Halloween Activities for High School and Middle School English ELA Classes

Posted on October 29, 2023 by msdickson

Halloween is a bit tricky with the older kids. Many are getting too old (or too cool) for Halloween. But there’s still a chaos in the classroom as the holiday rolls around. Worse if it falls inconveniently during the week.

The sort of Halloween themed worksheets don’t often appeal to the older students. Lame.

But there’s still ways to have some fun with Halloween with activities and literature that fits. Always keep in mind students who don’t celebrate Halloween, or those sensitive to spooky or creepy things.

Below are some fun ideas. Follow the links to my TPT store for related resources.

Read a Creepy short story or poem

Stories like “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “The Raven,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” or “The Tell-Tale Heart” are great spooky stories without being too scary. Dim the lights if you can. Add a set reading questions, a quiz, and/ or an activity to help kids remember the learning part of the activity. Read or play a dramatic reading that sets the mood.

Tie these spooky stories into larger units, as well.

  • “The Raven” can become part of a study on narrator reliability or mad characters. Compare with protagonist husband in “The Birthmark” or “The Cask of Amontillado.”
  • “The Monkey’s Paw” is a lot of fun to pair with “Aladdin” to study how wishes are handled in both texts both in number and outcomes.
  • “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” can pair with “Rip Van Winkle” to compare these different American Folklore tales from Washington Irving.

Try some Creative Writing activities

Practice descriptive writing, maybe of a spooky setting. Play some spooky music in the background while they try to capture creepy writing. Find a picture prompt of a creepy or spooky setting as inspiration.

Writing a spooky short story is a common activity. Ghost stories or horror stories make fun writing. Have students attempt foreshadowing, mood, or twist endings in their writing, as these are part of the spooky writing. Students can highlight or annotate their own writing for the literary devices used.

Or a more light-hearted approach is to draw and describe a monster (or beast)– then students trade descriptions. Can they accurately draw what was described? (See the Descriptive Writing is a Beast resource.)

Themed Essay Writing

When a ‘fun’ activity isn’t really an option, there’s always a timely essay topic. Students might write an essay supporting their position on “Do you believe in ghosts?” Another interesting topic is to write an essay on why scary stories are appealing– this can also be paired with the Stephen King Essay “Why we Crave Horror.” The Scary Story Analysis resource has essay instructions and a rubric.

You can also check out the Halloween Themed Essay Writing resource with 1 each expository, narrative, and persuasive essay topics– as well as sub plans and timed essay writing. Like all my Themed Essay Writing, it includes resources for sub plans, timed essay, writing, rubrics for timed/ demand writing and writing process essays.

Watch a short film– bonus if comparing to a text

One of my favorite short films to show is the Disney version of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Pairs great with the text, but is also a fun short film on its own. Students can write up a Movie vs. Book Comparison (see also the handy resource for Sleepy Hollow specific version). While the story is a ghost story, it’s presented in a goofy way (literally, since the character Goofy is Ichabod Crane).

Or analyze a film as a ‘text’ itself such as with a Movie Literary Analysis. It’s helpful to practice literary analysis, and using a movie as a text can make the process feel fresh and interesting. Can students find literary elements like foreshadowing, use of setting, or unreliable narrator in the movie or movie segment.

Just for Fun

Students can design a literary themed trunk-or-treat or doorway decoration. Or design a literary costume of a character or for a character.

Students can complete the Villainous Words Word Search (Free!) with a list of 39 fun villainous terms related to being despicable, disreputable, or odious.

Posted in Fun Projects, Holidays, Secondary Education, Teaching Ideas | Leave a comment

Activities to Use With “The Sniper”

Posted on August 25, 2022 by msdickson

Stories with a twist ending are often popular with teenager readers. The story “The Sniper” also has a gritty, war time setting that can draw readers into the story. The story is a small snapshot of wartime and offers different ways to analyze and examine the story, setting, and twist ending.

