ELA Resources for Teachers

Explore our wide range of curricular resources and professional learning for secondary English Language Arts classrooms.

Our ELA resources integrate literacy skills development with social-emotional learning and civic education practices.

Learn more about our approach to ELA

Explore a wide variety of professional learning experiences that support making the most of our English Language Arts curriculum.

About Our ELA Resources

Designed for grades 6-12, our English Language Arts resources include a wide array of materials that will spark discussion and student engagement.

Our thematic collections feature text sets for multiple grade levels, unit planning guidance, classroom-ready handouts, and more.

We also offer teaching guides for a selection of longer works, poetry lessons, and teaching strategies that prioritize student writing and discussion.

Collection

Developed for grades 6–12, this modular collection invites students to explore the complexity of identity and develop a sense of agency as they reflect on what it means to grow up in the world today.

A high school student shares their thoughts during a school workshop.

Toolkit

This toolkit provides the framework and classroom resources to help you design a coming-of-age literature unit for middle or high school students using a book of your choosing.

An English Language Arts teacher prepares to teach a literature unit for middle and high school students.

Guide

Implement book clubs that build community and help students make meaningful connections to books they are excited to read.

A close up of shelves in a school library filled with books of different sizes and colors.

Guide

This planning guide will help you design and implement a Whole-School Read that centers students’ voices and experiences.

Blue and purple toned books, view from above

Toolkit

These back-to-school activities and teacher resources will help you lay a foundation for a reflective and caring community at the start of the school year.

Students move around the classroom in conversation with each other. One student looks directly into the camera with a smile on their face.

Book

This guide interweaves a literary analysis of Elie Wiesel’s powerful and poignant memoir with an exploration of the relevant historical context surrounding his experience during the Holocaust.

Collection

Learn how to incorporate civic education, ethical reflection and historical context into a literary exploration of Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Guide

Teach a unit on Jacqueline Woodson's coming-of-age memoir in verse that invites students to reflect on their own experiences and identities.

Book

Use this guide to Ji-li Jiang’s engaging memoir set during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution in China to help students explore themes of conformity, obedience, and prejudice.

Book

Use this guide to Jeanne Wakatsuki's memoir about the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II to develop students' literacy skills and increase understanding of this history.

Book

Use this guide to Melba Pattillo Beals' memoir about the desegregation of Little Rock High School to develop literacy skills and teach about the civil rights movement.

Guide

This guide provides activities and discussion questions for leading your students through a six-week reading of Enrique's Journey that explores themes of identity, belonging, and choices.

Guide

This planning guide will support your school community as you read the memoir of Judy Heumann, one of the most influential disability rights activists in US history.

Guide

Get tips for planning your whole-school read of the young adult novel Wonder. This guide provides direction on how to structure classroom discussions and includes pre- and post-reading activities. It also features a "write your own precept" template for use in a final school-wide activity.

Mini-Lesson

For National Poetry Month, introduce students to spoken word poetry and explore its power to give voice to issues that impact our communities.

Smiling student gesturing during classroom discussion

Mini-Lesson

Use these activities to help students reflect on the themes in Amanda Gorman’s Inauguration Day poem and consider how their unique experiences and voices can help America “forge a union with purpose.”

Photo of Amanda Gorman at Biden's Inauguration.

Mini-Lesson

This mini-lesson invites students to analyze Amanda Gorman’s poem “New Day’s Lyric” and create a class poem about hope and collective action during challenging times.

Amanda Gorman at the 2021 InStyle Awards At The Getty Center

Teaching Strategy

Ask students to visualize a passage of text and interpret it through drawing with this reading comprehension strategy.

Two female students write at their desks.

Teaching Strategy

Encourage students to stop and engage with a text as they read with this comprehension strategy.

Teaching Strategy

Educators will help students strengthen their literacy skills by increasing the complexity of the questions they need to answer about a text.

Teaching Strategy

Help students unpack their responses to a text or video using this structured protocol that requires alternating between thinking and writing.

Teaching Strategy

Educators will create a practice of student journaling to help their students critically examine their surroundings and make informed judgments.

Teaching Strategy

Students have a written conversation with peers and use silence as a tool to explore a topic in depth.

Group of students writing on large piece of chart paper.

Teaching Strategy

A Socratic Seminar invites students to facilitate a discussion in order to work together toward a shared understanding of a text.

Two students sitting in a classroom with one student talking and gesturing

Teaching Strategy

This kinesthetic discussion activity invites students to be active listeners and speakers and to interact with a wide range of classmates.

Teaching Strategy

Get all students involved by asking them to show their stance on a statement through their positioning around the room.

A students talks with other students in a classroom

Teaching Strategy

Use text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world comparisons to help students connect ideas in a text to their own lives, current events, and history.

A close-up of an open book in someone's hands

Teaching Strategy

Deepen students' understanding of a topic by having them connect to their prior knowledge.

Teaching Strategy

This strategy helps students synthesize and articulate the most important takeaways from a variety of resources containing information about a particular topic or theme.

Collection

Explore a wide variety of professional learning experiences that support making the most of our English Language Arts curriculum.

