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we have one mission
To help you finally find that teacher-life balance you've been looking for while also being an amazing teacher for your students.
The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal is an exclusive membership for Middle School ELA Teachers in Grades 5-8 who are ready to streamline their planning process — while increasing student engagement and learning outcomes (and having fun along the way)!
Let's be real ...
It’s totally possible to reach your breaking point, even if (maybe especially if) you’re a great teacher.
Chances are pretty good that you became an ELA teacher because you’re passionate about connecting with your students and watching them grow.
But the warm, fuzzy feelings tend to evaporate when you’re sitting at home for the fifth consecutive Sunday, staring down a pile of ungraded persuasive essays on Tuck Everlasting.
Monday is looming...and you don’t have a lesson planned, either...
...so you’re frantically looking for ideas on TPT and Pinterest, hoping to find something that’s fun and rigorous and addresses at least one or two state standards and will take up the full 50-minute class period.
(Oh, and can it also teach grammar? Pretty please?)
Meanwhile, you’re sitting out another family event. Today it’s a baseball game, but next week it might be a picnic with good friends.
And if you’re being honest, weekdays are no better...
You manage to duct-tape things together for a few hours to help your own kids with their homework, but the second that 8 PM rolls around, you’re back to plugging numbers into the ol’ online gradebook.
Isn’t it time you started feeling good about teaching again?
how would it feel to . . .
There Are 4 Things You Need to Understand if You Want to Take Back Control of Your ELA Teaching Career
It IS possible for great ELA teachers to achieve work-life balance.
We know. It takes hours to plan lessons that incorporate all of the topics you need to teach...and if you’re honest with yourself, part of the reason is that you’re picky about making sure that the resources that you use are rigorous.
And lesson planning is only half the battle.
Grading means providing actionable feedback on stacks of 3-page essays...not running Scantrons through a machine.
But...hard as it may be to believe…
It doesn’t have to be that way.
With the right techniques—and resources—at your fingertips, you can win back those nights and weekends.
Lessons can be challenging and engaging.
Not every fun activity you find online is tough enough to challenge your students.
On the flip side, students can get easily frustrated by being asked to do challenging work that doesn’t actually speak to them.
But if your curriculum can do 3 things:
- Incorporate the skills and standards that your kids need to meet
- Focus on topics that they’re going to enjoy learning about
- Teach writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and more through cutting-edge strategies that are fun to put into practice
...then you’re going to see that outcomes can improve while students are having a blast.
You can find the time to teach everything you need...if you structure your lessons right.
One of the biggest challenges ELA teachers face is that you have ONE class period to teach grammar, writing, vocabulary, reading comprehension, literary analysis…
When you start thinking about it, it can make you question if you really are hitting all the standards.
(Especially if all you were given to start with was a printed PDF of those standards and a couple of boxes full of novels and an outdated anthology that you need to teach.)
You can’t control every aspect of teaching...but you can be more strategic about your approach.
There are always going to be wild cards (wait, why are we even telling you that when you’ve survived all the challenges the past few years have thrown at you??) but you can set yourself up to handle them easily.
What you can’t do is fend off all of these challenges while trying to lesson plan, grade, and manage a classroom on a day-by-day or hour-by-hour basis.
Otherwise, your work life starts to look a bit like this:
If you think that you can keep doing things by the seat of your pants, we need to talk. Chances are you know deep down that it’s not working—you just aren’t sure what to do differently.
That’s why we developed The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal.
We know from experience that you’re facing near-endless demands on your time, your energy, and your expertise.
As far as curriculum and resources go, you’re often starting with empty file cabinets (and minimal guidance).
And the challenges of the past few school years mean that your students may not have achieved the same outcomes they would have in past years.
we need to show you something....
Jamie's students had the highest test scores in the school (!), and Sarah's students saw engagement unlike anything she's seen in years past ... despite the challenges facing many educators in the classroom today.
We're going to help you do the same!
hey there, friend!
