memory of your students. It is a variation of the memory game very commonly played by children. Did you play a similar game when you were young or a teenager or maybe as an adult? 

They will be motivated to learn new vocabulary and have a competitive spirit to use memory skills to win the game. This game can be played individually or in pairs or small teams. And you will be sneaking in a lesson on spelling and vocabulary for your students.

This game is quick to play and can be adapted to suit a small class as well as a big class. Another advantage is that you can control how long you want to play the game for a few minutes or a few rounds. It can be adapted from vocabulary to phrases, idioms, or grammar practice. This came as a wide audience from high school students to advanced learners.

Start by writing for your class a group of 15-20 words on the blackboard. Ask them to memorize the words within a set amount of time, i.e. one minute or so. Then, cover the board and now ask the students to write down as many words as they can remember. You can even offer a small prize for the winner. This will be suitable for a single or team game. Again, it is well-suited for either beginning of class or having a few minutes to spare at the end of the class.

5. Crowdsource the Monster

monster

Let us play with the monster. I am sure everyone was fascinated with monsters at some stage while growing up. Get a student to come up to the board and be ready to draw. You can also make two groups, in the class, and then have two students on the board.

Now, your job will be to ask the seated learners questions about this monster. You can ask things like:

– What is the shape of its head?

– How big is the head?

– How many teeth does it have?

The seated students provide answers. The person on the board should draw as the monster is being described to the best of their ability. This can get pretty noisy, so you may assign one person at a time to answer your questions. When all the questions are done, you will have a truly unique monster for everyone to laugh with. Maybe the monster will become the class mascot.

Another way is, to get the students to draw their monsters and hang these in the classroom. This is a great filler game to spend those extra few minutes as well as practice English skills.

6. Dictogloss

Dictogloss- listening

This activity focuses on the listening skills of your students and challenges them at the same time. This can be used as a classroom as well as an online game. It is better suited for advanced learners. 

The idea is to test their listening and writing skills. So, you must choose a passage or a paragraph. Then, read it aloud at a slightly quicker pace than your class is used to. They all have to take notes while you are reading about what they hear. Read it twice, and then ask the students to recreate what they have been hearing. 

The person who has provided the closest answer is the winner. This English teaching game also tests the concentration, paraphrasing skills, writing, and grammar skills of the student. Hence, a comprehensive exercise.

7. ESL Role Plays

Role play

Some students decide to study English for a specific purpose such as settlement abroad, career abroad even marriage in a new country. Role-plays are a good idea to look at typical circumstances and use related vocabulary while enhancing speaking skills.

You divide the class into two or three teams. Each team picks on a real-life situation i.e. doctor, shopping at the upper market, immigration officer, etc. You become the customer for each group in turn. Ix things up and provide different responses and problems for your student to answer. 

The other teams can observe and take notes. The goal here is to help the students to gain confidence in real-life situations. And then, you can discuss feedback at the end of the session.

8. Call My Bluff / Two Truths And a Lie

call my bluff game

Let your students get to know you or each other better. Call My Bluff is an enjoyable game to teach English. It will be perfect to start that first session and get the students involved. It is a brilliant icebreaker and can be played with all ages. But this is best played with a small class size. The Call My Bluff is one of the games for teaching English that is excellent for practicing speaking skills,

You must allow time to comment on any mistakes made, usually after the end of the game. Especially with older groups, you will be able to have some real fun and may even be surprised by what you will learn about some of your students. 

First, Write three statements about yourself on the board, two of which should be bluffs and only one should be true. Ask your students to enquire about each statement from you. And they should figure out which statement is correct and the other ones which are lies. You should practice your poker face first, though! They win if the guesses are correct.

You can extend the game by dividing the class into pairs or fours and trying out this activity with each other. Give students time to write their own two truths and one lie. Later bring the class together and discover new facts that the students have learned about each other.

9. Hangman  

Hangman Game

This is a classic game and was a childhood favorite. Did you play it as well? But it can get boring quickly enough, so use this to finish or start your lesson. The ideal duration should be five minutes or so. It works flawlessly, no matter the number of students.

