Free High School English Language Arts Activities

These seven SEL activities for high school students are based on CASEL's core SEL competencies. Help your students become independent and meaningful contributors to society

School's back in session, which means it's time for a fresh batch of writing prompts for the new year. Have your high school or middle school students try these Back-to-School prompts this fall.

Looking to include ELA instruction in your social studies classroom? This Mayan pyramids vs. Egyptian pyramids lesson plan idea has students discuss the similarities and differences between the two types of structures through writing an essay.

No matter what your middle school or high school class is reading, these writing prompts about love will get them ready for Valentine's Day.

Introduce students to Black innovators with these Black History Month writing prompts and guide them into a particular type of text, such as personal narrative, informative, or persuasive.

Get your ELA class into the spirit with these fun Halloween activities for middle school and high school students, and learn from a few masters of horror how to really make those spines tingle and those bones shake.

Writing for television is certainly one of the more collaborative forms of writing. But collaboration is only the first step of the process, since the goal of The Writers Room is for writers to come away with an episodic assignment to complete.

Have your students explore the exciting world of TV writing with a free lesson plan and insights from producer, writer, and Carmen Sandiego showrunner Duane Capizzi.

Though the characters in these stories face challenges and obstacles, they never stop trying to do the right thing.

These stories will probably stick with you the rest of your life—the characters and what they experience are just that unforgettable!

Dystopian novels—often set in the future—depict undesirable or frightening societies where the citizens suffer from restrictions and/or injustices.

Teach your students how to write a rap with Dr. Chris Emdin using this rap lesson plan, complete with a writing template, rubric, and teacher guide.

Though we may sometimes have differences of opinion with our friends or family members, they are often the ones we rely on to see us through difficult times.

Graphic novels are hugely popular with readers of all ages. They capture our attention and keep us turning pages compulsively.

This week’s suggested titles all fall into the nonfiction category, but they are anything but dull! If you like learning about real people and the real world, these are for you.

Escaping our own reality by diving into a fantastical world can be an exciting adventure and a therapeutic release.

When books are so engaging, filmmakers inevitably want to try adapting them for the big screen. Notice the changes they have made or have had to make as you read and watch.

Download a free Social Studies lesson plan and student activity about Native American Oral History on the Oregon Trail.

Visit Mars, tour the galaxy, and befriend curious species in this week’s great summer reads.

Have high schoolers find inspiration for stories in everyday objects or events and craft advice columns with these downloadable activities for at-home learning.

Help students in Grades 3–12 tap into what they're feeling with an informal writing activity.

Students will learn from reading diary entries written on the Oregon Trail how such writings preserve history and bring the past to life.

High schoolers can sharpen their writing skills with activities including a reflective essay on the past school year and a playlist for a book they read.

For this week's activities, students can create a how-to video, use research to defend their stance on an issue, and respond to summer writing prompts.

With these downloadable activities, high schoolers will memorize and recite a poem, take notes as they read a novel, and memorialize a book in memes.

Have your students explore haiku, analyze a podcast, and practice identifying literary terms with these downloadable activities for high schoolers.

High schoolers can sharpen their writing, language, critical thinking, and reading skills with these instructional resources.

Esther Wojcicki shares her lesson on conducting an interview and writing a personality feature—​an intriguing, creative article about the interviewee.

Teach students in Grades 3-12 how to conduct interviews and write compelling personality features with these insights from Esther Wojcicki.

Activities including creating a sketchnote, writing an ode to an everyday item, and analyzing the theme of a short story.

Have high schoolers continue learning from home by evaluating a news article for reliability, maintaining a dialectical journal, and responding to daily dinner prompts.

Have high schoolers analyze a poem, summarize an informational text, and write effective arguments with this week's downloadables activities.

Have high school students analyze news stories, poems, and short stories with these instructional resources designed for remote learning.