creative writing sub plan

7 Fun Writing Sub Plans for Substitute Teachers

You might be a full-time classroom teacher who needs to take an unexpected day off and wants to keep their class busy and engaged in your absence.

In that case, you’ll need to devise straightforward yet stimulating activities for an off-the-cuff lesson plan.

 Or, perhaps you’re that hardy breed of wandering samurai known as the substitute teacher. Either way, it pays to have a couple of fun, preplanned lesson plans and writing tasks quick to hand in case of emergencies.

 Most battle-worn subs have a few rabbits they can pull from their magic hat immediately as and when the occasion calls for it. But it’s always good to mix things up a little and add a new trick or two to that trusty old bag of tricks.

 In this article, we’ll explore seven fun writing tasks that promise to keep a room full of unfamiliar students equal parts engaged and entertained.

Daily Quick Writes For All Text Types

Our FUN DAILY QUICK WRITE TASKS will teach your students the fundamentals of CREATIVE WRITING across all text types. Packed with 52 ENGAGING ACTIVITIES

  1. Pick and Mix

This activity requires a little preparation ahead of time. Still, your energy investment will be more than justified by the number of activities you can pull out of your hat instantly when needed.

To prepare for this activity, you’ll need to compile a list of well-known but seldom-used words. For example, while most 14-year-olds will know words such as missile , sorcerer , and miniature , they will most likely rarely use them in their writing.

The words you choose for your list will depend on the age of the students you’ll be teaching. As a sub, you might not always know what age group you’ll be teaching, so it’s worth preparing a few different lists for different age groups in advance. There are innumerable suitable word lists for each grade, a quick Google search away.

Once you have your word lists, type them and print them off. Cut out each word and place it in a small drawstring bag or similar container.

Then, when you need a spontaneous activity, pull out your bag and ask a student to pull out three words at random. The students must write a poem that incorporates the three chosen words.

There are many ways to adapt this central idea.

You can challenge the students to use their words to write a specific type of poem, e.g. sonnet, calligram, haiku, etc. Or, you might impose a time limit for the students to complete the task, e.g. 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc.

Perhaps you can ask them to collaborate in small groups to produce a shared writing piece. You can also ask them to choose different numbers of words or write in other genres, such as a short story or a dialogue.

The number of variations on this activity is limited only by your imagination.

2. Mystery Meal Review

In this activity, students will be challenged to use language to conjure up a mirage of a meal in the minds of their readers.

First, ask the students to think about the best meal they have ever eaten. Tell them to close their eyes to engage their imagination better. Instruct them to think about what they ate during that meal. Ask a series of rhetorical questions to help trigger their memories and inspire their creativity.

•  What vegetables did they have?
• What type of meat was there?
• Was the food roasted? Fried? Boiled?
• Did they have sauces or seasonings?
• What was the texture of the food like in their mouths? Crunchy? Creamy? Melt in the mouth
• What colors were on their plate?
• How did the food smell?

Once they’ve had time to quietly reflect on the best meal they’ve ever eaten, it’s time to write about it. However, the twist in the tale here is that they cannot mention any of the food items they write about by name.

Instead, the students must describe the meal and its component items in such detail that the reader will be able to tell what they ate without the writer mentioning the food by name.

To make things a little easier, the students can use generic terms such as vegetable, meat, dessert, etc., but they must not use specific nouns such as chicken, carrots, gravy, etc.

This will challenge the student to use their powers of description to convey the details of their food to the reader. They’ll have to use sensory details appealing to the senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and even sound.

When the students have finished writing their reviews of their best-ever meals, they can swap their descriptions with other classmates, who will then try to deduce the ingredients of their meal.

The winning writer will be the one with the most readers who correctly figure out the main elements of the writer’s meal.

3. Rewrite the Past

This activity is an excellent way to encourage the students to exercise their creativity while also instilling in the students the structure and features of recount writing .

To prepare for this activity, you’ll need to gather up a few old photographs to serve as visual stimuli for this writing activity. You can simply print these from the Internet. Alternatively, you can gather up a few props such as old postcards , an old-fashioned hat, a pair of spectacles, some old coins, etc.

Whatever the props used, students will employ them as a jumping-off point to kickstart their creativity as they write an imaginative first-person recount.

