Secondary Classrooms

How to Advocate for CommonLit 360 at Your School

Learn how to confidently advocate for CommonLit 360 at your school or district. Teachers know what works. Every day, you see what motivates your students, what supports real growth, and...

CommonLit Provides Cross-Curricular Support

Selections that can be used across content areas When a student struggles to read grade-level texts, this challenge impacts performance in all academic classes, not just in English Language...

9 Scary Stories to Teach in October: Free Texts for Middle and High School

Nine free CommonLit texts for grades 6-12, from a nursery that makes its own lions to a headless horseman, plus what each one teaches best. Every October, a student...

8 Meaningful Memoirs for Middle School

Reading memoirs can help students grow their empathy and understanding of others’ perspectives. Here are 8 memoirs to incorporate into your ELA curriculum to engage your students in the experiences...

7 Short Poems with Figurative Language For Middle and High School Students

Incorporate poems with figurative language into your upcoming poetry unit and boost student reading comprehension with assessment and discussion questions. Got an upcoming poetry unit? CommonLit offers dozens of poems...

7 Science Fiction Short Stories for Secondary Students

Looking for the best science fiction short stories to add to your ELA curriculum? Here are texts to get your secondary students engaged in reading! Set in the future, dystopian...

7 Engaging Myths for Secondary Students

Exposing students to classic mythology can be daunting. That’s why we’ve put together a roundup of engaging myths from our digital literacy program that both teachers and students...

7 Satirical Lessons for Your Classroom

Introduce satire with these playful, yet thought-provoking, satirical articles! These satire examples from famous authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, and Johnathan Swift will introduce students to how authors...

Announcing New CommonLit 360 Units for Grades 9 and 10

CommonLit 360 is a comprehensive, full-year ELA curriculum for grades 6-12 designed to support student growth in reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills. Our curriculum provides teachers...

Five Ways to Help (older) Students Build Reading Skills

Simple strategies to improve students’ reading comprehension abilities and build their reading engagement According to the 2022 NAEP Reading Assessment, only 32% of 4th grade students are proficient in reading,...

Everything a Secondary Teacher Needs to Get Started with CommonLit

Everything a secondary teacher needs to get started with CommonLit: Class creation, selecting a text, using our digital tools, and more! CommonLit’s digital literacy program has high-quality and...

6 Native American Stories and Poems for Middle and High School Students

Honor National Native American Heritage Month in your classroom with authentic short stories and poems from CommonLit’s online reading program! Our extensive library collection includes plenty of Native American...

How a CommonLit Teacher Ambassador Empowers all Students

Leigh Pafford teaches special education as well as English as a Second Language (ESL) in New York City, and she was also one of CommonLit’s founding Teacher Ambassadors for...

CommonLit Can Assist With ACT/SAT Test Prep

The testing season is here! No, not the end-of-year testing that schools across the country gear up for each spring. Instead, this is the annual “rite of fall”...

10 Popular Myths and Folktale Stories With Moral Lessons from Around the World

Travel through stories with these ten exciting myths and folktales from around the world! In the past, myths and folktales were how people explained natural phenomena and dispensed wisdom from...

CommonLit’s Summer Reading Challenge 2023

CommonLit’s Summer Reading Challenge is back for 2023! Explore our reading lists full of engaging stories for all grade levels. CommonLit’s Summer Reading Challenge is back with new...

8 Poetry Lessons to Help Your Students Become Well Versed in Verse

This April, celebrate all forms of poetry in your classroom with curated lessons for grades 3-12. Poetry comes in many shapes and sizes. From Shakespearean sonnets to free verse...

7 Texts to Celebrate Ramadan in Your Classroom

CommonLit is committed to providing students with a wide range of texts that showcase cultures from all over the world. In these seven texts, students will learn about the traditions...

Find Women’s History Month Resources for Your Classroom with These Lessons by Powerful Women Authors

Celebrate Women’s History Month with our favorite texts by women authors for middle and high schoolers. Discover poetry lessons, biographical texts, and short stories by diverse women authors that...

3 Exciting Ways to Celebrate Women’s History Month in Your Classroom

CommonLit’a online digital literacy program offers tons of resources to support teacher lesson planning and unit planning. In this blog, we’ll explore resources featured in our digital library...

10 Stories of Black Women Who Shaped the United States

Celebrate the achievements, contributions, and excellence of Black women as we transition from Black History Month to Women’s History Month. CommonLit’s online digital literacy program provides teachers with...

This Valentine’s Day, Teach Reading Lessons Your Whole Class Will Love Most Ardently

As they say in Romeo and Juliet, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea.” Check out our bounty of love stories on CommonLit. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching,...

7 Texts to Celebrate the Harlem Renaissance

These engaging and diverse works help teachers showcase and explore the Harlem Renaissance with their students. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement in the 1920s and 1930s....

CommonLit Originals: Engaging, Diverse Stories only Available on CommonLit!

Check out dozens of high-interest and timely short stories, available only on our library. CommonLit’s library is home to over 3,000 digital lessons on a wide range...

7 Texts by Contemporary Black Authors for Secondary Students

CommonLit’s digital literacy program will help enhance your reading curriculum with these lessons which include guiding questions, Paired Texts, Related Media, and other tools to boost student reading comprehension....