English Project Ideas

Some English project ideas are better than others. They are fun and authentic while students learn important critical thinking skills. They are also easy (and able) to be taught and graded. 

Project Based Writing

My best experience with English project ideas is through Project Based Writing by Liz Prather. 

I’m proud to say that I was an early reader of this book, which I reviewed for Moving Writers.

Because of this experience, I was able to connect with Liz and then present with her at NCTE in 2019.

The basic premise is that extended professional writing requires project management skills. By positioning students in writing projects, they get better opportunities to practice authentic writing and skills.

You can read more details about her process in her book and my review. In this post, I discuss how I’ve applied her framework to a general English 10 environment.

(For other ways I’ve been inspired by this book, check out Spend More Time on These Three Techniques of Teaching Writing)

Projects for English Class

In a general setting, there are four initial decisions to be negotiated between the teacher and students. Prather’s students consistently chose all four for open-ended projects, but my projects tend to be shorter and more focused. That said, there is still a lot of choice.

1. Topic

We generally create a writing project after exploring a topic in-depth. This is to remove some of the burden of content creation and give everyone common background knowledge.

2. Purpose/Role

Students have to decide who they are and why they are writing. Most times, they are writing as themselves, but they do still need a purpose. Sometimes we explore more imaginative choices with the caveat that we must be as qualified as anybody else to write from a particular role. For example, we can write like cats because no one is a cat; we are equally qualified. We cannot write as someone else’s race or gender, because we are not qualified.

3. Audience

Sometimes I provide this as a “client” who has hired us. Other times, students have to decide. This determines a lot of how/what they might choose to say.

4. Form

This is the type of writing they choose to do. Sometimes, I outlaw certain kinds because they wouldn’t work for the purpose, topic, or audience. The world doesn’t need anymore flyers or posters. Sometimes I will specify that it must be spoken (though not necessarily a speech). I especially like to get them into real writing: social media copy, podcasts, etc.

Fun Projects for English Class

Here are 5 fun projects for English class:

1. Projects That Immerse Us In a Genre’s Tropes

After reading dystopian novels, students chose a role within a dystopian setting and wrote to an audience. They could inhabit an existing dystopian society or invent their own.

2. Projects That Make Research Real

After a research unit on happiness, I told students that we had been hired by the school to persuade teenagers to take certain actions to promote their own happiness. They had to decide what forms teenagers would actually listen to and how/where they would distribute them.

3. Projects That Explore Literary Devices

After a unit on comedic devices, students had to incorporate comedic devices into a project. They brainstormed many types of comedic forms and chose one.

4. Projects That Complexify a Theme

Sometimes we start with a topic (e.g. dreams), and after reading several texts, enter the conversation ourselves. In these projects, students get to see how you can discuss one topic through many purposes and forms.

5. Projects That Enrich Form

You can also use projects to deep dive on a particular form and breathe new life into it. Yes, there is real analysis outside of the 5-paragraph essay! A good source for this is Beyond Literary Analysis by Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell.

Getting Started with English Project Ideas

English project ideas can be brought to life with project management. My plan takes approximately a week toward the middle/end of a thematic or literature-based unit.

In English Project Ideas for Every Classroom, you’ll get

-my exact calendar

-6 days of lesson plans and slides to direct students from start to finish

-a data tracker to manage all the different projects

-a simple and flexible rubric that can be applied across projects

-showcase thing