To revise the structure and features of a recount, check out our informative article here.

You can leave the background to their recount entirely up to the student and how they respond to the prompt. If you prefer, you can provide some context to the stimuli used, for example, in the form of some historical background or detail on who is in the photograph.

Either way, it will be incumbent upon the student to respond creatively to whatever prop you provide, all while considering the structural conventions and features of the recount text type.

If you wish to add a competitive element to the exercise, you might award a small prize for the most original, the funniest, etc.

4. Alternate Endings

Begin this writing activity by asking the students to name their favorite books or movies. Through a class vote, find the overall class favorite to base the activity on.

It doesn’t matter if some class members haven’t seen the movie (or read the book). You will start by retelling the story of the movie or book as a class. Pay particular attention to the ending. Make sure the class as a whole agrees on how the story comes to a climax and resolution.

Once this has been established, it’s time for students to kick their own pens into gear to write an alternative ending for the tale.

Encourage students to be as wacky and outlandish as possible. They can subvert the movie or book’s genre by tacking on a horror ending onto a comedy or vice versa, for example.

When students have completed their rewrite of the ending, encourage them to share their efforts with the class by reading their work out loud.

Which alternate ending did the class enjoy the most? Why?

5. Dialogue Reconstruction

Learning to write dialogue well is an effective way to breathe life into storytelling.

It takes practice and careful observation to develop the finely tuned ear required to write it well. This activity helps students to begin this process by carefully reconstructing a dialogue they overheard or participated in.

To get the ball rolling in this activity, first review the specifics of punctuating dialogue correctly. Do a little research to get up to speed if you are unsure about these rules. But, in brief, here are five of the most important of these rules:

•  Introduce dialogue with a comma, e.g. She said , “The hat makes your head look small.”
• Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote, e.g. “The hat makes your head look small ,” she said.
• Place periods and commas within closing quotations, e.g. “ It’s the hat that’s big, not my head . ”
• Use single quotes when using quotes within dialogue, e.g. “My mother told me, ‘ Your head is a perfect size, darling. ’ ”
• Mark a change of speaker by starting a new paragraph, i.e. skipping a line. For example,

  “The hat makes your head look small, ” she said.

“ It’s the hat that’s big, not my head,” he replied.

Technicalities out of the way, now it’s time for the students to get reconstructing!

Ask the students to think of a conversation they’ve had today. It might have been a trivial conversation they had with a parent over breakfast or with a friend or sibling on the way to school. Maybe it was some small talk with a worker in a shop. It doesn’t matter.

The task here is for the student to reflect on the conversation and attempt to recreate it on paper with as much faithfulness as possible.

Remind the students that we don’t speak as we write. Our spoken language is filled with half-finished sentences, slang, and non-standard pronunciations. Encourage students to accurately convey the rhythms and sounds of the speech they heard and/or uttered themselves.

This may require the students to veer from the usual grammar and spelling rules to render the dialogue convincingly.

Also, encourage the students to read their words aloud as they write to listen for their authenticity.

When students have finished, have them share their work with the class.

6. Found in Translation

This is a poetry writing activity, but with a twist.

Bring in a copy of a poem that is in a language other than English to show the students. Another European language will work best for this activity, as it is helpful if the students can make some educated guesses at the meanings of some of the words.

The students’ task will be to ‘translate’ the poem from a language they don’t read into English. Just in case some students do speak the language, be sure to have an alternative poem in another language to hand, too.

When you give the students the poem, don’t provide them with any background about the poem’s meaning.

Instead, tell them that they are to translate the poem into English. They can mimic the lines, spacing, and shape of the poem on the page. They can examine the words and attempt to deduce or guess at their meanings. Simply, they must do their best to interpret the poem and render its meaning on the page.

When the students have finished, have them share their work with the class and compare the wildly different interpretations of the original poem.

You might well be surprised at how close some students will come to the original subject matter!

Year Long Inference Based Writing Activities

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7. In Case of Emergency, Break Glass!

Writing prompts are the quickest, most straightforward way to get those pens moving and every sub worth their salt should have a few tried-and-tested prompts to hand at all times.

Here are five quick writing prompts guaranteed to get the ink flowing.

