20 Active Learning Methodologies for English teachers

Get every student thinking, talking, moving and remembering in your English classroom.

This 56-page, print-ready teacher guide sets out 20 active learning methodologies for post-primary English. Each one has a clear diagram, simple step-by-step instructions and worked examples taken from Junior Cycle and Leaving Certificate prescribed texts. Every strategy is ready to use in your next lesson.

What’s inside
• 20 methodologies in five colour-coded sections: Retrieval and Memory, Talk and Dialogue, Collaborative Learning, Active Reading, and Drama
• An “At a glance” table for each one: aim, group size, timing, space needed and the Junior Cycle learning outcomes it covers
• A diagram of the room or process for every methodology
• Numbered step-by-step instructions, “Why it works” notes, teacher tips and variations
• Sample questions with answers for your key, ready to copy onto cards or slides

The 20 methodologies
Retrieval Relay Race · Carousel Retrieval · Retrieval Board Race · Brain Dump · Mini-Whiteboards · Quotation Retrieval Grid · Quiz-Quiz-Trade · Think–Pair–Share · Hot Seating · Four Corners · Balloon Debate · Jigsaw · Idea Market Place · Placemat · Gallery Walk · Card Sort · Annotation Relay · Running Dictation · Freeze Frame · Role on the Wall

Examples from prescribed texts, including
Junior Cycle: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Of Mice and Men, The Outsiders, Noughts and Crosses, Bog Child, A Christmas Carol, Twelve Angry Men, Blood Brothers, Hamilton, Sing Street, Little Women, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and popular Junior Cycle poems
Leaving Cert: Othello, Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, Dracula, Hamnet, Macbeth, A Doll’s House, 1984, The Banshees of Inisherin, Small Things Like These, and the poetry of Dickinson, Donne, Meehan, Yeats, Kavanagh and Bishop, plus Paper 1 composing and visual texts

Perfect for
• English teachers looking for fresh, low-prep ways to make lessons more active
• Revision lessons before tests and state exams
• Department CPD, subject planning and newly qualified teachers
• PME student teachers on school placement

Texts are drawn from the Junior Cycle English prescribed lists (examination in 2027 and 2028–2030) and the Leaving Certificate English prescribed material (2027 and 2028).

Created by Clare Madden, The English Teacher: an English teacher with 15 years’ classroom experience, author of the Touchstones Junior Cycle English series and the “My Brain and Me” short course.