Standards-Based Planning for Middle School ELA Teachers

Standards-based planning is the foundation of a strong curriculum plan in middle school ELA.

Love it or leave it; standards are what guide education, and rightfully so. Our standards help us know that all students are exposed to the same concepts and skills.

But understanding the standards and working your way through them can seem like pushing a boulder up a mountain. With each step you take, the weight and expectations feel heavier and heavier.

Developing confidence with the standards and feeling really good about your plan for your students takes purposeful planning, and when you have the right resources available to help you plan, the whole process can feel much more manageable and, dare we say it, even easy. (Shock!)

Today, we are sharing all the resources we have available for middle school ELA teachers who want to really conquer the standards.

Middle School ELA Standards Checklists

When doing your standards-based planning for the school year, make sure that no standard goes left unaccounted for with these standards checklists.

For each grade level, we’ve created a simple standards checklist that lists the standard, suggested key terms for that standard, and a place to document when and how the standard will be covered.

We also include comparison charts from younger grades to see how the current year’s standard compares to how the same standard was taught before.

We have checklists for 6th-8th grade ELA, so as we begin to conquer the standards, grab the checklist that fits the needs of your students.

6th Grade ELA Standards Checklist

7th Grade ELA Standards Checklist

8th Grade ELA Standards Checklist

In addition to the middle school ELA standards, we also have checklists for many other subjects and grade levels, so if you need additional standards checklists, you can see the full list of available checklists in The Sparkly Notebook store here!

Standards-Based Products

Once you’ve acknowledged each standard and know what you need to focus on, you can simplify things by using some of these Standards-Based product lines.

For each standard in middle school ELA, we’ve created a specific unit for teaching and mastering the skills associated with that standard. These are the perfect resources to refer to as you work through your standards-based planning.

In each resource, we provide a teacher guide, printable and digital versions of all activities, posters to help define the standard, and skill breakdowns. Each resource includes additional passages, answer keys as needed, and a summative assessment for each standard.

To see how we break down the standards to begin developing lessons, check out this blog post.

As you figure out what gaps you have in your instruction, you can head on over to The Sparkly Notebook store and grab the unit/project you need to work on that standard with your students. If you’d like to use several of the projects, grab the full bundle for the grade level you work with below!

6th Grade Standards-Focused Projects

7th Grade Standards-Focused Projects

8th Grade Standards-Focused Projects

As you work on becoming more comfortable with the standards, hopefully, these standards-based resources will provide you with a good foundation for getting started and planning effectively in your middle school ELA class.