Some of the activities I remember the most from my own high school days involved detailed projects in which I was able to create something. I remember vividly an Old Testament trivia game with markers made out of clothespin people dressed in Biblical costumes. As a teacher, I have tried to give my students some of those same types of creative outlets. Some of them appreciate it and some of them do not.
While reading the Odyssey, my class of 9th graders worked on several projects. One of the most popular was the travel brochure. It was a pretty simple concept. I gave the students all a few sheets of plain, white printer paper and taught them how to fold it into thirds, brochure style.
I created a handout with very specific brochure requirements and a rubric. This way, the students knew for sure what was required to get receive the grade they wanted. Some things I included were that the brochure needed to be in color and feature artwork representing 3 of the characters Odysseus encountered. I also made a list of the places Odysseus had visited in our reading and let them know that five of those places were to be covered in the brochure (the students were creating a cruise-type vacation of Odysseus's travels). Each location and creature required a trivia or test question about it on the back of the brochure.
The students were given the rubric up front so they could see that turning it in without color would be a deduction and forgetting the trivia questions would drop them a letter grade. Because of the specific instructions and the rubric the majority of my students were able to turn in high level work without the normal problems.
It was an enjoyable project for both the students and the teacher!