Math and Science Lesson Planning
PBS Learning Media: Mathematics
Teachers use external resources to demonstrate or model mathematical ideas, which enhances understanding. These tools also allow learners to interact with symbols and link words with visuals, improving problem-solving and critical thinking. PBS Learning facilitates such learning in mathematics and sciences by providing teachers and students with evidence-based educational resources (“Resources to learn mathematics,” n.d.). The site has collected a curated list of lesson plans, videos, textbooks, and interactive materials that supplement learning through increased engagement. Most of the resources are available for free to teachers.
Math Central
As the name suggests, Math central is an incredible site that contains mathematics resources for teachers and kids. The creator collaborated with career mathematicians, professors, teachers, and students to deliver quality content in math. The site has a resource room where the educators share tools, tips, and activities that were effective in class (“Resource room at math central,” n.d.). Teachers can search through thousands of records to find notes, lesson plans, ideas, or other relevant resources in math to adapt in the classroom.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) organization supports math educators to ensure they deliver the highest quality learning for the students in grades K-12. The council achieves this responsibility by creating professional development opportunities, mathematics standards, research, and classroom resources (“Classroom resources main page,” n.d.). Educators registered as members on the site access these resources for free to use in the class to teach math. Teachers can increase students’ engagement in a class by using available mathematics activities and materials to offer hands-on learning. The students can also access the materials to supplement what they learn at school by studying at home.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy revolutionized learning by creating thousands of video tutorials on a variety of academic disciplines. The resources on this website are available to anyone for free, allows people to understand concepts through detailed descriptions. Besides the videos, the site has a feature that generates practice problems for the learners. The software acts as a game because it has a reward system where answering questions correctly earns one a badge or a promotion in reading levels (“Math,” n.d.). For instance, a person can get math badges for mastering and progressing through algebra levels. The resources provided by Khan Academy allow teachers to flip the classroom, which enhances learning.
Discovery Science Fair Central
Discovery Education offers curated content and resources in a variety of disciplines for K-12 learners. The research-based materials align to various educational standards help educators deliver engaging, relevant, and informative lessons. The teachers benefit from daily activities, virtual field trips, text, videos, periodicals, and interactive materials (“Virtual Field trips,” 2020). These resources enable educators to supplement class learning by creating and sharing digital activities as homework. The videos are also essential because teachers can flip the class, allowing students to familiarize themselves with new ideas at home.
Concord Consortium STEM Resources Finder
Concord Consortium develops educational resources that deepen STEM inquiry with technology. It allows teachers to gather materials and interactive activities that would make learning engaging. Tools such as virtual labs and hands-on digital features enable the students to visualize different concepts, enhancing knowledge acquisition (“Collections,” n.d.). Teachers can sift through thousands of experiments, lessons, and content through a search bar that allows them to filter by subject and grade level. More importantly, the resources are available to educators for free.
Fundamental Concepts
Basics of Chemistry
This site offers essential concepts in chemistry through explanations of the fundamental concepts such as conversion, molecules, and atoms. The website has hundreds of detailed experiments and research materials created to boost the understanding of this unit (Helmestine, 2019). The site hosts video lectures on humanities, languages, science, technology, and mathematics basics. Other resources guide educators to improve teaching curriculum and organize the class to foster a learning atmosphere, team building, and collaboration.
TES Institute Teaching Resources
The site is categorized as a teacher training and development online platform. It focuses on providing resources and training for teachers on various subjects aimed to improve teaching skills. It has over one million resources in early childhood education, primary, secondary, and special needs classes, making it suitable for any teacher in those levels. It also links unemployed teachers with hiring schools and apprenticeship opportunities to boost their experience—however, the website charges for the resources from $2 to $5 (“Teaching Resources,” n.d.).
Open Education Resources
This website is a collection of free online learning and teaching materials, including textbooks, videos, course plans, learning modules, and quizzes. The resources are designed for various disciplines collected and organized by Humboldt State University (“Research guides,” 2021). The link provided contains art course materials that guide teachers in poetry, world cultures, modern art, art history, urban design, and architecture. The teaching resources are hosted on multiple websites, so there is no shortage of materials to help educators in the classroom.
Free Resources for Fundamental Skills Practice
The fundamental skills practice includes online and printable resources and activities to help in literacy development at home. The materials are fun and provide kids with a hands-on opportunity to practice essential concepts such as reading, writing, and listening. The website also has resources to assist teachers with organization, lesson plans, and classroom décor (“Free at-home learning,” n.d.). The educators’ resources include classroom posters, to-do lists, virtual backgrounds, and do-it-yourself activities.