Activities to Use with “The Sniper”

Research the Irish Civil War

Students will research the Irish Civil war. Then they will create a written or multimedia project to share their findings. Discussion or project can relate the research to the story setting. How does the real-world information change the understanding of the story? (This project is included as choice when you buy the Culminating Projects for The Sniper. Also works well with the Scaffolding Support for Research Writing resource or the Story Based Research project, both for use with any story.)

Alternate Point of View

The story could be retold from another point of view, perhaps the enemy sniper, or the little old lady, another soldier. What might be the impact of one of those other characters’ views. (Buy the Alternate Point of View Writing resource.)

Make an Infographic

Infographics are a popular medium for summarizing information, especially in the social media era. Students can depict major events of the story, characters, and themes in an infographic format to demonstrate their understanding of the story. (This project is included as choice when you buy the Culminating Projects for The Sniper.)

Prequel or Sequel Writing

Since the story is small moment, a single event, there is plenty that could come before or after in Prequel or Sequel writing. Students could write about the relationship of the characters before the war, or after the reveal. How did the main character and the revealed character end up on opposite sides of the war in the first place? (Buy the Prequel or Sequel Writing resource.)

Stories of war and tragedy should be handled carefully, even fictional. These are not happy or cheerful events and the activities should to some degree reflect that mood. Students may be fortunate enough to not directly relate to the events, but they should be able to appreciate the gravity of the situation. Stories like this do help draw in even some of the more reluctant readers in my experience.

So, it’s all good.

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Activities to Use with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Posted on August 17, 2022 by msdickson

Gothic literature tends to have appeal to high school readers. It’s darker themes and outcomes can engage readers. As one of the more popular stories, the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde also shows up as a cultural reference.

Gothic literature, including The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, refers to supernatural events and an spooky or scary environment. Students can examine how the story Jekyll and Hyde meets this definition. The narrator is neither Dr. Jekyll nor Mr. Hyde, and much of the action occurs off-page, told about later by other characters, as a story telling device.

Activities to Use with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Alternate Ending

These are always fun projects, allowing students some flexibility to decide how things could have ended differently. Students can pick their own point or the teacher can pick a place where a different choice/ action changes the ending. (Buy the Alternate Ending project here)

Create a Wanted Poster for Hyde

Using details from the story, create a wanted poster for Hyde. This may be before or after Jekyll’s death. (Included when you buy the Culminating Projects resource, or buy the general use Wanted Poster Activity)

Alternate Point of View Project

Because the story is told from other characters, rather than the title character or anyone actually close to the action, it’s a good opportunity to make a project of retelling the story from Hyde’s character. (Buy the Alternate Point of View Project here)

Write an Epilogue to the story

What happens next? This might include police investigation or what happens with the people that knew Jekyll (or Hyde). (Included when you buy with the Culminating Projects resource)

Move vs. Book

There are several movie versions of the story available. Students can compare what key parts are the same or different in each story. Students may decide which version (of the story) they like better in writing or discussion. (Buy the Movie vs Book activity here)

A Search for Hyde: Police Report

This is a real-world type writing activity, in which students would write up a mock police report into the search for Hyde. Jekyll is dead, but what about Hyde? Assuming the police do not know they are the same, then they would search for Hyde, perhaps as murderer of Jekyll even. Students draw details from the text, and fill in with creative writing. (Buy A Search for Hyde activity here)

Duality is a fun topic to explore. Compare it to modern situations or research Victorian concepts of virtue/ vice for possible influence. Explore that might happen next with a police report or epilogue. Or pop some popcorn to see how the movie handles the concepts of the story.

It’s all good.

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Activities to Use With “The Necklace”

Posted on August 10, 2022 by msdickson

“The Necklace” is a short story where the problem could have been prevented with honest communication. It’s a good story for teenagers to illustrate the importance of honest communication, in addition to the value as short story study. The twist ending makes it a fun read as well.

