Digital Language Arts Activities

Whether your students are in a 1:1 classroom or learning remotely, this post is full of digital language arts activities to engage students online.

DIGITAL ONE PAGERS

One pagers aren’t just for paper! When learning remotely or using devices, one pagers can be the perfect opportunity to help students both respond to reading AND acquire new digital skills. Whether students are analyzing literature or informational texts, this one pager bundle has a variety of tools to engage older learners visually and digitally.

If you use these reading response activities with distance learning, try allowing students choice in the literature or article they read, and give them a few days to complete the task so that you get to see their best work!

SELF-GRADING GRAMMAR

Self-grading grammar is wonderful for a few reasons:

  1. You don’t grade the material.
  2. You get instant feedback from students.
  3. You can immediately know what students need to review and where students are excelling.
  4. You don’t grade the material.

All joking aside, I’ve been using Google Quizzes for awhile now because the feedback is unbelievable. After students take the quiz (which you totally don’t have to assign as a quiz), Google will tell you who missed what questions, the class percentage, and who has not finished the assignment. With all of that data, I can differentiate so that each student is challenged. You can see a variety of self-grading grammar, and if you want to experiment, you can download an activity for free.

PLAYLIST WRITING REFLECTION

One way to capture students’ interest with writing is to incorporate music. At the end of the year, I like having students reflect on how they’ve grown. We use music to put together a thematic sound track for their year, and they write a response that incorporates some of the grammatical skills we have studied. However, you really can use this assignment (My Playlist) at any point during the year.

DIGITAL LITERARY ANALYSIS

I created over fifty digital pieces for students to build their own literary analysis. With student choice, you’ll be able to see where students need pushed for further analysis or prompted to analyze a section closely. If you use this activity for distance learning, you might give students only a few of the analytical questions (I’ve provided ten).

EMAIL ETIQUETTE LESSON

What better writing lesson for online learning than to teach students the etiquette of an eloquent email? This email etiquette lesson is one students always enjoy. Plus, I LOVE hearing teachers comment on how much they appreciate receiving well-articulated communication from students. With writing, students don’t always see immediate growth. Using this email etiquette unit, however, they DO! And, it’s rewarding for everyone involved. You can read the reviews for the original print version of the resource here.

GRAMMAR TEXTBOOK

After I wrote my book a few years ago, teachers requested a digital book that they could share year after year. I created a modern grammar textbook so that teachers had a home base for grammar lessons and so that parents could help students at home.

The grammar textbook covers the “nuts and bolts” of English language without jargon. You may share it with students on Google Classroom or through email, but you may not display it on the web for public access. It’s my way of making grammar accessible for all.

READING STRATEGIES

Keep students on their toes with reading! Yes, reading volume is important, but it’s also important that we encourage students to be active readers and to employ the strategies that will help them dig deeper in the text. These digital reading strategy graphic organizers are versatile. Use them with fiction or nonfiction. They’re succinct. Plus, you can offer choice and differentiate.

ETHOS, PATHOS, LOGOS

I teach ethos, pathos, and logos with argumentative writing, with public speaking lessons, with Julius Caesar. . .

Students should be aware that the media, specifically commercials, use tools to influence their beliefs and spending habits. By watching authentic commercials, students will see persuasive techniques in action.

VOCABULARY ORGANIZERS

Students can continue to build their vocabulary knowledge digitally. Allow them to select words that are meaningful to them, or pre-select some from whole-class texts. This free template will help students stay organized.

VOCABULARY PRACTICE

What are your favorite vocabulary words? What are your students’ favorite words? Working digitally is the perfect time to ask students for their favorite words and then build a unit from them. If you’d like to get started, you can can download this free vocabulary activity as a starting point.

Whether your students are in a 1:1 classroom or learning remotely, this post is full of digital language arts activities to engage students online.

Digital language arts activities can bring success to distance learning or the regular classroom. These are teacher-tested and successful lessons for our students.

TELL US! What digital tools do you need to get through the school year? We are currently modifying and adding to our products to give you all free updates!

Comments (25):

  1. Christy Roberts

    April 5, 2020 at 10:35 pm

    My district has given me specific standards that I need to teach for the remainder of the year- context clues, compare/contrast with nonfiction, and argumentative writing.

    Reply
    • Lauralee Moss

      April 5, 2020 at 10:44 pm

      OH wow! Are you doing the context clues within literature?

