27 Resources English Language Arts Teachers Use to Inspire Reading and Writing

English language arts teachers use a variety of instructional resources to strengthen students' reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills. 

From lesson planning and literacy strategies to vocabulary development, literary analysis, and creative writing, digital tools and professional resources help educators design engaging, standards-aligned instruction. 

These resources also support differentiated learning, encourage student collaboration, and provide fresh ideas for making literature and writing meaningful for learners at every level. Our English language arts teachers recommended the following resources to support effective instruction and student success in the Rutgers Alternate Route program.


Classwize 
Teacher Name: Stefani Leonard 
Grade: 9-12

"Classwize helps me monitor student screens during independent work. I can lock their browsers, temporarily pause their Wi-Fi connection, open a new tab for them, and more. Essentially, this helps me keep all students on track, even in their digital world."
 

Cult of Pedagogy
Teacher Name: Alice Mako
Grade: 6-8

"Offers researched, nuanced takes on teaching skills, especially for reading and writing."

Depth of Knowledge Levels
Teacher Name: Kelly Steenstra
Grade: 9-12

"This is a chart that my mentor introduced to me, and I have found it very helpful as I prepare each lesson and what it is that each student needs to be able to do or get out of each lesson, especially at the high school level where students are thinking more deeply."
 

Facing History and Ourselves 
Teacher Name: Lori Horton
Grade: 9-12

"The resources are excellent for teachers who (like me!) are teaching texts on difficult topics–some historical and others that touch upon challenges we are facing as a global society today. It is wonderful support and much needed, providing background, language, and materials to help support the diversity of students in accessing literature."

Gynzy
Teacher Name: Tristan Laferriere
Grade: 6-8

"Gynzy is very helpful in that it acts as a sort of "hub" for teachers to implement in their classroom management plans. I have used it extensively for creating seating charts for my classes and it allows you to organize your charts with visuals and student names that are easy to create. It also has advanced tools such as a "noise stoplight" to control classroom volume that has been quite helpful for teachers in my school."
 

James Madison University - Scholarly Commons
Teacher Name: Brandon Scott
Grade: 9-12

"This site contains a number of valuable resources, including a "How to Teach Hamlet" guide I found very inspiring."
 

Literary Devices
Teacher Name: Dominick Marconi
Grade: 9-12

"While this website is filled with ads, some of which may slow down PCs, it contains an easily accessible and readable list of literary devices. It is fairly thorough."

Masterclass
Teacher Name: Sophia Baratti
Grade: 9-12

"I was actually gifted this membership by someone for unrelated reasons, and while I don't use it so much outside of my own interests, it's proven very helpful when I need to narrow down content. When you talk about subjects you know like the back of your hand, sometimes it's difficult to explain these concepts - it's like teaching someone how to breathe. They do a really great job of breaking down genres and stories in a way that can be explained, without getting bogged down on finer details that I've come to learn as someone who finds this sort of thing interesting outside of the classroom."

NJ Department of Education
Teacher Name: Khary Golden
Grade: 9-12

"I know it might sound cheesy or stereotypical, but the Department of ed really is the go-to for resources. Take it straight from the horse's mouth, particularly when it comes to lesson standards. The state sets the bar, so it's best to skip the middleman and find out exactly how the Department of Ed sees things in regard to proficiency."
 

NoRedInk
Teacher Name: Zarreah Jones
Grade: K-5; 6-8

"It is an interactive writing and grammar platform that helps students strengthen their language skills through personalized, adaptive practice. Teachers can assign specific skills, track student progress, and view data reports to identify learning gaps. Teachers can assign specific skills, track student progress, and view data reports to identify learning gaps. NoRedInk supports standards-based instruction and scaffolds students’ growth from sentence-level writing to full essays."

NotebookLM (from Google)
Teacher Name: Lucas Smith
Grade: 6-8

"Based on Gemini, their Large Language Model tool, NotebookLM has the benefit of only sourcing its insights from the material that you upload. Because it's a closed system, example use cases include getting insights and connections from a set of student essays or generating comprehension questions about a set of short stories."

