ELA Unit Planning Guide
This guide provides the framework and classroom resources to help you design an English Language Arts unit for middle or high school students centered around a book of your choosing.
![Three educators smile while sitting together working.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/Facing-History_SJLA_015_edit.jpg?h=c7420dc8&itok=PlL1FQ9c)
School Leaders Institute: Creating an Equitable School Culture and Climate
-
Virtual
Join our summer institute for leaders and administrators to discover how to create caring, inclusive school communities, drive better outcomes for students, and connect with other leaders.
![Teachers at a Facing History Chicago event.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-12/FHOTeachers2017-33%20%28FH258800%29.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=OzemYABy)
Teaching Democracy and Freedom: Facing History’s Approach to US History
-
Boston, MA
Explore Facing History's new US History Curriculum Collection, which focuses on themes of Democracy and Freedom and provides resources for historical inquiry-based learning while developing students' civic agency. This event will be hosted in-person.
![Teacher gestures toward camera in professional development setting.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-03/8-10-17FacH09134.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=g0ZJn89w)
Teach with Facing History ELA Learning Experiences
Each of our learning experiences provides activities and resources to explore a core Facing History concept or theme while building key literacy skills.
![Student work together in class.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-09/Classroom_Discussion_Los_Angeles_SJLA_2018_FH287382.jpg?h=56d0ca2e&itok=--xgunus)
Coming of Age in a Complex World: A Mini-Course for ELA Educators
-
Explore hands-on strategies to teach coming-of-age texts and literature, centering students’ identities and lived experiences as young adults.
![A women concentrates at a table while working on a handout](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2023-11/Facing-History_SJLA_165.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=Ow7ferS5)
28 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for the Classroom
Use these simple social-emotional learning activities to incorporate SEL in your lesson plans and classroom routines.
![Two women in discussion.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/076_Bully_Summit%2C_2012%2C_LA%2C_078.jpg?h=4997dc06&itok=KLLmzTIA)
Teaching Strategies
Use our student-centered teaching strategies to strengthen your students’ literacy skills, nurture critical thinking, and build a respectful and collaborative classroom community.
![An educator walks through instructions for a teaching strategy procedure with students.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-08/Teaching_Strategies_hero.jpeg?h=78a3dfb3&itok=p8BXuMQa)
Expressing Diversity in Jewish Identity: Blending In and Standing Out
This two-day lesson uses the story of Purim as a frame to examine how Jews have preserved and protected their identities and culture in dominant societies by choosing when to blend in and when to stand out.
![A Jewish family pictured in Yemen](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-03/GettyImages-607446350.jpg?h=eec5a94e&itok=ZTRvXmoY)
Borders & Belonging
This modular ELA collection for grades 7–12 invites students to explore the complicated world of belonging and the tangible and intangible borders that shape it.
Introducing Our New Borders & Belonging Collection
Explore our second thematic teaching collection created for middle and high school ELA classrooms.
![Facing History students bent over working on scattered poster board together](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-04/Facing-History_SJLA_218.jpg?h=4362216e&itok=EjaD0AQD)
Honoring Arab American Heritage, Stories, and Changemakers
Explore the history of Arab people in the United States and how they have shaped American culture and society.
![Arab American Heritage Month banner](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2024-04/Arab%20American%20Heritage%20Month.%20banner.jpeg?h=d7fe13a8&itok=6OBGoe7J)