How to Keep ELA Students Engaged During Testing Season (Without Losing Your Mind!)
Let’s be real—testing season can feel like a grind. Between drills, practice tests, and pacing guides, it’s easy for engagement to take a backseat. But it doesn’t have to! You can keep your students motivated, creative, and learning—all while prepping them for their end-of-year assessments. Here are 3 fun and meaningful ways to keep students engaged during testing season:
🎬 1. Use Movies & Songs to Reinforce ELA Skills
ELA standards are everywhere—even in the music and movies your students already love! Use short film clips to analyze tone, theme, or characterization. Try pairing a popular song with a nonfiction text and have students compare rhetorical choices.
Examples:
Use Hamilton lyrics to explore rhetorical devices like repetition or allusion.
Analyze the hero’s journey in a Pixar short film.
Compare the tone of a poem with a modern pop song.
These kinds of activities feel like a break, but are actually perfect review opportunities! Check out these rhetoric review worksheets I created using movie speeches.
🎨 2. Offer Creative Projects That Apply ELA Concepts
Sometimes, the best way to reinforce learning is to let students do something with it. Instead of assigning another worksheet, offer fun projects that require them to apply ELA skills in new, creative ways.
Project ideas:
Design a one-pager that visually analyzes a central theme or character arc.
Create a podcast or video explaining a key rhetorical concept.
Rewrite a scene from a book from a different character’s point of view.
The possibilities are endless—and the engagement is real. Here are six different projects I’ve created for my students!
✅ 3. Give Students a Voice with Choice
When students feel ownership over their learning, their investment skyrockets. Give them options! Let them choose which skills or standards they want to review, or what format their review takes.
Try this:
Create a “choice board” with different review options—games, writing prompts, mini-projects, etc.
Let students vote on which skills to revisit as a class.
Offer 2–3 project formats for students to select from.
This autonomy encourages them to take their review seriously while making it feel less like review and more like exploration.
Bottom line?
Testing season doesn’t have to be boring. With a little creativity, you can keep the energy up, reinforce critical skills, and give students a chance to enjoy learning—even in April.
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