World 101
Globalization has made it easier for people to migrate for businesses, studies, or tourism. However, before embarking on a journey, people need to learn and understand the environment they intend to visit. World 101 offers basic knowledge on key issues, opportunities, and challenges individuals experience in a connected world. The site has multiple teaching resources on international relations, foreign policy, trade, culture, terrorism, global health, and monetary policies (“Global teaching resource,” n.d.). The resources are essential as a guide for potential investment areas or places to avoid during travel.
Application of Fundamental Concepts
Financial and Life Literacy
Learning to manage money from a young age is an essential skill for children. Banzai is a website created to teach financial education programs for students to learn about the value of money. The site achieves its objective by creating real-life scenarios, mostly interactive activities, for children to practice good financial management. The program offers a wide range of exercises, including games, tests and quizzes, an interactive library, and calculators. These tools help young teachers educate children on borrowing, saving, budgeting, investing, goal setting, spending, and Internet safety (“Financial literacy,” n.d.).
Computer Science and Coding
The advancement in technology has created a huge demand for computer and mobile programs. These applications are programmed in different languages and platforms. Therefore, teaching teems to become programmers can help them develop necessary employable skills. Vidcode (n.d.) is an online coding platform with videos and programming tools for JavaScript, web apps, and designs. Vidcode also has tutorials on fun activities and visual projects such as Snapchat filters, memes, and video games suitable for young learners.
Typing
The transition to online learning revealed the importance of computer literacy, particularly typing skills. Nowadays, students submit typed assignments, making it an essential strength for children of all ages. Several online resources help educators teach this fundamental skill. Typing and Typesy are two web-based keyboard platforms that offer a self-paced keyboarding curriculum. They teach essential shortcuts, coding fundamentals, online safety behaviors, and computer literacy resources (“Teach typing,” n.d.; “Typsey,” n.d.). Computer-based tests and quizzes allow teachers to create timed activities and games that gauge ability of learners to type quickly and efficiently.
Copyright and Creativity
In a digital era, people create materials to be used by others. However, some of the resources shared online are protected by copyright laws and violating them would lead to harsh penalties. It is also essential the students learn the value of ethical standards and crediting artists for their work. Therefore, this resource is created to teach students about copyright and fair use (“Elementary school,” 2021). It offers free videos, lesson plans, infographics, and slides teachers can use to educate learners.
Read and Write
Teaching students how to read and write is significant as it enhances communication skills. The digital resource such as Writereader was created to increase individual’s digital writing know-how through meaningful activities and resources. This website has curated tools that assist educators, including template books, writing prompts, lesson plans, blogs, videos, and writing stages (“Resource center,” 2021). For example, a teacher uses a template book as students’ homework to write about their lucky day or travel journal. The resources are in multiple languages such as English, Russian, French, Japanese, and Spanish.
Symbols and Higher-Level Activities
N2Y Teaching Resources
N2Y offers a wide range of teaching materials in different disciplines. The resources are available for free to all teachers, parents/guardians, and students. The lessons are differentiated, and there are weekly current events created to connect learners to the world. The site also hosts symbol communication tools that allow students to express themselves better and digital resources that promote social-emotional wellbeing (“Educator resources,” 2020). Therefore, the N2Y is critical as a remote learning tool for students and educators, including videos, lesson plans, quizzes, and printable templates.
ST Math Resources
ST math represents a patented teaching approach known as the spatial-temporal model, which involves manipulating objects in space and time. Therefore, the teaching process begins by visually laying the foundation for the concepts before connecting the ideas into symbols, language, and robust discussion (“Personalized learning examples,” n.d.). The lessons are self-paced, meaning the students have to master the basic concepts before advancing to higher levels. There are videos, informative feedback, games, and standardized puzzles and tests for all classes available to students and teachers.
Signs and Symbols Lesson Plan
The page by One Community Global was created to host educational resources and plans for the signs and symbols subject. The site contains materials such as foundations of teaching, teaching strategies, evaluation model, learning tools and toys, and the ultimate classroom (“Free-shared education,” 2020). This resource is essential to educators because it offers tips on designing the classroom to achieve effectiveness while teaching and provides tutorials to make tailor-made lessons to meet the students’ needs.
