As high school English teachers, we know how important it is to have access to high-quality, organized curriculum materials that engage students while meeting educational standards. However, we also know that such a curriculum isn’t a guarantee. It’s probably why you’re here looking for a free printable high school curriculum in the first place!
When I was first hired as an English teacher, they gave me nothing. No textbook. No standards. Not even a course description.
There were some lit sets, but many were missing so many books that there weren’t enough for a whole class. Oh, and there wasn’t a list of what we had either.
So trust me. If you’re frantically Googling for help, I understand. I’ve been there.
And I hope that this blog post helps a little bit.
Whether you’re looking for a complete curriculum to teach world literature or seeking free printable high school curriculum resources to supplement your lessons, you’re in the right place.
This blog post will show you how to make the most of these free resources while helping your high school students develop a love for literature, improve their writing skills, and gain a deeper understanding of the world.
Plus, I’ll highlight how teachers can use free resources to enhance their instruction across multiple subject areas, such as language arts, world history, and social studies.
A Note for Homeschool Parents
While my audience is high school English teachers, this is for you, too!
More and more parents are opting to homeschool their students, but there’s no reason most traditional high school resources won’t work at home, too.
There are tons of free online resources that would benefit any homeschool mom or dad looking to fill in the gaps of their homeschooling curriculum–or buy themselves time while they create their own!
Even if you’re homeschooling, I encourage you to give some high school resources a glance.
The high school years are tough. Content gets more niche and complex. You can’t possibly be expected to be an expert in everything!
So use whatever resources work for you and your learners. Even if they’re not strictly marketed as homeschool curricula.
How to Start Looking for a Free Printable High School Curriculum
I know you probably came here looking for a free, downloadable PDF–and I’ll get to that. But before you just start downloading everything you can find, I want to encourage you to really think about what you need.
Because freebie overwhelm is totally a thing.
There’s an infinite number of excellent resources out there because every teacher approaches ELA differently and has different student needs to meet.
If you’re here because you have to start teaching really soon and have no curriculum, try to take a moment. Do you know where your students are at? Do you have anything to help you narrow down your search–standards, a course title, a list of books available?
(And overwhelmed first-year teachers, I have extra tips for you in this post!)
Looking at every free curriculum online will give you tons of ideas, but no direction. And you’re trying to put together a cohesive curriculum.
So, if you’re starting from scratch, consider popular high school English course titles. If you can pick a focus for your class, it will help you narrow down your curriculum choices.
My high school had Survey of Literature, American Literature, World Literature, and Perspectives of Literature courses. If you decide to go with a class like American Literature, it will help you immensely narrow down what you’re searching for!
Some schools offer really fun enrichment courses like a Science Fiction and Fantasy class.
Do you only want to teach classic books? Or do you want to incorporate more modern titles or YA fiction?
If you were given no parameters, try to create your own first. Then, you can find a curriculum to help you reach your vision.
My Printable High School Curriculum for Language Arts
While I don’t have a comprehensive set of curricula to cover every high school ELA need (yet!), I do have some resources that could help you out. I have several year-long curricula–each with a free pacing guide you can check out. I also have many units with free guides.
Below, I’ve listed and linked all of my free pacing guides. If one sounds interesting, please download it and check it out! Even if you don’t end up using the resources that pair with the pacing guides, you might find inspiration for setting up and timing your own units.
(If you’re looking for actual activities for use in your class, my free ones are listed a little further down this post!)
Free Year-long Pacing Guides:
- Complete High School World Literature Curriculum Guide
- Complete Year-long High School Grammar Curriculum Guide (Click on bonus preview to see this one)
Free Novel Unit Pacing Guides:
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Pacing Guide
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Pacing Guide
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Pacing Guide
- The Complete Maus by Art Speigelman Pacing Guide
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Pacing Guide
Free Skill Pacing Guides:
Free Teacher Guides (not curricula, per se, but still helpful for planning):
Don’t see anything that appeals to you?
Luckily, I’m not the only seller on Teachers Pay Teachers! I highly recommend browsing the TPT site for curriculum guides from other amazing sellers. You can search by grade level, core subjects, and even specify free.