Activities to Use with “The Necklace”

Personal Writing Project

Students can reflect on honest communication– their own ‘lost necklace’ type problem and how it was addressed. Students may write about something they witnessed or were directly part of. Tired of essays? Have students create a multimedia project instead. (Buy The Necklace Personal Writing Activities)

Alternate Ending Project

Students find a place to make a change and re-write the ending from that point. Explore how that change impacts the story and reflect on the differences. Students may write a narrative, or engage reluctant writers with a graphic novel option. (Buy The Necklace Alternate Ending Project)

Literary Essay

Always a solid option for a text related activity. This short story is easy to work with and can even be written as a 5 Paragraph Essay for practice with format and structure. The theme in this story can be easier to find and write about in a literary essay because of the clear moral of the story. (Buy The Necklace Literary Essay resource.)

Modernize It Project

Lost necklaces aren’t usually part of daily life. But there are plenty of other expensive items that could be lost or broken in a modern re-telling of the story. Students can examine the impact of modern technology and how it would change the story if set today. Also can relate to a discussion about the setting then, as it would compare to a modern setting. (Buy The Necklace Modernize it Project)

Even after all this time, “The Necklace” remains a relevant and thought-provoking story for readers. It’s a good length for analyzing literary devices. Work it into a thematic unit or a short story unit and engage students with one or more writing activities.

It’s all good.

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Stories for the Beginning of the Year (or Semester)

Posted on August 5, 2022 by msdickson

One way to get to know students while also practicing important writing skills is the use of personal writing.  Students write, organize, and reflect, while also sharing something about themselves.  In many cases, students find writing about themselves a easier than analyzing literature.  (Not always, though, and teachers should also be sensitive to students who do not want to share or write about themselves.)

Because my time feels so short and there are so many things that I need to work with my students on in our time, I often choose personal writing that also serves as an anticipatory activity for a piece of literature or a thematic unit.  It works well at any point in the semester, but certain stories lead to more effective get-to-know-you personal writing topics for the start of the year.

Three old fashioned books with story titles. Caption says Stories to Start the Year (or Semester)

Some stories that work well for start-of-the-year and their personal writing tie-ins:

The Time Machine

This is a shorter story, but it includes several elements of science-fiction, and is an early science-fiction story.  The story, predating World Wars 1 and 2 can also be an interesting discussion of prediction and history.  Students can also write about time travel or a sequel to the Time Traveller’s journeys. (Buy Time Machine Activity Bundle)

Personal Writing: My Personal Time Machine.  Students reflect on what they would go back in time to change if they had a time machine.  They will reflect on what happened and what would need to be changed to get a different result.

The Metamorphosis

This is a bit of a dense text for a short story, but it’s an interesting one as a common cultural reference and dystopic fiction. Students can examine how Gregor becomes more bug-like in his behavior and compare the life of Gregor’s family before and after his transformation. Students can write their own metamorphosis story or write the report from the poor clerk. It’s also fun to compare with one of the movie versions– what was changed? Read about more Metamorphosis Activities. (Buy The Metamorphosis Activity Bundle)

Personal Writing: Personal Metamorphosis Project. Secondary students are in a state of change.  They may also draw from an event earlier in their lives.  They’ll reflect on how they– or someone in their life– changed and the impact that had.

Three old fashioned books with story titles. Caption says Start the Year with Personal Writing and Related Stories

The Monkey’s Paw

This short story is a darkly fun read, as the wishes are granted in horrific ways. It’s a cultural reference, but also a discussion on the idea that getting wishes granted is ‘bad.’ Contrast with the wishes in the original Aladdin story, for example, as a study on 3 Wishes. Students enjoy comparing the story to the movie or one of the TV adaptations, such as the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.  Read about more Monkey’s Paw Activities. (Buy Monkey’s Paw Activity Bundle)

Personal Writing: It Didn’t Work Out is the theme for the Monkey’s Paw Personal Writing activity. Students reflect on a time something didn’t work out as expected or hope. They reflect on the outcome. Good first writing sample or engage with a multimedia project.