Lesson Delivery Software
Classflow is a cloud-based lesson delivery platform with millions of immersive resources, timed assessments, polling, and interactive lessons. It comes in multiple languages, allowing a teacher to create interactive activities and lessons that keep students engaged. Educators easily connect with the students through instant polls, numerical, multiple-choice, true/false, and yes/no activities (“Interactive features,” 2021). A teacher can also create crossword puzzles, memory games, labeling, flashcards, word searches, and practice questions for every grade level or content area.
ASL Literacy Activities
Motion Light Lab created the American Sign Language (ASL) and English website to offer free literacy resources and activities for young deaf children. Daily and weekly activities keep students engaged, including VL2 storybook apps that support bilingual language development (“ASL literacy,” n.d.). There are live storytelling activities hosted on Mondays and live-lesson streams on Wednesdays on YouTube. The activities are supported by worksheets that help learners gain a deeper understanding of each story.
Mathematics Concepts and Activities for Primary Grades
Boddle
The designers of this platform wanted to create a way for grades 1-6 learners to study math in a fun and personalized manner. Therefore, Boddle applies artificial intelligence, explores each child’s strengths and weaknesses, then adapts and tailors practice questions, activities, and learning content to the learner’s level. The website has tools that track the learning and performance of the students and understand areas that need reinforcement. Teachers then track the children’s progress remotely, identify learning gaps, and design relevant learner content (“Teacher’s page,” 2021). The site has fun games, virtual learning facilities, curriculum-aligned content, and other resources for teachers.
Curriculum Associates
The outbreak of COVID-19 diseases led to the closure of schools, and some institutions were determined to continue offering learning at home. Curriculum Associates created distance learning resources for educators and families to help Grades k-8 children study English and Spanish math and reading. The website contains printable packs and guides for educators to keep students engaged while learning. Teachers can assess the learners remotely, prepare and deliver remote/hybrid/parallel instructions, and connect with caregivers/families with the multiple tools available on the site (“Assessment for educators,” n.d.).
PBS Learning: Mathematics
Educators integrate media resources in their classes to make learning flexible, fun, and engaging. PBS is one of the leading providers of comprehensive media-on-demand materials for PreK-12. Therefore, primary school teachers have free access to curriculum-based and standardized activities, videos, games that inspire students to study math (“PBS learning,” n.d.). The site has numerous interactive activities and lesson plans for educators. Some galleries and tools allow teachers to create lessons based on national and state standards.
Virtual Manipulatives
Virtual manipulatives provide a hands-on approach for the students to explore different concepts. Didax created a website with blocks, shapes, and spinners to help educators enhance math learning at home or school. Multiple activities, videos, how-to guides, and downloadable manipulatives help learners understand math concepts. Teachers can also download the virtual manipulatives and embed them into their learning websites or blogs. Some examples include unifix cubes, ten-frames, number line, 100-bead Rekenrek, two-color counters, 120 number board, prime factor tiles, algebra tiles, base ten blocks, pattern blocks, and math balance (“Virtual manipulatives,” n.d.).
First in Math
Supplemental resources allow learners to understand class content and concepts through continued, self-paced examples. First in Math is an online resource website that hosts games, activities, and quizzes in math. Students can learn and practice basic foundations such as subtraction, addition, division, and multiplication, and higher-order content, including pattern sense, problem-solving, mental math, and reasoning (“Educator questions,” n.d.). The site also has a notification system that teachers use to communicate with the students remotely. The educators can use this tool to assign students learning activities and offer constructive feedback to make sense of math.
Earth and Space Science
Tyto Online
This online platform focuses on capturing learners’ attention through games and observable phenomena in life, earth, and space science. The content delivered on Tyto’s website adheres to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which sets the expectations for what K-12 learners should learn or do in their grade (“Teacher,” 2021). The standards improve science education by creating research-based and up-to-date resources, activities, and research topics for learners. Tyto allows students to explore a phenomenon, collect data through experiments, and build an argument or offer solutions (“Teacher,” 2021). Some available modules teachers can use include cells to organisms, ecology, growth & genetics, and weather & climate.
Space Foundation Discovery Center
The Space Foundation Discovery Center is a kind space museum in Colorado Springs focusing on educating guests in in-person and online exploration. The facility provides educators with free STEM and space-themed learning resources, videos, lesson plans, and activities to inspire students. The foundation provides teachers with professional development opportunities to learn ways of creating engaging lessons and integrating fun activities in the classroom. Educators can attend workshops, webinars, and virtual space exploration programs to enhance their knowledge in teaching young ones (“Resources for educators,” n.d.). The center also hires qualified teachers as liaisons and provides grants to expand instruction to increase children’s engagement.