First, think of a phrase or letter and write it on the board marking dashes for the consonants. Fill in the vowels. Ask students to choose a letter. If it appears in the word, fill it in one/more of the correct spaces. If it does not appear in the word, write it off to a side on the board (students will remember not to repeat it) and begin drawing the image of a hanging man. You will continue the process till the students guess the word correctly, so they win Hangman alternatively is complete and you are the winner.

10. Board Race

Board Race is a fun game to teach English. That is a good way to revise the on-going vocabulary practice that is an essential part of ESL. It will keep the brains and students active, so they participate in the lesson. This game for teaching English is also a lovely way to test the student’s knowledge about the subject you want to introduce…

The minimum number should be six students or more. The first step is to split the class into two groups and give each of them a colored marker. If your class is large, then divide the students into teams of 3 or 4. Draw a line dividing the board and write a topic on top. 

The students have to think and write as many words as they can think about the topic. You can extend it to sentences instead of words. Each team wins points for correct words, and the team with maximum points wins.

11. Taboo Words

games for teaching English

One of the few games to teach English that can help in practicing synonyms and descriptions. Taboo Words is a fantastic game for teaching English, especially for advanced or adult learners. Use it as part of the lesson, or at the beginning or end of class, and the charm persists.

So, let us divide the class into two halves and send them to the opposite end of the room but facing each other. Nominate one person to sit in front of their team, and you stand behind the students to hold out a piece of paper with a word written on it.

The timer then gives those three minutes to get their teammate sitting in front to say the word on paper. The others can not directly say the word but use synonyms and descriptions. So be ready for some fun with this!

 12. Categories

games for teaching English

Another game to either warm up the class in the morning or fill the last few minutes of the class. This will be useful for learners at all levels and all ages. So, let’s see how we go about it. 

The students should take a sheet of paper and draw six columns (can be less) on it. You can choose six (less if you so wish) categories based on the topic of learning in the class, e.g. names, cities or countries, furniture, verbs, adjectives, clothing, etc.

Then, give your class a random letter and write it on the board. Ask them to write down a word for each of the categories that begin with that letter. Again, a way of practicing vocabulary, meanings, and spellings.

13. Chain Spelling 

games for teaching English

Let your pupils have some fun. Playing Chain Spelling as one of the games for teaching English is a good way to teach vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. You give the word to a student and ask them to spell it. Once the student completes this step correctly, then a second student will say a word beginning with the last letter and spell it.

The game continues in this fashion till someone makes a mistake, i.e., pronouncing the word incorrectly misspelling it, or saying a word that has already been said, then that person is out of the game. The last one remaining in the game is the winner. You can further increase the difficulty level by introducing categories e.g. adjectives, nouns, adverbs, food, travel, etc. The winner may even be given a token prize for the achievement!

14. Sentence Race

games for teaching English

A good game to teach English and revise or introduce vocabulary and sentence structure. This game for teaching English is suitable for all levels of pupils. Do you remember making sentences with new words learned in class? I do, and this is based on that exercise. 

Look and prepare a list of vocabulary words that you want to review. Then write each word on two small pieces of paper and fold them, creating two sets of each word. Make sure to keep the identical bundles separate, though!

When in class, divide your pupils into two groups and distribute the folded papers to each team. Ensure that both teams have a set of identical words. Each student in each team should have at least one paper. Then, get two students with the same words to come to the board and write a sentence with the word. The race is to finish the sentence correctly first. So, of course, the winner will be the one with a correct and written sentence. For your adult and advanced learners, use tougher words.

15. What’s the Meaning?

games for teaching English

Did you use a dictionary? Those thick tomes that I am sure all students dread to find the meanings of words. Now there are digital versions available, much quicker and easier to play one of these games for teaching English. 

You can either use the old-fashioned dictionary if there is no internet in class or refer to the online versions depending on circumstances. This is one of the games to teach English that introduces new words and pronunciations for your students. 

Find a word that may be long, difficult, unknown, and maybe even confusing to the students. Now, without using a dictionary, instruct the students to write the definition as they see fit. (There can be teams if your class size is large). Give them a few minutes to complete. Collect their word and read each definition out to the class. 

