ceciliafelsenstein Looking for ways to spark your lessons? Trying to engage your students with attractive activities? Here you’ll find 5 fun projects for you High School ELA Classroom which will help you get your secondary students hooked!
I used to think projects could be only done in Science, and felt a little bit jealous of those teachers who could captivate their students’ attention by introducing them into an experiment or could plan a specific activity for their topic-based subject.
Thankfully, and I don’t know how, little by little I started joining ELA activities I had done with my students and creating some projects. I prepared detailed instructions, rubrics, checklists and other stuff…They were a complete success among my students! That is why I’d like to share my ideas with you:
Project work #1: Song Analysis
Who doesn’t like music? Students get really motivated when the project assigned contains something related to music; and even more if the song to work on is of their own choice!! However, this project work requires students to think critically by understanding, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and creating a final product.
You can ask your students to go over the lyrics and meaning of a song and work on its background, vocabulary and effect of words. Then, they can prepare a Slides presentation to show their findings to their classmates. You can get this project work on song analysis here. It includes editable instructions, rubrics and a checklist for teachers to grade their students’ presentations.
Project Work #2: Podcast Creation
I usually use podcast recording as a final project. The topic my students present is one they have been investigating and working on. However, you can assign them any topic you need to work on or even make them choose one.
For this project, my students generally work in groups of three members each. I assign several lessons to Podcast Creation so that I can make sure they follow all the necessary steps. First, I give them some information on the different types of podcasts so that they can decide on the one they will make. Then, they are asked to complete a detailed guide which helps them organize the whole podcast (script, speakers, music, sound effects, time, etc)
My students hand in their podcasts through Classroom. I give them rubrics with the guide so that they know what I expect from them. I then use a checklist to evaluate and grade their final project. If you want to get this resource, just click here
Project Work #3: Creating an Ad
Students have great fun creating ads. The project requires them to choose (or even design) a product to sell to a particular audience. I give my students a detailed guide to help them think about all the necessary elements needed to sell a product. I also provide them rubrics and the checklist that I will use to evaluate their Ads.
In general, my students choose to present their products in a visual and static ad. But some others make videos which are great to engage the rest of the class.
This project work enables students to reflect upon the language used to convey a particular purpose, the colors advertisers choose, the storyline behind the product, etc. It is a great way of having students work as team while having fun and thinking about language to express meaning. To get the complete bundle, click here.
Project Work #4: One-pager on ANY movie
My students love watching movies in class. I used to think they were a waste of time and could hardly connect them to Language Arts. However, one day I was working on a unit on “chocolates and sweets” and wanted to give my students a reading comprehension from an extract of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. I realized I had to show them the movie, it was THE opportuinity to make them have an enjoyable moment connected to something from our ELA class. Of course I prepared a guide to check comprehension for to answer while watching, but I also decided to create a one-pager for them to complete at the end.
The lesson after we had finished watching the movie, I took markers to class, I printed the instructions, the one-pagers and posted the rubrics in Classroom for my students to know what I expected from them. For two hours, I had them working attentively and dilligently. I was surprised by the creativity they managed to show in their final products. One of them even told me “I enjoyed this activity so much, I didn’t realized I was working on specific Language Arts concepts”. Objective accomplished! Here you’ll find the one pagers with instructions and rubrics
Project Work #5: Current Events- Editorial Cartoons
Last but not least, one of my favorite projects for high school students: Oral Presentation after Analizing Editorial Cartoons. This is a challenging project work for students. However, they get to enjoy it (and learn a lot!)
The idea is that students analyze in detail an editorial cartoon taken from a newspaper. I provide them with a guide with questions and suggestion on what to focus on while looking at the cartoon. They are asked to read about the selected topic from at least 3 different sources and prepare an oral presentation to deliver to the whole class.
One of the highlights of this project, is that after everyone has presented, students get an overall idea of news going on in the world. It is a way of getting them involved in current events. You can also check out this post on teaching current events in high school!
As you can see, projects do not necessarily have to be boring or science-related! Do incorporate them into your Language Arts classes and let me know the outcome! 😉
