Student Projects

Fictionary

Students write their own mini-dictionary (or an excerpt of one) based on a fictional property they enjoy, providing definitions to made-up words.

This Day in History

Throughout the year (or semester), students take turns writing headlines for something that happened on that day, but for any year in the past. These headlines are displayed on the classroom wall.

Students will write a description of the same place multiple times. Each time, they’ll do so from a new perspective, one that requires them to think about and focus on different things, and even the tone of the description should be a little different each time.

Clouds and Constellations

Different people can look up at the clouds or at the stars and see different things from the person standing next to them. In this project, students will have to defend what shapes they see by identifying its features.

Pun-chlines

Here’s a great way to practice idioms and other sayings by changing a detail or two to fit a new context. Students get to deliver jokes by substituting one of the words from that expression with another word similar in either sound or meaning.

Resolutions

Students get to practice Future Forms and Adverbs (word, phrases, and clauses) as they set their New Year’s Resolutions.

Good Cop / Bad Cop

This project is for practicing INDIRECT QUESTIONS. Students will act as investigators asking witnesses for information. But some witnesses will only respond to Direct Questions, some only to Indirect Questions, and some only to Commands.

People-First Language

This project is for practicing RELATIVE CLAUSES. Students learn about disabilities/disorders and about the people who have them. As we discuss them it’s often appropriate to have the modifier after the person, which can be done with Relative Clauses.

Natural Disasters

This project is for practicing ACTIVE & PASSIVE ADJECTIVES. Students learn about and compare different natural disasters, including what causes them and the effect they have on the world. This project is mostly done as a giant class discussion.

Celebrity Interview

This project is for practicing GERUNDS. Students design and participate in silly activities in the style of the Olympics.

Careful What You Wish for

This project is for practicing WISHES & REGRETS. Students create a scenario in which a wish comes true! But the main character is never satisfied an wishes for more. Only the students can decide if the character eventually learns to be content.

You Know Me So Well

This project is for practicing QUESTION TAGS. Students play The Newlywed Game – except as friends – and instead of stating what they believe to be true, they’ll put it in the form of a question.

Sillylympics

This project is for practicing GERUNDS. Students design and participate in silly activities in the style of the Olympics.

For the Good

This project is for practicing ADVERBIAL CLAUSES. Students engage in a webquest to learn more about an activism event or campaign, building awareness of social, environmental, or economical causes while practicing grammar!

Fairy Tales Interrupted

This project is for practicing PROGRESSIVE/CONTINUOUS TENSES. Students will first conjure a backstory to a fairy tale character and lay out a scene, then investigate the scenes that other teams have put together to determine what was going on.

Another Time, Another Place

This project is for practicing REPORTED SPEECH. Teams design a scenario, a setting, and a quote. Then other teams are challenged with reporting it in other settings/scenarios. See how many they can do in under a minute.

Milestones

This project is for practicing PASSIVE VOICE. Students note key moments or achievements across history within a chosen field and discuss why they are important.

Family Feud

This project is for practicing ‘WH’ QUESTIONS. Students create the content for the game by writing questions. Next, they conduct a survey, and finally they get to play the game!