37 Resources English Language Arts Teachers Use to Help Students Learn

Not every English teacher will end up on a daily news show like Grammy award winner J. Ivy's high school English teacher Paula Argue. Nevertheless, every English teacher can inspire their students to discover the joys of writing, speaking, listening and reading which can lead to personal fulfillment, and in many instances, career success. 

English Language Arts provides students with a wide range of skills and knowledge essential for success in school and beyond. It helps students develop essential skills such as critical thinking, effective communication, and personal growth, which are necessary for success in many areas of life. English Language Arts teachers enrolled with Rutgers Alternate Route are committed to ensuring that their students reap the full benefits of studying this important subject area and take their roles as literacy ambassadors seriously. They are sharing their go-to resources for planning great lessons and enhancing their teaching for their ELA students.


Actively Learn 
Actively Learn is a site similar to Achieve3000. It is a great resource to use for supplemental articles and stories but has whole curriculum units by grade level. Articles/stories come with questions. You can also search by genre (stories, poems, videos, informational, etc.) and is a great resource for not only ELA but social studies and science.(Searles M, 6-8) 


Black Educators Matters 
Black Education Matters is a resource hub featuring books, authors, activities and other curriculum materials designed to affirm and inspire Black youth, educate ) educators and diversify the curriculum. (Searles M, 6-8)


Brainpop 
Brainpop has both videos and resources that help multiple subjects showcase different content lessons. (Shannon M, K-5) 


Britannica 
Valuable teaching and student research resource for the Old Testament, General Info related to Judaism and anti-Semitism. (Robert N, 9-12) 

College Board  
College Board is my go-to site for English instructional resources. They offer a wide variety of resources that help teachers make lessons more targeted with specific emphasis being put placed on skills in specific areas. (Joshua B, 9-12) 


CommonLit 
Interesting and relevant articles that teachers can assign their students using Google Classroom. It covers important aspects of comprehension, vocabulary, analysis and writing sections. (Fidaa A, K-5) 

Offers a variety of literary and informational text options with multiple choice and OEQs that match the style they will see in standardized testing. (Tyler B, 9-12) 

A large library of readings (with questions) on all subjects, and at all levels. (Joseph B, 9-12) 

It offers an incredibly wide range of passages and assessments that one can use in order to guide classroom instruction. When I have personally exhausted my well of ideas, I always turn to this site if I need material to cover an entire lesson, an intro, or a closing. (Vijay B, 9-12) 

This site offers reading passages and questions (both multiple-choice and open-ended) that align with state testing.  I can also assign guided reading questions to make sure students are on the right track as they read the passage. (Jennifer H, 6-8) 

This site suggests pieces of writing to pair with the book you reading, as well as at what point in the book you should introduce it and how you should use it to connect to the book. (Meghan J, 9-12) 

Provides both articles and literary texts in a wide variety of eras, genres and subjects. It also has integrated questions (including open-ended) that can serve as an easy post-reading assessment. (Ed M, 9-12) 

Common Lit is my go-to for an emergency or even a planned absence. There are countless stories and poems on this site all with guided reading and analysis questions all designed to take the student through the piece step by step. It is perfect for when the teacher is going to be out. (Anthony R, 9-12) 


Crossword Labs 
This website allows you to help students learn and enhance their vocabulary in fun ways by creating free crossword puzzles. (Briana M, 9-12) 


Differentiated Instruction 
Helps teachers find ways to differentiate instruction. (Jessica W, 6-8) 


Digital Commons Montclair New Jersey English Journal 
The site gives a lot of information on what's not working in English classrooms, but also shows you what is, and gives you examples of how to implement these ideas. (Meghan J, 9-12) 


Edutech for Teachers 
Various blogs and links for lesson resources/templates. Great to keep up with the latest in classroom strategies and ways to keep students engaged. Great tips for holiday ideas for the classroom. Just a fun and interactive way to see what other education professionals are doing in their classrooms. (Shakema G, 6-8) 


Edutopia 
offers methods and strategies for engaging students in learning. (David H, 9-12) 

This site is beneficial because it has many nonfiction texts for scholars to read. These texts can be used as current event articles and can also be broken up based on different Lexile levels. Questions are also attached to provide students. (Rashidah M, K-5) 


EdPuzzle 
Helps create video lessons with attached questions.  Great for giving students independent work / assessing their knowledge of key concepts. (Gabriel S, 9-12) 


ExtraCredits 
While their focus is on history and their channel origin lies in game theory, this channel also includes > 10-minute introductions "So You Haven't Read" for famous stories. Their videos are light-hearted (mostly) animated, and fully researched and I have used them before to introduce stories or provide snippets of history to supplement historical novels instead of a lecture. (There are other similar history/literature channels I watch for my own edification, but they are either more complex or too informal in tone.) (Ed M, 9-12) 