To Build a Fire

This is a very short story, but it’s very vivid and impactful. Students can explore the point of view and write their own from a different point of view. Another project is to write an alternate ending, perhaps if the man had listened to the advice he was given. Students might write an obituary or make a gravestone for the character. (Buy To Build a Fire Activity Bundle)

Personal Writing: Unheeded Advice is the theme for the To Build a Fire Personal Writing. Students will reflect on a time when they (or someone they know) didn’t listen to advice they were given. They will share the outcome and reflect on the impact of that outcome.

Three old fashioned books with story titles. Caption says Stories to Start the Year with Personal Writing Tie-Ins

At the start of the year I like to use a scaffolded approach to writing. I feel it gives me an insight into where students are coming from with their writing ability and interests. All of my Personal Writing activities (linked above) use similar materials that walk through the writing process step-by-step for that purpose. 

The beginning of the year or semester is such an exciting time of building a new classroom experience, setting the tone and expectations. A great short story and personal writing can be a valuable part of that process.

It’s all good.

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Increase Engagement with Real-World Activity Tie-Ins for Literature

Posted on February 2, 2021 by msdickson

One of the obstacles for reluctant learners is that they may fail to see the relevance to their own lives. Writing essays seems unrelated to the types of jobs they expect to have. More so if they don’t expect to go to college. While we know and can attempt to explain how the skills in essay writing are transferable to other types of writing, sometimes it’s valuable to actually use those real-world writing types in response to literature.

Some examples of real-world tasks for literature writing:

Friendly Letter Writing (which, truthfully, should be the guide for many friendly emails): Students will write a letter or two related to the characters or events from the story. This is a shorter activity, and includes the ability to practice addressing envelopes, which are not quite outdated yet.

Police Writing Activity (best for crime stories or stories with a crime): students will dig into the text for details. Good practice for reviewing and reading deep into the text. But also includes organizing thoughts and drawing conclusions.

Create an Infographic: This is a newer media, but continues to have popularity. It is used in marketing, memes, textbooks, and other places to quickly convey information in a fun, visual format. Students can make an infographic about the story or a character. Less emphasis on the writing part, but still includes digging into the text and analysis.

How-To Brochure Activity In: Students will take a component of the story and build a how-to brochure. They may use what the story offers or add on with research or experience. It can be a funny or serious activity. Giving information on how to do something is a common activity, and in many workplaces, writing down the instructions is needed too.

Fiction Analysis and Review Activities: Students often enjoy sharing their opinions– especially if they’re allowed to say something sucks (as long as they provide support!). Students will work to support their opinion with information from the text and analysis. Use in small chunks, with parts of a texts, or to build to a complete essay. This product includes task cards and choice lists for independent reading or whole class options. A final review can be done as a video (like YouTubers) or a writing response, either formal or informal.

Story-Based Research Project: Oftentimes a story includes topics the student may be able to explore further. It might be a small thing (like a reference to a specific type of structure) or a larger thing (historical event). Since it can be intimidating at times to come up with a fresh research topic, this allows students to be sparked by something in the text. To help, students can be informed in advance that they should be looking for something in the text that they might want to learn more about. As we know, research should be encouraged and nurtured beyond school assignments, but this is a start.

KWL Research Project: We have students complete a KWL. They dutifully fill in what they want to learn… and then the assigned reading fails to provide that information. Great. Now they can research it (and get credit in class for it!). This activity helps foster the curiosity of students, and acknowledges that rarely will any single reading on a topic answer all the questions, but that doesn’t mean we should just stop. (And sometimes students lack the drive, tools, or time to continue that research on their own, and that’s fair.) As we know, research should be encouraged and nurtured beyond school assignments, but this is a start.

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Wrap-Up the Year with Real-World Writing

Posted on May 27, 2018 by msdickson

The end of the school year can make it challenging to hold students’ attention. The end is in sight and focus dwindles.

