28 Peer-Recommended Online Resources for English Teachers

New Jersey Alternate Route candidates specializing in English language arts education recently recommended free web resources that they’ve consulted when preparing lessons and engaging, relevant activities for students. Their suggested resources are a part of our blog series featuring go-to-websites, blogs, and other online teaching tools for helping our state’s youth achieve the NJ Student Learning Standards. More than 300 teachers participated in this professional swap and share, with many contributing lesser-known resources that even seasoned educators will be excited to discover.  Read why our English language arts educators love the resources they recommend.  
 

ActivelyLearn

"Lots of readings, videos, quizzes for the ELA curriculum."
-Brian D., Grades 9-12

Annenberg Learner

"PD videos/articles  which are subject based. Also, includes workshop ideas for classes and class activities."
-John D., Grades 6-8

Beat by Beat Press

"This site is technically a resource of drama games for kids; however, the majority of these can be used effectively in many different Elementary subject areas."
-Salvatore R., Grades K-5
 

BrainPOP

"Provides animated movies of lessons, with quizzes and other related materials such as games, graphic organizers, etc."
-Jenny-Ley J., Grades K-5

"This may be a well-known site, but I love the video mini-lesson and interactive activities that follow the video. My students always find these videos funny and actually enjoy completing most of the activities that I assign them for extra practice with topics like writing with descriptions or fact vs. opinion, summarizing, etc."
-Nicole M., Grades K-5

Brave New Teaching

"Brave New Teaching is a podcast which cultivates teacher community and also offers resources for content development and professional learning."
-Arielle B., Grades 6-8

"Most notably, the site has a podcast hosted by two veteran high school ELA teachers, who discuss all things ELA--texts selection, curriculum, instructional trends and techniques, etc. Extremely engaging and immediately useful content."
-Breanne L., Grades 9-12

Common Lit

"This website allows scholars to read passages and answer questions after that are based on the standards being taught that day and the grade level and Lexile reading level they are on."
-Raven C., Grades 6-8

"I love how many different stories, essays and articles you have access to for a variety of grade and reading levels, as well as the fact that you can add guided questions - which force students to stop and think about the text - to any assignment." 
-Andrew G., Grades 6-8

"Common Lit has grade appropriate reading options, the ability to have the article read to the students, appropriate questions, and an easy way to track your students for each class for how they're doing.  They just added lessons and units as well.  There is an annotation tool for while the students are reading and guided reading questions you can assign to ensure that your students are understanding the text as they are reading.  In addition, there is a great notes section defining challenging terms.  Lastly, it's great for ELL because you can also translate the articles into various languages with the click of a button."
-Lisa G., Grades 6-8

"Allows assessment of reading. Class gets an article assigned and then a quiz directly after. This is beneficial to understanding where students are in reading comprehension since the questions are based on the text."
-Angela J., Grades 6-8

"Free source of reading collections grouped by theme, grade level, and genre. Easy to download PDFs of short stories and essays that come complete with glossaries, annotations, discussion questions, and essay prompts."
-David Rieth, Grades 6-12

Crash Course Literature 

"Crash course is phenomenal. Videos focus on particular novels and provide immense background knowledge, context, summary and analysis. The presenter mixes in jokes and anecdotes which are designed to target high school aged students. There are videos for an amazing variety of works of literature."
-Jesse Whalen, Grades 9-12

Cult of Pedagogy 

"This blog has some best practices for extremely creative assignments that can be used in the classroom and contains some free resources that teachers can use as well."
-Samantha F., Grades 9-12

The Educator Collaborative

"Specifically, I read the blog on this site from time to time. Publication seems to have hit a lull of late, but there's a great repository of posts here on instructional practices for reading and writing."
-Christopher M., Grades 9-12

Ereading Worksheets

"This site features short activities tailored to individual grade levels for English fundamentals."
-Michelle F., Grades 6-12

"Ereading Worksheets offers activities and worksheets that target specific skill sets in ELA by grade level that you can use in the classroom for additional practice and support."
-Haneefah M., Grades 4-8