Get all the students to select which one seems the closest match to the meaning (it may even be incorrect). If any of the groups guessed correctly, then they win, alternatively, use the dictionary to read the correct definition. The game aims to develop an understanding of language and practice writing skills.

End of List

So, I have reached the end list of games for teaching English in your class. There are many more, and you can be creative in adapting other games to teach English in your class. I hope you will find this list of games useful and enjoyable for your class. Always when you are starting something new, see how it goes with the students and make notes for the future. It will help you to learn their preferences and be helpful for you as a teacher. Also, isn’t a teacher always a student as well?

I will bid adieu on this note today. Happy Teaching!

Read on: How to teach English to beginners, a few tips.

FAQs Related to Games For Teaching English

FAQs

The challenge for you is to understand the needs of each individual and train them as a team.. There are many different varieties and you can choose the most appropriate one for the occasion. The plus point of most of these is that most can be adapted to various skills, be it grammar practice like a noun, adjectives, verbs, or something simple, a lexical resource practice. They break the monotony of the class and make it fun and enjoyable as well.

Each session you take has a planned schedule. Most of these sessions range from between two to even four hours long. Sometimes, students come to attend after work or class. So, you should look at ways to make your classes fun and energizing. Most of these games can be adapted in various ways, so I am sure you will be able to match one or adapt one according to your lesson plan. And the games, in turn, would make your lessons more fun and easy to remember.

There are indeed lots of games that require some background preparation. But on the other hand, there will always be activities with minimum or no props. You will always have to create a balance between the two. Time constraint is a valid concern, but then you have to improvise. In today’s world, technology has made it easier to look for possible solutions. You can find or think one up, or I am sure you can find some ideas on the World Wide Web as well.

Different types of students attend class. Some would be naturally talkative., and others would speak if spoken to. Further, there will be the ones that are reticent to various approaches. You will realize the balance of the class in the first few sessions and should plan your lessons and games accordingly. As a teacher, you should approach even the most reluctant student to come out of their shell. And if you knock on a door a few times, it will always open. Be available and approachable.

You get to meet a set of new people in every batch, and each is a little different. The challenge for you is to understand the needs of each individual and train them as a team. How do you achieve it?

A popular option available is always games to teach English. There are many different varieties and you can choose the most appropriate one for the occasion. The plus point of most of these games is that they can inculcate various skills, be it grammar practice like nouns, adjectives, verbs, or something simple, a lexical resource practice.

There are many games to choose from, but I have made the final selection based on utility, responsiveness, ease of use, and considering any props that you may need to prepare before the class. For details on my choices, read the article and use them in your classes.

There are many more, and you can be creative in adapting other games to teach English in your class. I hope you will find this list of games for English class useful and enjoyable. Always when you are starting something new, see how it goes with the students and make notes for the future. It will help you to learn their preferences and be helpful for you as a teacher.

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Kami Blog > Engaging Activities for High School Students

Inspiration

Engaging activities for high school students.

Blog_Engaging Activities for High School Students

Student engagement strategies and active learning are key to learners bringing their best selves to the classroom. It’s important to use diverse fun activities in your lesson plan to maintain active learning. We’re here to help you make sure you don’t run out of ideas. Check out our engaging activities for high school students:

Here are 5 icebreakers to start the lesson

Have a daily riddle that the class solves before the lesson starts. They can break into small groups to brainstorm or call out answers for the whiteboard. Check out a collated list here to help you with riddle ideas.

Foster the habit of writing by giving a visual stimulus, such as an interesting photo, and asking your students to write something about it. Use this image generator to inspire the entire class and give them specific parameters about what you want to explore. Do this every day to develop their writing skills.

3. Discussion

Add all the questions you want to cover with your students to this editable spin wheel and give it a spin to start the class discussion.

4. Flash fiction

Flash fiction is about broad storytelling. Give your students a challenge to write a 6-word story. They can use any topic but stick to the parameters to introduce an idea, plot, and character. There are some fantastic examples here to get those creative juices flowing.

5. Human knot

This is a physical and fun activity to develop problem-solving skills. Ask the students to stand in a circle and join hands with two random people in the circle. This creates a human knot, and the goal is to untangle it. Make it competitive with larger groups by dividing students into smaller groups or pairs and seeing who can get untangled the fastest using those critical thinking skills!

