As a teacher you want to showcase your students’ talents and as a new school year is beginning, it’s important to think ahead about what goals you want your students to achieve.

Of course, we all want our students to become more fluent in the English language by memorizing vocabulary, grammar structures, and sentence patterns. But how do you showcase how your lessons have practical uses?

As you plan your lessons, keep some of these showcase ideas in mind for the end of the year. They can be fun ways to motivate your students and allow them to show off their skills to parents, teachers, and public!

1.Science Fair/Invention Convention

Remember when you were in grade school decorating trifolds? Science fairs and Invention Conventions can be great ideas for your students to not only show off their creativity, knowledge, and communication proficiency.

Students will have to pick a science experiment or invent something new, explain how it’s done, why it’s done, and the uses for the experiment or invention to their visitors. You can also encourage visitors to ask questions for an extra challenge!

2. Talent Show

Along the same vein as science fairs and invention conventions, a talent show will showcase a talent of your students’ choosing. Talent shows can be more open, without trifolds or confined to tables.

Some of my students performed music with various instruments, cup stacking, or magic tricks. The students will give a little background on their talent and instruct the audience through the show. It can be a very fun and interactive showcase for both student and audience!

3. Play

Plays are an excellent way to showcase students’ expressions alongside language proficiency—this can be quite the task for a student! Speaking with correct inflection, cadence, and expression can be a tall order for anybody.

Add movements, costumes, and other people to the equation and you have quite an impressive showcase! Have your students create their own plays for a very unique and impressive show!

4. Quiz Show

The questions can be on a subject of the students’ choosing or can be completely random, but this fast-paced showcase can be a challenge for both audience and student participants. The audience can merely watch as students battle it out or you can allow audience participation in a number of quiz show games.

You can create a Jeopardy-like show, Family Feud, or a random questioned pub-like scenario for students and audience participants. This is a tough showcase due to its quick pace, knowledge-centric translations and will impress speakers of any language!

5. Debate

Again, either you choose the topic or the students do, this can be a great way to showcase students’ passion, language proficiency, and knowledge on given topics and debate scenarios.

Students can also have a bit of fun creating posters for the event, pairing off into teams, and preparing their side of the argument. After debating a given topic, give your audience a chance to vote for which side they think won!

6. Speech

Maybe pairing off or preparing for a debate is a bit too time consuming for your classroom. Have your students prepare a speech on a topic they feel passionate about! Speeches can be just as passionate and powerful showcase for your audience.

They can be funny, serious, powerful, or informational! Get the audience involved with informational speeches by asking questions, or maybe your student will be charged with asking the audience questions!

7. Storytelling

Storytelling by memorization and movement or by simply reading aloud can be an amazing showcase of talent. It’s difficult to read in another language and students often feel very accomplished when they can do it successfully—add different voices, inflections, cadence, and actions to it and you have a real show!

Have your students pick their favorite book or story to share with an audience and they will have a blast! If you pick a story with a repeated theme, have the audience join in whenever the chorus appears. Or, have extra students help out in teaching the different parts of this particular story—the chorus, the characters, or incorporate a play behind the storyteller!

8. Craft Show

Have your students choose their favorite thing to make or choose crafts around a given theme, (think holiday craft shows), to showcase your students’ creativity with their new language. Students will be charged in teaching your audience to create their arts and crafts with them.

Not only will they be tasked with teaching, answering questions, but they will have to tell your audience a little background on the items and when/where to use them if the audience doesn’t know the theme.

This can be a very diverse showcase where your students can relay information to the audience and impart some unique new experiences. They will have a very unique souvenir to take home as well!

9. Show and Tell

Your students likely have something in their family that is very important and telling. By allowing your students to bring in an item and speak about it, this particular showcase will not only show a student’s personality and background but will bring about unique stories and experiences bringing families together as well.

Students will learn about what differences bring them together and audiences will experience a unique showcasing of culture, uniqueness, and real storytelling.

10. Newspaper

Maybe your students are more soft-spoken. A newspaper or a weekly/monthly newsletter home can showcase what your students are doing, what they care about, what is going on in their world, a little comic relief, and their creativity being put to good use in writing.

Your students can choose different roles like a newspaper would have, who will be a columnist for which sections, which articles to write, and editors/copywriters to proofread before sending it out. Your students will flourish with the responsibilities of writing their column and editing the newspaper to showcase what is happening with them!

Next time you step in the classroom, think and share some of these ideas with your class to get them excited and motivated to begin learning. They will have a unique showcase to look forward to after they have succeeded in learning their new vocabulary, grammatical structures, and sentence patterns!