English Language Arts (ELA) lesson plans for Upper Elementary, Middle School and High School
ELA lesson plans LAST UPDATED: Sun May 23, 2021
Your kids are NOT behind. Your kids do NOT need to catch up. Your kids are NOT behind because of the pandemic.
That’s what Kylene Beers, reader, writer, teacher, speaker, and current cancer fighter wrote about in an open-letter to education leaders and teachers on her blog.
(If you’re new to teaching ELA and reading, check out her book, When Kids Can’t Read/What Teachers Can Do. It’s a game changer)
As teachers, we’re stressed out about how much we can’t do. We’re stressed out about standardized tests. But, the reality is, there’s so much we’ve already done.
Teaching Reading Strategies in your English Language Arts class (during a pandemic)
Reading is more than being able to say the words. (Decoding)
Reading is also about understanding what the author is trying to say. And what you think about their message. (Comprehension)
The problem is, many students believe you either get it… or you don’t. And, that’s just the way it is.
The reality is that strong readers do specific things to play with the text and understand what is going on.
But, not all strong readers realize exactly what they’re doing. (Not everyone is strong with metacognition.)
Oh, and now you have to teach across the internet, or with your students six feet apart.
Here are some free youtube videos to help you teach reading comprehension strategies from a distance.
By encourage a Growth Mindset in our classrooms, we can help students understand that we can get better at reading if we use specific reading strategies.
ELA Lesson Plans – Reading
Here are the English Language Arts lesson plans, handouts, slideshow lessons, and informational text articles that go with the free videos.
These reading strategies and articles were initially designed for Middle School Language Arts (because I taught Grade 8 ELA and that’s where my bias is!)
But, these ELA lessons will also work with older elementary students, high school English, as well as more advanced English Language Learners.
Teachers have let me know these resources work well with high school students, middle school students, as well as with students who have learning disabilities or difficulties.
Middle School English Lesson Plan Feedback
Here’s what Middle School English teachers had to say about using these ELA lesson plans with their 6th, 7th and 8th grade students:
High School English Lesson Plan Feedback
Here’s what some High School English teachers had to say about using these ELA lesson plans with their 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade students:
English Language Arts Video Lessons for Distance Learning (Comprehension Reading Strategies)
Reading Strategies Lesson Plans
Each English Language Arts lesson plan focuses on a different reading comprehension strategy and includes the following:
- comprehensive ELA lesson plans that include script and sample answers
- slideshow lesson that you can modify to teach the reading strategy
- ELA handout that works with any text to guide students through the use of the reading strategy
- reading comprehension strategy poster
The slideshow lesson, handouts, and reading comprehension poster can be edited (Google apps.)
This works well, whether you’re doing guided reading with booster groups or homogeneous groups or you’re reviewing a reading concept with your entire class.