Flocabulary 
This has videos done in a hip-hop nature that will entice the students to listen and absorb different ELA concepts. It also has wonderful lessons that the students can be assigned to reinforce taught concepts. (Shannon M, K-5)


Folger Shakespeare Library 
Excellent resources for teaching Shakespeare. I used it a lot when teaching Julius Caesar last year. Includes actual lessons that make Shakespeare relevant to students today. (Jill B, 6-8) 


Garden of English 
This site provides great resources, video, and worksheets to help develop students' ELA skills (Chris O, 9-12)  


Illuminate Education  
Creates multiple-choice scantrons that allow you to grade students' work by just taking a picture of the sheet. The website literally grades the exams for you which is a lifesaver. It also tracks and students' progress and production and highlights any areas of concern. (Joshua B, 9-12) 


IXL 
This site offers students practice in comprehensive grammar, reading, and writing skills for various grade levels.  I can assign a student a topic from a lower grade if they are struggling with a topic on grade level. (Shakema G, 6-8) 

IXL is a personalized learning tool that provides unlimited assessments in various subjects. I use it for English and Language Arts. It adjusts to each student, providing more difficult work for those who need it or easier skills for those who need it. It has a real-time diagnostic of skills as well and teachers can assign skills and tasks to individual students or whole classes. (Ijeoma O, K-5, 6-8) 


Kahoot! 
This is specifically a site that I use for assessment and test prep. If I am going to give a test or quiz, this is a great resource to create fun and engaging quizzes that students can use to prepare. (Vijay B, 9-12) 


Mackinvia 
My school district allows us to have access to this website. It allows students to access e-books and audiobooks, which can help with various learning modalities. (Gay B, 9-12) 


National Council of Teachers of English 
Includes information on conferences and other PD but also a ton of resources on how to teach specific English content. (Jill B, 6-8) 


Nearpod 
The website provides lessons, presentations, and interactive media. You can select these resources based on your grade level and subject matter! A great place to streamline teaching tools and programs all within one file. (Joseph B, 9-12) 


NewsELA 
Encourages literacy across the curriculum. (David H, 9-12) 

This website has many news articles relevant to this current era, and the articles can come with reading comprehension questions and writing prompts. (Julie S, K-5;6-8) 


No Red Ink 
Excellent tool for individualized writing instruction that offers diagnostics with real-time data feedback. (Tyler B, 9-12) 


Project Gutenberg 
This website allows students to have access to thousands of classical works of literature for free. It is a great website because it provides kids with free ebooks and allows students to use their phones and mobile devices in order to get them to actively engage in reading. (Briana M, 9-12) 


ReadWorks 
Provides prewritten works focused on science, social studies and the arts.  Articles can be assigned to students. The site provides an "article of the day" feature with pre-curated text sets to assign to students. (Leigh D, 6-8) 


Resilient Educator 
This is mainly for teacher self-care and career information that is essential in getting through the lifestyle of teaching. (Amanda C, 6-8) 


Scholastic Education Solutions 
This website offers book clubs and many professional development opportunities for teachers. (Kenneth B, 6-8)


Scholastic Teachables 
This website has many printable resources, lesson plans, learning plans and worksheets available for many grades. (Julie S, K-5;6-8) 


Strategies Explained in Detail 
This link explains how to implement differentiated instruction through a step-by-step process. (Jessica W, 6-8)


Study.com 
Easy access to supplemental lesson plans. For ELA, this site helped me to supplement lesson plans for differentiated learning. There were students who were having a hard time with certain books and this website had videos and mini-lessons that helped students understand various concepts. Great website for supplemental lessons/resources. (Shakema G, 6-8)

Teachers Pay Teachers 
This website has comprehensive lesson plans for many disciplines designed by teachers themselves. (Kenneth B, 6-8) 

When browsing you may find something that fits perfectly for what you are planning or you may see something that sparks an idea to create something of your own. The great thing about this site is that it can benefit any content area and if you do end up purchasing something it goes to support other teachers. Also if a lesson works perfectly for you you may want to put it up on the site! (Anthony R, 9-12) 

This site provides teachers with resources and activity materials on a variety of topics and subjects. Includes presentations, group activities, seminars, quizzes, tests, projects, etc. (Megan T, 9-12) 


Teacher Vision 
Activity ideas, interdisciplinary concept ideas. (Amanda C, 6-8) 


TedEd 
The instruction videos on TedEd offer a condensed overview of many topics that are bite-sized and perfect to introduce a topic or reinforce an idea from a previous lesson. (Mia S, K-5;6-8) 


US Holocaust Memorial Museum 
A valuable resource for teaching content related to Judaism, anti-Semitism, and WWII. (Robert N, 9-12) 


Quill 
Quill provides students with strong diagnostics and then personalized grammar work based on their needs. (Chris O, 9-12) 


Quizizz 
Teachers can assign quizzes. (Ed M, 9-12)

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