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is renowned for its space exploration activities. The agency has experts with immense experience in the science and space field, shared with the general public and students through its NASA STEM program. It engages the students with NASA’s mission by sharing research materials and data that they can use to explore problems and offer solutions (“Explore NASA,” 2019). Teachers access lesson plans, STEM topics for different class levels, videos, and themed resources. NASA also offers challenges for students and growth opportunities for educators to advance their knowledge in space science. The materials and tools allow teachers to deliver engaging and informative space and earth science content.
Endeavor
NASA offers Endeavor STEM teaching certificate project that provides educators with numerous resources and collaborative learning spaces. Teachers use actual data that they can apply in teaching math and science content. The program is led by NASA scientists, engineers, and instructors. The resources available on the site include NASA resources, speaker series, climate science, online learning tools, virtual spaces, engineering design, virtual field trips, and grade resources (“Endeavor STEM,” n.d.). The materials are accessed for free by all at home or school.
STEM at Home
Challenger Center created modifiable lessons and activities that use household or readily available items. The site has self-paced lessons and hands-on activities that students can follow at home or under the teacher’s guidance. For example, the website has activities for grades 3-9 that teach children why the earth is unique and viable to support life, maps & mountains, microscope exploration, energy, heat & temperature mapping, and renewable energy (“STEM at home,” 2021). Challenger Center also offers free flipped classroom videos and lessons filmed at the ISS (International Space Station).
Children’s Periodicals emphasize Math and Science Concepts
Studies Weekly
The Utah-based company, Studies Weekly, creates educational content that meets state and national standards curriculum for social studies and sciences. The online platform delivers integrated learning strategies to enhance student’s knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The site has downloadable periodicals that educators can use for in-class or remote teaching. Educators can search through hundreds of hands-on activities suitable for the children, organized through themes, making finding relevant materials easier. The website also offers professional development training sessions that allow teachers to meet learners’ demands/needs (“Professional development,” 2021). Resources available for educators include content videos, worksheets & graphic organizers, lesson plans, weekly standards, K-6 general resources, and leveled readers.
AIMS Magazine
This monthly open-access magazine publishes peer-reviewed and high-quality articles in significant fields of mathematics. The journal is committed to publishing original research and commissioned papers made available in online and hard-copy formats, increasing their accessibility. The resource contains mathematics and science activities for all grades. Teachers can apply the ready-to-use materials in their classes because every exercise has detailed background information, procedures, and backline student pages (“AIMS mathematics,” n.d.). This means that educators can adapt the activities to suit learners’ needs.
The American Biology Teacher
This peer-refereed journal publishes non-fiction articles for middle school teachers nine times a year. The journal reports findings derived from researches and the implications they have on biology and life sciences. The papers present multiple how-to activities and suggestions for teachers to implement in laboratories or classes. The publisher commissions articles on biology, social and ethical implications of specific topics, appropriate teaching strategies, trends in biology, and professional development opportunities (“Resources: American,” n.d.). Most importantly, the website has searchable peer-recommended resources, where biology teachers suggest unique materials that are useful to their classes.
Art to Zoo: Teaching with the Power of Objects
Smithsonian Institution created the Art to Zoo, which has since been renamed Smithsonian in Your Classroom, print and online resources for sciences, social studies, language arts & English, and art educators. It publishes issues in emerging topics such as a vision of the future and technology in the classroom. The paper contains detailed background information, classroom activities, lesson plans, resources lists, and activity sheets (“Search,” n.d.). Teachers can effectively use the available resources in their classrooms because they contain step-by-step guides.
Chem Matters
The magazine explores recent advances in chemical studies for high school students. The articles are available in print or on their website provides a wealth of information for middle school teachers on multiple topics. It covers issues including biodegradable bags, nicotine patches, and everyday chemistry-related activities. The website has numerous resources, including puzzles, descriptive explanations of problems solved using chemistry, and cartoons. The teachers also receive support guides with additional background information for laboratory experiments, questions and answers, and chemistry demonstrations (“Chemmatters,” n.d.). These materials allow educators to cover up-to-date areas and exercises that keep learners engaged.
