Free Resources

1. The Great Debate (Grades 3-5) - Introduce debate through conundrums, arguing with yourself, jury deliberations, and more in this engaging unit that is sure to get students thinking.

   • There is also a Great Debate Unit for grades 5-8 if it better suits your needs! It focuses on speech, writing, persuasion, presentation, and more!

2. Newspaper - Students get to create their own newspaper, with lessons on brainstorming topics, article analysis, editing, and more!

3. The Eleventh Hour - A curious mystery for students in grades 3-6. Horace the elephant is having a birthday, but someone has eaten the feast! Use clues hidden among the pages of the book to solve this crime! (Note: You'll want to purchase a copy of the book for every two students, so they can look through the clues.)

4. Genius Hour - This is the perfect age to introduce research and independent study projects. ELA incorporate seamlessly by focusing on research, writing, speech and presentation skills.

5. Podcasts - Great for listening (similar to a read aloud), reflecting, and even having students create their own in older grade levels!

   • The Mars Patel Podcast is a great way to introduce students to wonderful writing, and you can use this unit from Teachers Pay Teachers to teach about writing creative narratives themselves. I use this in grades 4-6, but you could probably scaffold to get it to work with 3rd grade as well.

6. ELA Enrichment Room - Grades 3-5

7. Lemonade Wars Journal and Discussion Questions

Purchase Curriculum

• The Wild Robot - a novel study with STEM connections is a great read aloud option for grades 2-5

William and Mary Language Arts Materials - Both their literature units and the Jacob's Ladder Program are high quality and go in depth with writing. The Jacob's Ladder program is much more cost effective, if that is a factor. Some options:

1. Literature Units

• • Journeys and Destinations (Grades 2-3)

  • Explore, Discover, Reveal (Grades 3-4)

  • Mind Your Time (Grades 4-5)

  • Perspectives (Grades 4-5)

  • Literary Reflections (Grades 4-5)

  • Patterns of Change (Grades 4-6)

2. Jacob's Ladder Program

• • Affective Grades 4-5

  • 3rd, 4th, or 5th Comprehension Books

  • 3rd, 4th, or 5th Nonfiction Books