•  You have a crocodile as a pet. Write about what it’s like to keep a croc as a household pet.
• You are going to interview your favorite celebrity. What questions do you ask?
• You have been appointed President of the World . What are the first laws you would change and why?
• Close your eyes, open a book and point at the page. Now, open your eyes again. What is the first word you see? Write about this word for five minutes.
• Write about ten things you could do to improve your life. Write about ten things you could do to improve the life of the people around you.

The Final Bell

So, there we have seven engaging writing tasks that make perfect additions to any sub’s bag of tricks. Each activity is quick and easy, with only a few requiring anything more than a minute or two in preparation in the form of easy-to-find materials.

Not only are these the perfect go-tos for any harassed substitute, but they are also useful to have in reserve for regular class teachers too. The teaching day is full of lots of little transitions, and it is always helpful to have a few quick, off-the-cuff activities to fall back on in such situations.

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES FOR SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS

17 Fun First Day Of School Writing Activities

10 fun writing activities for the reluctant writer

13 Fun Reading Activities for Any Book

10 Fun Classroom Writing Games to Improve Literacy Skills

5 Fun Seasonal Writing Activities Students and Teachers Love

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Teaching ELA with Joy

Middle School ELA Resources

My Best ELA Substitute Plans

By Joy Sexton 2 Comments

Sick days . . . they’re inevitable! Those days when you wake up and it hits you . . . I can’t go in!   There’s nothing worse than the stress and confusion of digging up lessons for the sub when you’re feeling awful. That’s why, for me, preparing for sick days in advance is a must. I LOVE the feeling of knowing I have “stand alone” ELA substitute plans all set to go when the need arises. Here are some ways I prepare for sub days ahead of time so I can jump back into bed without a worry:

1.   Locate some short stories that aren’t from units 

Over the summer, I always take home a few different literature anthologies on my grade level. I look for short stories, dramas, and memoirs that I know I won’t teach in my units during the year. I think of these as my “emergency” stories. If you check your school’s book room, you can usually find outdated anthologies (or samples from other publishers that your school didn’t end up purchasing) that contain good pieces.

I look for stories that aren’t too long—ones that could be read in about 20-25 minutes at the most. Then I do a Google search of the titles I like. I check to see if there might be a “full text” version I can print from the Internet. That makes it easy to make a class set of copies to use . Otherwise, I just mark the books with sticky notes, and put the stories in for copies at school.  Another source I use, mostly for good short dramas, is Scholastic Scope . Every issue features a great read-aloud play that students enjoy. Our English department purchases class sets of Scope , but you can check their site for teachers online–it’s awesome! I try to get maybe six different stories, dramas, and/or memoirs made into class sets for the start of the year.

2.   Use writing activities that work with ANY text

Here’s the part that I love because it’s become so easy for me. I have a variety of resources I copy that can be paired with ANY text and are perfect to leave for ELA substitute plans! The students get to read an engaging story, and then they complete a response activity based on the story.   Substitute Writing Activities for ANY Literature   is one of my go-to resources for a sub plan. There are  six different writing assignments , each with a detailed pre-writing graphic organizer which draws students back into the story searching for relevant details. I print and copy all six assignments and have them available in folders. You can give students a choice of assignments, or pair up the one that works best with a particular text. If we’re currently in a literature unit, then I  can go ahead and use a text I’d planned to include anyway! But if we’re doing something different, I use one of the “emergency” story class sets I made in advance.

Here’s an example of the Newspaper Article Writing Assignment that I pair with “The Scholarship Jacket.”

The other after-reading assignments included in this resource that provide for successful ELA substitute plans are . . . A Letter of Advice to a Character, How a Character Changes, Extending the Ending, A Character’s Journal Page, and Tracking a Main Conflict.

Another activity that is a big hit as an ELA substitute lesson is pairing up a story with a MINI-BOOK for Literature Response assignment! A mini-book is a fun format and students enjoy creating them. They read the story and are then given the mini-book handout. It contains seven different standards-aligned topics on mini-sides plus a cover side that requires artwork. Actually, I love to leave this lesson plan when I know I will be out for two days!! It definitely takes students an additional class period to complete.  There is a directions handout for students to guide them step-by-step as they work on each page of the mini-book. Pictorial directions that can be projected show how to fold the mini-book. Students can partner up and have literature-based discussions as they work through the sections. And these mini-books are so easy to grade when you get back to school. Just use the quick grading sheet that’s provided!