NPR
Teacher Name: Naim Ali-Pacheco
Grade: 9-12

"Provides high-quality, real-world audio and news stories that build students’ critical thinking, listening skills, and background knowledge."

NY Times - The Learning Network
Teacher Name: Carlana Romalino
Grade: 6-8

"I use this for student-written examples of argumentative writing. They had a student contest, and I picked some of those student-written pieces from across the country as examples of excellent writing."
 

Odell HS Literacy - Open-Up Resources
Teacher Name: Brandon Scott 
Grade: 9-12

"This site was very helpful to me in understanding how the critical lenses detailed in my school's curriculum could be applied to teaching Hamlet."

PBIS World
Teacher Name: Kelly Steenstra
Grade: 9-12

"This is a site that has given me practical ideas of how to handle different kinds of misbehavior in the classroom."

Poetry Foundation
Teacher Name: Dominick Marconi
Grade: 9-12

"This site has clear reading access for free without paywalls for many classic and modern poems. Also, it contains biographies for authors, events and programs, and other things instructors may find useful for building a student's interest and skills in poetry."

ReadWorks
Teacher Name: Khary Golden
Grade: 9-12

"ReadWorks provides some really dynamic lesson planning tools that are really relatable and relevant for my tenth-grade sophomores, particularly in the areas of writing and revision, which is something I am currently focusing on as we transition from the first marking period into the second marking period."
 

RPG Classroom
Teacher Name: Benjamin Evans
Grade: 6-8
Website: RPG Classroom 
Description: I've always had a fascination with using role-playing games as a means of learning, and this website has tools for teachers to start using role-playing games in their curriculum.

Schoology 
Teacher Name: Nuri Castlewood
Grade: 6-8

"I use this site to post all my assignments for students, especially when I'm absent or the copy machine is down."
 

Studiobinder
Teacher Name: Sophia Baratti
Grade: 9-12

"Studiobinder, while more geared towards filmmaking, really encapsulates genres and describes story elements in a very simplistic manner in a way that has helped me so much, especially with my freshmen, who are just starting with those elements. Their videos breaking down genres and types of stories have been instrumental, and the students respond to them very well."
 

Ted Ed 
Teacher Name: Noah Gugliotta
Grade: 6-8

"This site is amazing for supplemental materials and lessons. For example, information on Edgar Allan Poe helped us teach students about his stories and about him as a person."
 

The Daily Cafe - The Daily 5
Teacher Name: Paige Crain
Grade: 6-8

"The Daily 5 can be used in Middle School as independent literacy time in class."
 

The Structured Writing Teacher
Teacher Name: Emilia Kudelko
Grade: 6-8

"This writer's workshop was created by a children's book author and veteran ELA teacher. Her account includes her podcast episodes, how-tos for teaching ELA, and skills/advice for the ELA classroom. I always say other teachers are the best resource to strengthen your teaching, and this site answers 99% of an ELA teacher's questions and concerns (more specifically upper elementary and middle school). She offers a writer's workshop model and explains it in detail, how to help students in multiple ELA areas, and unique reading/writing techniques to keep students engaged while learning."
 

The Teacher's Guide
Teacher Name: Jannier Walker
Grade: 9-12

"It provides worksheets and lesson plans by grade and subject area."
 

Vermont Agency of Education 
Teacher Name: Lori Horton
Grade: 9-12

"This is not an extensive resource, but it did specifically address PBL, ELA, and Interdisciplinary lesson planning. There were two nice planners linked from the document, and it led to me researching/looking for high school-specific PBL ideas. CommonLit is another source that I am using as a resource since my school purchases our curriculum from CommonLit."

Vocab
Teacher Name: Maeve Riley
Grade: 9-12

"This site creates lists for vocabulary that gamifies learning, creates flashcards, and develops assignments and tests to make assigning vocab substantially less time-consuming."

We Are Teachers
Teacher Name: Lucas Smith
Grade: 6-8

"I find this to be a fun resource to check out when I'm looking for inspiration about lesson planning or designing classroom activities. I recently adapted some of their material about close reading for a lesson, and it proved quite useful."

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