      I think Melissa’s vocabulary graphic organizers help with that. ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Lauralee

      Reply
  2. Mariah Purcell

    April 5, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    So many great ideas! I definitely plan on utilizing the email etiquette ideas. After receiving a multitude of online correspondence since shifting to e-learning, Iโ€™ve been shocked by the overall lack of email etiquette…. but I suppose itโ€™s probably because they have never been taught! Iโ€™m up for the challenge. Thanks for the ideas! ๐Ÿ™‚ Great post!!

    Reply
    • Lauralee Moss

      April 5, 2020 at 11:28 pm

      I actually use Melissa’s etiquette tool! You’ll love it.

      OR! Should I say, “ul <3 it."

      In all seriousness, I cringe sometimes.

      Reply
  3. Lisa Cummins

    April 5, 2020 at 11:23 pm

    OMG, I SO need ALL your resources you mentioned! I teach 8the graders that are reading/working at a 4the grade level or lower, so anything I can use to get data and/or differentiate is a GAME CHANGER!

    Reply
    • Lauralee Moss

      April 5, 2020 at 11:30 pm

      Agreed: data can be a game changer, especially with reluctant students. It helps to send them a screenshot of their information and say, “Look, we are going to improve on this together.” Google Quizzes are great for information if you haven’t tried them yet.

      Reply
  4. Alissa

    April 5, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    Thank you so much for all your resources. We switch to full digital in a week

    Reply
  5. Jen

    April 6, 2020 at 12:18 am

    I was hoping to incorporate some digital and interactive notebook activities! Would love to try your one-pagers

    Reply
  6. Susan

    April 6, 2020 at 12:43 am

    You have so many great resources. Thank you so much for sharing! I teach 8th grade and most students work around 6th grade level. With eLearning upon us, my principal says he wants us to post 20-30 minutes of activities each day, and he often repeats that he wants students to have “fun” with these lessons. What would you recommend for a daily dose of fun for language arts at this level?

    Reply
    • Lauralee Moss

      April 6, 2020 at 3:03 am

      That’s a tall order! Hmmmm. What if you add a fun question via Google Forms? You could also do a bit with creative writing. Students could assembly items they have at home and create a story. Would something like that work?

      Reply
  7. Sarah Barnhardt

    April 6, 2020 at 1:34 am

    Awesome post! I am looking for digital sources for analyzing nonfiction. My students are going to be comparing/contrasting nonfiction to The Crucible soon.

    Reply
    • Melissa

      April 6, 2020 at 12:57 pm

      Hi Sarah! The informational one pager might help with that. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  8. Joan

    April 6, 2020 at 2:24 am

    Oh I love the email etiquette lesson! I will definitely use that this week! We have been remote learning since 3/15. ๐Ÿ˜…

    Reply
  9. Karen Allen

    April 6, 2020 at 3:08 am

    I have been looking for an Email Etiquette resource. I need ALL of these resources.

    Reply
  10. Genevieve

    April 6, 2020 at 6:09 am

    I am hoping to continue momentum that we built in our grammar unit! Interactive notebooks and practice would be so beneficial to me and my students. I would love to try the self-grading grammar! You guys are doing fantastic work supporting us teachers- thank you!

    Reply
  11. Angela

    April 6, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    These resources are all really great! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  12. Carley

    April 6, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    Continued support…I find what has helped me the most throughout this is knowing other teachers are just as lost and willing to share what they do know! Thanks for the post ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  13. Stephanie Brunn

    April 6, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    These were all such great ideas for distance learning! Can you share some ideas for a distance learning poetry unit? Our class set for our next novel is stuck at school, so I’m brainstorming what other units I could cover with my middle school and high school ELLs.

    Reply
  14. Odalys

    April 6, 2020 at 6:54 pm

    Wow! After reading all these wonderful resources I canโ€™t say I wouldnโ€™t want all of them! Haha. I definitely love the digital one-pager as I use it whenever we dive into a new novel. I would also love to have the playlist writing reflection especially since we are nearing the end of the school year.

    Reply
  15. Anna

    April 7, 2020 at 3:30 am

    Right now I really need some printable packets! My district is not doing online teaching

    Reply
  16. Caleb

    April 7, 2020 at 3:31 am

    I could really use some digital book studies!

    Reply
  17. Anna

    April 7, 2020 at 3:32 am

    Right now I really need printable packets! Our district is not doing online teaching.

    Reply

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