Are you looking for full year ELA lesson plans?
As I teach language arts, I always share my *general* outline of a complete language arts curriculum. We all have different approaches and communities, but a starting point is so helpful for other teachers—and I love to learn and experiment along with you.
You can see much more of a full year of ELA lesson plans below, perfect for adapting to your classroom’s needs.
But! I also know that many teachers have their own ELA curriculum and only want a few additions to their full year ELA lesson plans. In that case, I’ve highlighted monthly language arts activities below.
Many of the posts below contain free ELA downloads and specialized activities like grammar coloring pages and monthly bell ringers. Even middle school and high school language arts classes enjoy celebrating holidays and seasons.
Click for the month you’d like to see:
Full Year ELA Plans
I have taught grades 6-12, and the most effective way for me to meet standards, engage students, and complete various activities is to layer material.
What does layering ELA content look like? Well, I might teach a grammar lesson on clauses while reading literature. I’ll find sentences from the literature, and we will identify the clauses, but then we will investigate the punctuation, the effect of the clauses, and perhaps the parallelism. We don’t have a “speech unit” and then a “grammar unit.” Instead, we notice (and love!) the overlap within language arts.
My approach for creating a full year of ELA lesson plans is complex; after teaching for over twenty years, a layered approach helps me to meet standards, spiral learning, and help students.
Pacing Guides
If you need full year ELA lesson plans, you probably want something substantial, a pacing guide. Below, I have labeled material, but, please keep in mind, these labels are not absolutes. You may use these guides (with small adaptations) for a variety of situations and grades.
Here are freshmen materials:
Here are plans for creative writing:
Here are plans for American literature:
Here are plans for grammar:
