April lesson plans for middle school ELA need to be VERY engaging. April can be a difficult month. Spring has arrived, and students (and their teachers) find the pull of the warm breezes and golden sunshine more than a little enticing. With this draw away from the classroom, it becomes all the more important that your curriculum has a draw of its own.
So today let’s talk about lessons and materials that keep our students’ focused. Check out these April lesson plans for middle school ELA.
April Lesson Plans for Middle School ELA
During the month of April, my classes focus on these important skill sets:
Reading and writing poetry as well as understanding fake news. It is important that students begin to see poetry as something that occurs in daily life (songs, spoken word, free verse novels) and not something old and obsolete.
Poetry Units
Each of these poetry units contains 8 engaging lessons for middle school classrooms. Students will enjoy this differentiated and relevant unit. This unit helps students analyze a variety of poetry forms – poems, songs, spoken word, and create their own poems to be presented at a poetry café.
- Grade 6 Poetry Unit – Buy Shopify CAD or TPT USD
- Grade 7 Poetry Unit – Buy Shopify CAD or TPT USD
- Grade 8 Poetry Unit – Buy Shopify CAD or TPT USD
You can find poetry units and resources at Shopify CAD and Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Students also need to practice their critical thinking and analytical skills about what they see in the media and online. I have students analyze various media sources (websites, news articles, videos, etc) to determine what is real and what is fake.
Fake News Unit
This resource contains 5 high-interest lessons to help students understand what fake news is and how to spot it. This resource contains individual PDFs of student pages to assist with online learning, i.e. Google Classroom™ as well as Google Slides™ formatted lessons for 1:1 schools.
You can find the Fake News Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Included Lessons:
- What is Media Literacy?
- What is Fake News?
- How to Spot Fake News.
- Fake News Stations (5 Different Topics)
- Creating Fake News Final Assignment
Reading Journal Entries
This independent reading journal assignment is a collection of 6 Independent Reading Tracking Forms and 1 Reading Journal Assignment. These reading tracking forms help students stay organized and purposeful during independent reading time. Easy-to-use assessment forms are included to ensure student accountability and less teacher marking stress.
You can find the Reading Journal Assignment on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Easter Digital Escape RoomSeasonal Lessons
- April Fools’ Day Non-Fiction Article – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
- April Fools’ Day Pranks – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
- Easter Creative Writing Assignment – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
- Easter Digital Escape Room – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
- Earth Day Non-Fiction Article – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
- Earth Day Digital Escape Room – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
- Poetry Digital Escape Room – Shopify CAD or TPT USD.
Articles To Inform Your Teaching
- Teaching Poetry to Middle School Students
- Fresh Ideas for Teaching Poetry
- Engaging Students in Non-Traditional Texts
I hope some of these tips, lessons, and ideas about April lesson plans for middle school ELA are things you can apply in your own classroom.
Other Monthly Lessons Plans
- September Lesson
- October Lessons
- November Lessons
- December Lessons
- January Lessons
- February Lessons
- March Lessons
- April Lesson
- May Lessons
- June Lessons
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