What could english teachers do to make class more fun?

Question

I'm an eighth grade English teacher, and I was wondering if you guys could suggest anyways I could make class more fun and interesting for my students?

please be creative, but realistic with your suggestions.

haha, thank you so much.

:)

Answer 1

porno parties

Answer 2

Well find a topic that you and your classes could branch off of. Then have your class sit in a circle. Then give them the topic. Ask a starting question then have one person start the speaking. Only one person can go at a time. I call it a Socratic seminar. See how your classes like it then if there is a positive outcome do it every Friday or so. This helps because everyone gets to voice there own opinion. Try to have everyone talk at least once. You may have some people that dominate the debate but tell them to back off a little because every ones voice needs to be heard!

Have fun and tell me how it goes!

Answer 3

I was an eighth grade writing teacher this year, and I struggled to keep my kids' interested. They liked: writing papers to compete for a wrestling belt (I picked 3 top papers each week and had students read them aloud and students who had completed theirs could vote for a winner. The winner wore the WWF spinner belt from Amazon. com $12) They also sort of liked making mini newspapers- this covered writing, editing, revising, and publishing. They got a bit bored the second time we did them. The other english teacher had them write plays to go with a play unit.

They really enjoyed group work- before break I would have them write stories together in class with a theme- romantic comedy, characters: a hermit, two toads, and a girl with glasses and one roller skate. Has to include the line "Who is it? It's MEEEE!" At the end, there is a rock slide. Kids who hardly ever participated liked this activity.

If you get any good suggestions, pass them along.

P.S. Please teach Sunnie how to spell. (Homophones)

Answer 4

smile more.....

Answer 5

if u have some computers install the game WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONARE.So they can answer the things they are asking there.

Answer 6

Im a sophmore and I know that I loved it when my teacher had the class read a skit outloud and have each person assigned a character. Have them only read books you would, and that are popular. I also enjoyed movies.

Answer 7

i wounder how many comments this is gonna get from people telling her to sleep with her students

Answer 8

well, as a student, i can say a lot.

well mabey you should give the kids some fun stuff to do.

like for example, you could tell them to get into groups and make them come up with a creative way of analyzing whatever it is that your doing..you could also show a lot of movies in class. try relating english to drama and theater..make the kids come up with fun palys and stuff.

Answer 9

I don't know about making it more fun, but if you could teach your students the difference between "your" and "you're," it would sure solve one of my pet peeves.  Please do the whole "their," "there" and "they're" thing while you're at it, too.

Thanks!

Answer 10

id give them all a part in the book your reading and get them to act it out.makes it fun yet, unlike reading, it sticks in their heads better as in exams ect they can just think of their mate looking a doofus performing such a role!!

Answer 11

dont force them to read too much.

my 5th grade teacher made us do it and we hated her so much!

also watch educational videos from discovery channl .com?

Answer 12

When you do reading assignments let THEM pick their own books!!! Always do a lot of hands on things or something like a skit of part of a book or assigment!!! Those are always fun. Also do writing assignments like give them an idea like say write about a time in your life but do it on a different planet or something like that. Do very creative things!!!

Answer 13

Why don't you use topics that they are all very familiar with and try to associate them into your lessons like music, sports or those things that teenagers value near and dear to them.  Not only will you capture their full attention if you use references to things like the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus, but you will find that they will probably take extra time to do the assignments, too.

If you want to keep it strictly to classics like Shakespeare, as you are giving examples, use popular things like things they are familiar with (in order to try to keep their interest).

How about word association games such as coming up with a list of words and ask them to come up with sentences (this could be fun for the whole class if you pick things they are hip to or words that might get a laugh or two)?  Maybe, you could even get a pad of MadLibs <I don't know if you are familiar with these, but when I was in grade school, I always found it to be fun when we got to shout out answers early in the day and the teacher would pick a time when she thought the kids were starting to get bored, like around lunch time or just before the end of the day and she would read the story to get a rise out of everyone.>

Answer 14

do different plays and grade them on how fluent they read. for spelling you could make them write the defintion, draw a picture, and write two antonyms and synonyms so that they understand the word.

Answer 15

Write a letter to an author

Make a poem, ryme, or haiku

Answer 16

I am in 8th grade and I love it when we go outside for English. It makes it so much more exciting and it's not dread full to go to class.

