Teaching with Personality: How to Use Pop Culture, Music, and Gaming to Engage Students in High School English
Sometimes teaching high school English can feel like a show—you feel like you need to perform for your students, their parents, other teachers, and, especially, admin. With the inundation and pressure of curricula, standards, testing requirements, lofty literature goals, classic literature, cultural relevance, classroom management strategies, etc. etc. etc. (and, of course, not all those things are negative at all), it can feel like there is no room for you to be you in the classroom. The person you are on the weekend—maybe one who creates meticulously organized playlists, streams reality TV like there’s no tomorrow, religiously watches F1 qualifying and race day every weekend—doesn’t really get to show up in that classroom with so many pressures.
But here’s the thing—students engage more deeply in English class when teachers bring their personality into the room. Your interests, your voice, your personality—they’re not distractions from the work, they’re essential to making everything work, and, honestly, they will make your ELA classroom management and overall teaching experience so much better!
Some of the best student engagement strategies in high school English classrooms happen when you let the weird and wonderful stuff in. This is how your students realize that you’re real—you become someone they can connect to. It’s amazing when what you like lines up with what they like, but even if it doesn’t, they’ll love knowing more about you. (And, they’ll love roasting you for the things you love that they find ridiculous… bonding takes all forms).
Teaching with Personality: Why Student Engagement Depends on It
Being a real person in your classroom isn’t unprofessional. Go watch a seasoned teacher whose students love them—they are unapologetically themselves and are genuinely having fun with their students.
You don’t need to go full influencer mode, but you also don’t have to scrub your personality out of the room to be taken seriously. The truth is, student engagement in high school English skyrockets when teachers connect literature to their own humor, cultural references, and passions. And, bonus, your teaching gets better when you’re actually enjoying it.
You don’t need to be “on trend” or try to go viral. What anyone outside of your classroom thinks doesn’t matter (except maybe admin… but they’ll love it if kids are learning!). If you're already analyzing character arcs while watching Drive to Survive, or mentally assigning poetic devices to your Spotify playlists, you’re halfway to a lesson plan. Let your brain worms go where they may and then take some of that planning time to tie them all together.
Classroom Activities to Bring Your Passions into High School English
Not every reference has to land—probably most won’t at first. Not every student will care that you’re obsessed with Minecraft or that you comfort watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. But the students who care about the same things will have an invitation to get to know you better. And the ones who don’t? You modeled what it looks like to bring your interests into your work, which is a valuable lesson, and, if you keep at it, they’ll come along.
Here are some ready-to-use ideas you can try:
🏎 F1 Racing in the English Classroom
Why it works: High drama, high stakes, lots of subtext. Honestly? It's Shakespeare with helmets.
How to use it:
Teach persuasive writing with a “Who’s the GOAT?” debate (bonus if you give them the full arc of the 2021 season...)
Compare media coverage for bias, tone, and credibility.
Watch a race (or part of one) and break down the structure of a race like it’s a plot diagram.
Bonus: The rivalry dynamics are basically a ready-made character analysis activity.
Related Post: What Do High School English Students Actually Need to Learn in the Age of AI?
🎧 Spotify & Music Playlists for ELA
Why it works: Teens and teachers alike are building emotional timelines with playlists.
How to use it:
Create playlists for a character study, theme, or entire novel.
Use lyrics to introduce poetic devices (Taylor Swift alone could cover most of them, but my students also loved diving into Phoebe Bridgers)
Let students analyze your playlist for inference skills practice. Just be prepared for a little roasting…
Have everyone bring in songs that capture the mood or setting of a story.
Bonus: Reveal your own “Top 5 Songs to Grade Papers To” playlist.
Related Resource: Try my Poetry Unbound Mini Unit if you want a ready-to-use way to teach poetry analysis through sound and voice.
