Peaking Interest: Examining the Need to Make ELA More Engaging For Students

Cornelia Eboh

EDUC 206: Planning & Assessing for Learning in Secondary Schools

MaryAnn Jacobs

November 6, 2021
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Introduction

English Language Arts (ELA) along with Math, Science, and Social Studies have always

been regarded as key subjects. We can see this in how standardized tests for these subjects have

been a constant since elementary school. Students have grown accustomed to having these

subjects embedded into their curriculum every year. However, even though students are used to

taking these classes, that doesn’t mean that they are particularly interested in them. Due to the

requirement to take these classes every year, students now view them as something they have to

endure rather than experience. “Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes

learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success”

(Harackiewicz et al. 2016). A lack of student interest, then leads to a lack of motivation and the

inability to concentrate. As a result of this, teachers are now faced with the challenge of how to

make their classes more interesting. We see the effect of this in ELA. Students are no feeling

longer motivated to read and resent writing. In elementary school, students would become

excited as they climbed up reading levels and graduated from picture books to chapter books.

But now, students are no longer feeling connected to literature. In order to encourage student

engagement, teachers must bring creativity into the classroom.

Research

In a survey conducted by Change the Equation, only 47% of students remarked that they

enjoyed taking English. The highest ranked subjects were Art and Design with 64% and

Performing Arts with 61%. Students seemed to prefer courses in which they were afforded

freedom and creativity. This is presumably due to the fact that many students have lost interest in

school. “A 2013 Gallup poll of 500,000 students in grades five through 12 found that nearly
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eight in 10 elementary students were ‘engaged’ with school, that is, attentive, inquisitive, and

generally optimistic. By high school, the number dropped to four in 10” (Jason 2017). This can

be attributed to an increase in standardized testing as grade level increased. As a result of this,

learning is now more subject centered than student centered. High school teachers are not

awarded the same freedoms as their Elementary School counterparts because everything they do

must prepare the students for the end of year exam. “ ‘I am not able to teach for the sake of

teaching.’ With lack of teacher freedom comes lack of student freedom, and disengagement and

tuning out” (Jason 2017). A lack of interest can also be attributed to the novelty of school fading

with each grade. Students no longer feel motivated or excited to go to school. Learning has

shifted from tactile and creative to cerebral and regimented. Students are no longer making

finger paintings and reading picture books. They are now writing research papers and plugging

in formulas into their graphing calculators. Students are craving the creativity and blissfulness

they were awarded when they first began going to school.

In order to get students back to being excited about ELA, there needs to be a push for

more chances for students to be creative. “Students have an opportunity to enhance their personal

and academic skills if teachers properly integrate creative activities into the classroom. Creative

opportunities need to be encouraged and integrated regularly within the ELA classroom, as it is

important to students’ overall success in achieving higher-order levels of thinking” (Batanian

2018). By utilizing methods that encourage student creativity, students are more likely to

develop an interest in the subject and want to learn more. Teachers can do this by providing a

visual aspect for students to learn from. Many students struggle with absorbing written text and

could greatly benefit from a visual aspect. “Movies are not inherently evil. In fact, they are visual

texts. Students should be taught to comprehend, analyze, and discuss a movie just like any other
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piece of fiction or nonfiction. Showing movies in school can be powerful” (Kruse 2018). I once

had an English teacher who would allow us to watch an episode of the Twilight Zone every

Friday. We would then fill out a worksheet highlighting what we saw and how it affected us.

Due to the surreal nature of the show, students had a lot to say about this. Through this exercise,

we were able to have fun while also fulfilling educational requirements like utilizing details to

support a claim, analyzing literary devices, or engaging in active discussions.

Another method could be the use of more engaging forms of literature. Providing

students with a variety of texts can prove to be effective in getting students to want to participate

in class. “ Introduce students to Romeo and Juliet, but give them the option to read The Fault in

Our Stars as well...In other words, it seems clear that if we want students to build literacy skills,

it’s better for them to consume dozens of texts that they love, connect with, or feel inspired by,

instead of grudgingly reading one because it’s assigned” (Terada 2021). For example, when

searching for non-fiction, teachers can utilize text discussing topics that students are interested in

and may want to talk a lot about. This can be anything from “Should schools allow cell phones in

classrooms?” to “What are your thoughts on climate change?”. Students are willing to discuss

and research on anything as long as it peaks their interest. Providing more intriguing books can

also encourage students to read more in class. For example, instead of having students read Pride

and Prejudice every year (although I love this book), have them read books that they may be

inclined to read outside of school. In my senior year of high school, we read a book entitled

Everything I Never Told You. Everyone in my 12th grade English class found this book hard to

put down. It was intriguing, suspenseful, and made doing classwork easy. My teacher was able to

successfully engage a group of students who often remarked how much they disliked reading and

school in general.
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Allowing students to create connections to their own lives could also be useful when

trying to make ELA more engaging. Utilizing their own interests and their own life experiences,

allows for a more relatable class setting that students will not have a hard time connecting to.

“Use students’ interests as a frame for teaching what you need to cover in your curriculum.

When you base your instruction on their interests, they’ll be engaged and motivated and their

passion will take them to places they might not otherwise go” (Verner 2021). English teachers

can do this by looking for literature that takes place in the city or town that their students live in.