3.  Leave a door sign:  Independent Reading Today–Bring Your Novel

Sometimes I have the opportunity to just keep my regular lesson plan moving forward. If that’s the case, Independent Reading  can sure come in handy to “flesh out” a substitute plan! In other words, students can continue on an assignment we have been working on for part of the lesson. If it’s not a day when I have Book Club planned (that’s what we call our reading workshop time), I change things up and have the substitute teacher make it a Book Club day. That way students can begin with 20 minutes of reading. They are already used to that routine. Then they go on continuing their assignment from the last class. In this case, it helps to have a “Book Club Today” sign ready to hang in the doorway so students know to bring their novels.

Here’s an example of how that may look. Let’s say we’ve been working on a graphic organizer for an essay and have just started drafting. I simply type up a quick plan such as:

• Book Club first 20-25 minutes . Please hang sign in doorway. (See sub folder for Book Club expectations)
• Students will finish writing their rough drafts for the essay we have been working on. They will also edit with a red pen (35 minutes). All work, including assignment directions, is in their English binders.

That’s It! My lesson plan is done! Besides leaving the sign, I  keep a description of the Reading Workshop (that I’ve typed up in advance)  in my sub folder. That way the sub knows all the expectations during this important use of instructional time. Of course, this plan only works if you have already established a strong independent reading routine with your students and you know they do come regularly with their novels and read. If you’ like to learn more on this, click to read my post about setting up a  Middle School Reading Workshop .

I’ve enjoyed sharing my ideas for ELA substitute plans through this awesome Secondary Smorgasbord blog hop. Many thanks to hosts Darlene Anne and Pamela Kranz for the idea! 

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Reader Interactions

May 10, 2017 at 1:43 am

Thank you so much! I am actually finishing a National Board Component and have to take 1 to 2 nonconsecutive days off to do so. With so few weeks left, I really wanted to keep them involved with novel we are currently reading- but I can also use this for other short stories that I usually use as plans! A true life saver.

May 13, 2020 at 3:04 pm

Joy, I just found out that I will be teaching 7th grade ELA for the fall. This is will be my first year as a teacher and reading through your blog has given me so many great ideas! Thank you for providing your resources and wisdom from your classroom experience. You have a new subscriber!

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Creative ELA Sub Plans (for THOSE days)

• January 17, 2023

So I had just dropped off my son to school and I was driving my daughter home to rest. She didn’t feel her best…again. I was tired and needed ELA Sub Plans.

I felt like she had spent more days at home than at school this year, and her slight stuffiness didn’t seem very serious, so a furious battle was raging in my brain.

I wanted to take care of her. Be patient. Kind. Tuck her into bed with orange juice popsicles, chicken noodle soup, and Ramona on audiobook.

On the other hand, I had PLANS for the day. Plans I was seriously attached to. I needed to grocery shop, work out, do a lot of work, clean up the house, buy a birthday present for her friend’s party the next day, and generally prepare myself for two more days of solo parenting while my husband was out of town.

“Mom?” came her little (slightly stuffy) voice from the backseat. “Are you mad at me?”

Ugh. Look out people, the parent of the year committee is headed my way.

Sometimes things don’t go to plan. Maybe you’re waking up to a sick child every third day this year. Maybe you have an unexpected injury. Maybe you suddenly need to travel to take care of a parent or grandparent. Maybe – like me in December – you’re the rare adult who actually gets croup and can barely sit up to adjust the volume on Grey’s Anatomy .

That’s when it’s time for a good solid sub plan. Something you can count on to be creative and interesting, even if it’s not exactly what you had planned for that moment in the unit. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one whose plans sometimes go awry. We may not talk about it enough, but life sure as heck happens.

So today let’s take a look at some easy sub plans you can use anytime. I’m going to try to give you absolutely everything you need to plug any one of these into the next day that the life tornado hits your planner.