Real-world writing is a great way to keep attention and engagement up. There’s no question of “when will I need this.” It’s not abstract, but concrete writing skills and processes. (This list is based primarily off my experiences in a variety of jobs that I worked around being a part-time teacher for many years.)

Here are some real-world writing activities for the end of the year, or any time:

Complaint letter writing: while students are familiar with complaint letters from an individual perspective, they may not realize that businesses and organizations will also write a complaint letter (or email) when dissatisfied. It’s good written documentation of an attempt at resolution as well. It requires factual, objective, and structured writing, plus some problem-solution writing (identify the complaint, propose a reasonable solution). A variation is to direct their complaints towards standardized testing, which can be a good way to vent.

Plan a Trip: This real world activity focuses on researching a place to visit, such as for a vacation. The same skills in researching location can be applied to researching a new place to live or work. Students will research not just the location, but also distances and costs as part of their project.

Proposal Writing: proposals are very comm  on as they explain what one company offers another, in detail. Proposals are used to sell goods or services (including building, designing, or managing) for another company or organization. They will include detailed information on process and pricing. Proposals include a subtle type of persuasive writing- attempting to convince the prospective client to choose then, but with facts and not emotion.

Company Project (or Build a Business): the core of this project is that students create a company with goods or services and build a poster with short company history, sales pitch, and testimonials. You can also expand the project with complaint letter writing, business letter writing, commercial writing, and flyer design. It’s a flexible project that really gets students involved in several different types of real-world writing. (This is a student favorite, and honestly, one of my favorites as well.)

Plus, these projects are a deviation from “normal” grading, which is a nice bonus for the teacher at the end of the year as well.

Hang in there! The end is in sight!

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Ways to Work Around State Testing and Other Disruptions

Posted on March 3, 2018 by msdickson

State and other testing often means disrupted schedules for a period of time. It may include alternate school days, make-up days, or other issues. This is compounded in multi-grade classrooms. Plus, there is a shift in focus from the current classwork to testing, which can prove challenging for students (and sometimes teachers) to keep track of where they left off.

Here’s some ideas for how to navigate the disruptions and get back on track quickly.

  1. Use short texts, treating each discretely until the end of the unit wraps things up. This might include poems (since April is Poetry Month), short stories, informational text articles, short writing analysis or activities or a mix to create a thematic unit.  By using short text, each text can be completed independently, with the appropriate activities, in a short period of time. Students missing don’t fall behind in a larger text or forget what happened before hand.
  2. Offer a choice of creative projects and activities to help students stay engaged. Testing or other disruptions can affect focus and interest, but allowing both choice and creative projects, it offers a low-energy buy-in to re-engage students.
    • Alternately, include projects that allow for student interest and choice. A Song Lyric Literary Analysis, for example, allows students to chose a song they enjoy to practice literary analysis.

  1. Use projects and flexible timelines which allows students to complete tasks in alternate order to increase completion. Students can ‘eat the frog’ (as the expression goes) and tackle the biggest or most challenging part, or if they’re burned out, distracted, or otherwise struggling, they can work on smaller or more interesting (to them) pieces in order to keep making progress.  Set the due date for all items, but let students chose the order.
    • For example, when assigning the Company Project, I give them all the guidelines and grading for the required parts (poster, letters, advertisement) and they work in whatever order they choose.

  2. End a unit before testing begins. Make sure all is wrapped up. Then start a new unit, project, mini-unit or other flexible activity for covering the time period of the most disruption. Allow time for students who are pulled away (or focused on other things) time to catch up after things settle down.  A lonely Monday or Friday in a week of testing is great for a movie-vs-book comparison, time spend reviewing literary or poetry terms, or a short project, such as one focused on impacts or effects of standardized testing.