Or that features characters that go through similar experiences as the students. They can also ask

questions that encourage students to share their own opinions and experiences. Doing this allows

students to feel a connection to what they are learning. I experienced this myself, when we were

employed to read The Hate U Give in my high school english class. The majority of the students

in my school were African American so many students felt passionate about this text and wanted

to share their own thoughts. They had an emotional connection and therefore felt more inclined

to participate. By allowing the students to read a book that they could draw real life connections

to, my teacher was able to grab their attention.

Implementation

As a theatre minor, I have a lot of passion when it comes to all things creative. School

especially was a struggle for me because I found it difficult to be engaged unless I considered

what we were learning to be “fun”. As a teacher, I will encounter many students who are just like

me. They will need some sort of creative stimulation in order to want to stay on task. I will do

this by integrating my knowledge of drama into my English class. My plan is to utilize plays as

pieces of literature in order to allow students to feel a sense of amusement in the classroom.
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“Using drama to teach ‘core’ subjects such as maths, science and English can not only boost

students’ speaking, listening and comprehension skills, it can also encourage children to have a

more confident and curious approach to learning, which can be especially beneficial to those

who may struggle with aspects of the curriculum” (Treharne 2018). Plays such as Antigone or

Romeo and Juliet were always useful for me in my English classes. The dramatic dialogue and

intense plot made every English class intriguing. Having students assigned to certain roles can

also prove to be very beneficial because it can foster a sense of connection between the students

and the text. They can fully immerse in the text because in this case, they are the text. Even if a

student doesn't have a role, it can be very fun to watch your classmates play various characters.

This method is both educationally and socially rewarding.

Another method I will use is teaching comedic literature. Comedy can be a great device

to utilize when trying to keep your students engaged. “One of the advantages of comedy is there

are so many sub genres of this form that can be isolated for investigation and performance at

different levels of schooling” (Cash 2020). No matter what age the students are, teaching comedy

as a pedagogy is effective. This means that it can even be beneficial for high school students who

have lost interest. I can do this by employing my students to study comedic texts and films.

Because of the enjoyment they will get from studying these pieces of literature, they will be able

to easily connect the literary skills that I have taught them. Such as stating how the author

utilizes comedy to support a central idea or the theme. I can also allow them to analyze comedic

sketches. Specifically comedic sketches that comment on real life or discuss political issues. This

can then encourage students to start their own discussions because they are seeing these topics

presented in a comedic way. For example, I took an English class in which we studied the

comedian Dave Chappelle. Chapelle is known for his controversial and oftentimes distasteful
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humor. Studying his comic sketches allowed for us to have active discussions based on what we

thought about what he said. Whether or not we agreed or disagreed. We could then identify the

ways in which he utilized comedy to get his point across. Doing this allowed us to be analytical

and utilize the skills we learned in class while still being interested and engaged. By mimicking

this in my own class setting, I can introduce students to unconventional types of literature.

Conclusion

Learning ELA provides students with a well rounded education. It helps students think

critically and abstractly about information as well develop their communication skills through

scholarly discussion. However, the effectiveness of ELA drifts once students begin to lose

interest in learning. In order to encourage students to enjoy ELA again, teachers must try their

best to use various methods to engage them. They must do their best to ensure that their students

restore the same love for reading and writing that they had when they were in elementary school.

The same optimism and hopefulness for every new school day. In order to do this, teachers must

foster a sense of creativity into academics. In doing this, that optimism will not fade. “Without

imagination and investigation of ideas our collective fund of knowledge would languish. We do

need assessments to determine what students learn and understand, but we can incorporate

imagination in the creation of those assessments to ensure that students’ creative thoughts and

higher executive functions are incorporated into their assessment experiences” (TeachThought

2021). Students need creative stimulation no matter what age they are. It is our duty as teachers

to ensure that.
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References

Batanian, Morgan. “Integrating and Sustaining Creativity in the Language Arts

Classroom.” Learning to Teach, 17 Dec. 2018,

https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/learningtoteach/article/view/252.

Cash, Justin. “Types of Comedy for Drama Class.” The Drama Teacher, 10 June 2020,

https://thedramateacher.com/types-of-comedy-for-drama-class/.

Harackiewicz, Judith M, et al. “Interest Matters: The Importance of Promoting Interest in

Education.” Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, U.S. National Library

of Medicine, Oct. 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5839644/.

Jason, Zachary. “Bored out of Their Minds.” Harvard Graduate School of Education,

2017, https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/17/01/bored-out-their-minds.

Kruse, Melissa. “Movies in School: Using Them Meaningfully.” Reading and Writing

Haven, 4 May 2018, https://www.readingandwritinghaven.com/movies-in-school-when-

and-how-to-use-them-meaningfully.

Partovi, Hadi. “What Classes Do Students like the Most?” LinkedIn, Change the Equation,

30 July 2018, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-classes-do-students-like-most-hadi-

partovi.

Staff, TeachThought. “The Significant Benefits of Creativity in the Classroom.”

TeachThought, 12 May 2021, https://www.teachthought.com/learning/innovation-

imagination-12-benefits-creativity/.
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Terada, Youki. “The Benefits of Reading for Fun.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational

Foundation, 23 Apr. 2021, https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-reading-fun.

Treharne, Hannah. “Drama in the Classroom: Why Should We Consider Incorporating

Drama into the School Curriculum?” Prague Youth Theatre Blog, 16 Oct. 2018,

https://pragueyouththeatre.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/drama-in-the-classroom-why-

should-we-consider-incorporating-drama-into-the-school-curriculum/.

Verner, Susan. “6 Illuminating Ideas for Teaching English Creatively.” FluentU English

Educator Blog, 21 Jan. 2021, https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/teaching-

english-creatively/.