#1 Sub Plan: The Graphic Adaptation (for any Text)

This month we’ve been talking a lot about graphic novels – great titles for the classroom , graphic adaptations of classic stories , even a graphic novel book tasting. So I figured it was a good time to share a single lesson that helps kids learn more about the artistry and intention behind a graphic novelist’s choices. You can use this sub plan with any book, any time.

First, have your sub show this video. It’s a quick walkthrough of a page in the graphic adaptation of The Great Gatsby , with an invitation from the creator for students to try the skills of graphic adaptation for themselves.

Next, use these handouts ( click here to make your copy ) to guide students in creating their own graphic adaptation of a key moment in your recent reading. They’ll be guided to use two techniques in particular – a close-up and a significant color choice – to make their version more effective.

You can then direct your sub to let students do a gallery walk in the last few minutes, if time allows, and see each other’s graphic adaptations before turning in their work.

#2 Sub Plan: Hold a Silent Discussion on Google Slides

Had your heart set on a discussion for the day you’re going to have to miss? Though a sub is unlikely to be able to facilitate one effectively without all your context and knowledge of the class, almost any discussion can be rolled into a silent version.

I’ve created easy Google Slides templates where you can drop in your questions and students have spaces to add their responses. They can flip from slide to slide, reading questions and responses, and adding their two cents.

Take a look at this before and after example.

You can grab ten of these colorful templates here , with quick and easy instructions for duplicating the ones you like best and giving students access to edit them. I often hear from surprised teachers who discover just how much students will “say” in a silent discussion.

#3 Sub Plan: Ted Talk Time

Watching a good Ted Talk is never a waste of time. Pick one you think your students would love from this curated list of nine classroom winners or show the one below, which might just be my favorite Ted Talk of all time. Before playing the talk, have your sub write the post-talk writing prompt on the board and draw students’ attention to it.

Choose a prompt that fits with the skills you want students to be practicing.

You could have them practice argument using a prompt like: Did you think the speaker made an effective case? Why or why not? Use at least three examples to support your argumnet.

You could have them practice rhetorical analysis using a prompt like: Did you think the speaker was most effective using logos, ethos, or pathos to make their overall point? Why? Defend your choice with at least two specific examples.

You could have them practice their own speech writing using a prompt like: If you were going to give a Ted Talk, what would it be about? What do you most want to share with the world? Write the first few paragraphs.

Now it’s time for the talk! While students listen, they can jot down their key takeaways using these easy sketchnotes templates ( click here for the free download on TPT which is already in use in over 60,000 classrooms).

Then they can write on the prompt for the rest of the class time.

#4 Sub Plan: Blackout Poetry

If you’re in or near a poetry unit when the need for a sub plan arises, blackout poetry is an easy win. Use these handouts to walk students through the process. And if you don’t have any old books or magazines available, I’ve grabbed pages from  Jane Eyre, Anne of Green Gables, The Great Gatsby , and  1984  for you to print. ( Make your copy here ). 

If you want students to try creating digital blackout poetry, you can find a walkthrough for that in this fun post with even more ideas for digital poetry activities you could easily turn into sub plans.

OK, ready to rock it? Or at least feel slightly better about those awkward days when plans take a running dive off the dock? Good.

I’ll help you find the creative ELA strategies that will light up your classroom. Get ready for joyful teaching!

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Love these ideas Betsy! Thank you for sharing the templates for a silent discussion. I can’t wait to try them out with my students.

I’m so glad, Shyloh! Thank you! I hope they will be a great tool for you.

You are so awesome and generous!

I’m so glad it was helpful to you, Monique! And thank you for your kind words. 🙂

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Bell Ringers

Easy sub plans for your ela classroom.

There is nothing worse than waking up for a day of work…only to discover your not feeling well. As teachers, it means scrambling last minute for that dreaded thing: sub plans. If you just groaned at the thought – same . Whether you have a planned day off coming or want to be prepared for emergencies, having easy sub plans ready at a moment’s notice is a life-saver.

Let’s be honest, the last thing you want to do after a night of restless sleep and belly aches is put together sub plans. Let’s talk about how you can prepare for subs and prep easy sub plans in advance for maximum convenience. 

Preparing for a Substitute

Having a sub folder or binder will save you a huge headache. This is where you store all the important info your sub would need to know about the day and your class. Obviously you can’t go into all the details, so stick to the important, essential items. 

