One of the most natural ways to students practice all four domains of learning - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - is by interacting with other students! Fortunately, they can do all these things with targeted instruction.
Some ideas that I've tried to get my students interacting with each other:
My last tip here would be to make sure all these activities have a designated purpose and require elaboration of responses. Interaction with other students can and should be fun, but that shouldn't be its only purpose!
- think-pair-write-share
- Having students write their thoughts might help them remember the information better when it is time to share with the whole class. It will also be something for them to keep if they need to look back at the material later!
- You can have students pair then write, or write then pair. The first configuration gives them practice with something that many students are more confident in (speaking) before something they are less confident in (writing), but that is not the case for every student.
- jigsaw activity
- Make sure to give an appropriate scaffold for English learners if they are reading a piece with many unfamiliar words.
- literature circle
- If you are assigning the role of someone to read aloud, be careful not to embarrass an English learner with a text that will be too difficult for them to read. Listening practice is just as important as reading aloud!
- roleplay/"Tea Party"/meet-and-greet activity
- Ensure that this has a purpose and clear instructions! This can be a GREAT way to teach vocabulary, in my experience. See an example I used here.
- Socratic seminar
- peer editing work
- You can have this with a paper rubric, with a discussion, and/or over Google Docs. Provide a rubric with specific criteria, and require students to explain why they're giving the work a certain score.
My last tip here would be to make sure all these activities have a designated purpose and require elaboration of responses. Interaction with other students can and should be fun, but that shouldn't be its only purpose!