10 Classroom activities to engage students

Now that everyone has warmed up review the below teaching strategies to spice up some learning activities with these ideas.

1. Host a Jeopardy quiz!

If you’re a fan of the tv show then put that fandom to good use and host a quiz on the topic you’re studying. This activity is ideal for when high school students need to get ready for a big test. Studies have shown that students that are quizzed are more successful. They can revise with index cards so they are really familiar with the topic beforehand. Divide the class up into two teams and draw a Jeopardy-style game on the board with titles based on the topics that will be covered in the test and quiz. Just like in the television show, each category should have points for each level of question. Keep it simple with 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25-point question levels. Give each team a buzzer from a board game or a bell for answering. The teams should consult with each other before buzzing in with an answer.

2. Play Guess Who

Learning who is who from history can get overwhelming so use this teaching strategy to help. Put those problem-solving skills to good use in history class (or others!). Describe a time, place, or person from history with only three clues. The entire class has to try to figure out who or what you are referring to, then race to the whiteboard to write the answer. The students can use their history books or clues around the room if they need to.

3. Journalling

Develop creative writing skills by asking each student to write a journal entry from someone else’s perspective. There are many famous diarists who provide key insight into life through history. You could allocate a different diary entry for each student and then ask them to read it in front of the class. For example, if studying the civil war you could allocate students to write as if they were soldiers, civilians, politicians, etc.

4. Entry tickets …and exit tickets

Put a stack of index cards next to your classroom door and write a question on the board. When your students come into class, hand out index cards, write down an answer to the question and hand it in —as their “entry ticket” to class.

The question should be something related to the day’s lesson, like “after last night’s homework assignment, what do you think about X?” or “after studying the material for today’s class, what are some areas you still need clarification on?”

Not only does this activity get your students engaged and interacting from the minute they walk into the classroom, but it also gives you valuable insights you can use to guide the day’s lesson plan.

When your students are getting ready to leave for the day, have them do the same thing—just with exit tickets (use Kami’s templates).

The same concept applies. Ask them a question about the day’s lesson, any questions they might have, or overall feedback—then collect their ticket before they head home. Reviewing their exit tickets will help you figure out where to adjust your lesson plan for the following day.

5. Brainstorming

Group brainstorming sessions are a great way to bring your students together to engage with whatever they’re learning. Instead of thinking about the topic alone at their desk, they get to expand their ideas with other students in small groups, which will help them be more engaged and gain a new perspective on the lesson. This is a fun way to develop helpful skills for high school students, especially around class discussion. Use Kami’s brainstorming worksheets for this activity idea.

6. Debate-style activity

Most students will have a view of what you’re learning. Use this to your advantage and create a school activity of debating the merits or detractions of whatever you are learning about. This is a good way to engage critical thinking skills as the best debaters will anticipate what the other person might say and be prepared. Get them to write down their main points on pieces of paper ahead so they can practice and be prepared for the debate. This can be done in front of the whole class and you can change the debaters each week.

7. Thumbs up / thumbs down

Thumbs up / thumbs down is a hands-on fun way to monitor if your students are following a story. Tell students to put their thumbs up if they agree with a statement or to put their thumbs down if they disagree. When students have a low energy level (maybe right after lunch?) Stand Up/Sit Down may be a better alternative.

8. Create a video lesson plan

Social media is a part of students’ lives, and those skills in making videos can be really helpful. Flip the tables and ask the students to put together a lesson on the specific topic. Ask the students to put together a video, and perhaps instigate a challenge to include certain vocabulary words you’re written on the whiteboard. This is a fun hands-on activity that could produce some great learning resources.

9. Think pair share

Think pair share can be used for a variety of topics; math problems, science processes, and reading. If you ask an open-ended question ask the students to think about it, then put them into small groups and let them discuss. Then ask all the students to contribute to the classroom discussion and share their thoughts in front of the class.

10. Roll the dice

High school students really respond to their learning when they feel engaged and part of it. Why not write down all the activities that you might have planned and number them? Then ask a student to roll the dice. Whatever number they roll is the activity you do for that lesson. You provide students with some potential impact on how they learn.

