Here is a wild and crazy idea that I had a some success with: Fed Ex Ground. It actually started as "Fed Ex Day" and was modeled after en event a software company in Australia pulled off. Employees were given an entire day to research or develop any project they desired or found interesting. The company provided food and drinks and resources. the catch? Each employee had to "Deliver" the results of their efforts the very next day (hence, Fed Ex) For my 8th graders I modified it to three day (so it became Fed Ex Ground) and limited them to any topic related to our current reading. One kicker was that we spent a prep day identifying all those related topics. As we were reading "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson, the students easily listed several dozen topics that were related. Then they individually chose one of those topics and spent one day with our redoubtable librarians and researched the heck out that one topic they could geek out over. There was one day to write up a quick report ( I provided an organizer to help them keep their thoughts and references organized) and one day to present to the class. They loved it because it was a topic they chose, they found interesting, and they were excited about sharing it with others. Somewhere I actually have some kind of lesson plan...