We're Caitlin and Jessica
CO-FOUNDERS OF EB ACADEMICS
And this all started when we were both teaching ELA across the hall from one another at a school in L.A.
One summer, we launched an ELA camp to help students get ahead for the summer, using the frameworks we’d developed for our own classrooms. It was a runaway success, and we realized that we wanted to share what we’d discovered with other teachers.
Because frameworks didn’t just make us better teachers...
They also simplified our planning and grading processes, so we had time to do the other things in life. Like read bedtime stories to our kids, squeeze in a long run, or just sit back on the sofa with a new episode of Grey’s or Below Deck.
We can't wait to guide you!
Which is why we’ve developed this community for ELA teachers who are determined to make sure that this school year is DIFFERENT.
The good news?
Everything in The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal is designed to work together. All of our curriculum and resources use the same strategic framework designed for rigor, engagement, and outcomes.
Not only that, but through a technique we call “spiraling,” we periodically circle back to topics we’ve already covered, so that students never forget what they’ve learned.
What’s more, you have access to a group of funny, kind, and KNOWLEDGEABLE teachers who are using the same tools and systems in their classrooms.
Got a weirdly specific question about your state standards? Chances are high that someone in the Portal has been there too and can give you the advice you need.
And one more thing: we like to have fun. No more dry-as-unbuttered-toast grammar exercises or one-pagers.
We know that keeping students engaged isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a requirement.
"At the beginning of the year, my 8th graders were testing at 35% proficiency. Last week they took the same test and tested at 80%!!
I’ve been combining the lessons from EB with my HM Collections curriculum. My students have loved all of the activities we’ve done so far. They are looking forward to the descriptive writing unit for Halloween we will be doing in a couple weeks.
The professional development opportunities are incredible. I feel like I’ve grown so much as a teacher! Worth the investment. At the end of the day, you’re investing in yourself as a professional and in your students’ learning 💕 THANK YOU!”
Lindsay Jo, 7th and 8th grade
“My personal life is so much better balanced, and I’m not feeling guilty for ignoring my family and own kids any longer.
Students are getting high-quality work and a teacher more ready to focus and be full of energy because I didn’t spend the entire Sunday prior creating and planning all day. This helps me be a better teacher!"
Alicia Piascik, 6th grade, 10 years teaching
"I joined EB and I started using some of the materials. There's so much support there, it blew me away.
I am seriously getting choked up as I am writing this. I hope you get letters from participants like this every day. I promise that I will not write to you and tell you about every single event that happens. I just need you to know that today I am thankful for what you have done for me, for my team, and for my students (but honestly, mostly for me).
Bless you both. As I replay my day, I had a calming morning drive, a great lesson with kudos from my principal, and I experienced no anxiety for the first time in my life when an admin came in my room. It was a good day."
Leslie Snyder, 6th Grade ELA Teacher, 26 years teaching
Instant access to
EVERYTHING you need to teach the ELA skills for 5th-8th grades.
Our Comprehensive ELA Portal Includes:
- Over 75 Engaging Reading Units (Literaure + Informational Texts)
- Novel + Short Story Units (All Current + Monthly New Releases)
- Grammar Units (For EVERY single 5-8 grammar standard, plus the basics)
- Scope + Sequences with Instructional Pathways
- Private EB Teacher Facebook Community
- BONUS: Evidence-Based Writing Program (Revamped)
- BONUS: Vocabulary Program
- BONUS: Batch Planning Course
Revolutionize your reading period with 100+ engaging and rigorous reading units that are fully standards-aligned. For teachers ready to increase student engagement and learning outcomes and help students fall in love with reading—yes, that includes informational texts!
We craft each reading unit by pairing a vital ELA topic—based on the standards—with a fun theme. The activities within a unit can be used to cover multiple days of instruction.