Excelsior Online Writing Lab

"This site provides annotated essay examples of many different writing styles. Can help with modeling the writing process."
-Christopher S., Grades 9-12

Flocabulary 

"The site's benefits are videos, games, read and response, and quizzes that help students learn different standards. This site can also be used for other subjects such as Math, Science, Social Studies and etc."
-Tyika W., Grades 6-8

IXL

"I use this for students who are having issues with specific content strategies. The topics are broken down by title, as in "figurative language" or "context clues" to help give additional practice and support. It makes it easier than constantly having a teacher made resource."
-Salwa S., Grades 6-8

Kahoot!

"Kahoot provides a fun platform to create quizzes and games for students to play. This helps make review fun and adds a competitive edge to content."
-Kyle W., Grades 9-12

The Literacy Shed

"The Literacy Shed allows teachers to explore different genres and topics within literature. The website also has a 'book of the week' category which helps teachers stay abreast of new releases."
-Jennifer Winkler, Grades 9-12

Literacy Today

"This site contains teacher inspired content to help ELA teachers. It has information for planning mini-lessons, conferencing, writers' notebooks, and more!"
-Brenna D., Grades 6-8

Minds in Bloom

"The site is run by only two educators.  So much of their advice is anecdotal, and I found that they had specific, practical advice that any teacher could quickly adapt into their own lesson. For example, I linked to a post on Socratic seminars that I found straightforward and leaves flexibility for a teacher to add their own style and adjust for their students."
-John M., Grades 9-12

Mondays Made Easy

"This is another site dedicated to ELA lessons and assignments.  The site helps teachers by providing ideas for assessments, project-based learning, creative writing, annotation, and a slew of other activities.  The frequently updated blogs also include methods of classroom management and ways to focus on student well-being.  An excellent resource for ELA teachers who want to bring something a little different into the classroom."
-Michael S., Grades 6-8

National Council of Teachers of English 

"NCTE is a great resource for English Teachers to find lesson plans, journals, blogs and more to use in the classroom, or to help you learn more as a teacher and improve. The website also provides ways to get in touch with other English teachers and share stories."
-Kiersten C., Grades 9-12

Nearpod

"A very helpful tool. Created lessons for you as a new teacher. Students can log onto the lesson and follow along and interact with you."
-Cassandra P., Grades 6-8

New EdTech Classroom

:Clear, step-by-step instruction for using digital platforms in the classroom. This was a big help to me last year when half of my students were online."
-Natasha C., Grades 9-12

Newsela 

"Provides information articles on all sorts of topics, and even lets you adjust the reading level of each article to better allow for differentiation. Also includes multiple-choice and short-answer questions after each article."
-Joshua B., Grades 9-12

NoRedInk

"Provides lessons and quizzes for students to improve their writing skills."
-Brianna B., Grades 9-12

"Allows teachers to create writing and grammar assignments and score them online; useful to reinforce skills and create short writing prompts." 
-Fremio S., Grades 9-12

PBS Learning Media

"This site contains interactive lessons for students."
-July Torres, Grades K-5

Purdue Online Writing Lab 

"Purdue's OWL site has up-to-date MLA and APA formatting and style guides. It also has writing exercises."
-Orrieann F., Grades 9-12

"The site offers MLA and APA help, grammar questions and answers at your fingertips, and a one stop shop for teachers and students of writing."
-Melissa P., Grades 9-12

Quill

"This site is meant for you to have your students practice their grammar. It will have you assign them a diagnostic that will test their skills and create a path for them. And it is free."
-Robert J., Grades 9-12

"Quill helps students gain editing skills by proofreading passages, practicing grammar skills through short interactive activities and advancing student writing through practice. This can be used throughout the year and also over summer months."
-Rachel R., Grades 9-12

Reading A-Z

This site has leveled reading resources and more broken down by categories and learning skills.
-Andrew R., Grades 6-8

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