English Language Arts Grades 10-12

Tackle a complex topic with a relatable analogy. The author compares reading a text to the ways we visualize, predict, and analyze shows on Netflix.

This slide show offers self-paced PD to help educators navigate text selection, classroom discussion, and assignment pairing with Indigenous Texts.

An annotated book list featuring recommended Indigenous titles for students in our local (Albertan) context.

12 strategies to enrich your ELA classroom, maintain rigor, and motivate students to challenge themselves.

A 2023 article about metacognitive styles and how different thinkers may approach texts. An engaging mentor-text for your students and perhaps an informative read for your professional reflection.

Help students to comprehend, retain, and evaluate meaning. This blog offers active reading suggestions in the context of secondary ELA with specific examples for different text types.

An open access textbook on children's literature hosted by Scholar Commons at the University of South Florida. Children's literature is written for children and youth, but the analysis of children's literature requires careful attention to text as well insightful interpretation of the ways in which authors and illustrators present the human condition, the physical world, imaginative experiences, and global forces.

Do you have the right to read anything and everything? Explore these concepts along with the Pico v. Island Trees School District (1982), a US Supreme Court case, which established that books cannot be removed from schools simply because people disagree with the ideas within them or find them offensive.

NYT editorial staff — all former teachers — have created over 700 Lesson of the Day materials, all based on Times articles chosen from across sections of the paper, and all free to students around the world.

This post with advice for text selection and curation in a secondary classroom is a valuable read to help teachers ensure that they are providing positive, authentic, and diverse representation of LGBTQ+ books, authors, and characters in the classroom.

Help students understand the metacognitive skills involved in writing essays and interpreting literature.

What trials unite not only Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins but many of literature's most interesting heroes? And what do ordinary people have in common with these literary heroes? Matthew Winkler takes us step-by-step through the crucial events that make or break a hero.

Get inspired to choose a new novel study or validate your existing choices. A veteran teacher shares the 6 most impactful novel studies in her high school ELA classroom, the rationale for teaching them, and ideas for lesson activities and paired texts.

Scroll to the bottom of this post for modern novel recommendations to pair with the classics you already teach.

You can’t read everything and sometimes it is comforting to stick with familiar units and genres because you know exactly what to expect. Take a chance on these modern options, including YA romance, Sci Fic, graphic memoirs, and books written in verse.

A list of strategies to guide meaningful high school book club discussion in any text, with specific prompts for literary nonfiction. Get the conversation started!

This interactive web resource is designed to assist educators with weaving Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing into their teaching and learning, starting with story.

Add books with authentic and meaningful LGBTQ+ representation in your classroom library with these tips to navigate text selection, classroom circulation, promotion of diversity, and student reflection.

Laura Randazzo explains how to leverage reader’s theatre in older classrooms in an engaging, purposeful, and impactful way.

In which John Green teaches you about Charlotte Brontë's classic coming of age novel, Jane Eyre.

The final episode of CC Literature season 4 is a deeper look at Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Today we'll explore the novel's take on materialism, and we'll talk about whether the novel has a liberal or conservative message.

John will cover the rich symbolism of the novel, from the distant green light to the pale gold of wealth and decay.

This week, John i s talking about one of his least favorite novels, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Lord of the Flies is a novel of ideas, and John doesn't agree with the central idea of the novel, which diminished his enjoyment of the book.

John Green talks about Pride and Prejudice as a product of Regency England, gives you a short biographical look at author Jane Austen, and familiarizes you with the web of human connections this book spins.

An exploration of the themes in Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" novel

An overview of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" novel and how it was received.

In this installment, John looks into the titular Gatsby's purported Greatness. Gatsby's single-minded pursuit of Daisy, his checkered past, and his checkered present all play a role in determining whether he was, in fact, great.

Frankenbook, a collaborative reading experiment, lets readers interact in unusual ways the novel, Frankenstein, which explores the moral implications of science and technology. Readers can scroll through Shelley's original 1818 text with clickable annotations written by experts from a variety of fields as well as watch animated videos that bring selected annotations to life. Readers can create a free account to reply to annotations and submit their own to spark discussion.

This exhibition looks at the world from which Mary Shelley came, at how popular culture has embraced the Frankenstein story, and at how Shelley's creation continues to illuminate the blurred, uncertain boundaries of what we consider "acceptable" science.

Obooko provides free and copyright cleared access to free books including teen and YA non-fiction, sci-fi, short stories and more!

What is a dystopia? The genre of dystopia has captured the imaginations of artists and audiences since Jonathan Swift. This video explains how dystopias act as cautionary tales – not about some particular government or technology, but the very idea that humanity can be molded into an ideal shape.

Using reading sprints in class on a regular basis helps build up student reading stamina and is a great way to reinforce skills and standards.

If you are looking to update your short story game to be more inclusive and modern, take a look at the recommendations for these diverse anthologies.

Find a fresh way to look at short stories in class by browsing through this list of ideas by the University of Iowa.

Explore the benefits of short stories, ideas for when and how to use them, and tips for best-fit story selection.

Craft a tasting menu of perfectly paired short stories with tips, specific examples, and strategies to avoid a disjointed short story unit experience.

In need of some recommendations? Here is a list of Canadian plays with accompanying teaching themes.

A list of Canadian playwrights and their websites. Let your students explore the people behind modern works and learn about working playwrights. Please note that we cannot control if the links on that list have lapsed.

This video is the first in a 49 episode series exploring the history of theater from Greek origins, to Shakespeare, Broadway. Crash Course offers excellent background theory in a visually engaging way.

A ten step method to conducting dramatic analysis in the classroom. This teacher is upbeat and succinct.

Teach the elements of drama with visual and auditory cues to help students understand dramatic analysis.

Teach students the steps to analysing plays for tests and essays with this animated video that outlines 4 simples steps to tackling dramatic texts.

This teacher enunciates clearly and offers examples from a Shakespearian play as well as a Canadian contemporary drama while explaining key terms with examples.

Playwrights Canada Press offers a list of suggestions to incorporate Indigenous plays and playwrights in your curriculum. Note that many have mature themes.

Stories to enjoy when you have five minutes to spare, grouped by category to suit your mood.

Download 20 popular high school books available as free ebooks & audio books

A great resource for poems and related resources on a huge array of topics.

Over 50 great poems perfect to read in middle school, high school, and beyond...

We recommend these stories for high school students based on their literary significance and to deepen student appreciation for the short story genre.

We offer an encore short story collection to Short Stories for High School. Teachers and students alike will enjoy reading these stories to stimulate meaningful classroom discussions.

Here is a collection of the New York Times’ favorite “bell ringers,” “do nows” and “hooks” to grab students’ attention, along with examples from dozens of New York Times’s daily lessons.

This English 20 video uses examples from the Great Gatsby to teach close reading essays.

NYT editorial staff — all former teachers — have created over 700 Lesson of the Day materials, all based on Times articles chosen from across sections of the paper, and all free to students around the world.

Pair this with any nonfiction text to get students to dig deeper, consider new vocabulary, and make connections.