Have you ever struggled to get students pumped up for ELA activities? Have you ever tried using an ELA Mystery in your classroom? I know I have worked and worked on different activities and found my students finish them too fast. Other times, my students simply can’t do the ELA activity because it is just too difficult or complicated. Finding engaging ELA activities that are also rigorous while still completely doable as an independent activity can be difficult. That’s why engaging ELA activities like the ELA Mystery Activities are a must-have for every English teacher! 

What is an ELA Mystery?

An ELA Mystery is an engaging activity that tests students ability in terms of ordering events, comprehension, context clues, and of course the ever important and hard to assess in a fun way, grammar. Once you use an ELA Mystery Activity, you’ll be hooked and so will your students! You can find these activities at English, Oh My! 

How to Use These ELA Mysteries

Usually when we think of an activity being engaging, we think it needs to be engaging on an individual level so students stay silent. However, the Mystery ELA activities are great for several different activities in your classroom. 

Collaborative Efforts 

Engaging ELA activities often start with students getting to work together. I like allowing students to collaborate on the ELA Mystery activities because they can learn from each other and talk through some of the problems. Now, I will say, if this is how you choose to use your ELA Mysteries in your classroom, you’ll want to make sure you set some expectations. 

For example, in the grammar section, it can be easy for one student in the group to just tell their partner their answer. To combat this, I make sure I am always circulating around the room while my students are working on these activities. Plus, I make sure there is a writer and a reporter. So, if you use this as a classroom discussion, the reporter has to be able to explain their way through the answer. This tends to combat some of the issues of one person doing all of the work. 

Review the Basics 

Another way you can use ELA Mysteries is as a class activity. When you do this, you’ll want to make sure you’re doing it to review and not so much to teach. This is a great way to use the ELA Mystery the first time because you’re teaching students how to do the activities. Then, when they get to do it on their own, they’ll be able to do it with few problems. 

A great way to use the ELA Mysteries as an engaging ELA activity for the full class is to exercise the I Do, We Do, You Do method. This helps make sure students are still doing some independent work. 

Assess Student Knowledge 

Now, you can use these engaging ELA activities in groups/partners, as a whole class, or as an individual activity. When you use these activities as an individual activity, you are giving your students an informal assessment. The main reason I love using these as an informal assessment is they are fun! Because these are fun activities, students don’t feel so much stress or pressure to be right. Therefore, you are getting more authentic work and you can see which area students need the most help with. 

What are Waiting For? 

When you check these engaging ELA activities out, you’ll see there are several mysteries to choose from. What does this mean? You’re covered with fun for several times of the year including: 

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• March with March Madness
• February with Valentine’s Day 
• The Fall with Football 
• Spring with the Missing Seed Truck 

Now of course you can use all of these at any time. However, it can be nice to do with the time of year. Make sure you check out all of my ELA Mystery Activities on English, Oh My! You and your students are sure to love them! 

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Halloween and Thanksgiving are perfect times of the year to incorporate exciting and creative activities within your ELA classroom. There are three things I know my middle school English students love to do-color, write creative stories and learn about the “real” history of different events. At times, it is hard to find activities like these for middle school, especially since coloring is more of an elementary level activity.

I wanted to help you with your lesson search, and provide you with unique, entertaining activities for Halloween and Thanksgiving. These activities incorporate coloring, creative, and other fun activities your students wish they did more of in the classroom. In addition, these activities will have your students:

-Recalling information

-Practicing their reading comprehension skills

-Practicing their multiple-choice abilities and test-taking skills

-Engaging their higher level thinking and analytical abilities

Halloween & Thanksgiving Activities

Halloween Reading Comprehension Color-by-Number:

Learn about the history of Halloween with this article. Students will answer multiple choice questions that will correlate with a color grid. They will color in the grid according to their answers, and it will reveal a spooky character!

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe–

Introduce your students to the haunting poem, “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, and have your students learn, analyze, critically think and discuss this poem with guided vocabulary and comprehension questions. Next, have your students dive into Poe’s poetry writing, analyzing his style and formatting by creating their own poetry!

Dracula-The True Story-

This activity gives the students the opportunity to write Dracula’s perspective of his life using the music of Taylor Swift’s song, “Bad Blood”. We all know the stereotypes of a vampire, but what if that is not really the story? Your students have the opportunity to explore this question, creating a song parody with Dracula’s real story.

FREE-100 Descriptive Halloween Word List:

Here are 100+ words to help your students write more descriptively for Halloween. These words are perfect for short story and creative writing!

Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension Activity & Turkey Craftivity

This activity will have your students comprehending a non-fiction article, reviewing citations and using the citations in their answers. In addition, they will also ponder over what is important to them in their lives, what they are grateful for, what they wish for in the future, what they hope for, and how they feel about their life/family/world. Secondly, your students will transfer all their information to the turkey template.

In the end, the students will all an adorable colored turkey that shows evidence of the article, as well as their thinking!

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Short Films in the English Language Arts Classroom

If you are looking for short films for plot and plot structure, check these out:

Piper

Cocoon

Cocoon is also perfect for irony and characterization!

Tips for Your Classroom

Are you looking for some other English Language ideas for your classroom. Check out some of these blog posts!

The Most Engaging Pre-Reading Activity for Your Classroom

A Teaching Secret That Will Get the Results & Progress You Want From Your Students

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