Student engagement strategies are a fun way to get the students learning and keep them engaged as their attention span might wane through the day (as might yours). It’s great to have lots of varied ways to engage the brain, body, and spirit. Please let us know on socials how you get on!

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english class activities for high school

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All ESL

17 ESL Activities for Engaging Classes

esl activities

17 Essential ESL Activities that are Fun, Relevant and Engaging

Fun, relevant, and engaging ESL activities are the nitrous of every successful lesson. Through hundreds of successful ESL classes, we know what does and does NOT work.

ESL exercises are a controlled way to practice a particular language aspect. Instead, ESL activities engage in discussion and communication focused on a goal.

For example, you can cut our ESL discussion topics into bite-size papers and have them communicate in pairs. And this is just 1 of 17 ideas waiting for you to build these ESL activities into your classes and to perfection,

Ready to get started? Let’s jump in.

1. 101 ESL Discussion Topics: Free-Talking

english class activities for high school

If you’re struggling to energize your classroom with discussion and debate, these free-talking topics have been tested to keep them engaged.

Depending on the class, the free talking topics worksheet can keep things fresh. Print them off. Cut them up. Put it in a hat. Select a topic at random and let your students talk in pairs or together as a classroom.

If you’re looking for the whole package, here are 101 ESL conversation topics . Like an open microphone, there’s something in this list that will break the classroom silence.

2. Reverse Jeopardy: Formulating Questions

Reverse Quiz Show- Quiz Questions

Instead of answering questions like in a quiz show, students are making the questions. Each card has a word with a point value. Similar to Jeopardy, you create 5 categories. Each category has 5 questions with harder cards as a higher point value.

In groups of 4, students pick the category and point value. After flipping over the card, the fastest group to raise their hands make a question. Give a countdown for how fast they have to respond. Don’t be afraid to give negative points if they are too slow to respond or make an incorrect question.

Students get quite competitive when you tally points. Out of all the ESL activities, this one never fails me. Not. A. Single. Time.

3. Lost in Kansas: Asking for Directions

Asking for Directions Map in Wichita, Kansas

In this map of Wichita Kansas, students practice turning left and right. In addition, they learn to move backwards and forwards.

First, put students into pairs. Next, they ask each other how to get to the destinations on the map. They can practice both asking and giving directions in this worksheet.

For traveling, this is an incredibly useful skill to get familiar with. Beforehand, practice the essentials like “turn left”, “go straight” and “number of blocks or intersections”.

4. Let Me Introduce Myself: Self-Introductions

Student Business Card

How many times have you introduced yourself in your lifetime? For example, you introduce yourself to friends, in business meetings, and during round tables.

Using the business card template, ask your students to fill these out. In the next class, they can practice self-introductions by walking around the classroom and greeting fellow students.

Not only does this help students break the ice, but teachers get to put a name on each student’s face. And if they don’t have a photo, just have them draw a picture of themselves.

5. Timeless Timelines: History Exploration

Timeless Timeline Worksheet - History Timelines for Kids

From the start of human civilization, we remember some of the most famous people and inventions. Using this timeline worksheet , students arrange the timeline according to their birth date and the invention year.

From youngest to oldest, the teacher will go through the correct order in the history timelines for kids. For example, paper was invented more than 1300 years earlier than the printing press.

The teacher then helps everyone by giving the correct answers. Further to this, ask questions about inventors:

  • Who else belongs in the list?
  • What other inventions are important enough they should be added?
  • Or what are future inventions you want to see on this list in the future?

6. Einstein’s Riddle: Detective-Style Logic Activity

Einstein Riddle Worksheet

Einstein’s riddle is a challenging detective-style activity where students have to use logic to solve the nationality, pet, drink, color, and hobby of each homeowner.

It’s believed that at a young age, Albert Einstein created this riddle. Eventually, it made its way as a head-scratcher activity that even challenges your brightest students.

Because of its difficulty, we have provided answers to Einstein’s riddle below. But if you’re brave enough, you can give it a shot with just the clues.

7. Cultural Dictionary

Cultural Dictionary Worksheet

Have you ever wanted to live in another country just for a sense of culture shock? The purpose of this ESL activity is to transform your class into a cultural exchange.

