How can I use Khan Academy for English Language Arts and Grammar practice

Here are some ways you can use our standards-aligned 4th–10th grade ELA courses to support student learning in your classroom.

Get ready for state tests

Here on the Khan Academy ELA team, we strive to make sure that our practice exercises align with the question types and level of rigor that you can expect to see on standardized assessments. We suggest assigning one lesson a week, from January onward, as a spiral review that will get your students ready for their spring assessments. Assigning Khan Academy practice is also a great way to keep learners engaged while you pull small groups!

Top tip! Research shows that students learn more when they write by hand, so have them write notes about the articles and videos using our note taking template! Or if you prefer to have students take notes online, here is an editable copy.

Flip your classroom

Our instructional articles and videos are short, engaging, and accessible. Each article and video teaches students an easy-to-remember, transferable procedure that allows learners to engage deeply with texts.

Try having your students complete a lesson at home *before* you teach a topic. You'll get data about what they've learned, and they'll get the skills they need to engage in hands-on activities and deep discussions when they arrive in class.

Debate and discuss

Our long passage practice activities feature excerpts from popular works of literature, like To Kill A Mockingbird, as well as informational texts about high-interest topics, such as how video games can teach survival skills. Use the questions that accompany the texts as a way to become familiar with the texts' big ideas, but then go deeper with discussion and debate!

Our pro/con articles, such as this one about the advantages and disadvantages of zoos, are especially useful for teaching debate skills. 

Keep learning fun

We know that it can be hard sometimes to keep students excited about learning. Our exercises, unit tests, and course challenges can be turned into fun group challenges. Turn up engagement by creating games centered around our content, such as ELA Basketball.

ELA Basketball
 

• Divide students into groups of four, giving each group an individual whiteboard and marker.
• Project an item from an exercise, unit test, or course challenge.
• Give groups five minutes to answer the question and write an explanation of *why* they've selected that answer.
• For each correct answer, a group gets a chance to shoot a ball into a basket or bin. Students get a bonus shot for correctly explaining why their answer was the best choice. Groups get one point per basket.
• Repeat for each item, making sure that each student within a group gets the chance to be the team's whiteboard writer.