Each reading unit includes:
✓ Detailed lesson plans
✓ Printable, editable, and digital materials
✓ Audio Recordings of Student Texts
✓ Digital Instruction Recordings
✓ Instructional Support Guides to support all learners
✓ On-level and supported versions of passages
✓ Ideas for additional differentiation
Literature Skills Included:
Informational Text Skills Included:
Each novel and short story unit is fully integrated into our signature planning framework, empowering you to confidently hit every ELA standard without the overwhelm. With built-in opportunities for spiral review and mid-unit formative check-ins, you’ll know exactly what your students need—and when they need it. Best of all? You can leave school at contract time with tomorrow’s lesson already prepped and ready to go. It’s all waiting inside the Portal—your complete roadmap to effective, inspired teaching.
📓 Just a few EB favorites...
Bud, Not Buddy, Esperanza Rising, Ghost, The Outsiders, The Westing Game, The House on Mango Street, The Giver, Refugee, A Long Walk to Water, Diary of Anne Frank (Play Version), "Seventh Grade," "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," "Borders," "The Jacket," "The Lottery," "Eleven," "Amigo Brothers," "The Landlady," "Thank You, M'am," "The Most Dangerous Game," "Fish Cheeks," "The Medicine Bag," “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” and lots of Poe 🤓
Forget the outdated reading packets or hours spent piecing together lessons from scratch. Our Novel and Short Story Units are thoughtfully designed to help students master key ELA standards while staying deeply engaged—without draining your time or creativity.
Inside the EB Teachers’ Portal, you’ll find:
✅ Rigorous, Ready-to-Use Units that pair rich literary analysis with creative, student-centered learning
✅ Monthly New Releases aligned with grade-level expectations—so you’re never scrambling for what to teach next
✅ Into, Through, and Beyond Lessons to build background, deepen comprehension, and extend thinking—every unit is strategically mapped so you’re not guessing what comes next
✅ Built-in opportunities for evidence-based writing, Socratic seminars, creative projects, and performance tasks
Our grammar units take the guesswork out of teaching foundational skills by giving you everything you need to teach grammar in a way that actually sticks. Instead of isolated drills or dull worksheets, each unit is packed with engaging, standards-aligned lessons that connect grammar instruction to real reading and writing tasks. With a clear teaching sequence, scaffolded practice, and built-in assessments, you’ll feel confident knowing your students are mastering grammar in context—and you’re not spending hours reinventing the wheel. Whether you’re introducing parts of speech, tackling sentence structure, or reinforcing punctuation rules, these ready-to-use units help you teach grammar with clarity and purpose.
Each grade level includes a variety of resources to help you successfully implement a grammar curriculum that directly impacts student achievement.
Included for all the standards-aligned grade level concepts:
✓ Presentations for ease of direct instruction
✓ Student handouts with guided notes
✓ Posters illustrating the grammar skill
✓ Engaging, hands-on learning games
✓ Exit tickets to be used for formative assessments
✓ Answer keys
✓ Student-facing videos available to stream in-app that can be used in a variety of ways
✓ Editable, printable, and digital versions all included
5th Grade Concepts Included:
6th Grade Concepts Included:
7th Grade Concepts Included:
8th Grade Concepts Included:
Plus Corresponding Instructional Pathways!
Transform your ELA classroom with our Yearlong Scope and Sequences for 5th-8th grades that will save you hundreds of hours of your time and ensure all the skills/standards are covered. Your comprehensive coverage of all essential ELA skills—let us take all the guesswork out of your planning!
A Supportive Community
The best part of the EB Teachers' ELA Portal?
Hanging out with other middle school ELA teachers in our private online community. We're a positive group of teachers who truly support each other, all on the same mission: to impact students.
Downloaded a resource and need tips on modifying it for students below grade level? Looking for a novel that will keep your kids interested—and challenged? Having trouble with getting a file to load in Canvas?
This is your one-stop shop for all of the questions only another teacher can answer.
And truly, we are a remarkably positive and caring group. No one will ever make you feel bad about asking a question!
And Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Better…
We believe teachers deserve more than just the basics. That’s why, when you join the EB Teachers’ Portal, you don’t just get access to high-quality units—you also unlock exclusive bonuses designed to make your planning even easier and your teaching even more impactful.
From a complete vocabulary program to our signature Batch Planning course, these extras are all about helping you save time, reduce stress, and feel more confident in your classroom—starting right now.
EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING PROGRAM
If You Don't Have a Game Plan For Teaching Writing,
How Can You Expect Your Students to Become Better Writers?
Transform Your Students Into Rockstar Writers Using a PROVEN Approach That Actually Works!
Our writing curriculum transforms students into critical and analytical writers as they master the standards and increase their learning outcomes.
This program equips teachers with the resources, tools, support, and confidence to teach writing at a high level.
Unit 1: Master the Writing Standards - The EBW Approach©
Unit 2: Nail State Writing Prompts (without teaching to the test) - Expository Writing
Unit 3: Conquer the Craft of Persuasion - Persuasive & Argumentative Writing
Unit 4: Master the Art of Storytelling - Narrative Writing
The cold hard truth is this:
If you don’t nail down HOW to teach writing, your students will continue to struggle with their essays (and even short paragraphs!), and you’ll continue to piece together random writing lessons that leave you doubting your abilities as an ELA teacher.
Show us JUST ONE successful middle school ELA teacher who gets their students to be rockstar writers without making writing the foundation of their curriculum. You can't.
That’s because they know what you may not have realized until right now:
When you make a PROVEN writing approach a part of EVERY. SINGLE. UNIT that you teach, your students will transform into rockstar writers!
If you’ve already felt like your students’ writing could be stronger and your writing lessons could be more powerful, that means you already have what it takes to step into the role of a rockstar writing teacher.
In this program, we’re going to show you EXACTLY how to do that.
EB VOCABULARY PROGRAM
One of the most significant markers of students’ academic success is their vocabulary knowledge. This simple and effective vocabulary program will provide you with all the tools you need to introduce, practice, review, and assess vocabulary with your students.
Included for each grade level:
✓ Instructions for Use
✓ 36 weeks of Vocab Lists (with parts of speech and definitions included!)
✓ Quizzes
✓ Tests
✓ Answer Keys
✓ Note Card Template and Sample Note Card
✓ Vocab Ideas List
✓ Editable, printable, and digital versions all included
BATCH PLANNING COURSE
Many teachers fall into the trap of being REACTIVE when it comes to planning and instruction. In other words: late on a Sunday night, you remember that you need to teach pronouns, so you hop onto that resource site and buy a worksheet that the kids can do in class. As in tomorrow at 8:47 AM.
We’ve created our custom lesson planning framework and our accompanying course to break that buy, teach, throw away cycle and help ELA teachers become PROACTIVE in terms of how they approach planning for the weeks and months to come.
At the heart of our program is the EB Batch Planning Framework—a planning system that truly changes everything. Inside the Portal, you’ll get full access to our core training, where we walk you through how to think big picture and nail the day-to-day details without burnout.
You’ll learn how to:
🗓️ Build your year-long Scope + Sequence with confidence
📓 Plan your daily lessons using our no-fluff, done-for-you templates
💡 Create powerful Into, Through, and Beyond lessons that stick
📚 Apply the EB Planning Foundations to streamline every unit
This is more than a course—it’s the system that will have you shutting your laptop by 4 P.M. (and actually leaving it at school). It’s that good.
Portal Love From Our EB Teachers...
Jamie's students' test scores showed 95% proficiency after just a year with EB Academics, compared to 66% proficiency the prior year!
Harrow's students showed incredible growth in Text-Dependent Writing, with NINETY PERCENT showing "Prepared" in one of her classes and 69% in the other class.
Amy's 7th grade students' scores increased by 13% from the year prior and student engagement remained high even with just 8 days left in the school year!
But right now, you get everything for
only $37
Free Gift for New Yearly Members!