Technology Resources for Parents and Children
AWE Learning
The website contains hundreds of digital learning problems and solutions for early learners. The target age group for the site is about 2-12-year-olds and parents, who can download the free printable for the children to use at home. There are multiple prompts and activities such as Shamrock math, cursive alphabet practice, share your story templates, shapes, and patterns. AWE learning also intends to build literacy skills by incorporating songs and financial literacy education for elementary learners (“Library resources,” 2021). Therefore, children develop a deeper understanding of money that helps in financial management, investment, and budgeting.
Bamboo Learning
These voice-based resources available for children in grades K-5 were created to promote active listening and enhance conversational learning in different academic subjects such as math and social studies. The lessons are available on Alexa-supported devices, including Fire TV, Fire tablets, Echo Show, and Echo Dot. The applications offer engaging, fun, family-friendly, and home-based learning. Bamboo Grove, a web-based dashboard, allows parents to follow and monitor children’s progress (“Alexa and Google,” n.d.). The site comes with millions of free activities, storybooks, problems, and stories that kids can learn independently.
Educational Insights
The recent closure of schools and workplaces due to the coronavirus allowed parents to spend much time with the kids at home. Since children were required to study at home, multiple resources were provided for families. Educational Insights has been offering free activities, games, and printable worksheets to spark kids’ curiosity and ensure continuous learning. The company partnered with Mensa for Kids to incorporate multiple academic disciplines, including STEM, reading, and creativity (“At-home activities,” n.d.). The site has guides and video tutorials for parents to recreate experiments and activities with household items. As a result, children and parents engage in do-it-yourself activities, art, and crafts that make learning fun.
Digital Activity Packs
DK is a site that provides downloadable activities and curriculum resources based on scientific experiments, LEGO builds, creative crafts, and exploratory exercises that keep kids engaged, educated, and entertained. The resources are categorized into preschool, curriculum, and 5-12-year-olds learning materials. Therefore, a parent can easily access the website and select the tools appropriate for their child. Students can also use the books and printable activities to supplement school-based learning at home (“Home learning,” n.d.). The site focuses on creating materials that inspire kids to explore gardening, hobbies, traveling, and creativity.
Emotional Skills and Development
Children learn most of their habits and behaviors through social learning. Understanding and dealing with one’s emotions is essential in child development as it helps them create and maintain satisfying relationships. Parents appreciate it when they see their children getting along with others, and the Emotional ABCs came up with a way of equipping kids with emotional management skills. The site offers an evidence-based curriculum created by educators and psychologists to allow children to think through and evaluate choices in emotionally charged situations. The program promises to teach children how to recognize their emotions, communicate and regulate them effectively, and make good choices (“What if,” n.d.). It offers step-by-step videos, interactive activities, online games, voiceovers, and printable offline exercises.
Working with Diverse Families
Multicultural Classrooms
Today’s classes are diverse in terms of abilities/disabilities, race, gender, culture, and ethnicities. Therefore, educators need resources that allow them to customize teaching to meet all the students. Learning for Justice is a website that provides lesson plans, texts, social-emotional learning, students’ activities, and teaching strategies. The platform campaigns on anti-bias education for all learners by developing content that falls into four domains of IDJA (identity, diversity, justice, and action). The IDJA standards created learning outcomes and school-based scenarios for each grade (“Classroom resources,” 2020). Teachers benefit from multiple resources available on the site, such as lesson plans and strategies for delivering multicultural education.
Multicultural Awareness
Awareness is the first step in integrating a diverse population into the classroom. Students who are aware of their privileges and cultures understand sensitive issues and topics that might hurt others. Therefore, teachers can create activities that allow students to share about their cultures to create awareness. Educators acquire information about strategies & preparation, icebreakers, and introspection that enable them to teach multiculturalism. The downloadable social justice and equity awareness quizzes allow students to understand diversity, equity, differences, and similarities with other learners (“Equity, anti-bias,” n.d.). Such activities can enhance unity and togetherness in the classroom.
Teaching for Change
Educators hope to see future generations eliminate discriminatory behaviors and habits. Therefore, most of them teach with a vision of ensuring equity and equality in all aspects of life. Teaching for Change is an organization that provides teachers and parents with the tools to make learning easy for all people. It allows teachers to explore different materials that link current events to their classrooms. Professional development opportunities equip teachers with skills that facilitate interaction between diverse families and schools (“Educator resources,” 2021). The lesson plans, texts, religious and civil rights studies, and activities ensure all learners are engaged.
