Are you a middle school or high school English Language Arts teacher looking for a fun way to engage your students in sports themed literacy activities? Read on for tons of fun ideas!
Sports and athletics can provide the perfect inspiration for invigorating lessons. Not only do sports themed lessons help bring energy and enthusiasm into the classroom, but they also allow students to connect with their favorite pastimes while developing their ELA skills.
Here are five great ideas for incorporating sports-based learning into your secondary ELA classroom.
#1: Have Students Keep a Sports Diary
This activity is great for students who are passionate about sports. It can be used to help them improve their writing skills as well as their knowledge about sports. To do this, simply have students choose a sport and start keeping a diary about it. They can write about anything related to the sport, from their favorite moments to their thoughts on the latest news.
#2: Have Students Create Their Own Sports Teams
This activity is a great way to get students thinking critically about sports. To do this, have students create their own sports teams, complete with players, coaches, and mascots. They can even come up with their own team names and logos. Once they have done this, they can then research real-life teams and compare and contrast them with their own creations.
#3: Have Students Write Sports-Themed Short Stories
This activity is a great way to get students using their imaginations. To do this, simply have students write short stories that are set in the world of sports. They can write about anything from a big game to a behind-the-scenes look at a team’s training camp. This is also a great opportunity for students to practice their descriptive writing skills.
A fun and easy to way to complete this activity is with my Roll a Sports Story activity. Students use dice to roll for their story elements and then write a creative story about sports.
#4: Have Students Create a “Sports Center Style” Highlights Reel
Using simple video editing software like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker (or a platform like Canva), have students create a highlight reel of an exciting sporting event. You could even flip this assignment and use it for a text you’ve been reading. Have students create a “highlight reel” of important moments in the text.
#5: Use Sports Articles to Teach Reading Comprehension
Sports articles are a great way to teach reading comprehension skills. You can have students read an article about their favorite team or player and then answer questions about the text. This activity will help students learn how to identify main ideas and supporting details and make inferences based on textual evidence.
Check Out My Sports Close Reading Resources!
Are you looking for high-interest close reading activities about some of the biggest names in sports? Check out my Sports Close Reading and Writing Activities Bundle to see ALL of my sports themed literacy activities.
Each of these activities follow my tried and true close reading process. They feature four sports: basketball, football, baseball, and hockey.
Student Favorites:
All in all, using sports-themed activities to engage students in the English language arts classroom can be a fun and exciting exercise that encourages creativity and reinforces the fundamentals of reading, writing and comprehension. Not only will these activities challenge young learners to think more deeply about their favorite sports teams and heroes, but they will also teach them skills such as journaling, story creation, editing video footage, media literacy and more.
As educators look for new ways to diversify the learning experience in their classrooms, these ideas can be put into action immediately for maximum results. It has been said that “teachers open the door—you enter by yourself” and so why not let the world of sports provide an open door for your students this semester?
Let’s make this school year one full of innovative ways to learn through some great sports related literacy activities!
Happy teaching!