Get the EB Teacher Planner—Delivered to Your Door
When you join as an Yearly Member (annual subscription), we’ll send you our beautifully designed, spiral-bound EB Teacher Planner—absolutely free!
📝 Designed by teachers, for teachers
📅 Built-in monthly + weekly planning pages
✅ Perfect for mapping out your Scope + Sequence, batching lessons, and tracking student progress
💌 Shipped straight to your door as our gift to you!
Because planning should feel as good as teaching does—and this planner helps make that happen.
Take a look at what The Portal has to offer—
$37/month
Regular Price $57/month
$397/year
Normally $597; Save $200 + Join Yearly!
The EB Guarantee
We want you to feel comfortable about joining The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal (and let’s get real for a sec: we know that a lot of you are paying for this out of your own pocket.)
So here’s our promise to you: once you join The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal, you have 48 hours to watch as many videos as you want, check out lessons, and pay a visit to our private EB Teacher Community.
If you take a good look around and don’t think that it’s going to work for you, no problem!
We’ll refund your money within 48 hours—no questions asked.
Still Not Sure If It's The Right Fit?
You’ll get the most out of The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal if…
- You’re starting over on some level and want to get it right—on the first try. New school? New grade level? New subject area? The materials inside The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal will help make your transition a breeze.
- You’ve been teaching ELA for a while, but you’re about to hit your limit. Spending six hours every Saturday planning for the next week? Perpetually sleep-deprived? Strained home life? It happens to the best of us. We want you to get back on track—without having to quit the profession that you’re passionate about.
- You KNOW you’ll benefit from more engaging lessons. Just like getting a new pair of shoes, introducing new lessons keeps teaching fresh and fun.
- You’re willing to invest a few hours upfront to save lots more hours in the future. We’ll be totally honest: the best way to benefit from The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal is to sit down and work through our super simple and customized onboarding process (don't worry, we'll explain inside the Portal) right away so that you can start making progress. That’s where transformational change happens.
- You’re capital-d Done with scouring the internet for resources. A) It’s one of the biggest time sucks out there. B) Individual resources work fine to keep your classroom afloat for a single day, but they don’t work together. C) Buying one-off resources adds up...fast.
- You feel like you could do a better job teaching reading or writing systematically. Maybe your curriculum provides questions that students are supposed to answer in writing, but there’s no breakdown on how to do so. Your kids were frustrated with the “here, go!” and so are you. You know you need something far more scaffolded to make this work.
- You want each one of your students to leave your classroom a better writer than when they started. That’s really what this is all about—making sure that kids are learning valuable skills...without killing the fun and creativity that writing holds.
If you’re nodding along with at least 4 of the 7 points above...then you owe it to yourself to give The EB Teachers' ELA Portal a spin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the resources really that easy to unpack and use in class? (In other words: will this help or will it just be another “thing”?)
Are the materials included in the Portal really going to be rigorous enough for my middle school students?
Okay. But will my kids actually have fun? Because a lot of stuff I’ve tried is “fun-adjacent,” at best.
How will I be able to make your lessons work with my district-mandated curriculum?
Not all of my students are reading or writing at grade level. Will the material in The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal still work for me?
What type of writing does your EB Writing Program cover? I want to make sure I have everything I need.
Can I still use the evidence-based writing framework in my classroom if I already follow a different writing program?
what are you waiting for?
Becoming an EB Teacher takes the guesswork out of lesson planning and teaching all aspects of ELA—we're going to help you teach reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary in a way that meets your state standards.
- If you want to take back your weekends (and your weeknights, too)...
- If you want your students to show up to your classroom pumped about what the day holds...and gushing about your class to their parents on the car ride home…
- If you want kids to walk away with writing skills that will follow them for the rest of their lives...
- If you want to make sure you’re covering all of those standards in the limited time that you have…
And…
- If you want to feel confident that you’re providing a rich AND enjoyable learning experience....then you need The EB Teachers’ ELA Portal.
If you’re ready, we’re excited to hang out with you inside the Portal and make this school year your best one yet.