I recommend keeping copies of your class schedule, important numbers (like the nurse or front office), a classroom management plan, student allergies or medical concerns, any emergency plans, and which of your colleagues they can go to if they have a question.

If you want to simplify this prep, and more sure you don’t miss any key information, check out my no-prep editable sub plan resource ! I include templates for important information, including emergency drill info, class schedule template, sub plan outlines, and more.

Easy Sub Plan Ideas

Alright, here comes the fun part: making the plans! I know, I know. Probably not actually that fun, but this is where the effort upfront saves yourself stress later. Here are a few ideas to prep for sub plans.

#1 Independent Reading Day

Independent reading is such an overlooked idea for a sub day. It’s simple for a sub to manage, and we all know finding time to incorporate free reading into class is challenging. Why not make use of this time with a sub?

Give students time to read independently and check out books from your classroom library. You could even have them write a review of a recent book they read. These are fun to post around your classroom library to give other students ideas of a book they might like. 

For the sub, make sure you leave instructions about how students can check-out books, where they can get the book review templates, and generally how students should be using this time.

#2 Close Reading Activity

A close reading activity that is simple for a sub to manage. Plus, it’s also quick and easy for your colleague to print off for your class in the case of an emergency. Close reading activities are great because they allow students to practice and review essential reading skills and further their knowledge of a topic.

Because I’m all about working smarter, not harder – I wanted to share the close reading assignment I often leave behind for my students. I have Al Capone and Anne Frank close reading passages, great for 6th-8th grade.

Each close reading passage is enough for a day of lesson plans (possibly two, if you have shorter class periods or your students need extra time). These passages are engaging, and the text-dependent questions included are intended to challenge students while still allowing them to work independently. 

Plus, this close reading resource is intended to be easy sub plans, so I’ve made everything print-and-go, and even included the lesson plan notes for a sub to follow.

#3 Pixar Activity

This idea is dependent on your access to technology in the classroom. If your students have access to 1:1 technology, you can upload Pixar videos and then have students answer related questions. Pixar videos are a great way to practice plot, characterization, make inferences, draw conclusions, make connections, and more.

This can be an easy sub plan because you just need to create a Google Form. Upload the videos and questions there. The best part is that this can all be done from home if you’re out unexpectedly! Students love watching videos, so this assignment will have them hooked.

#4 Review Vocabulary

Another technology-based suggestion is using online games to review vocabulary. We all know that vocabulary is a critical piece of student learning and reviewing vocabulary is never time wasted. 

This is an easy sub plan because you can make this game once – and reuse it again and again (with or without a sub!). Plus, a lot of times you can find premade games. Some websites I like to use are Blooket, Gimkit, Kahoot, or Knoword. 

Just be sure to set the websites to “independent mode” to allow students to practice without the help of a teacher or a classmate. This will keep students on task and engaged in their learning. Games can also help you avoid that feeling of overwhelm when you return from an absence. There won’t be piles of papers for you to grade or sort – just check the stats on the game platform.

#5 Creative Writing Activity

Tapping into your students’ creative writing is a fun way to keep them engaged. Students can complete a creative writing assignment “guessing” where their teacher is for the day, which is bound to make you laugh a few times when you return – because seriously, middle schoolers come up with some crazy stuff. They don’t need to know you’re at a dentist appointment getting a cavity filled…they’ll imagine you’re at an amusement park or flying to space with a billionaire. 

This activity gets students’ creativity flowing, and it’s a low pressure assignment – even your struggling writers can come up with a ridiculous, fun story. The great part, too, is that you can use this prompt more than once throughout the year! My only warning is to make sure you set the expectation that these are school appropriate stories.

Want Ready-to-go Middle School ELA easy sub plans?

It’s time to leave behind the sub planning stress and chaos. If you want to make your days off a breeze and engaging for your students, grab the Middle School ELA Editable Sub Plans with Close Reading Passages . 

This resource makes for super easy grab-and-go emergency sub plans or to help you prep ahead of time for a day off. It includes sub information templates, substitute lesson plans, and two close reading passages: Al Capone and Anne Frank. You’ll thank me later 😉

• Read more about: Middle School ELA Planning , Organization

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