One of the best parts of teaching English abroad is the cultural exchange between you and where you teach English abroad. And don’t forget that culture exchange is two ways. Not only do your students learn about your culture, but you can learn about theirs.

Ask students to write down one culturally significant item about their country. Ask for volunteers to share. Once you collect all the students’ answers, you can compile everyone’s ideas in a culture exchange dictionary that you can keep in class.

8. Group Charades: Action Verbs

Group Charades Ideas

Charades works for outgoing classes. But for introverted classes, it can be an epic failure. However, suddenly for group charades, introverts become extroverts and they’re much more likely to be more relaxed.

First, split the class into groups. For example, if you have 30 students, make 6 groups of five. Rather than one person acting out, the entire group acts it out, and one person guesses. In the group charades worksheet, there are tons of ideas to get started.

This is why reverse Charades can put a well-needed twist on the instant classic.

9. The Classroom Movie: Dialogue Practice

Green Screen Classroom Movie

It’s amazing what a green screen can do in an English class or club. I brought one into class. All of a sudden, students were making up their own English movie ideas. And the ideas were pretty awesome – one took place at the Eiffel Tower!

When students start taking control of their own fate, their own English improves 10 fold. The classroom movie activity has the potential to do that.

From your typical everyday students to Hollywood movie stars. And it’s all because you came prepared with a green screen.

10. Your Dream Job: Job Interview Practice

Job Interviews Practice - Dream Job Worksheet

If you want to get serious about students’ future, this dream job worksheet might be the answer.

In pairs, students ask each other the list of questions on the sheet. After answering all the questions, everyone can find out their perfect job by counting how many “YES” answers.

Now that students have learned about different job types, it’s time for students to prepare for a job interview. Using the job interview worksheet , students can imagine they have landed interviews for their dream job.

With the set of questions in the handout, students can write down answers to the interview questions. Finally, they can practice with each other for their dream job.

11. Multi-purpose Items: Informative/Explanatory Writing

Explanatory Writing - Multipurpose Items

First, the teacher gives the class an object, any object. Next, give the students a couple of minutes to think of all of the different uses for that item. After about five or six minutes, the teacher asks students to share what they have come up with.

For example, you can use forks to eat food, comb your hair, open cans, mix ingredients, and clean pans. Not so bad for a simple fork. The “Multi-purpose Items” encourages creativity and it’s fun to hear what they come up with.

The purpose of informative/explanatory writing is to explain why or how something works the way it does. In this informative/explanatory writing worksheet, we engage in giving informative answers for multi-purpose items.

12. Rhyme Time: Activity Sheet

Rhyme Time Brain Storming

First, put your students into groups. Next, hand out the Rhyme Time activity sheet. Now, bring out your stopwatch and get your students to think of as many rhymes as possible for each group. Finally, the group with the most rhymes wins.

Your students are poets and they don’t even know it. Review the rhymes and have a classroom discussion on rhymes. For example, when do you hear rhymes? How about in songs or poems?

12. Simon Says: Imperatives

Simon Says Ideas

Only when the teacher says “Simon Says”, students can complete the action. For example, if you only say “Touch your nose”, students should do nothing.

But if you say “Simon says touch your nose”, students should actually touch their nose. This is how to play Simon Says.

If you’re looking for Simon Says ideas, we have provided a worksheet below that you can use. For example, students can touch their noses, jump up and down and run in a circle.

13. Pushy Salesperson: Advertisement Ideas

Pushy Salesperson - Advertising Ideas for School Project

Have your students sell something that nobody wants to buy like a pushy salesperson. There are tons of advertisement ideas for a school project in this worksheet.

For example, you can use forks to eat food, comb your hair, open cans, mix ingredients, and clean pans. Not so bad for a simple fork. The “Multi-purpose Items” encourages creativity and it’s fun to hear what they come up with.

14. Pass the Ball: Vocabulary Brainstorming

Pass the Ball - Talking Timebomb Vocabulary Worksheet

One of the best parts about “Pass the Ball” is that you need practically no preparation time at all. Also, you can practice anything from rhyming to vocabulary to types of things.

