I think my brain must work better in panic mode because many of my more creative ELA ideas come to me about 5 minutes before class begins when I have absolutely no plan for the day. I can normally throw something together pretty quickly, but I’ve learned that if I have my panic mode English teacher supplies ready and stored in my classroom, then I can actually act like I have my stuff together without my students (or surprise evaluator) being none the wiser. 🙂
With a little prep time on the front end, these ELA tools and resources will come in handy all year long!
10 ELA Things to Have on Hand:
Alternate Title: 10 ELA teacher must haves to keep you off the HotMess Express 😉
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1. BIG WRITING AREAS FOR ELA GROUP WORK
Whether it’s butcher paper, dry erase boards, or some other BIG surface, having built-in writing areas make off-the-cuff ELA group work a lot easier to implement. Here are a few surfaces and creative ELA ideas I’ve used over the years:
DIY Dry Erase Boards
All I did was take cheap poster frames and turn the poster around to the blank white side. They work SO well for random activities such as game playing stations, brainstorming group boards, poll taking, 4 corner consensus, etc. In this picture of a Serial ELA station activity, you can see that I added some command strip plastic holders under each one for markers and erasers.
BUTCHER PAPER ROLL
I’ve also made giant paper scrolls out of FREE rolls of paper from my local newspaper. Butcher paper or blank newspaper is the perfect English teacher supply to have on hand.You can store it multiple ways, but I was able to suspend it from the ceiling using drop ceiling hooks and a curtain rod. You will need to check your own fire codes before following this tutorial. You can see more of my classroom here: High School Classroom Décor: Semi Flexible Seating in a Secondary ELA Classroom
When you are setting up your room, think of ways to keep big writing areas available for ELA group work! To make it even more handy, use an adhesive wall caddy to hold markers. When you don’t have a plan for the day, you can always do a spur of the moment ELA activity like:
- Word art summaries
- Essential question capture
- 4 Corners with evidence
- Silent debates
- Evidence scavenger hunt
- And lots more!
STICKY NOTES FOR English Teacher Supplies
A simple pack of Post-it notes can get you out of some ~sticky~ situations when it comes to planning a last minute ELA activity. Sticky notes are a must have for English teacher supplies.I recommend buying either cheaper/smaller dupes or the original multi-colored sticky notes in bulk to have on hand for activities such as these:
rEVEAL THE EVIDENCE
Reveal the character trait is an evidenced-based activity you can use over and over again. As you see in this Serial podcast activity, students brainstorm character traits and then write the evidence under each sticky note that reveals this trait. It’s a tactile way to understand indirect characterization and can be thrown together in a pinch with a blank piece of paper and some Post-its.
Weigh the evidence ela activity
The Weigh the Evidence ELA Strategy is an original of mine that I thought of on the fly when I knew my students were on the verge of falling into major zone-out mode during “To Build a Fire.” Gist: Put students into groups. Have them write evidence for something controversial siding one way or the other. Then, have one group member stand up and use their arms as a tippable scale. With each bit of sticky-note evidence that is placed on one arm, it tips to one side. You can then have the scale people come up to the front and consolidate all evidence to one human scale.
SENTENCE COMBINING ACTIVITY
I tried this idea for English teachers after seeing a pin from Runde’s Room. First, I wrote important quotes from The Great Gatsby and put one of the quotes on each group’s work area. Then, students got a sticky note and were told to write the significance of the quote on the sticky note. I stressed that this was silent and independent work. Next, I did a mini lesson on sentence combining (we also looked at some standardized test questions regarding this skill since the EOC was coming up). Lastly, groups practiced sentence combining by discussing all of the answers and combining their answers into one really good consensus.
As you can see from the example, I quickly hand wrote the quotes and printed out this FREE worksheet. When you have teacher must have supplies like this on hand, you can use them for all kinds of ELA lessons!
SORTING CHARACTERS WITH ENGLISH TEACHER SUPPLIES
This ELA idea comes from my coworker and can be adapted in so many ways! Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more English teacher ideas!
