Secondary

9 Spooky Stories for the Eeriest Time of Year

This October, haunt your classroom with thematically rich horror and suspense short stories!CommonLit’s array of horrifying ghost stories and haunting dystopian tales are guaranteed to send shivers down students’ spines while boosting reading comprehension! Student engagement will be at an all time high after you introduce these chilling

7 Genuine Poems about Love

Strengthen your ELA instruction and student reading comprehension with these poems about love for middle and high school students. CommonLit offers hundreds of engaging poems for students to practice close reading and boost their critical thinking skills. These seven poems about love are perfect for supplementing your upcoming poetry unit.

Honoring Hispanic Heroes this Hispanic Heritage Month

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with your class by teaching them about influential Hispanic activists, artists, and athletes.Hispanic Heritage Month, spanning from September 15th to October 15th, provides a great opportunity to teach your students about influential Hispanic figures. The CommonLit Library has many engaging and informative texts to celebrate

Snowball Your Students Reading Comprehension with CommonLit’s Book Pairings for Animal Farm

Provide students with historical background, and other relevant resources for Animal Farm by George Orwell.The CommonLit library offers over 100 “Book Pairings”, or sets of literary and informational texts that support teachers when introducing books to the classroom. With the help of Book Pairings, students can hit ELA curriculum

6 Thought-Provoking Poems about Family for Middle School Students

CommonLit’s digital literacy program has over 100 unique poetry lessons for middle school students that teach important literary analysis skills and reading comprehension.Many of CommonLit’s poetry lessons focus on the major theme of family. Families look different for everyone. Despite the occasional dysfunction, each has their own

Electrifying Resources to help you teach Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Thrill students by pairing Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan with short stories, poems, and non-fiction texts to enhance your novel unit.The CommonLit library has thousands of high-quality lessons that engage your students and strengthen their reading comprehension. Additionally, we offer over 100 Book Pairings, carefully

Strengthen Student Reading Curriculum with New Short Stories from the CommonLit Library

Lead engaging classroom discussions and support student reading comprehension with these new short stories for grades 4-8!We are excited to share new short stories that you can incorporate into your reading curriculum this school year. These literary texts will not only boost your students’ reading growth, but they will

Engaging Short Stories about Identity for Middle and High School Students

Boost reading comprehension and engagement with seven relatable short stories for students in grades 6-12. With CommonLit’s digital library, you can introduce your students to hundreds of texts that explore various forms of identity, including but not limited to (dis)ability, ethnicity, and gender. These short stories for middle

6 Poems about Community to Supplement Your Reading Curriculum

Planning a poetry unit for your English Language Arts class this semester? Inspire engaging classroom discussions with poems about community. For youth, it’s important that they know where they can find a community, so that they can enrich their lives with friendship and develop a strong sense of self.

The Giver: Enhance your Novel Study with these Lesson Planning Resources

These high interest poems, news articles, and informational texts are the perfect compliment to a novel unit on The Giver.CommonLit offers over 3,000 reading lessons in its digital library. Each lesson comes complete with standards-aligned comprehension questions, discussion questions, and lesson planning ideas for teachers. These lessons are

5 Fantastic Poems about Friendship

These five poems from CommonLit dive into the complexities of friendship. As educators – and former teenagers – you understand the complexities of relationships during our students' teenage years. Poetry can be pivotal for students. Due to its deeply personal nature and tendency to challenge social norms, poetry allows students to engage

"Coming of Age": A Short Story Unit from CommonLit's 360 Curriculum that is Perfect for the Beginning of 10th Grade

This ELA Unit includes high-interest short stories about growing up from contemporary authors like Jason Reynolds and Lucy Tan that’ll hook your students. What Is CommonLit 360? CommonLit 360 is a free English Language Arts curriculum for grades 6-12 that includes content-rich units and compelling texts. Each fully-built out

7 Literary Texts by Powerful Women Authors

Check out these amazing short stories and poems on CommonLit from authors like Amy Tan and Sandra Cisneros. CommonLit’s award-winning, research-based digital literacy program has hundreds of poems, short stories, and memoirs written by powerful women authors. To support your lesson planning, we’ve highlighted seven literary texts from

Short Stories To Get Your Students Excited About Reading

These short stories from amazing authors like Gary Soto, Amy Tan, and Ralph Fletcher will help your students fall in love with reading!A love for reading begins with captivating stories. These short stories from CommonLit feature young protagonists that are grappling with problems that your students will easily relate

6 Texts About Adventure and Independence

Experiencing new adventures is an important part of becoming independent. Trying different things and going new places helps establish teens' sense of self. As educators, it is important to encourage our students to take on new challenges and experiences. That is why we have curated six lessons that center around

7 Exciting Texts About Sports

Middle and high school students are sure to love these texts about different sports! From soccer to basketball to baseball, sports are a meaningful part of many teens' lives. Reading about sports in the classroom is a great way to engage your students. This text set includes exciting short stories,

9 Compelling Texts by Asian American Authors

These meaningful texts by Chinese American Authors are sure to engage your students!It is essential to celebrate the diversity of voices in our classrooms. In order to do so, we are showcasing texts by prominent Chinese American authors. These nine powerful memoirs, short stories, and poems that highlight cultural

8 Empowering Texts About Protecting the Environment

Our Earth is beautiful, but it is currently facing many challenges. From pieces of plastic dotting our oceans, to deforestation and disappearing species, the problems the Earth faces can often seem overwhelming to students. It is important to learn about these issues and empower students to make meaningful change in

7 Twisty Tales for Teens

Middle and high school students will love these suspenseful stories!Many teenagers are drawn to dark and twisty tales. Stories that utilize twist endings to shock the reader shed light on issues in society, providing an opportunity to have broader classroom discussions about morals, government, and more.   Here are seven

9 Compelling Poems About Identity

These classic and contemporary poems explore themes of identity and growing up.During adolescence, students begin to question and explore their identities, sense of belonging, and who they want to grow into. These difficult yet exciting questions are a critical part of growing up. Here is a collection of poems

9 Texts to Help Teens Develop Social-Emotional Skills

These articles dig into important topics like happiness, stress, failure, and resilience.Some of the most important learning that happens in middle and high school goes beyond reading, writing, and math. As our students get older, they also need to develop key social-emotional skills like self-regulation and resilience. These nine

9 Mind-Blowing Texts About Discovery and Innovation

These texts about innovation are sure to get your students thinking creatively!Learning about new inventions and discoveries is a powerful tool to promote creativity and leadership with students. These informational texts about groundbreaking research will empower students to create solutions to problems they see in their communities and in

7 Thought-Provoking Texts to Celebrate Spring

These powerful texts about spring will help your students connect with nature.As the days get warmer, new life springs up around us. This time of year provides us with an important opportunity to reflect on our connection to nature and the world around us. This multi-genre selection of texts

Bring Humor to Your Class With These Entertaining Texts

These nine funny and satirical stories are sure to amuse your students!Humor is a powerful literary tool that conveys important messages about life. Reading funny or satirical stories is a great way to make your students laugh and think critically at the same time! Here is a great selection

10 Inspiring Texts About Women Who Shaped History

These engaging texts about exceptional women are sure to inspire your students!History often leaves women’s achievements out of the narrative. Women have made tremendous contributions to a variety of fields, often breaking barriers and changing the world. Reading about the achievements of influential women can help students envision