5 Essential ELA School Supplies Backed By Science

I’ve never met a school supply I didn’t love. Pre-sharpened pencils, all the heart eyes. A fresh box of crayons, let me sniff. Crisp new notebooks, gimme. My bank account starts to panic when I walk down a back to school aisle, but the truth is, you only need a few select ELA school supplies to enhance learning in your English class. 

Here are 5 essential ELA school supplies backed by science: 

ELA School Supply 1: Crayons 

Crayons:  If I had to teach with only one school supply, it would be crayons. This might seem strange coming from a former high school English teacher, but there’s just SO much you can do with a box of crayons. Starting on day one, students use them to create name book banners and decorate their ELA profiles. But that’s just for fun (and yes, fun is allowed in secondary!). The real learning benefits of crayons come from drawing. Did you know that drawing something helps your brain remember it? 

According to Edutopia in “The Science of Drawing and Memory,” drawing creates a strong memory by combining several types of thinking. 

• We remember how the image looks (visual memory)
• We remember how our hand moved to create it (kinesthetic memory)
• We remember what the image means (semantic memory)

Together, these layers make it much more likely that we’ll remember the concept later. Obviously, students can use colored pencils, regular pencils, markers, or even digital drawing tools to reap these benefits. However, I still stock boxes of crayons for podcast pages (coloring while listening works wonders!), color-coding, interactive notes, and so much more. 

English Teacher School Supply 2: Pencils

Pencils: I’m such a bad speller that I purposely wrote sloppily in school so that people wouldn’t notice and make fun of me. And by school, I mean childhood-adult PD sessions, ha! Needless to say, typing (and spellcheck!) have been a godsend for me. So, I’m not telling you to give up devices in your classroom or accessibility features, but I am relaying some research that might prompt you to incorporate more handwriting tasks into your lessons. 

According to “Why Writing by Hand Beats Typing for Thinking and Learning” from NPR, when students write by hand, they activate multiple areas of the brain at once. In fact, brain scans show that handwriting creates far more activity in areas linked to memory, attention, and reading than typing does. One neuroscientist put it this way: when you write by hand, “it’s like turning on the whole brain.”

That’s why it’s important to look for ways to add handwriting to your lesson plans whenever possible. Whether it’s interactive notes, brainstorming, or quick-writes before a class discussion, handwriting taps into powerful cognitive benefits in the ELA classroom.

ELA School Supply 3: Tape

Tape: I’m passionate about movement in the classroom, and when I think of the school supply that facilitates movement the most, it has to be tape. Lord knows my classroom walls have seen some TAPE over the years. That’s because it’s just so easy to tape up some four-corner posters, gallery walk stops, or station signs and BOOM you’ve got A+ evaluation lesson plan. 

And for good reason! Movement is so beneficial to the learning process. According to the University of Michigan teaching tip “Using Physical Movement to Increase Student Engagement and Learning,” research shows that even a quick standing break or a kinesthetic activity can boost concentration, ease stress, and improve retention. Movement helps students re-engage and absorb content more effectively and tape helps you make the movement happen!

Would you like some quick and creative four-corner activities to get students moving? Grab the freebie here!

English Teacher School Supply 4: Highlighters

Highlighters: This may come as a surprise to us nerds who joyfully highlight our latest PD book, but highlighting as a learning tool is largely ineffective. I KNOW. I had to read this article multiple times to believe it! So, why am I including highlighters in this science-based school supply list? The answer is two-fold. 

First, highlighting willy-nilly is ineffective, but when you use highlighters strategically to color-code or find evidence, suddenly they become a close reading tool that actually works. For example, during a rhetorical analysis, have students hunt and highlight: Pink Pathos, Light Blue Logos, Emerald Green Ethos. Not only does this help them find and organize evidence, but it also creates an opportunity for deeper analysis. Which form of rhetoric does Mark Antony use the most in Julius Caesar’s funeral speech? 

Second, highlighting helps students self-evaluate their work. Research shows that feedback that is immediate, is the most effective. Walking students through a color-coding process that helps them self-evaluate can provide immediate feedback! For example, do they provide evidence for their point? Highlight it in pink (pink proof). 

While unskilled highlighting might be ineffective, highlighters can still be effective when used in creative ways. However, if you are on a budget, you can totally just sub crayons in for these activities. No matter the medium, color draws attention, organizes information, and helps show what students know. 

ELA School Supply 5: Wonder

If I had to pick the most underrated school supply in a classroom, it might just be… wonder. This one is a lot more abstract than your basics, but I’d argue that sparking wonder is just as essential as pencils and paper. 

In Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning, we learn that wonder isn’t fluff. It’s a force that boosts motivation, curiosity, and critical thinking. When students are genuinely curious, their brains light up with attention and anticipation, making the learning stick. 

That’s why I treat wonder like an essential ELA school supply. I build it into lesson plans through surprise elements, curiosity boosters, freedom of choice, and out-side-the-box inspiration. From using ambient media to setting up stations, creating moments of wonder doesn’t take a lot—it just takes intention.

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School Supply Conclusion

Whether it’s a simple box of crayons, a pack of highlighters, or a roll of tape, the simple ELA school supplies we stock in our classrooms help shape how students engage, think, and remember. Backed by brain research and classroom-tested strategies, these tools offer small but mighty ways to support deeper learning.

So, the next time you’re walking down the school supply aisle, don’t underestimate their power. A crayon can boost memory. A pencil can light up the brain. A piece of tape can turn a passive learner into an active participant. A book can spark wonder. 

Looking for even more ways to engage your ELA students this year? Keep reading here: Fun ELA Activities the ABCs of ELA Engagement