English language arts is a natural fit for a substitute day because students can read and write independently. Many of the lessons below pair an original short text or a writing task with clear directions, so a sub can run the class without knowing the curriculum. The teacher PDF includes an answer key.
What is in the ELA library
There are 68 free ELA lessons: 30 for English 6-8, 30 for English 9-12, and 8 for creative writing.
How to use these as ELA sub plans
- Choose a self-contained text. Look for a lesson with its own reading passage, so students do not need your class novel.
- Use writing tasks for longer periods. A short writing prompt pairs well with a reading task and fills a class period.
- Check the teacher PDF. It has the answer key and the sub directions.
- Print student pages only. Keep the teacher pages separate.
All ELA lessons
Creative Writing
- Character Creation: Build Someone Worth Reading About
- Dialogue That Sounds Real: Punctuation, Tags and Action Beats
- Plot Structure: Sorting the Story of the Missing Cash Box
- Poetry Forms: Haiku, Acrostic and Free Verse
- Point of View Experiments: Whose Eyes Are We Looking Through?
- Revision Workshop: Cut, Swap, Sharpen
- Setting and the Five Senses: The Laundromat at Closing Time
- Tiny Stories: Six-Word Stories and Flash Fiction
English 6-8
- Any Novel: Character Map and Evidence Chart
- Any Novel: Plot Diagram and Prediction Log
- Be the Peer Editor: Checklists, Kind Feedback and Fixes
- Career Spotlight: Wildlife Rehabilitator (Summarizing)
- Comma Clinic: Lists, Introductions and Compound Sentences
- Context Clue Detectives: The Lighthouse Keeper
- Dialogue Punctuation: Who Said What, and Where Do the Quotation Marks Go?
- Four Sentence Types: Statements, Questions, Commands and Exclamations
- Friendly Letter Workshop: Parts, Punctuation and a Thank-You Note
- How Bats Find Their Way in the Dark: Main Idea and Cause and Effect
- Informative Paragraph: From Fact Cards to Finished Writing
- Louis Braille and the Six-Dot Code: Sequence and Cause and Effect
- Mara and the Borrowed Bike: Character Traits with Evidence
- Opinion Paragraph: Make Your Reasons Count
- Paragraph Builder: Topic Sentence, Evidence and Closing
- Parts of Speech Sort: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs
- Picture-Ready Writing: Vague vs. Specific Description
- Poetry Toolbox: Figurative Language in “Three O’Clock”
- Revising with the Five Senses: Bring a Flat Paragraph to Life
- Root Detectives: Greek and Latin Roots
- Small Moment Story: Zoom In on Ten Seconds
- Subject-Verb Agreement: Tricky Cases
- The Honeybee Waggle Dance: Judge the Summary
- The Lantern of Wren Hollow: Finding the Theme
- The Missing Trophy: Clues, Red Herrings and Inferences
- The Sandwich Incident: Point of View in Humor
- Three Prompts, One Story: Writing From Words Alone
- Two Views of a Tide Pool: Comparing an Article and a Journal
- Warm Up Before You Play: Author’s Purpose
- Word Builders: Prefixes and Suffixes
English 9-12
- Ad Techniques: Analyzing Two Invented Advertisements
- Anatomy of an Editorial: Claim, Counterargument and Rebuttal
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: A Timed Argument Paragraph
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: Should the First Bell Ring Later?
- Cover Letter Paragraph: Match Your Skills to the Job
- Cut the Clutter: Revising for Concision and Voice
- Ethos, Pathos, Logos: Dissecting a Town Council Speech
- Greek and Latin Roots: Decode New Words
- How the Writer Built It: Text Structure in a Passage About Honeybees
- Mapping a Character Arc: From Flaw to Change
- MLA Basics in Plain English: Format, In-Text Citations and Works Cited
- PEEL It Apart: Writing an Analytical Paragraph
- Poetry Close Reading: Figurative Language in “Early Bus”
- Research Planning on Paper: Topic, Question, Keywords, Sources
- Resume Bullet Points: Action Verbs, Details and Results
- Same News, Five Tones: Diction and Connotation
- Sentence Combining: From Choppy to Smooth
- Socratic Seminar Prep Sheet for Any Text
- Speaker, Audience, Purpose: Reading Five Short Texts
- Spot That Fallacy: Nine Faulty Arguments
- Symbol and Motif Log: The Stopped Clock
- Synthesizing Two Sources: Sunday Hours at the Town Library
- Test-Style Grammar and Words in Context
- The Professional Email: Subject, Tone and Clear Requests
- Theme Tracker: Find the Big Idea in Any Novel or Play
- Weak, Better, Best: Sorting and Revising Thesis Statements
- What They Say vs. What They Mean: Dialogue and Subtext
- Who Can You Trust? Evaluating Bias and Credibility in Three Sources
- Write the Quiz: Question Levels for Any Reading
- Zoom In on One Moment: Personal Narrative Workshop
More help
Search the full lesson library by grade and class time, or see our guides on emergency sub plans and easy sub plans.
Sub plans for other subjects
Covering more than one prep? Try these related collections:
- Science sub plans
- Math sub plans
- Social studies sub plans
- Art, music and theater sub plans
- PE and health sub plans
- Spanish, French and German sub plans
- Technology and computer science sub plans
- Business and personal finance sub plans
- CTE sub plans
- Speech, journalism and media sub plans
- Advisory and study hall sub plans
Teachers can turn any of these into a backup packet with our guides to free printable emergency sub plans and sub tub ideas. Substitutes can read what to do as a substitute teacher and classroom management for substitutes before the first bell.