One of the main challenges with teaching English to teens is coming up with interesting activities that’ll keep them engaged. Here are five activities that will help breathe new life into your English lessons and homework assignments.
Getting students interested in poetry can be tricky. Even for many adults, poetry is an abstract and obscure literary genre. That said, it’s a genre that’s always evolving. In fact, poetry is currently having a moment among young adults. One way to pique your students’ poetic interest is by asking them to create video poems. Most young people today know all about creating videos. This activity is a great way to encourage them to show what they can do by using sound and visual components to enhance the power of their words. It’s also perfect for developing the cross-curricular competency of creativity. For inspiring examples you can show in class, check out the teaching resources over at Tout à coup la poésie. Our website is also filled with tools you can use to expand your knowledge about poetry. To review the essentials of interpreting a poem, we invite you to consult our tips for understanding a poem (French only). Your students may also find it useful!
What if learning homophones could be nice and relaxing? On our site, you’ll find a collection of homophone mandalas for your students to colour in. The idea is to identify the correct homophones in the proposed sentences to figure out where to use which colours. Don’t forget to download the answer key! We’re willing to bet these creative designs will make reviewing homophones a lot more fun . . . plus they look great both in the classroom and at home!
Why not come up with an original way to practise spelling and grammar? Find a challenging excerpt from a book, transcribe it, and ask your students to get one of their family members to read it out for them at home. Alternatively, try visiting Youtube and selecting an audio excerpt from a novel read by its author. This directory is organized by age group, and each track is displayed along with the book’s cover and bibliographic information. It’s a great way to make at-home dictation exercises more interesting!
Zines are short, self-published, homemade magazines about a particular topic. They’re a great medium that gives artists a chance to get really creative. They’re also known as fanzines because they’re typically made by fans of a film, movement, or famous person, and they’re becoming more and more popular. There are all sorts of zines out there, from creative narratives to fictional newspapers to mini comic books. The internet is teeming with templates you can use to turn a sheet of paper into a zine in a few easy steps—you don’t even need staples or glue! For example, if your class is currently reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, you might encourage your students to make Sherlock Holmes–themed zines. They’re sure to enjoy getting creative with this project and seeing what their classmates come up with.
Conjugating past participles in French doesn’t have to be a drag. In fact, our popular educational game PP l’archer makes learning one of the most complex components of the French language a whole lot of fun! With PP l’archer, students learn how to conjugate past participles in various contexts: on their own or with auxiliary verbs, pronominal verbs, impersonal verbs, and more! If they’re not sure of something—the past anterior tense of the verb avoir, for example—students can consult our concept sheets on past participles (French only). If things still aren’t clear, they can ask their question in our Help Zone any day of the week!
Writing : Alloprof Teacher's team