1. Use movement to motivate at the end of the year

One of the best ways to keep your students from melting into their chairs is to get them out of them. Literally. If you can add some movement to the class, your engagement level will go way up.

One of my favourite ways to make this happen is with “stand-up stations.” To create “stand-up stations,” put a series of tasks on a sheet of paper (I like to use ledger size) and adhere each one to the walls of your classroom.

Use relatively quick tasks, so the students can easily circulate around your room to visit each station. It could be as simple as individual questions you want to ask them about a section of text, or short writing prompts that you want them to respond to.

My favourite way to use these stations is to put a passage from a text on each sheet – I’ve used them to have students respond to the ideas presented in the passages, or to do an analysis of the author’s purpose and techniques. (Sign up here to get my latest version of these delivered to your inbox).

You can read about some of my other tried-and-true methods for getting students out of their seats by clicking here.  

2. Use Review Games and Writing Challenges

Games and challenges are the perfect way to keep your students engaged and learning at this time of year. Anytime you turn something into a game, even the most reluctant learner is all in. I’ve got a whole pile of activities that you could choose from, like my figurative language challenges. You can read how the metaphor challenge works here.

You can also check out this post for more strategies for energizing your students. You’ll learn how to combat fatigue, give students a reset, and to use social interaction to boost engagement.

3. Reflection and Review

The end of the year usually requires review for final assessments. This doesn’t have to be a dry, boring activity, though. Find interesting ways to get students to review or reflect on their year, like these learning stations. They provide multiple ways for kids to look back at their year and the things that they learned. 

My favourite parts of this activity are the creative tasks that the students do, like the six-word memoirs or the poems that they use to capture important moments in the class. They can also leave some wisdom for future classes or book recommendations that you can use to create a display in your classroom.

You could also try my End of the Year Poem activity for an engaging way to do a review.

4. Take it outside

When the days get hot, and the classroom is a sauna, try moving everyone outside. Give students a task where they can walk and talk or a poetry scavenger hunt like the one I explain here. I always take my students for a walk in the park too. This blog post refers to our autumn excursion, but I do the same thing in the spring.

Well, there you go. I hope there are some end-of-the-year activities for English class that can help you and your students get over the finish line!