An educator looks down at a book to read.

Insight

by Kaitlin Smith

Aug 10, 2021

Facing History explores examples of coming-of-age literature and its connection to our resources.

Close up of male hand open book and reading.

Featured Resource

by Jessica Weingartner

Jul 31, 2023

Help your students engage with and enjoy reading with our updated Book Club Guide and professional learning webinar.

Students read books while sitting on the floor.

Featured Resource

by Kaitlin Smith

Apr 29, 2022

Facing History invites educators to weave poetry into classroom instruction using four of our teaching resources to shed light on historical and contemporary experiences and to help students process their own identities and emotions.

Insight

by Facing History Staff

Nov 8, 2022

In this interview with educator Molly Josephs, we explore how storytelling helps students find their unique voices & create connections across differences.

Featured Resource

by Omar Ramirez

Aug 15, 2023

Use our updated Back-to-School Toolkit to help you build community with students and lay the foundation for building a brave, inclusive classroom.

Rear view of high school students walking into college building together

Insight

by Briana O’Neal

Aug 18, 2023

Learn how Facing History teachers have adapted our teaching strategies for their classrooms.

Perspective

by Kaitlin Smith

Aug 25, 2023

Education scholars Drs. Graves and Seider present insights on the importance of cultivating critical consciousness in the classroom.

A side view of an open book with a colorful globe behind it

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

In this webinar, we shared how Facing History works at the intersection of social-emotional learning and academics, informed by civic engagement and equity and justice. We provided resources and strategies for you to consider integrating these four elements in your school or classroom.

Two students discuss and look at a paper

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Conspiracy theories provide simple and misleading explanations for complex human dilemmas. We must learn to recognize the antisemitism that fuels some of today’s most destructive conspiracy theories so we can help our students stand up against these pervasive and dangerous messages.

Thousands of people participate in No Hate, No Fear Jewish Solidarity March in response to anti-semitic attacks in and around city across Brooklyn Bridge

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore questions of identity and belonging in literature and life and learn how you can center students' identities and experiences through literature and dialogue.

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore ways to critically examine your identity as an educator, examine teaching strategies to build community and trust, and share methods to facilitate reflective conversations.

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ELA Resources for Teachers

Professional Learning for ELA Educators

About Our ELA Resources

You might also be interested in…

Professional Learning for ELA Educators

Teaching Coming-of-Age Literature

Amp Up Reading in Your Classroom with Facing History’s Book Club Guide

4 Tools for Teaching with Poetry

Elevating Student Voice Through Podcasting and Storytelling

Building Belonging with New Classroom Activities for Back to School

Creative Tips for Using Teaching Strategies

Cultivating Critical Consciousness in the Classroom

Educating Adolescents at the Intersection of Social-Emotional Learning, Civics, Equity, and Academics

Facing Hate: A Global Conspiracy with Local Manifestations

Coming of Age in Literature and Life: A Webinar Featuring Young Adult Author Jennifer De Leon

Fostering Civil Discourse in the (Remote) Classroom

ELA Resources for Teachers

Professional Learning for ELA Educators

Professional Learning for ELA Educators

About Our ELA Resources

Curriculum Planning & Thematic Collections

Coming of Age in a Complex World

Coming-of-Age Unit Planning Toolkit

Centering Student Voice and Choice: A Book Club Guide

Whole-School Read Guide: Foster a Literacy Community

Back to School: Building Community for Connection and Learning

Title-Specific Teaching Guides

Teaching Night

Teaching Mockingbird

Teaching Brown Girl Dreaming

Teaching Red Scarf Girl

Teaching Farewell to Manzanar

Teaching Warriors Don't Cry

Teaching Enrique's Journey

All-Community Read Guide: Being Heumann and Rolling Warrior

Wonder: A Whole-School Read Planning Guide

Learn about ordering our digital class sets to use in your classroom.

Featured Lessons & Teaching Strategies

How to Bring Spoken Word Poetry into the Classroom

Reflecting on Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb"

Hardship and Hope: Teaching Amanda Gorman’s “New Day’s Lyric”

Sketch to Stretch

Say Something

Levels of Questions

Rapid Writing

Journals in a Facing History Classroom

Big Paper: Building a Silent Conversation

Socratic Seminar

Concentric Circles

Four Corners

Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World

Connect, Extend, Challenge

Create a Headline

Get Our ELA Newsletter

You might also be interested in…

Professional Learning for ELA Educators

Teaching Coming-of-Age Literature

Amp Up Reading in Your Classroom with Facing History’s Book Club Guide

4 Tools for Teaching with Poetry

Elevating Student Voice Through Podcasting and Storytelling

Building Belonging with New Classroom Activities for Back to School

Creative Tips for Using Teaching Strategies

Cultivating Critical Consciousness in the Classroom

Educating Adolescents at the Intersection of Social-Emotional Learning, Civics, Equity, and Academics

Facing Hate: A Global Conspiracy with Local Manifestations

Coming of Age in Literature and Life: A Webinar Featuring Young Adult Author Jennifer De Leon

Fostering Civil Discourse in the (Remote) Classroom

Inspiration, insights, & ways to get involved