While a quiz may not be the first thing you think of when teaching English, it can be an excellent tool to help reinforce new concepts, simplify the complexities of grammar, improve vocabulary and even teach students the key points from a work of Shakespeare.
Quizzes can help bring potentially stuffy subjects to life. English quizzes for interactive whiteboards or interactive displays can be an excellent way to round off a subject, end a lesson or simply check how far along your students are in their quest for knowledge.
We’re going to run you through some of our favourite English quizzes across Key Stage 2(KS2), through Key Stage 3(KS3) and into Key Stage 4(KS4). They’ll cover the English language, Shakespeare and everything in between.
How to make an English quiz for your class
There are a few different ways to make quizzes for your English class. Whether you want to print out activity sheets, use MicrosoftTM PowerpointTM, display videos or use a classroom quiz app, there are several fun ways to quiz your students on their English skills.
The type of English quiz you implement will vary depending on:
- Student ability levels
- The type of English you’re teaching; is it English language or English literature?
- The key stage your students are in.
Our tips for getting the most out of English quizzes on interactive displays:
- Mix up your question format – don’t make them all multiple choice! Also, open-ended text questions are great for exams but less so for a snappy quiz.
- Decide whether you want students to work as a team or on their own
- Decide in advance whether you wish to reward correct answers or overall performance.
- Know what you want to get out of the quiz at the end. Are you simply checking for knowledge gaps, or do you want students to be fluent in a subject?
Four KS2 English quiz ideas
You’ll be helping students learn the basics of grammar, punctuation and spelling in KS2. These foundations will be further enhanced with reading, writing and phonics lessons. There are several English quizzes that can help your KS2 students grasp these subjects.
Spelling Quiz – BBC Bitesize
This simple quiz doesn’t just test your students can spell, but also looks at the concept of spelling itself. Ten simple questions will check their understanding of basic English language rules, vowels, syllables and more. It’s a great way to check in on how your lessons are progressing for individual children.
KS2 Grammar Quiz – Quizizz
Crack out your interactive display and test your students on their grammar. This selection of multiple-choice questions lets your students work out the correct use of grammar, verbs, pronouns and more. Quizizz enables you to turn it into a fun interactive quiz for your interactive display too.
Conjunction Match-Up – Wordwall
Match up the conjunctions with the sentence! Your students will be against the clock. Each conjunction just needs to be dragged and dropped into the sentence they can be used in. Once your student is happy, they just need to submit their answers!
Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives – Kahoot!
This interactive English quiz tests your KS2 students on the very basics of nouns, verbs and adjectives. They’ll just need to answer the questions as they go. Each question has a 30 second time limit too! They’ll be given sentence-level context and will have to determine whether a word is a noun, verb or adjective.
Need more inspiration for KS2 English? Check out our list of KS2 English games.
Four KS3 English quizzes
During KS3 English, you’ll be helping students further their understanding of the English language and their overall literacy. This makes quizzes a great choice to help them with trickier concepts and analyse books.
Skellig – Kahoot!
Skellig is a book taught across both KS2 and KS3. It’s one of the books chosen by many teachers to help students improve their literacy. In addition to this, it’s used to help students understand the basics of analysis. This quiz will help students understand both what’s going on in the book and the deeper meaning behind the text.
KS3 Quick English Quiz – Quizizz
At KS3, your students will likely still be learning the correct usage of adjectives, verbs and nouns. Not only that, but they’ll be introduced to more complex aspects of the English language. This quiz helps check in on onomatopoeia, sibilance, synonyms and different types of punctuation.
Poetic Devices – Quizizz
Another excellent example of a Quizizz quiz for your interactive display. This time it tackles the basics of poetry. Your students will be challenged with identifying different poetic terms such as alliteration, metaphors and personification.
End of Year KS3 English Quiz – TES Presentation
You can use this simple presentation on a laptop, interactive whiteboard, or interactive display. Your students just need to answer the questions to help recap what they’ve learnt over the previous few months.
Need more KS3 English ideas? Check out our KS3 English games.
Three quizzes for GCSE English and KS4 students
By KS4, students are expected to be able to write fluently. At this stage, they’ll be learning how to communicate ideas and concepts and, through reading, develop several other skills. They’ll be expected to analyse at least one play by Shakespeare too. All of this will prepare them to take their GCSE English exam.
10 Minute Revision for GCSE English – CGP Books
A simple quiz for students to either complete in class or at home. It focuses on helping students with their revision and will explain answers at the end if they get any wrong.
GCSE Grammar – BBC Bitesize
It’s never too late to brush up on your grammar. This test will help students who may be struggling to grasp more complex grammar. The test helps by defining a number of grammatical structures they may find useful for their upcoming exams.
Macbeth Characters, Quotes and Background – Kahoot!
Are you studying Macbeth for GCSE? This quiz will help you with everything you need to know. You’ll need a Kahoot! account to access it, though. There’s a Macbeth quiz we love on Quizizz, too, or you can check out a selection of other Shakespeare Kahoot! quizzes.
More classroom quizzes and games for students of all ages
If you still need some inspiration, we can help. We have a number of interactive whiteboard resources to help you plan lessons for your interactive displays across all the different key stages.
- The ultimate list of classroom games
- Our favourite classroom quiz games and apps
- Science quizzes for kids
- Math quizzes for kids
Level up your English quizzes with an interactive display
Each of the English quizzes above is perfect for the Promethean ActivPanel display. These apps can load right onto your ActivPanel or function in a browser. You can display presentations, play a video or use one of the quiz apps we’ve mentioned above to make your lessons genuinely interactive.
Want to hear more about the ActivPanel interactive display? Speak to a Promethean expert and request your free demo today.