Want more ideas for disruptive school weeks? Read about ways to Survive the Days before Thanksgiving Break and Still Engage in Learning

If you’re already looking towards the end of the school year, check out these posts:

Posted in Assessment, Secondary Education | Leave a comment

Skip the Romance: Study the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Posted on January 27, 2018 by msdickson

Valentine’s Day in the secondary classroom is a far cry from candy and card exchanges. The emphasis on romance can put a lot of pressure on students– students in relationships may feel pressure to make the day special and students not in relationships may feel left out or irritated. The romantic aspects can certainly be a distraction.

It can take a powerfully engaging activity to get the attention off romance and on school work. The St. Valentine’s Massacre does a good job of getting students attention– bonus, it fits the holiday theme!

Some activities for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre:

Read the historic New York Times Article about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre from February 1929. It’s a lengthy article, but fully of good information about the massacre and Capone. Good for informational text reading and can be used with reading questions or graphic organizers.

Evaluate arguments in passages or web pages about Al Capone. An interesting topic can make it easier to engage students in the process of analyzing. The evaluation task is similar to the task seen on standardized tests. I’ve written some Al Capone Informational Text Analysis Activity that include one passage that is slanted towards untrue claims– that can help students practice disagreeing with the author’s argument– and one that is slanted towards generally recognized claims, to help students analyze arguments with an interesting topic.

Complete a web scavenger hunt or research activity. Students look up information about Al Capone and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre using reliable websites. Can be paired with the New York Times Article or can stand-alone. When searching pictures, students can be taught how to cite images (and not just “Google images”.)

Have students make a Wanted Poster for Al Capone. Fill in details about Capone from the New York Times Article or internet search. Students can also create their own wanted poster– works well as a get-to-know you activity for new terms, too.

Read non-fiction texts about Al Capone and evaluate the texts.  Passages in the Al Capone Informational Texts resource are written by msdickson to be high-school appropriate high-interest passages. Students can read the passages and answer questions or respond to the arguments in the passage. The argument analysis is similar to tasks seen on standardized texts.

Complete a Villainous Terms Word search puzzle. Free, fun activity that can go with any bad-guy, or work around assemblies and other activities.  Includes a variety of 39 villainous words from bad to malefactor.

I prefer to keep the romantic stuff in with poetry, anyway, so I that’s a bonus, too.  Not that I particularly like poetry. 

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Culminating Activities For Use With “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

Posted on August 31, 2017 by msdickson

Culminating projects are a good way to engage students in digging deeper into a text. “The Raven” is a good text for engaging reluctant readers, with the dark tone and descent into madness.

Here are some culminating projects for “The Raven:”

Make a gravestone for Lenore. Include an image or symbol on it, plus an epithet (short comment).  For further textual analysis, have students reflect on what they included, with textual support.

Write an obituary or eulogy for Lenore. This activity combines real-world writing with creative writing and textual evidence. Students might choose the narrator as the point of view for the obituary (written description of the deceased) or the eulogy (speech given at the funeral).

(Purchase the resource: The Raven Gravestone and Obituary Activities)

Write character analysis of how the narrator. Consider how the narrator interprets the responses of the Raven. Students can examine how he asks certain questions and how he views those answers.  Students might include how the “conversation” could have gone differently if the narrator asked different questions. What do these responses show the reader about the narrator?

(Purchase the resource: The Raven Character Analysis Project)

Research Poe’s life and relationships, then compare them with the poem for possible influence. A multimedia project is a nice way to present the research findings, as it can include images of Poe and his life that students find.

(Purchase the resource: Edgar Allan Poe Author Research Project)

Write a prequel to the poem about the relationship with Lenore.  Could be written as a narrative or as rhyming poem in the same format as the original.

(Purchase the resource: The Raven Prequel Writing Activity Poem and Narrative)

These are available as part of the Raven Culminating Projects Set and as stand-alone projects, plus more options!

Read more here about other ideas for teaching “The Raven.”

Check out other Culminating Projects to use with The Raven, or other poems.

Need help teaching poetry? Read about ideas to help teachers and students with poetry

Posted in Teaching, Teaching Ideas | 1 Comment