I teach English to high schoolers who would rather set themselves on fire than discuss symbolism. For years, vocabulary quizzes were twenty minutes of quiet misery followed by my grading papers while questioning every life choice that led me to this career.
Then I started using Gimkit, and suddenly the same kids who “forgot” to read chapter three were screaming at each other because someone betrayed the team on the definition of “foreshadowing.”
These are the exact templates and kits that actually work in real English classrooms in 2025, not the cute Pinterest ones that die in front of thirty teenagers who can smell fear.
1. The Vocabulary “Murder Mystery” Kit (my weekly staple)
80 vocabulary words from the entire semester, divided into eight rounds of ten.
Each round is titled like a true-crime episode:
- Round 1: “The Body in the Library” (words 1-10)
- Round 2: “The Missing Alibi” (words 11-20)
Every question has a sentence pulled from whatever novel we’re reading. Example:
“His ALLEVIATE smile did nothing to ease her suspicion that he was hiding something.”
A) fake
B) genuine
C) nervous
D) relieved
Kids don’t realize they’re reviewing vocab; they think they’re solving a murder. I run it in Trust No One mode every Friday. The betrayal screams when someone tanks the team on “ephemeral” is my cardio.
2. Literary Devices “Who Did It?” Template
Every question shows a quote from the current text with the device underlined.
Four choices: personification, metaphor, irony, or foreshadowing (the big four that trip everyone up).
The twist: three of the choices are devices that actually appear elsewhere in the same chapter. So picking “metaphor” might be technically wrong here, but right two pages later. Forces them to think instead of guessing.
I used this with Lord of the Flies last year. When the question about Piggy’s glasses came up, and half the class picked “symbolism” instead of “foreshadowing,” we had a fifteen-minute discussion that was better than any lecture I could’ve given.
3. The Quote Identification “Suspect Lineup.”
20 major quotes from the novel/play we just finished.
Four character names as choices.
Sounds basic. Works like magic because teenagers will fight to the death before they let someone else steal credit for knowing Lady Macbeth said, “Out, damned spot!”
I run this the day after we finish reading. The winning team gets to pick the next class playlist for a week. I’ve suffered through more SoundCloud rappers than I care to admit, but their recall of quotes on the essay portion of the test went from 42% to 89%.
4. Grammar “Fix This Trash” Error Analysis Kit
Every question is a sentence with exactly one error (comma splice, fragment, pronoun disagreement, etc.).
Students have to pick the corrected version from four choices.
I steal sentences from their own previous essays (anonymously, of course). Nothing humbles a senior like seeing their own run-on sentence projected for the entire class to fix. They start proofreading their own work like their life depends on it.
5. The Great Gatsby “Old Money vs New Money” Showdown
Half the questions are about West Egg characters and details, half about East Egg.
I split the class into two teams: Old Money vs New Money.
Questions alternate, and the team whose side the question is about has to answer first. Wrong answer = other team steals the points.
The trash talk when someone misses that Daisy’s voice is “full of money” is Shakespearean.
6. Poetry Explication “Line by Line” Kit
I take one poem we’re studying (usually 14–20 lines) and make one question per line or stanza.
Questions range from literal (“What color is the curtain in line 3?”) to inferential (“What does the repetition of ‘nevermore’ suggest about the speaker’s mental state?”).
I run it in Boss Battle mode with the poem projected. Every correct answer damages “The Final Exam Boss.” When they finally defeat it, they’ve basically written the entire analysis paragraph out loud together. I just transcribe their discussion and hand it back as study notes.
7. The SAT/ACT Reading Passage Template
I paste one College Board or ACT reading passage directly into a kit (fair use for education, calm down).
15 questions exactly like the real test: main idea, tone, evidence, vocab in context.
I run it every Thursday for juniors. Their average evidence-based reading score jumped 38 points last year. One girl went from 480 to 690 and brought me cookies. Best cookies of my life.
8. Character Relationship Web (for any novel)
Every question names two characters and asks for their relationship or a key interaction.
Example from Romeo and Juliet:
“Mercutio and Romeo”
A) cousins
B) best friends
C) rivals
D) brothers-in-law by the end
The web of connections becomes crystal clear when they have to fight for the points. I do this right before essay writing and watch their analysis paragraphs suddenly have actual evidence instead of vague feelings.
The Template I Wish I Never Made
I once tried a 300-question “everything we’ve ever read” kit for final review.
Played it once. The game lasted 47 minutes, and half the class checked out when they realized they’d never catch up. Now I keep kits under 90 questions max, recycled multiple times. Intensity beats volume every time.
Golden Rules for English Teachers Using Gimkit
- Always use quotes from texts they’ve actually read. Context is everything.
- Include the line number or page number in the question when possible. Trains evidence skills.
- Never make “all of the above” an option. They guess and learn nothing.
- Put the correct answer explanation in quote form when possible (“As Gatsby himself says, ‘Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!’”). They remember the quote AND the analysis.
These templates took me from being the teacher whose review days were silent and sad to the one whose room sounds like a sports bar during March Madness.
English doesn’t have to be quiet to be rigorous.
My kids prove it every time they scream “THAT’S NOT FORESHADOWING, THAT’S DRAMATIC IRONY YOU IDIOT” at 8:47 a.m. on a Tuesday.
Try the vocabulary murder mystery first.
When a kid who reads at a 6th-grade level hits a 31-question streak because he’s obsessed with solving the fake crime, you’ll understand why I’ll never go back to traditional quizzes.
Literature is supposed to make you feel something.
Gimkit just made my students feel competitive about it.
And honestly? That’s close enough.