Whether you’re thinking about spooky story ideas, fall themed lessons, or even Halloween activities – it’s always fun to celebrate the spooky season with your high school English classes!
I like using Halloween activities for high school English that I can pop into my previously scheduled lessons. Short, fun Halloween activities seem to work best with my students – especially when we don’t have all of the time in the world to teach holiday-themed units. 🙂
While finding unique spooky stories for high school students to read can be fun, I know that we also have to address the standards. Y’all – the REAL horror story is the time I GOT AN OBSERVATION ON HALLOWEEN – DURING THE LAST PERIOD OF THE DAY! Needless to say, I’ve learned my lesson about planning Halloween activities for high school and I MAKE SURE that they’re fun, but still wow-worthy enough to make my principal happy.
Here are some of my favorite spooky season activities for high school English that keep your students on the edge of their seats, but still address the standards that we have to teach.
1. Listen to spooky podcasts for high school students and analyze the tale!
One of the best Halloween activities for high school English is listening to a spooky podcast! Remember that speaking and listening standards are often difficult to teach, but you can do both with a great podcast!
Of course you should always pre-listen to podcasts before sharing them with students, but Ashley Flowers’ podcast, Full Body Chills, offers several seasons of excellent spooky story podcast episodes for students. Many of the stories are super short, so they don’t require a ton of extra time to teach.
I like to give my high school English classes a spooky podcast choice board where they can select a story that interests them. Then, we work on analyzing all of the different pieces of the story such as: the reliability of the narrator, the title and how it may connect to the theme, and even ways that the writer used imagery to build suspense!
If you’re interested, you can grab my favorite spooky podcast episodes for high school students here!
2. Teach students how to write their own spooky stories!
Probably my favorite way to celebrate Halloween in the high school English classroom is by having my students write their own spooky/suspenseful stories! At the end of the lesson, I even have them paste their stories into a giant Google Slides presentation so that I can create a class anthology of their stories! It’s so.much.fun!
We talk about ways to build suspense like writing in a journal format, reversing the plot format, and even manipulating the mood. I walk them through sample stories and have planning sheets for them to use every step of the way.
Teaching high school students how to write a scary story isn’t for the faint of heart, but I break it down into manageable pieces so it’s not overwhelming for them. I push them to write a spooky story that does not involve gore or murder, so it pushes their creative muscles even farther.
If you’re interested, you can check out my entire spooky story writing lesson plan here!
3. Have students do a little true crime research.
We know that true crime is a popular genre right now, and high school students enjoy reading true crime stories, too! I like to have my students research a local true crime case and analyze everything from evidence to media involvement. I even had one student whose mother grew up in the same Sunday school class as Asha Degree – a young girl that’s been missing since 2000! I’ve had some amazing research projects come out of this. I’ve found that planning the research project is what takes the most work – but once that part is done, it’s fun to see students take the lead! Many of my students opt to do a video/documentary-style presentation rather than writing a paper. They don’t know that creating videos or podcasts requires a TON of writing, so they feel like they’re getting off easy by “not having to write a paper.” 😉 It’s a win-win – I get to see a super cool project and they get to research something they’re interested in while practicing some complex writing and creating skills.
To get my students thinking about true crime, I like to start with a historical case that may or may not be solved. Typically, my students know the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme, but reading the true story behind the gory tale always gets them talking!
I hope that you’ve found an idea, or 3, that you can use in your own high school English classroom.
Halloween activities for high school English classes can be tricky – but I’m wishing you a day filled with lots of treats, no tricks, and students who hold off on the sugar rush until they go home! 🎉
