Middle School ELA Curriculum When Your School Gives You None
ELA Complete – Middle School is for the grades 6–8 English teacher who has a class list and a schedule but no adopted curriculum or anthology. It gives you 100+ resources for reading short stories, excerpts, articles and speeches, and for writing narrative, informative and argumentative pieces with textual evidence, including slides, differentiated worksheets and answer keys.
See the ELA curriculum →ELA Complete – Middle School is a no-prep English language arts curriculum for grades 6–8 with 100+ resources, from $149.90. For a teacher whose school gives no ELA curriculum, it covers reading fiction and nonfiction for plot, character, setting, theme, conflict, author's purpose, point of view and text structure, plus narrative, informative and argumentative writing from planning through editing, using textual evidence.
The curriculum
ELA Complete – Middle School, Grades 6–8
Start with the full curriculum. The other resources below are optional add-ons. Open any cover for the full contents and price.
The real problem
Teaching middle school ELA with no texts and no plan
An ELA teacher without a curriculum is really missing two things: the texts and the sequence. You can find a short story online, but then you need questions for it, a vocabulary list, an answer key and a writing task that connects to it. Do that every week for three grade levels and your evenings are gone. Without a sequence, skills come and go at random. Students do a theme lesson in September and never see it again. Argument writing shows up once, in May. Textual evidence gets mentioned every day but never taught step by step. By the end of the year a seventh grader can summarize a plot but cannot explain how the author built the conflict or support a claim with a quote. Reading levels add another layer. In one middle school class you can have students who read well above grade level next to students who struggle with a paragraph of informational text. If every worksheet is pitched at one level, half the room is bored and the other half is lost. And because ELA scores get watched closely, the lack of a plan becomes visible quickly.
Why it fits
How it fills both gaps: texts and sequence
You get reading material and the instruction around it, so you are not hunting for a story and then writing the lesson yourself.
- Short stories, excerpts, articles, speeches and informational texts give you reading material without an anthology.
- Plot, character, setting, theme and conflict lessons build literary analysis step by step.
- Author's purpose, point of view and text structure work strengthens nonfiction reading.
- Narrative, informative and argumentative writing each get their own instruction, not one generic essay unit.
- Planning, drafting, revising and editing tasks turn writing into a process students can repeat.
- Differentiated worksheets help when reading levels in one class range widely.
Getting started
Your first two weeks with it
A suggested way to get the year moving. The product has units, not a calendar, so set your own pace.
- Start with a short storyTeach a short story with the plot, character and conflict materials first. It is familiar ground for students and shows you who can read closely and who only retells events.
- Pair reading with a writing formAfter the story, assign a narrative writing task that uses what students noticed about character and conflict. Reading and writing then support each other from the first week.
- Teach evidence explicitlyUse the textual evidence materials as a stand-alone lesson before any argument writing. Students who learn how to choose and explain a quote write much stronger paragraphs later.
- Rotate fiction and nonfictionFollow the story with an article or speech and the author's purpose and point of view lessons. Alternating keeps informational reading from being squeezed into the spring.
- Map the three gradesSketch which writing types and reading skills each grade emphasizes, for example narrative in grade 6 and argument in grade 8. It keeps the same lesson from repeating across years.
Which version
Which version to choose
The $149.90 version gives you all 100+ ELA resources and is enough to run the course. For $189.90 you also get Teach-Life-Balance, a digital planner-and-templates course for teachers. Essay grading eats evenings in this subject, so the time-management part can help, but it adds no reading or writing lessons. Choose the base version if you only need content, and the larger one if your evenings are already full of grading.
Honest limits
What it does not include
It does not include full-length novels or class sets of books. If your school wants students to read a whole novel, you supply the book. It is also not a test-prep program for any particular state exam. Check the units against your state or district ELA requirements before you share a course plan. If other ELA teachers in the building want to use it, send Teach Lessons a short message first. If it turns out not to suit your classes, you can exchange it within 7 days for store credit of equal value; you do not get cash back.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Does this curriculum meet Common Core or my state's ELA standards?
No such claim is made. It is written for U.S. middle school classrooms and covers reading literature and informational texts, writing in three modes, and language, which are areas most state ELA standards address. It is not endorsed or adopted by any state, district or by Common Core. Compare it with your own state standards before you rely on it for documentation.
Do I need to buy texts separately?
For most lessons, no. The curriculum includes short stories, excerpts, articles, speeches and informational texts to work with. If you want to teach a full-length novel, you will need copies of that book from your school or library, and you can use the plot, character and theme materials to frame it.
How does it handle struggling readers?
Worksheets are differentiated, and the curriculum is described as suitable for mixed-ability classrooms. You can give stronger readers the more demanding analysis tasks and give struggling readers scaffolded versions on the same text, so the class still discusses one story or article together. Nobody is pulled onto a separate text just because of reading level.
Does it teach grammar?
There is a language and communication strand alongside reading and writing, and the editing stage of the writing process gives you a natural place for grammar and mechanics, applied to students' own drafts. If your school expects a separate daily grammar program, you may want to add your own short practice routine.
Can I use it for all three grades at once?
Yes, if you plan which skills each grade emphasizes. Units can be taught as a full sequence or individually, so grade 6 can work on narrative writing and story elements while grade 8 focuses on argument, speeches and text structure. That keeps students from meeting the same material twice.
How quickly will I have it?
Instantly. You receive a download link by email after purchase, and the files stay in your customer account under Orders. You can print worksheets or use them digitally, which helps if you need to start teaching before the week is out and have no time to wait for anything to arrive.
Get texts, lessons and a sequence in one place
Read the product page for the full list of what is included, then decide whether it covers your grades.
See the ELA curriculum →