High School English Sub Plans, Emergency Sub Binder, Grades 9-12, 9 No Prep Activities

A trail map story, ten editing cases and a slogan mystery fill this day. These high school English sub plans are emergency sub plans for grades 9-12: one full no prep day of reading, writing, editing and rhetoric review, all on paper. Your students get both individual work and team tasks: 3 activities they do on their own (a quiet reading with an article on the paperback and a short story, a proofreading desk with ten editing cases and a writing menu) and 6 with others (a partner check, an audio tour script in pairs or threes, a puzzle tournament and a slogan logic mystery in teams, a which sentence wins stand-off and an optional quiz game for the whole class). Every activity starts with a Say this to the class box, early finishers get star challenges, and every answer is in the key, so the sub needs no English background. Each lesson activity also lists its Common Core standards. No prep and no tech for you: print it once and keep it ready.

Perfect For

• A sudden sick day: emergency sub plans that are ready before you need them
• A sub who is not an English teacher: the script, the steps and every answer are on the page
• Any high school English class, grades 9 to 12, with a 40 to 55 minute period: run one activity per period, or the same one all day
• Your sub tub or emergency sub folder, printed once for the whole year
• Your own no prep day, a review day before a test, or a planned absence like a conference or a field trip day

How It Works

1. Print the binder and leave it on your desk. The lesson plan on page 4 is already filled in: every activity with its page, its minutes and three short steps.
2. Each activity starts with a sub script: a Say this to the class box of two or three sentences the sub reads aloud, how to set it up, the timing, and the answer key.
3. Every activity fits one class period (35 to 45 minutes), so the sub can run a different one each period or the same one all day. They all stand alone and review English skills the class has met before.
4. Each lesson activity lists its Common Core standards (grades 9-10 codes) on the sub script, and the note to the substitute explains how they line up with the grades 11-12 standards. The optional quiz game reviews the day.
5. Most worksheets have a star challenge for early finishers, and the logic mystery has a bonus question for fast teams. The games are optional, a fun way to end a class or to fill extra time.
6. Every answer is in the key, and the open writing tasks come with checklists and models, so the sub can check work or simply collect it for you.

What’s Inside: 37 Pages

• 7 front pages: a binder cover, important information, a note to the substitute, the lesson plan already filled in, a schedule of the day, a class list and dismissal sheet, and a "how it went" sheet for the sub
• Quiet Reading (individual, 45 min): Two short readings: how the paperback changed who could own books, and a story about an honest trail map. Questions and keys. It practices central idea and objective summary in an article; theme, complex characters and a flashback in a story.
• The Proofreader’s Desk (individual, 40 min): Ten short pieces of writing, each with one sentence to find, name and fix. It practices editing grammar and punctuation: agreement, pronoun case, parallel structure, splices, colons, modifiers, usage.
• Writing Menu (individual, 45 min): Three writing sheets to choose from: an argument paragraph, a story scene, and an analysis of a short poem. It practices argument with a claim and counterclaim, a narrative scene with pacing, a literary analysis paragraph with quotations.
• Partner Check (pairs, 40 min): Partner A and Partner B read different items with the same answers and check each other. It practices rhetorical appeals, figurative language, irony, sentence and clause types, roots, connotation and point of view.
• The Audio Tour (pairs or threes, 40 min): Fix a weak museum audio tour script, then write a 60-second tour stop for a place in the school. It practices writing for a listener: audience and purpose, a hook, short clear sentences, tone, a closing that guides.
• English Puzzle Tournament (teams, 41 min): 24 puzzles in 3 rounds: Greek and Latin roots, literary devices and word logic. It practices Greek and Latin roots, literary and rhetorical devices, analogies, anagrams and other word logic.
• The Spirit Week Slogan Mix-Up (teams, 40 min): A logic mystery with reading clues: identify each slogan’s rhetorical device, then rebuild the week. It practices close reading of rhetoric: identifying alliteration, anaphora, chiasmus, hyperbole and rhetorical questions.
• Which Sentence Wins? Stand-Off (whole class, 40 min): Twelve pairs of sentences: guess which version does the job better, then prove it. It practices style and revision: concise, precise and active sentences, parallel structure, tone, evidence worked in.
• Whiteboard Quiz Game (whole class in teams, optional, 35 min): An optional board quiz game on the readings, editing, devices and speaking, all from this binder. It is a review of this binder: the two readings, editing, literary and rhetorical devices, speaking and writing.
• A sub script for every activity, with the answer keys printed on it or right after it (10 pages), and 20 student pages

Here is a quick look at the binder: