No-Prep High School & Middle School ELA Bell Ringers for Every Day of the Year

If you're an ELA teacher looking for consistent, no-prep bell ringers for high school students, this post is your goldmine. With 36 weeks of grammar practice, writing prompts, poetry analysis, or reading comprehension activities, you’ll have your entire year of bell ringers planned—before school even starts. These aren’t just random warm-ups. They’re unique week-at-a-time resources in a cohesive, skill-based format that reinforce standards, improve classroom management, and set a purposeful tone for every class period.


Let’s break down how you can cover whichever ELA strand or standard serves your students best—with zero last-minute scrambling.



Grammar Bell Ringers: Daily Practice That Sticks


If you’re tired of reteaching commas and subject-verb agreement after every major writing assignment, grammar bell ringers are your best ally. A short sentence-editing task each day helps students build grammar and mechanics skills over time—without overwhelming them (or you). I use my 36-week Ten-Minute Grammar system to spiral in key concepts like fragments, punctuation, agreement, and more. Just a few minutes a day = major gains. Read more in this blog post about my Ten-Minute Grammar Program for Middle and High School.


Classroom Success Stories:

"This curriculum is so great! I feel as though it really helped my students understand the conventions of the English language so much better. It helps to build a routine with grammar, but it is not too hard or too much for the students. 10/10 would buy again!"

-Joshua F.

"My students really enjoyed being able to come up to the whiteboard and make revisions to the paragraphs. "

-Bete R P.


Shop it for middle and high school here.

Writing Bell Ringers: Paragraph-of-the-Week Prompts


Get your students writing consistently with structured paragraph prompts that build over the week. This style of writing bell ringers guides students through brainstorming, drafting, revising, and reflecting—all in bite-sized pieces. They’re ideal for routine writing practice and for strengthening skills that show up in formal essays, constructed responses, and test writing tasks.


Classroom Success Stories:

"Love this resource! My students are able to work on their writing skills without it being overwhelming. "

-Ashley C.

"Thank you so much. I have moved grades a lot and was very excited to find weekly paragraph writing for older kids."

-Kyle J.


Shop middle and high school ELA here.


Poetry Bell Ringers: Short Texts, Big Thinking


Poetry doesn’t have to be intimidating. A "Poem of the Week" bell ringer using a short, high-interest poem can help students grow more comfortable analyzing figurative language, tone, diction, and structure. They dive in with a specific, but new, task each day to keep it fresh and to produce more in-depth interaction with poetry.  My poem-of-the-week resource for high school is designed to be quick, accessible, and discussion-friendly—perfect for the first ten minutes of class each day. With this resource, there is no more IDK with poetry. Read that blog post here. I also explain a bit more about my Poem of the Week Daily Bell Ringers in this video on Instagram, flip through this highlight, or see this post with a video walk-through.


Classroom Success Stories

"I'm not going to lie, my students did not like this resource. However, the reason they did not like it was because that meant they had to do more than just simply read the poem and summarize it. This resource required students to look deeper at each poem and work each day to truly comprehend what was being asked of them. I loved how this resource made the students slow down and read to understand and gain a deeper understanding of what was being asked of them."

- Jada

"Love how this resource is set up, and I love the Acronym worksheet!"

-Jennifer


Shop Poem of the Week Here.

Reading Bell Ringers: Informational Texts Article of the Week


Whether it’s a current event or a thought-provoking article, reading bell ringers help students sharpen close reading, annotation, and comprehension skills. The short nonfiction texts in my Article of the Week resource are great for building reading stamina and background knowledge. With this resource, I've designed daily tasks unique to the articles linked in that give students a meaningful and skills-based reason to revisit the article of the week each day. Except for the day students are answering the provided questions, the tasks can be completed in 10 minutes or so! Read "Everything You Need to Know About Article of the Week" or watch me explain it in my Instagram Highlights.


Classroom Success Stories:

"I have tried for years to incorporate AOW into my curriculum but have never really found anything that sticks or that I felt was organic. This year alone, I have now tried 3 different formats, including Julie Faulkner's way, and her bundle of pre-made worksheets has worked best. Providing a pre-made worksheet with the article addresses all levels of student ability rather than just asking them to write a response. This provides more direction and structure. I did have to remove her rubric as it was far too general and had larger point values which led to too much ambiguity. I have made a more task-specific rubric instead but I appreciated the ability to edit all of the worksheets so that I could do that."

-Krysta

"Wow! This is one of the best resources I've come across. I've always struggled to fit in informational text standards, but this easy routine ensures that I hit all of them. Thank you so much!"

-Grace


Shop Article of the Week for ELA High School, ELA Middle School, and Yearbook/Journalism.


Beyond the Weekly Routine: Keep It Fresh and Flexible


Once in a while, you need something unexpected to shake things up. I also rotate in creative bell ringers like Real-World Grammar Fails Task Cards, Holiday/Seasonal Grammar Worksheets, seasonal Coloring-by-Number sheets, Interactive games, or hands-on sorting games. These bonus warm-ups keep the routine engaging while still hitting standards—and they’re a great way to review or preview upcoming units.


Classroom Success Stories:

"I needed to switch up how I use was using grammar instruction for bell work, and this resource has been perfect. "

- Janeen W. (on the Real-World Grammar Fails Task Cards)

"Thank you for this resource! I use this about once a week for morning work so my 11th grader can brush up on some grammar!"

-Jamie S. (on the Seasonal Grammar Worksheets)


Shop Grammar Fails, Seasonal Worksheets, and Hands-On Sorting Games


Read on more about bell ringers at this post: "Everything You Need to Know About Bell Ringers."

Bell Ringers for High School and Middle School

Love this content?

Sign up for my email newsletter with more tips, ideas, success stories, and freebies!

