LearnZillion is an online database of short video lessons that address learning topics aligned to individual Common Core standards. The lessons cover math, close reading, and some writing standards. Experienced teachers create the 3- to 5-minute videos and lesson plans, complete with leveled practice problems, anchor texts, and writing prompts. For kids, the videos feature commentary, extra hints, tricks, and a “try it yourself” segment to help them practice on their own, using pencil and paper to follow the video’s guidance. Multiple-choice quizzes help assess students' learning. When both kids and teachers create accounts, teachers can assign lessons to individual students or to the whole class, see who's completed a lesson, and view students' scores.
CK-12 has a wealth of great content that teachers can work into the classroom. You're likely to find a lesson that directly corresponds to what you're teaching, and the diagrams and videos are very accessible. If you don't find what you need, you can add your own content, creating Flexbooks (or ebooks) for your students that contain the material you'd like to share. Digital Is is a media-literacy website created and curated by a community of educators. As a source for professional development, the site shares the NWP's ethos of encouraging teachers to help others in their field. Content on the site is organized under four tabs: Blog, Resources, Collections, and Community. The succinct blog entries link to activities and, when needed, definitions. Much of the Resources section is comprised of teachers' documentation of their own inquiries into their practice. These narratives focus on specific activities, like media storytelling, Connected Learning projects, or social-justice units that are tied to current events. The Collections are exactly that -- resources grouped by theme; as such, they serve as a user-friendly way to get at the site's content. Gooru functions as a sort of search engine for online lessons and learning materials. Its slick interface makes it very simple to find curated resources, like videos, interactive activities, digital textbooks, and websites. Most of the curated content centers around core academic subjects: math, language arts, social studies, and science. Teachers (or students) can organize resources into collections that are viewable for their classes or by other online viewers with the link to their collections. Students and teachers don't need a Gooru account to search the site or browse collections. They can search by subject area and drill down to specific lessons ("collections") within each topic. For teachers, collections within most courses also indicate which Common Core State Standards or Next Generation Science Standards align with the materials. While resources might originate from anywhere on the Web, Gooru users view them as they're embedded within the site's interface. With a free account, teachers can create collections for their students to view in a specific order, presumably giving purpose to an overall learning arc. The site is set up to allow easy transitions between video clips, digital textbook chapters, and websites, and all navigation takes place within the Gooru. Shmoop is a website offering a variety of study materials for kids and teens written by scholars. The catch? Shmoop's study guides are purposefully written in a conversational tone. Sometimes they're downright hilarious, and the fun language helps kids access complex subjects and relax into learning. Teachers have to pay to access site materials designed for educators –- including hundreds of student assignments, quizzes, and activity tips. However, most student content is free (with the exception of a few sections, such as the standardized test prep guides and most of the calculus section). The free learning guides available for students cover a variety of topics, including biology, U.S. history, algebra, and calculus. The site's literature section covers classics; users can also access in-depth allegory, character, and theme info on modern reads like The Hunger Games. And the site's learning resources are legit: Ph.D. and masters students from schools such as Stanford and Harvard write much of the conversational content, which is peppered with pop-culture references. BetterLesson is an updated addition to the original BetterLesson website, created by the NEA Master Teacher Project. More than 130 highly qualified ELA and Math classroom teachers from across the U.S. are part of the project, with the goal of creating and sharing exemplary lessons and resources for Common Core implementation. Any teacher can search these lessons by standard, by subject, or by grade level. It's also possible to view all of the contributions from a particular master teacher. There's a consistent structure to the design of each lesson that includes a title, an objective, a big idea, links to standards, suggested timing, detailed procedures, resources, related lessons, and feedback. In addition to searching the site's exemplars, any teacher can still create their own collections through the original BetterLesson platform. There's space to plan, create, and upload lessons, as well as ask questions of the community. Power My Learning is a website that brings together free, curated educational content and activities from all over the Web. Teachers can find academic games, videos, and interactive content aligned to the Common Core State Standards across a range of subjects, from language arts, math, science, and social studies to technology and other subjects. Activities are tagged by subject, grade, Common Core State Standards, and type (video, interactive, etc.). As an example, if you scroll over an activity like Slinkyball, the intended grade level will appear (6-8), as will the category and subcategory (science/physics), any technical requirements, the Common Core standards, and a brief description. Teachers can use the site to curate a list of websites and Web-based resources, and then assign students the task of visiting and viewing them. Wonderopolis is an informational site that helps kids ask and answer interesting questions about the world. Every day, a new "Wonder of the Day" question is posted -- each designed to get kids to think, talk, and find learning moments together in everyday life. Sponsored by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and supported by a number of philanthropic partners, the site provides hundreds of wonder-filled moments for adults and kids alike. The site's questions cover dozens of categories from animals (Why do skunks stink?) to cultures (What is zydeco?) to history (Who is Uncle Sam?) to science (What is space?). Click any Wonder question to find facts, information, suggestions for further exploration, useful links, and teaser videos. This site is geared towards more of a younger audience and could find uses in a middle school classroom. ReadWriteThink is an online resource that contains lessons, interactive activities, and printables to help kids improve their reading and writing skills. From the IRA (International Reading Association) and NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), the site serves language arts teachers from Pre-K through 12th grades. The site is organized into the sections Classroom Resources, Professional Development, and Parent & Afterschool Resources. Each heading contains hundreds of unit plans, lesson plans, and activities, each divided by subject, learning objective, and grade level. While ReadWriteThink is focused primarily on language arts, materials for science, math, history, and life skills can be found here as well. There are also over fifty Interactives, or Flash-based games and widgets for kids -- everything from a "Book Cover Creator" to a "Theme Poems" game, and more. TED-Ed is a website featuring a curated series of educational videos on a huge variety of subjects. From the folks at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), whose TED talks have featured some of the world's brightest minds, TED-Ed is a place where kids can get some of that same inspiration. Videos are primarily geared toward a high-school audience, but motivated middle-schoolers might enjoy a lot of the offerings as well. Along with all of the free video content, the site allows teachers to take any educational video, not just TED's, and easily use it to create a customized lesson. TeacherTube is a free site that has a collection of audio, video, photos, docs, and other materials for teachers, students, and parents to see. It is free for teachers to use, but ads and increased storage are available with an upgraded account. Resources can be uploaded by a teacher or can be found through a topic search. Teachable is a free site that is a compilation of resources in virtually every subject. The resources are created by teachers and approved before going onto the site. This is a great place to find a new activity or worksheet to help your students learn content or remediate. There are resources for virtually any grade level as well. |
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