MORE ELA STICKY NOTE ACTIVITIES
Sticky notes are definitely Amazon teacher wish list must haves, and you can find even more ways to use sticky notes throughout my blog and others here:
- Literary bar graphs using sticky notes
- Literary gallery walk using sticky notes
- Thought tug of war using sticky notes
HIGHLIGHTERS FOR CLOSE READING OR REVISING
Highlighters are a staple for many of my ELA strategies and a great use of BEP money for those who get a small amount of school funds to spend on your Amazon teacher wishlist. To use highlighters to the fullest, be sure to choose your colors intentionally. I recommend a variety box of pink highlighters, blue highlighters, green highlighters, and yellow highlighters. If you prefer to be completely digital, all of these strategies work with the highlighters in Google Docs or Word as well.Digital highlighters make great FREE English teacher supplies!
When we work on rhetoric, students follow the same color pattern over and over throughout the semester: Pink Pathos, Light Blue Logos, Emerald Green Ethos.
When students self-check their own writing, they use: Turquoise (blue) Thesis, Turquoise Topic, Yellow Your Own Words, Emerald Green Embed Quote, Pink Proof, and Turquoise Tie-back Sentence
When students self-check their own close reading comprehension, have them use a color mixing strategy. This is a fun trick I learned from Ron Walker when he came to do a PD session at my school. Like we learn in Art Class 101, blue + yellow make green. Have students use a yellow highlighter to highlight what they think an answer is in a close reading (such as main idea, context clue, or most relevant supporting detail) and then mentor with the class what the best and most logical answer is and have students highlight that in blue. If they get green by overlapping their own answer (yellow) with the class answer (green), it’s a go! This is a great, practical tip to use for test prep as well!
When students are close reading, have them highlight certain things to look for or note as they read. Examples: “Highlight 3 of the most important lines to summarize and relay to the class” “Highlight 3 of the most interesting lines in the article” “Highlight the claim then how the claim is directly supported.”
My favorite paper saving trick is to pair page protectors with this strategy. First, I use PrintFriendly.com to cut an article down to 2 pages. Next, I print the article double sided. Then, I get my first class of the day to stuff the article into a page protector. Finally, I have students use yellow highlighters to highlight on the page protector, not the paper. This allows students to close read and highlight but also saves paper because after we are finished, they wipe the highlighter marks clean for the next class to use. This tip also works greatwith black, small tip dry erase markers. As you can see in the picture above, you can also cut a page protector down the seam and it will lay open to cover two textbook pages. This helps with close reading activities without making copies! Please note that yellow highlighters and fine tip black dry erase markers are the only colors that wipe off easily with tissue paper or make-up remover pads (or better yet, with the built-in erasers on these).
SOCCER BALL FOR ELA DISCUSSION
Another ELA tool to toss around is my Socratic Seminar Soccer Ball. This is a great ELA strategy to use when you need to think of discussion questions on the fly and can work with ANY text! I especially like to whip this ELA activity out when students are sleepy or fidgety. The act of standing in a circle and tossing the question ball around provides a nice working brain break and no-prep activity. When brainstorming English teacher supplies, add a soccer ball to the list! You can get a FREE copy of the soccer ball question stems here:
TALKING TOOLKIT FOR ELA DISCUSSIONS
Speaking of talking, discussion strategies can be the best low-prep, high-impact ELA activity you will ever do. Having an array of discussion strategies to choose from on the fly will ensure you always have a plan for the day….even when you don’t. I go in-depth with lots of discussion strategies in these posts:
How to host a Socratic Seminar in Secondary ELA
How to Liven Up Your Socratic Seminar and Get Students Talking
And you have everything at the ready with this resource: Socratic Seminar Talking Toolkit for ANY text : Socratic Seminar worksheets
FUNCTIONAL ELA POSTERS
I love classroom aesthetics and think an important part of classroom design should be functional elements that help facilitate strategies, activities, and learning. Think of common ELA strategies you might use and go ahead and display posters that will always be there for when you need them. Once you your English teacher supplies and the initial classroom set up is finished, you can use these permanent displays over and over with no prep! Here are some ideas.
Classroom Corner Posters– Think common 4 corner activities such as “Strongly agree, moderately agree, strongly disagree, moderately disagree”
Station Number Posters – If you love using stations in ELA as much as I do, you may want to make permanent numbered posters and place them around your classroom. That way, students will always know where to rotate next even though the activities at the stations will change. If want to use stations on your very first day of school, check out this popular post: First Day of School Activities for High School and Middle School English
Literary Yoga – Here is something else I always leave hanging up in my room for when I want to quickly do a fun activity for any text. You can read more about it here: 10 Ways to Add Movement in the ELA Classroom or download the station set here: Literary Yoga: Yoga for the English Classroom
Literary Devices – My literary device poster sets can also serve as an ELA reading activity in a pinch. You can quickly review literary devices, give students sticky notes, then have them go on a literary scavenger hunt as they read. They can place the sticky note with the device to show understanding. Though I offer seasonal sets, I recommend my universal black and white set or my nature themed set if you want to leave the same posters up all year long.
