Free ELA Lesson Plans for Grades 6-8

Explore this Guide

Welcome to our ELA Lesson Plans Guide, designed for sixth to eighth-grade teachers and students. These resources are crafted to align with Common Core Standards (CCSS) and are easily integrated into your existing language arts lesson plans. This guide features engaging activities, literature, and interactive tools aimed at refining media literacy skills, writing skills, and listening skills. Introduce reading strategies and promote environmental awareness in your middle school students. From analyzing articles to writing poetry, this guide is geared towards fostering a love for learning and critical thinking in our middle school learners.

Poetry & Music

Let these free lesson plans and activities spark creativity in your middle school students as they learn about poetry, music, figurative language, and protecting the Earth.

Song Study: Xiuhtezcatl’s “Broken”

Students analyze the song “Broken” by Xiuhtezcatl, then create an art project sharing their feelings about the planet's future. Click the photo to read about Lisa Hasuike the creator of this lesson plan. 

More Poetry & Music Lesson Plans

Speaking, Listening, & Visualizing

Empower your students to be climate change leaders in their community through these free resources. Students learn to share their points of view on a variety of topics while also examining others’ perspectives.

Voices Like Thunder

Students analyze a speech by a youth climate activist before researching, writing, and presenting their speech. Click the photo to read about Christina Cawdery the creator of this lesson plan.

More Speaking, Listening, & Visualizing Resources

Vocabulary

Help your students learn terms and definitions that will allow them to speak about climate change and the environment. 

Vocabulary Words

This printable and downloadable slide presentation provides images and definitions for climate-related vocabulary terms. 

Climate Wordle

This resource puts a climate-themed twist on a favorite vocabulary game. Students can use their climate knowledge to guess the daily word. Play this fun game on the SmartBoard with the whole class, or in small groups as a competition!

Reading & Writing

Explore environmental concepts while developing skills such as informational text analysis and storytelling.

Next Steps