First, the teacher comes up with a topic or idea. In the worksheet below, there are some ideas but they can be anything. Next, the teacher starts the music, and students have to think of as many words as they can for that topic.

Someone starts with a ball. When they come up with a word, they pass the ball to another student. This process continues but they can’t repeat something that has already been said.

When the music stops, whoever is holding the ball loses. And the punishment can be anything. For example, they must speak for one minute about a topic the teacher gives them.

This activity was previously called “Talking Timebomb” because you used a timer. Whoever was left with the ball at the end of the music lost the game.

15. Pronunciation Game: Minimal Pairs Pyramid

Pronunciation Game - Minimal Pairs Pyramid

Minimal Pairs are words that sound similar but one phonological element is different in the two words. For example, glamour and grammar sound extremely similar. But they are different with the /r/ and /l/ sounds.

In the pronunciation game, students have to keep a keen ear for what they hear. For example, we use minimal pairs which are similar sounding words with one different phonological element.

First, they start at the top of the pyramid. Next, the teacher says the word, and students have to circle it. Meanwhile, this process continues until everyone reaches the bottom. Finally, there’s only one spot where everyone should finish.

As the teacher, you have to keep track of where the final landing spot should be. Check your students’ understanding. Finally, review the minimal pairs by practicing each sound together as a classroom.

16. Tongue Twisters: Pronunciation Practice

Tongue Twisters Worksheet

Tongue twisters are an effortless way to challenge students at pronunciation. The nice thing is that they have so much fun doing it that they don’t even notice they are speaking English.

I like to start this class by doing a tongue twister in their native language. If I mess up, it gets students laughing. But nothing to worry about because mistakes are OK. Point proven!

First, practice the tongue twister with “repeat after me” style drills. Next, have students practice in pairs, but don’t give them too much time. Finally, open the classroom up for volunteers who can say the tongue twister the fastest.

You might be surprised to see the shyest student in class get in the action! They’re challenging themselves to speak faster. And they are having fun doing it. This is a good recipe for success.

17. Talktastic: The Free-Talking ESL Board Game

Talktastic - ESL Game Board

This free-talking ESL board game “Talktastic” requires a game board and dice to play. But with a bit of preparation, students will be asking each other questions and answering in no time.

First, the teacher makes groups of two. Next, students roll the dice and move their game pieces. When they land on a square, they’ll ask their partner the question in the box. Accordingly, their partner responds until they go around the entire game board.

Even if you have rules to only speak in English in class, this activity is one of those times you should enforce this. Overall, this ESL Board Game lasts for a good 15 minutes and is a lot of fun for students.

Engaging ESL activities are one of the most essential elements of teaching an effective lesson.

These ESL activities aim at boosting awareness and increasing English as a Second Language in an effortless, fun sort of way.

Are you ready to take action? These ESL activities are all free to download and print to teach within your class today.

Let me know what you think with a comment below.

Thank you very much for these lessons

Great collection of activities! Thanks!

Thank you very much. These are some very interesting ideas.

Great ideas for our ESL table for our upcoming Curriculum Night.

These ideas are amazing. I’m so excited to try them with my teen and adults students

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What's the Question

Asking Questions

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Group Charades

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The Classroom Movie

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COMMENTS

  1. 42 Engaging English Activities For High School

    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.

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  3. 6 Super Fun Games For High School Students

    1: Thumbs Up Game 2: The Liar Game 3: Word Association Game 4: The Chain Game 5: The Hula Skirt Game 6: The Mafia Game More Games Fun Games For High School Students 1: Thumbs Up Game This first activity is a classic classroom game that high school students love to play! To play, first, choose three students to come up to the front of the class.

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    First Chapter Fridays are especially great activities for high school English if you have an expansive library of books for them to choose from. Try it: First Chapter Fridays at We Are Teachers. 20. Have them create SNL -style satirical sketches. Brooke Naumoff.

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    1. Best for Classroom Quizzes: Kahoot! 2. Best for Authentic Content: FluentU 3. Best for Digital Flashcards: Quizlet 4. Best for Vocabulary Definitions: Knoword Group Activities 5. Best Guessing Game: Interview with the Stars 6. Best for Physical Movement: Grab the Ball 7. Best Fun Musical Activity: Lyrics Jigsaw 8.