CRAFT SUPPLIES FOR ELA ACTIVITIES
Craft supplies belong in secondary classrooms too! As we discuss in our book Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning, magic, whimsy, and play don’t have to end when standards begin. Adding a new and unexpected way to check for understanding can increase engagement as well as the “stickiness” of a concept. Clean out your house and browse thrift stores for English teacher supplies to keep on hand so that you implement last minute activities such as these:
- Bright paper and markers for character valentines or letters to a book
- Old books for get-to-know you activities and blackout poetry
- Construction paper and scraps of fabric for finger puppet plays
- Play-doh and other random supplies for DIY microcosms
- Random props for putting on mini plays for any text
- And lots more! I usually find that if I have random craft supplies on hand, the ELA ideas will come!
ELA STUFF TO HAVE ON HAND
There are certain ELA resources that require little prep and can be used with any text which makes them perfect to have on hand when you don’t have a plan. Here are some tried and true ELA activities that will have you covered:
Literary playlist for any character – This is a fun activity you can use over and over again. Students love music and brainstorming the perfect song for characterization.
ELA Charts – There are so many fun things you can do with charting ELA elements! As you can see in this post, the possibilities are endless! Read it here: Literary Charts: Interdisciplinary ELA Activities or get your set ready here: Literary Charts: Engaging ELA Activities for ANY TEXT
Act it out assignment – These task cards work especially well when you are reading a play and have no specific activity to do. Simply find a key part in the section you are reading that day, and assign it as silent reading. Then put students into groups of 5 and let them quickly put together a mini play for that section. They must work together to both comprehend and pare down the lines then act it out around 25 minutes later. The group with the most correct and creative interpretation wins. I am always so amazed at what they can come up with in such a short amount of time!!
Critical Lenses – These are super fun. You can use them with ANY fiction text, and it really helps students to think about the different lenses in which we can view literature.
WRITING ENGLISH TEACHER SUPPLIES
Most of this post has been about no-prep reading strategies, but I want to end with my favorite writing resources to have on hand throughout the entire year. Not only will these go-to ELA writing resources save your prep time, but they will also save you grading time which is what every English teacher needs!
Group essays – Even if you don’t plan on counting this activity as an essay grade, the strategy itself is PERFECT for last minute ELA plans because it requires little to no prep, is competitive and engaging, and provides essential writing practice. Read all about the writing magic here: Group Essays: Slash your grading stack with this collaborative essay hack!
Revision Stations – I will never grade another essay unless it’s been through these station steps. They are that effective. You can read more about them here and here: Essay revision stations
Fast Feedback System – This will change your life. If you don’t believe me, read through the 500+ 5 star reviews. 🙂 This system does take a minute to set up, once you do, it will cut HOURS from your grading time. Like the functional posters I mention above, you can create a display that students can access all year long. Or, I have a digital version that you can put in your LMS. You can read all about the system here: 5 Essay Grading Tips for Grading Essays Faster and More Efficiently or download everything you need here: Fast and Focused Feedback: Grade essays faster and provide focused feedback
PRIZES FOR ELA GAMES
I like to keep a bucket full of weird and wonderful prizes that even my high school students get a kick out of. My favorite place to get prizes is in the party favor section of Walmart. I keep this bucket hidden in my cabinet and then pull it out for fun, no prep ELA games that I mention throughout my Secondary ELA blog. You can browse them here:
Vocabulary games for middle school and high school
Interactive Middle School ELA Games for Grammar and Literacy
Meaningful and Fun Activities for Teaching Beowulf
10 Ways to Add Movement in the ELA Classroom
Activities to help bring Emerson and Thoreau to Life!
Ideas for Your Great Gatsby Classroom Party
Admittedly, buying all of these English teacher supplies would most likely cost more than your BEP allotment (if you get one). If your district allows you to make a wish lists and ask for funding, I recommend creating an Amazon Teacher Wish List and TpT Class Fund to share with your community.If not, start out with just a few of these teacher must have supplies and build your stock up over time.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope that a few of these ideas help you to have a little less stressful school year! 🙂 xoxo Ashley