Answer 17

Well, you have to have a little break with these kids like creating a game which is related with your topics and at the same time letting them know that scores will be the based with  their grades. Or let say a small drama with their speech class but at the same time they have to be resourceful with their props,like things that are recycled, I think these will make the kids more creative and more TEAM Building will be emphasized.

Answer 18

not show up. English class sucks

Answer 19

Be entertaining.  Show that you are excited about the subject and engage them in discussion.  Don't just sit up there and "teach".......trust me the teachers I remember the most were the ones that made me laugh and enjoy going to class.  Like someone suggested, make them read aloud from Shakespere....I remember doing a scene from MacBeth.  Props are good.  Remember, you are teaching the IM, MySpace generation here.  They are visual.

Answer 20

Well, if u can work well with Powerpoints a fun way to study for a test is to put students in like 3 groups and play Jeopardy... or something like that.

Answer 21

Hands on projects to go with the literature. We had to make something about Romea and Juliet (a fake sword, dress... etc.)

Answer 22

Well, when I was in eighth in English it was my hard class of the year and I will never forget. My teacher love having sacrastic. She does this beacause she want to children remember so they wont do it again. Sometimes when you do that, other kids will laugh and start doing it. Dont let that happen. Try to funnny sacrastic joke too. Let them read books and have fun activites. LIke when I was in that class she read us the Devil arithmetic and react the holocaust. She maake up camps of 4 people in each. She hung people. (Not really) If you get hung, you have to take a test on the book. If you dont, you dont have to take the test.Also make up codes for the students. Dont be nice. Try to be harsh. It is fun activites to help learn for students. Hope this helped!!

Answer 23

less worksheets more discussions

Answer 24

Play 20 questions.  A student picks someone who is relevant from their classwork.  Such as Shakespeare.  Each student gets to ask him a question and he answers as though he were that person.  At the end, each student can quess who he was.

You can tape a word to the back of each student.  Put a sign in each corner of the room.  Noun, adjective, verb, adverb.  Students have to end up in the appropriate corner.  They are allowed to look at the other persons word and kick them out if they are in the wrong corner.  But they are not allowed to talk.   They can smile if he is in the right corner, frown if he isn't.  They move around the room until everyone is in the right corner.  The faces they make are hysterical.

You can play "corners" with other topics too.  Such as hero, heroine, protaganist, author.  Or, poet, playwright, author, fictional character.

Each person can write out a question based on the current curriculum.  Unknowingly, they have written Fridays test for you.  One point for getting their own question right, 2 points for getting someone else's question right, minus 10 for getting their own question wrong.

Pass out some historic quotations.  Each  student "translates" it into how it would be said using modern terms.  OR, you can have the student write the original and after they have done so, pass it to the student in front of them to translate.

You can have mini debates on the relevancy of the old poets, or is texting harming people's ability to communicate, or whatever you think is an issue.  You are only as limited as your imagination.  Good Luck!

Answer 25

I would've loved it if my English teacher gave us more interesting readings. Just an opinion, most readings given to students on eighth grade are boring. Readings should generate opinion from students and teachers should listen.

I think open discussions would be very interesting. But this depends on your type of students though.

Answer 26

Do bingo with Vocabulary words, and give them good prizes at the end (skittles, lolipops...etc..)

Jeporty is REALLY fun have them pick there own teams

Have them draw there "perfect place" and have them percent it in the class

Answer 27

You can get them to do there names in different styles of writing or play hangman.

Plese contact me after you get this answer. thanks

Answer 28

one of my teachers for english had us research any english topic that we wanted, make a poster, and present it and she graded us as a final project... it was awesome! it could be a boom report too. we did our projects in class. we also do plays and stuff and we are writing plays about mythss lenegends or folktales currently and were gonna perform them. I wish that my spanish teacher was like you. her classes are very boring and she hates us. you sound like a nice teacher, good luck!

Answer 29

I myself am an 8th grade English teacher.

Some things that i have done in the past and will continue doing because the kids seem to like them are: taking them out on a nice day to sit in the grass and read(You take a chair for yourself), have them write poems to someone who has influenced their life in a major way, BOOK CLUBS!: Have them be in groups of 3 or four, give them a book, and once a week have them get together to answer questions, do vocab, to make it fun you let them bring in food and drinks. Also don't just teach them from a book or like a book would teach, be as hands on as you can possibly be with English, show them in ways besides the board and in interesting ways that they haven't seen before. Get excited and have fun with it yourself.

Hope this helped.

Answer 30

Show some SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK!