Are you tired of the same old plans yielding the same old results? Are you looking for some fresh ideas to motivate everyone from the at- risk to the gifted? Here are some ideas from my 14 years of teaching that are tried and trued.

Paint a Ceiling Tile

In our school, this idea has started in one classroom, but has since spread; many of our classrooms and office areas now have colorful ceilings. Because several different teachers use the tile project in their individual field of discipline, the tiles vary in their style, colors, medium, and quality. The subject and mediums you choose will vary according to your class, budget, and allotted time, so be creative.

First, be sure that your administration approves of this idea by gathering a few interested colleagues and then running the idea by him or her. In our school, the humanities teachers areas are all onboard so that we can work collaborate and share tips. This includes the art teacher, who is very generous about helping us with painting techniques as well as expertise about gathering the supplies needed. Our Spanish teachers assigned students to do a surrealistic painting after studying Salvador Dali; similarly, the French teacher assigned a Monet imitation. As expected, our art teacher’s tiles look like they were painted by future artists. Our principal and vice- principal even have taught sections in which they required elements of character and leadership.

I teach senior English, so the first year I did the tile assignment, I required a quote that represented who they were and a graphic or design to go along with it. In this way they would be leaving their “mark” or “artistic print” at our school. My students were very creative in mixing colors and mediums to achieve beautiful masterpieces; glitter, tulle, scrapbooking embellishments, beads, ribbons, and photographs can be used to add a special touch. I’ve never had anyone use a sound byte, but why not? The sky and their imagination are what makes the project fun and memorable. This year we are getting ready to do our tiles, but I will be modifying the assignment. Because of limited space and almost nothing in the budget, I will be doing only 3 tiles. I’m dividing my small class into 3 groups and having one person do the painting (outside of class) to look like an acrylic water- blend sunrise or tie- dyed tile. The groups will then be assigned to type a list of AP test- taking tips. After working out the details by trial and error, we will shellac our onion- papered tips onto the pre- painted “sunrise” tiles.

Create a Theme-Based Game

This project works really well for lower to middle- ability students if you model games enough and give them in- class time to work on it. I will give an example from my seniors who are reading Jurassic Park . After playing a few review games like Bingo or Jeopardy, I give students a rubric before sending them to the computer lab to get started. Basically, the rubric asks them to find 10 good review questions along with 10 visual or auditory aides. They also must be neat, work as a team, and think about “crowd control” in their game choice. We use the game time as a cumulative review before the unit test. Their creativity is amazing; we have treasure hunts, charades, their own invented game boards, giant matching memory cards, and even “Pretty Handsome Viking” (in honor of the game Pretty, Pretty Princess). As a side bonus for you, this is also nice on the teacher’s pocketbook since they supply the prizes. As a word of caution, though, be sure to teach them how to teach. They are most unprepared for the “crowd control” aspect, so help them think of games in which everyone can participate in a structured manner.

Compete in A Fact- Find Treasure Hunt

This project must be coordinated with your media center specialist. Our English department uses this with our freshmen. It has a dual purpose of introducing them to the media center in the fall when they first arrive in our building and giving them a how- to for gathering resources effectively. On the first day, we hand out a worksheet which we collectively wrote; this handout just overviews the various sections of the media center so that the specialist can “lecture” the students on each resource’s purpose and function. For example the students’ handouts have “Reference” as one of the sections, and the specialist has them take note of its location, the types of resources available (encyclopedias, quotation books, etc.), and the fact that these can’t be checked out. The teacher tells the students that if they bring these papers back, they can use them for their treasure hunt the next day.

Day 2 is the day of the actual fact- finding treasure hunt. Again, the teachers must write the “treasure map” ahead of time; for us, this was just a quiz in which the answer to each question was one of the resources they had to record the day before. We do the treasure hunt and research paper in our Greek mythology unit. So question number one might ask the student to find a resource in which a student could see the Greek Isles, Sparta, and Ithaca. The student would then have to find that page in the atlas; if he/she were successful, a laminated picture of Zeus would be awaiting. Students find all the hints they can (with a limit of 1- 2 per person) and then take their seats. The teacher goes over each answer and trades the laminated Zeus pictures for candy. I find that they are much more motivated to listen to the details of how to use the library when they know there will be a treasure hunt the next day. It’s always a hit with the students, and the media center specialist doesn’t mind the set up because it’s a chance for students to learn about the vast amount of information available at their fingertips right down the hall.

Do a Synthesized Presentation Rather Than a Traditional Research Paper

Tired of grading the long, tedious informational report with all the MLA or APA details? This is a great alternative that will motivate you and your students to keep researching. Here are two possible alternatives. First is called the “RAFT,” which is an acronym I picked up from conferences; it stands for Role Audience Format Topic. So rather than the traditional, dry research, students will write in the role assigned to a particular audience, but they still have to provide support through documentation. For example, a student studying Homer’s The Odyssey might be assigned the following.

• R(ole)- theme park planner
• A(udience)- families going to a Disney- like theme park
• F(ormat)- a researched proposal paper that explains the various areas of the theme park
• connects them to the story’s details
• T(opic)- develop a theme park based on the story line of The Odyssey

Another alternative to the traditional research paper is a Double- column Power Point. Just as it sounds, the idea is that you set up side by side columns in a program in which visuals and auditory clips can be added; you may find that another program works even better than Power Point since PP is very limited in its versatility. In the left column, students will be finding and pasting resources. In the right column, students summarize, interpret, and synthesize their findings; the left column is always the resources, while the right column is always the students’ voice.

I begin this assignment in conjunction with Elie Wiesel’s Night . The first step is for students to find a quotation which expresses a theme in Night . They may even choose to use Elie Wiesel’s own quote about the darkness of living through the Holocaust. The quote then is used as the header on every page and the thesis which links and unifies the rest. Once the quote is established, students then are assigned to find at least one of each of the following.

• An informational article
• A persuasive article or editorial
• A visual (political graphic, a photograph, a video, a cartoon, etc.)
• A song (with lyrics typed and sound available) which expresses the same theme

Students will copy and paste these in the above order in their left columns; they must include the URL to get credit! After gathering, the student then highlights (using the highlight color feature or the bold if no color ink is available) the parts of the articles and songs that pertain to their quotes. Once the highlighting is finished, students summarize, interpret, and synthesize their findings in the right column. As the teacher, you can teach them other research points (like the Works Cited page or internal documentation) or you can have them present to the rest of the class. The advantage is that all the information is right there highlighted on the left side, so it’s easy to check against plagiarism. In addition, the students take ownership when they get to choose their own quotation, song, visuals, and articles. Finally, these projects are very legible and professional looking since all the work is computer generated; my students enjoy varying the backgrounds and screen transitions to show their individuality.