English Language Arts Teaching Resources
Explore English Language Arts (ELA) activities, worksheets, games and more teaching resources created by teachers for teachers just like you! You'll find ELA resources aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and ELAR resources that align to TEKS.
This collection of teacher-created resources for elementary and middle school teachers was designed with students and teachers in mind, including differentiated activities and worksheets ready to print and add to your lesson plan.
Each game, activity and more have undergone a careful review by a member of our ELA teaching team to ensure it's classroom — and student — ready.
What Is ELA in Education?
In most educational instances, ELA stands for English Language Arts, the subject that encompasses reading, writing, speaking, listening and language skills development in American schools.
ELA curriculum standards vary from state to state and even school district to school district, but they typically include instruction in the following areas:
1. Reading
In ELA classes, students learn to read, understand and interpret a variety of texts, including fiction and non-fiction. They develop reading comprehension skills such as identifying main ideas and making inferences while building their understanding of vocabulary.
2. Writing
As they progress through elementary and middle school, students learn the skills they need for effective written communication by learning to create types of texts — such as narratives and persuasive essays, research papers, and descriptive pieces.
They also learn to organize their ideas, use proper grammar and punctuation and refine their writing through revision and editing.
3. Speaking and Listening
While English instruction in the US was once heavily focused on grammar and reading comprehension, education experts saw a call to move toward a more student-centered means of teaching that paved the way to today's ELA curriculum ... and to the inclusion of oral communication as a focus in the curriculum.
Through speaking and listening activities, kids learn to express themselves clearly, listen actively, ask questions, participate in discussions and deliver presentations. They also learn to articulate their thoughts and understand different perspectives while developing their critical thinking abilities.
4. Language
Finally, students study grammar, vocabulary and syntax to enhance their understanding of English and how it should be used.
The curriculum includes proper sentence structure, word choice, spelling and punctuation rules. Language instruction also includes figurative language, idioms and understanding context.
ELA as English Language Acquisition
You may have noticed that we said ELA stands for English Language Arts in most educational instances. So, what else can it stand for?
In some schools, ELA is the abbreviation used for English Language Acquisition, and it's the name given to programs created to help English language learners as they tackle the language.
This form of ELA has marked similarities with the ELA described above, as it focuses on helping students build oral, reading and writing skills. However, there are distinct differences as one focuses on educating native speakers and the other on ELL students.
English vs. Language Arts — Why Is English Called Language Arts?
Some of your students may have parents who remember attending English classes as children but are unfamiliar with the concept of English language arts.
How do you explain the difference to them?
The fact is, some districts may well use the term English for what another district terms "English language arts." In other places, the two refer to very different concepts. In many areas, English is the name for courses taught on a high school level, while English language arts applies to elementary level work.
To explain why their children are enrolled in language arts coursework, it may be helpful to break down the various components of language arts — as we have done above — and their role in students' literacy growth.
What Is ELAR?
ELAR stands for English Language Arts and Reading. While much of the country's schools follow an ELA curriculum, ELAR is unique to Texas, where ELAR is an integrated subject that combines the study of language arts skills with the development of reading abilities.
This collection includes hundreds of ELAR activities, aligned directly with TEKS standards to ensure Texas teachers have everything they need for their lesson plans.
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Google Slides - Adjectives Interactive Activity
Provide your students with engaging, interactive activities to help them improve their usage of descriptive adjectives.
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Apostrophes in Contractions Teaching Presentation
Teach your students to use apostrophes to form contractions with an Apostrophe teaching presentation.
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Possessives Teaching Presentation
Teach your students to use the correct forms of possessive nouns with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Theodore Roosevelt Constructed Response Worksheet
Teach your students about Theodore Roosevelt with this printable biographical constructed response worksheet.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Task Cards
These task cards are best used as independent practice or formative assessment assignments during sentence structure lessons.
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Fact and Opinion Board Game
Practice differentiating between fact and opinion with a fun and engaging board game.
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Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences Sort
Practice reading, identifying, and writing simple, compound, and complex sentences with a sorting activity.
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Westward Expansion Reading Comprehension Worksheet
Build reading comprehension skills with a Westward Expansion reading passage and assessment.
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Build a Sandcastle-Writing and Craft Activity
Excite your students for the upcoming summer with a narrative writing and craft activity.
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Fact and Opinion Sorting Activity
Use this fact and opinion sort to teach your students the difference between statements of fact and statements of opinion.
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Grammar Grid Mystery Picture Worksheet-Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives
Follow the color-coded parts of speech guide to fill in the word grid and reveal a mystery image.
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Read, Find, and Color – CVC Words
Practice decoding CVC words with this set of five "search and find" worksheets.
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Find It! - Sight Word Worksheets
Make your sight word instruction fun with this word search puzzle.
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Using Context Clues - Worksheet
A worksheet to practice using context clues.
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Pyramid Reading Cards - Dolch 2nd Grade Sight Words
Practice reading Dolch's 2nd Grade Sight Words with a set of 44 pyramid sentence cards.
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Text Structures Slide Deck
An editable text structure instructional slide deck to use when teaching text structures to your students.
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Pyramid Reading Cards - Dolch Grade 1 Sight Words
Practice and review the Dolch Grade 1 List of high-frequency words with 41 short phrase cards for emergent readers.
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Finding the Theme Worksheet
Identify and explain the theme in 3 short story paragraphs provided in this worksheet.
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Capitalization Scoot Activity
Practice capitalizing words at the beginning of a sentence, the personal pronoun I, and the names of people with a set of 20 task cards.
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Uppercase Letter Formation Task Cards
A set of task cards for younger students to learn how to accurately form all uppercase letters.
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Biography Timeline Template
Use this multipurpose timeline template for a variety of assignments, projects, and more!
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Making Connections Graphic Organizer
A graphic organizer for students to record text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.
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Last One Standing Active Game
An active game that allows students to build their vocabulary knowledge.
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Character Traits Graphic Organizer
Describe the most notable mental and moral qualities of a real or fictional person.
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Roll and Write - Simple and Compound Sentences
Practice writing simple and compound sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
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Roll and Write – Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences
Practice writing simple, compound, and complex sentences with our Roll and Write activity.
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SPLAT! CVC Word Game
A set of 36 task cards to practice decoding and reading 3-letter words.
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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Fakebook Worksheet
Design a social media profile for civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. in this creative writing activity.
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Inspirational Woman Profile: Brooke Boney – Comprehension Worksheet
A comprehension task to use when learning about Brooke Boney.
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Getting to Know My Classmates – QR Code Template
Use QR codes to get to know your new classmates at the start of a new school year.
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Novel Study – Chapter Summary Worksheet
Reflect on a chapter in a class novel using this one-page worksheet.
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First, Second, and Third Person Narration Posters
A set of three posters and a title page examining first, second, and third person narration.
- English Language Arts Worksheets
- English Language Arts Games
- English Language Arts Templates
- English Language Arts Posters
- English Language Arts Flashcards
- English Language Arts Word Walls
- English Language Arts Projects
- English Language Arts for Pre-K
- English Language Arts for Kindergarten
- English Language Arts for 1st Grade
- English Language Arts for 2nd Grade
- English Language Arts for 3rd Grade
- English Language Arts for 4th Grade
- English Language Arts for 5th Grade
- English Language Arts for 6th Grade
- English Language Arts for 7th Grade