Free Online Curriculum Resources for Teaching High School English
An alternative to the old-fashioned, printable teaching guides is to build your curriculum around a free online resource.
This is a little risky since free resources don’t always stay free. High school teachers looking to build a curriculum that can be used again and again may not want to base their teaching around one website. However, online lessons might be especially helpful for a high school homeschool curriculum.
If you’re looking for more ways to enhance your lessons and reach your students, there are plenty of free resources available that will help you teach effectively across different subject areas. As a high school English teacher, you can benefit from the following free online resources:
- Khan Academy: Free courses that can supplement your lessons in subjects like math skills, history, and science.
- Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool: Although designed for homeschooling, it offers complete lesson plans that can easily be adapted for classroom use.
- Ambleside Online: A great Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum that provides book lists and resources you can use to enhance your English literature lessons.
- CommonLit: A great source for texts, lessons, and literary unit ideas
- NoRedInk or Quill.org: Online, scaffolded grammar instruction based on each student’s individual skills
- Full Curriculum Sites: Websites that offer free online resources in world history, American government, and other key subject areas that can support your English curriculum.
These resources will help you enhance your classroom experience, whether you’re supplementing your lessons with additional online courses or providing free printable worksheets for extra practice.
Free Printable High School English Activities
I also have some great FREE resources you can download now to add to your ELA curriculum. Here they are:
- FREE “I Am” Poem Lesson–great for starting the school year or a poetry unit
- FREE Back-to-school Classroom Scavenger Hunt–another great first week of school activity
- FREE 2-sentence Horror Story Writing Activity–fun flash fiction for a horror unit or Halloween time
- FREE Figurative Language Activity–great enrichment for a figurative language or poetry unit
- FREE Figurative Language Handout–includes 10 terms with definitions and examples
- FREE Fill-in-the-blank Comic Book Activity–students practice inference skills by filling in bubbles on a blank comic book page
- FREE Dystopian Novel Anticipation Guide–a great intro activity for a dystopian unit
- FREE Source Credibility Checklist Using the CRAAP Test–a checklist for evaluating sources
- FREE Claim, Evidence, Reasoning Handout–essential for any analytical writing
- FREE Visual Notetaking Student Handout–this is a must if you plan on doing any sketchnotes or visual notetaking
- FREE Tone and Mood Words List–a handy reference for any tone/mood analysis
- FREE FANBOYS Coordinating Conjunction Poster–a classroom resource to help with grammar
- FREE Dear Martin by Nic Stone Quote Poster–even if you’re not teaching Dear Martin, the quote is gold
Again, you don’t have to limit yourself to my freebies. Search around TPT and filter by “free.” It’s amazing how many wonderful resources are available for older students–all completely free and created by experienced teachers.
Incorporate Free Activities Regularly Into Your Class
In addition to trying to make the most of free printable high school curricula and free online curricula, try free year-long activities.
If your school has a well-stocked library or you have a solid classroom library already, consider making independent reading part of your class.
As long as there are books already, it won’t cost you anything to let students borrow them. You can have students read every day or once a week.
This can be purely enrichment, or you can add in activities like reading exit tickets or independent novel projects to assess independent reading.
Building regular reading time into your classes can fill a huge amount of your lesson planning calendar–and research proves it’s one of the best things you can do for your students!
There are other free activities you can make a regular part of your classroom to reduce the need for paid resources.
Regular discussions are free. Reading public domain short stories or poetry will only cost your school the money to make copies.
And if your school is located somewhere cool, you can even schedule free walking field trips. (Even a walking field trip to a park to sit and write is a fun way to mix up class!)
Take stock of the activities, places, and experts that you already have free access to, and make the most of them!
Conclusion
Remember, if you’re panicking about putting together a whole Engish curriculum, take a breath! Regardless of whether you’re a high school teacher or a homeschooling parent, there are tons of free resources out there and endless ways to puzzle them together into an amazing class.
Start by finding a way to narrow down your search. (If possible, I recommend focusing on the skills your students need to learn the most.)
Then, refine your search from there.
If you really don’t have the funds for a curriculum, it’s entirely possible to get through a year using only public domain texts, free online lessons, and the material you make yourself.
Take a breath. You got this!