Secondary Classrooms

7 Lesson Planning Resources to Bolster Your Novel Study on 1984

Elevate your book unit on George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 with informative and engaging texts for high school students. CommonLit’s free online reading program offers more than 100...

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 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 Short Coming-of-Age Stories to Stir Thought-Provoking Classroom Discussions

Boost Your ELA curriculum with relatable coming-of-age short stories for middle school and high school students. Looking for short stories with a coming-of-age theme? We’ve compiled several compelling short...

9 Spooky Stories for the Eeriest Time of Year

This October, haunt your classroom with thematically rich horror, suspense, and spooky short stories! CommonLit’s array of horrifying ghost stories and haunting dystopian tales are guaranteed to send shivers...

7 Genuine Poems on Love and Relationships

Strengthen your ELA instruction and student reading comprehension with these poems on love for middle and high school students. CommonLit offers hundreds of engaging poems for students to practice close...

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...

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...

6 Thought-Provoking Poems about Family for Middle School Students

CommonLit’s digital literacy program has a large collection of poems about family for middle school students that teach important literary analysis skills and reading comprehension. Many of CommonLit’s...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 [https://www.commonlit....

5 Short Friendship Poems

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...