Plant-Themed, Growth Mindset High School Classroom Design Makeover
By Julie Faulkner June 30, 2025
If you're searching for classroom makeover ideas, growth mindset decor, or creative ways to organize your room for maximum impact, this plant-themed high school English classroom transformation is packed with inspiration.
Effective Strategies for Teaching Poetry in Secondary ELA
By Julie Faulkner April 6, 2025
Tired of hearing “I don’t get it” every time you teach a poem? This blog post shares 5 teacher-tested strategies that build student confidence before the confusion kicks in. From guided annotations to smart poem pairings, these moves help students approach poetry with curiosity instead of panic. Think: less frustration, more “aha!” moments.
Old-Fashioned Test Prep That Works: A Proven Approach for Middle and High School English
By Julie Faulkner February 20, 2025
Let me let you in on a little secret: I actually like test prep season! I don't love that students have to take the tests (we can discuss that another day), but what I love is that this time is when we can slow down and reflect. There's no more pressure to teach new material, and it's also a signal that the end of the year is near! However, I know that means students are also super close to done and prepping for tests can really start to wear them thin. That’s why I stick to test prep strategies that work—no fluff, no gimmicks, just solid, old-fashioned review. While flashy new methods come and go, the classic approach still delivers results. By focusing on structured review, targeted practice, and immediate feedback, we can keep students engaged without burning them out. Here’s how to make test prep both effective and manageable.
Mastering Academic Feedback on Writing
By Julie Faulkner January 2, 2025
Providing effective academic feedback on writing is one of the most impactful ways educators can support student growth. Research and experience consistently show that timely, meaningful feedback clarifies expectations and helps students develop critical skills for success in writing and beyond. Whether you’re following evaluation rubrics like TEAM or preparing students for AP Language standards or EOC writing tests, creating a system for giving and receiving feedback is essential. In this post, I’ll summarize five key strategies to make academic feedback a game-changer in your classroom.
Student-Centered Teaching Strategies: Engage Your Class Without the Stress
By Julie Faulkner November 27, 2024
There are those times when "teachering" just isn’t optimal. What do I mean by that? "Teachering," as defined by me, involves delivering new material, expecting students to produce immediate results, or spending the entire class in direct instruction when students are already overloaded or overstimulated. These times include—but are not limited to—the days before a break, the holiday season, the week of a full moon, half days, or even the day after Halloween. During these moments, the best approach is to shift the focus away from you and onto your students. Let them lead, apply what they’ve already learned, reflect on their progress, and take ownership of their work. This hands-off teaching strategy creates a structured yet low-stress classroom environment where students stay calm, focused, and productive.
Insights from a Student Teacher of High School English
July 25, 2024
It’s a unique situation for both parties of a student-teaching experience: on the one hand from the point of view of the student teacher, you are entering someone else’s classroom and you may be teaching solo for the first time, and on the other hand, you may be the classroom teacher who is welcoming someone else into your classroom to take the lead. To say the least, this is a tricky space to navigate. That’s why I thought it would be interesting to speak directly to a student teacher – to hear her thoughts and experiences. Whether you are a cooperating/mentoring teacher of a student teacher or you are a student teacher heading into the classroom, this interview with a student teacher of high school English (Miss M), who just completed her placement, is very enlightening.
Everything You Need to Know About How to Sell the Yearbook
July 25, 2024
You’ve worked hard for half a year or longer to create this beautiful time capsule — the yearbook. You’ve sold advertisements, taken pictures, written headlines and captions, and included as many students as possible. BUT — what if no one sees what you and your staffers have created? That may be a little hyperbolic, but it is super important to have a strategy in place not just for creating the yearbook but for selling it as well. Here’s everything you need to know about how to sell the yearbook!
Make Your Yearbook More Diverse & Inlcusive with These Easy Tips
July 25, 2024
Our yearbook staff’s motto is “Everybody’s Story. Everybody’s Book.” That means everyone! Not just the seniors, the athletes, the staffers and their friends, certain cliques – everybody. Why does that matter? For one, if we are creating a book for people to purchase, they need to be reflected in it; or they won’t purchase it. But the bigger, more important reason is simply that we are telling the story of a year, and without every person represented, considered, and included in the yearbook design, we haven’t done our job: We haven’t told the true story of the year at all if we let bias or favoritism creep in or if we get lazy with coverage and choices. The yearbook must be an accurate time capsule with reflections of each person’s interests, styles, talents, abilities, and backgrounds. Therefore, you can make your yearbook more diverse and inclusive with these easy steps! Tips for your yearbook pages and beyond.
Planning the First Week of Yearbook Class
July 25, 2024
You’ve just been assigned the yearbook, or last year didn’t go so well, and you want your first days plans to be solid, effective, and fun! Does this sound like you? I’ve been there. The first week of school is a whirlwind, but in yearbook class, the first week back to school is even more topsy turvy, to say the least. You might have looked through my Tips for New Advisers post or How to Have a Picture-Perfect Start to the Year posts for adviser-facing suggestions, and you feel good-to-go from that side of things. However, now it’s time to decide what to do when students are walking through the door — AKA planning the first week of yearbook class! When I think about what to do the first week of school in my yearbook class, I try to think of it like one my English classes in some ways, and in other ways, it is completely different! In this blog post, I’ll share my student-facing plans for the first week of yearbook class.
What the COVID-19 Pandemic Did Not Change About My Classroom
July 25, 2024
The 2020-2021 school year was the year of the unexpected, the year of changes, the year of disappointments, the year of frustrations, and certainly the year of loss. It goes down in my book as the hardest year of my teaching career — that includes the first year I taught in middle school, the first year I was a lead in an inclusion classroom, the year I taught while building a house, the first year I was the new yearbook adviser, and the year I taught while having multiple surgeries for some serious medical issues. And let’s not forget that I actually contracted COVID-19 THE. FIRST. DAY. BACK of teacher in-service. However, I didn’t quit. I did survive, and I’m going back. That said, I am choosing to look at the positive — shall we say, “COVID Positive” — Bad pun. Anyway, despite all change that occurred this year — schedules, classrooms, assignments, students, and more, there were a few things that I’m thankful that the COVID-19 pandemic did not change about my classroom.
More Posts