  6. My Favorite High School English Activities of the Year

    Rhetorical Appeals Learning Stations Rhetoric is one of my favorite units to teach. I love reading significant and persuasive speeches with my students and teaching them how to analyze the language. I love seeing that moment when they get it -that moment when they realize just how powerful language is.

  7. Fun Activities For English Class High School

    May 13, 2022 by hrenglish Looking for fun activities for English class high school? Try playing Pictionary, a Classroom scavenger hunt, or a group story! In fact, these ideas are guaranteed to keep students engaged. Just make sure you have enough time to try all of them! There are countless ways to have fun while learning English.

  8. Bell Ringer Activity List for High School English

    1. The same thing every day 2. The same thing over the course of the week 3. A pattern of activities (Monday Mentor Sentences, Tuesday Terms, etc.) 4. An activity tied to your unit My school has rarely had a schedule that allowed us to use the third method easily, but I have used the other three with great success over the years.

  9. 9 New Year's Activities for High School English

    9 New Year's Activities for High School English. November 29, 2023. AP Literature, English 11. Starting school again in January is hard. Most of us have had a long (ish) break. In my part of the country it can be anywhere from a 6 days to two full weeks depending on where the holidays fall. In other parts of the country, the break is ...

  10. ESL Lesson Plans for High School: 4 Exciting Activities to ...

    Practice. Put your class into small groups of three or four. Each group will have a stack of magazines they will browse through together. This will allow them to communicate in English and discuss their individual language goals with others.

  11. Fun English Activities for High School Students

    This activity will get students thinking critically without fear of embarrassment. Assign a set of questions. The questions should require high-level thinking and an answer of 3-5 sentences. You may want to display a rubric delineating your expectations. Listen to students whine and complain while inwardly giggling.

  12. 10 Warm-Up Activities For High School English

    2. Alphabet Story Get ready to put your storytelling skills to the test with Alphabet Story! We'll start with the letter A and go around the room, each adding a sentence that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. Are you up for the challenge? This activity is a fun way to encourage students to practice their storytelling skills.

  13. First Day English Class Activities

    This is one of my favourite ESL introduction games. It's a really fun way for students to learn a little bit more about their classmates, and you as well. Find Someone Who Bingo is a classic get-to-know-each-other activity on the first day. It's a great activity for children as well as adults.

  14. 5 First Day of School Activities for High School English

    5 First Day of School Activities for High School English July 13, 2022 by Samantha H. 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!

  15. Activities

    Beginner A1 Download and use our range of activities for English language teachers of secondary learners at beginner level A1. Pre-intermediate A2 Download and use our range of activities for English language teachers of secondary learners at pre-intermediate level A2 Intermediate B1

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    1. Interview Pop 2. Word Racing 3. Guess Who or What I Am 4. Would you rather… 5. How-to Presentation 6. Living Memory 7. Video Talk 8. Talk About Your Weekend 9. Timed Discussion 10. Debating Club 11. Taboo Words 12. Story Chain 1. Interview Pop Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual

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

    sET UP FIRST DAY ACTIVITY STATIONS. 3. Use stations for first day of school tasks: There are always a number of housekeeping items that must be taken care of on the first day of high school. Stations are a fantastic way to create movement and natural icebreakers while also making sure each back to school task is complete.

  18. 5 End-of-School-Year Activities for High School English

    End of School Year Activities for High School English #3: Have Students Write a Letter. Writing a letter is an essential skill that not many students actually practice. Teens today just don't have much reason to write them, but that doesn't mean they won't need to know how later in life. You can use the last few weeks of the year to teach ...

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    Free Counselling : IN +91 9891953953 US +1 2099044506 Download PDF Games and enjoyable activities are integral to teaching English as a second language. Whether you instruct adults or children, games will enliven your session and leave your students wanting more.

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    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.

  22. Engaging Activities for High School Students

    1. Riddles Have a daily riddle that the class solves before the lesson starts. They can break into small groups to brainstorm or call out answers for the whiteboard. Check out a collated list here to help you with riddle ideas. 2. Writing

  23. 17 ESL Activities for Engaging Classes

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