Welcome to ELA Inkwell

Thoughtful Resources for English Teachers.

25 years in the classroom, still making things, still learning.

I'm Leslie Simmons, the teacher behind ELA Inkwell. I create English resources I actually want to use, share books worth reading and teaching, and write honestly about what I'm learning as I build a TPT store.

Meet ELA Inkwell →

Featured Storefront

Fall & Halloween ELA

Start here for resources that fit the fall calendar, then explore AP Lang and advanced ELA work that has become a significant part of ELA Inkwell.

Banned Books Week Activities product cover

Early fallBanned & Challenged Books Week

Fall creative writingHalloween Blackout Poetry

The Masque of the Red Death short story unit product cover

Grades 9–10The Masque of the Red Death

Grades 6–8Middle School ELA Writing Bell Ringers

Figurative Language Bell Ringers product cover

Seasonal bell ringersSpooky Figurative Language

AP Lang & Advanced ELA

Close Reading, Rhetoric, and Analysis.

Given my years as an AP Lang teacher, I know how closely rhetoric, visual literacy, sustained analytical writing, historic speeches, and American literature can work together in an 11th-grade English classroom. Texts such as In Cold Blood and The Great Gatsby were central to that work, and those classroom traditions continue to shape many of the resources I make today.