Related Post: The Easiest Way to Teach Poetry To High School Students (That They Will Actually Love)
🎮 Gaming in English Class: Cozy & Competitive
Why it works: World-building, strategy, storytelling. Whether you’re playing Stardew Valley or Valorant, you’re navigating systems and choices.
How to use it:
Design a game based on the novel you’re reading—characters, quests, consequences.
Talk about choice-driven narratives and multiple endings.
Analyze literary elements like theme, conflict, and symbolism in popular games.
Use cozy games to explore aesthetic storytelling and atmosphere.
Bonus: Let students pitch their dream game in a creative writing mini-project.
📺 Reality TV & Streaming Drama as Literature Lessons
Why it works: It’s character-driven, emotionally messy, and full of tropes—perfect for English class.
How to use it:
Teach satire, unreliable narrators, or archetypes.
Rewrite scenes as monologues or alternate POVs.
Discuss editing choices and audience perception.
Bonus: Admit you’ve been watching Love Is Blind as a narrative case study all along.
📚 BookTok & Fandom Culture in the Classroom
Why it works: Students are reading—just not always what’s on the syllabus.
How to use it:
Offer independent reading choices from BookTok favorites. OR teach a BookTok fave. I have a full Red Rising Unit for high school English that is a slam dunk with teens.
Have students students create BookTok style reviews for books they’ve read.
Pair a popular YA book with a canon text and compare themes.
Make your classroom really vibey with either a dark academia or light academia theme.
Build in creative responses like fan fiction projects or character social media accounts.
Bonus: Grab my free fan fiction creative writing prompts—you’ll be surprised how much literary analysis shows up when students get to build their own story worlds.
Related Posts: The Dystopian Novel Your Students Will Actually Finish: Why I Teach Red Rising and From Rebellion to Relevance: Using Red Rising to Spark Real-World Conversations
Boost Student Engagement by Bringing Joy into the Classroom
Teaching takes a lot out of you—your time, your energy, your brain, your snacks. So if there’s something that brings you joy, why not let it into the classroom?
When you teach in a way that feels like you, it is 100% easier to show up every day. This doesn’t mean you have to turn every unit into a deep-dive on your latest hyperfixation (sometimes mock testing can feel like a break… I know—take the wins where you can!). But you’re allowed to let your interests shape the tone and rhythm of your class.
Students can tell when teachers care about what they’re teaching, and that authenticity is one of the most powerful classroom management tools in high school English.
Start small:
Reference something you love during a writing example.
Design a warm up exercise using a trending audio.
Stock your classroom library with YA books you’d actually read.
Sprinkle in creative projects (download my free Creative Project Menu to get started).
FAQ: Teaching with Personality in High School English
Is it professional to bring my personal interests into the classroom?
Yes! Modeling passion and curiosity actually increases rigor and engagement. Students learn that literature connects to the real world.
What if students don’t share my interests?
Not every student will connect with F1, gaming, or BookTok—but they’ll see authenticity modeled and eventually respond to it.
What are quick, low-prep ways to connect pop culture to English class?
Use music lyrics for poetic devices, compare reality TV to narrative structure, or invite students to create playlists or fan fiction tied to your current text.
Where can I find ready-to-use resources?
Check out my Poetry Unbound Mini Unit, my Red Rising Unit, and my Dark Academia Literary Elements Posters—all designed to help you bring creativity and personality into your classroom without adding to your workload.
This Is Your Classroom Too
You don’t have to be the version of a teacher you saw growing up. You don’t have to be neutral or trend-proof or perfect. You can be curious, specific, quirky, and original. You can bring your playlists, your obsessions, your sports takes, your fandom energy—and still run a focused, rigorous, thoughtful class.
Make your classroom a space you actually want to spend time in. If you’re into aesthetics (read: dark academia classroom decor), grab my dark academia literary elements poster set or the light academia version I designed with that exact vibe in mind—clean, academic, and just a little romantic.
Your classroom doesn’t need to be a performance. It can be a space that reflects who you are and what lights you up—and invites students to do the same.