A round-up of 10 of our best ELA activities for middle school students. All of these activities have been featured on our blog over the last several years. Check them out!!
Looking for tried-and-true activities to keep your middle schoolers engaged while still hitting the standards?
We’ve rounded up 10 of our best ELA activities for middle school—ones we’ve written about before here on the blog—that are fun, flexible, and academically rigorous.
Whether you’re working on reading comprehension, writing, language, or speaking/listening, these ideas will help your students stay engaged while still building the skills they need.
Students love solving puzzles, and you’ll love how much skill practice is packed inside. Escape rooms can be used for figurative language, reading comprehension, or even seasonal themes.
Check out the Blog Post: Engaging BTS Digital Escape Rooms for ELA
After reading two connected texts, assign students to opposite sides and host a mini-debate. They’ll have to pull evidence from both passages to defend their stance.
Check out the Blog Post: Same Paired Passage…10 Different Activities
Have students design the “perfect villain” using descriptive adjectives, figurative language, and sensory details. They create a villain backstory, signature quote, and goals. Great practice for L.5 (figurative language and word nuance).
Check out the Blog Post: Teaching ELA Using Spooky Activities
Give students a passage and a list of “treasures” to find—like figurative language examples, claims and counterclaims, or tone words. They annotate as they go and then share their “finds.”
Check out the Blog Post: New Ways to Use Paired Passages
Students design and decorate while writing out their choices with prepositional phrases. It’s a festive, creative way to practice L.2 grammar standards.
Check out the Blog Post: 6 Easy (Low/No-Prep) Christmas ELA Activities
6. Movie vs. Book Comparison
After finishing a novel, watch its film adaptation. Students compare characters, events, and themes using RL.7 standards. Works great with books like The Giver or The Hobbit.
Check out the Blog Post: 3 Highly Engaging End-of-the-Year ELA Activities
7. “Which Text Said It?” Game
Take quotes or paraphrased lines from a paired passage set. Students have to identify which text it came from—and defend how they know. Makes for a fun competition.
Check out the Blog Post: Same Paired Passage…10 Different Activities
Students identify similes, metaphors, personification, etc. correctly to unlock which color goes where. Perfect for review days or sub plans.
Check out the Blog Post: Valentine’s Day Figurative Language Activities
Give students a discussion question (theme, tone, or author’s purpose) and let them walk with a partner while talking it out. Movement + conversation = better engagement.
Check out the Blog Post: Delivering Quality Instruction & Keeping Students Engaged
Ask students to reflect on the characters they’ve encountered in literature, movies, or even real life throughout the school year.
Ask them to choose a character that they believe embodies qualities they admire or aspire to develop.
In a reflective narrative, students can explore how the character’s journey and traits have influenced their own goals, growth, or journey.
Check out the Blog Post: End-of-Year Reflective Writing Activities for Middle School Students
Final Thoughts
Each of these activities balances standards with creativity, giving your students rigorous practice while keeping things fresh and fun. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just mix these in throughout the year to boost engagement and mastery.