Multiculturalism and Diversity
Motivated by the increasing diversity in classrooms, Scholastic created materials, tips, and tools to help educators. The site compiled a list of resources from various experts addressing the backgrounds and needs of all students. Therefore, teachers get professional articles that guide them on how to organize classes. Teaching diversity in the classroom is where student’s understanding of diversity should begin, and the website has instructions on how educators should handle such topics. It allows the children to develop a sense of identity, language and connects them with their history/culture (“Multiculturalism,” n.d.). The link also includes lesson plans and activities for exploring and interacting with different ethnicities.
Project Exchange
The Project Exchange brings high school and college students together in a 12-week cultural program to broaden their worldview. In that period, learners are matched with partners from different countries, exchanging ideas, language skills, and cultural practices (“Our programs,” n.d.). It prepares young adults to talk about diversity and tackle critical global issues through increased perspectives and communication. The website also hosts virtual field trips that expose students to problems people in other places face. For instance, students in the USA teach English and communicate challenges they encounter, whereas a child from another country teaches French and raises issues they face in life. This exchange gives the two children a new perspective of the world, noting the similarities and differences of the two societies.
Accommodating Students with Special Needs
Healthy Relationships Curriculum
Teachers come across many students with special educational needs. Educators are always looking for new ways to help these students navigate school, feel accepted, and perform in class. Special education teachers and counselors created the Healthy Relationships Curriculum to deliver creative and meaningful contents that make students engaging. The platform makes videos covering topics such as hygiene, social and life skills, and practical home, daily, and community activities (“Lessons,” 2021). Besides the informative videos, the site also creates lesson plans, outcome tools, professional development, interactive quizzes & activities, and ongoing consultation for teachers to follow and adapt in their classrooms to support the students.
National Council for Special Education (NCSE)
The NCSE was established to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special needs. The agency collaborates with local organizers, parents, schools, and the government to support children with special educational needs. The council provides strategies for making schools suitable and accessible for learners with disabilities. It also offers educators professional development and teaching strategies to cater to all the student’s needs. The resources are categorized into primary and post-primary guidelines for supporting learners in special classes and mainstream schools (Teachers: I teach,” n.d.). Guidelines and toolkits provided by the NCSE enhance the quality of learning and teaching to special education students.
Do to Learn
Do 2 learn is a platform that provides thousands of free resources for individuals with special needs. The institution works with gifted individuals, clinicians, and teachers from different parts of the world to deliver carefully thought content. The site also provides teachers toolbox that contains resources such as behavior management plans, literacy tools, and other necessary materials. The platform recently developed a DiagnoseFirst kit that enables teachers and clinicians to recognize the symptoms of ASD. People with special needs use the information contained on the site to assess their skills, navigate schools, find and apply for jobs, and practice social skills (“Do2learn,” n.d.). Educators also benefit from learning strategies posted on the site to teach students with diverse needs.
IXL Worldwide
IXL is a platform that offers specialized learning with a comprehensive curriculum and immersive learning experiences. The platform has resources for the K-12 curriculum in all disciplines and standardized tests, textbooks, and assessment materials. Additionally, the site offers a real-time diagnostic tool that allows teachers to understand the challenges students face and take actionable steps to foster growth (“The IXL,” n.d.). This feature enables the special educators to cater to each student’s knowledge needs even when they have different abilities. The website has the hide grade levels property, allowing learners to study at their own pace. Multi-sensory instructions help special needs individuals understand concepts. The resources available on the website enable special needs children to learn independently.
Teaching Learning Disabilities
The organization is committed to providing resources and information for teaching students with learning disabilities. The site has reading, writing, mathematics, transition, and behavior materials for different grade levels. The resources are designed for students with disabilities as well as gifted kids. Therefore, members who subscribe to the site get access to evidence-based practice and activities that advance their knowledge by eliminating learning barriers. Teachers have access to tutorials, practice guides & alerts, videos, professional development, Q & As, and external resources (“Tutorials,” n.d.). The resources can be downloaded for offline use in multiple classes.
Accommodating (ELL/DLL) English Language Learners/Dual Language, and English as a Second Language (ESOL) and Students with Special Needs
Merit Software
Merit is a software company that produces interactive learning tools and programs to address learning competencies. The instructional tools provide context-sensitive tutorials for learners, making them useful for ELLs. The website includes step-by-step guides, teaching tips, skills progression charts, webinars, reviews, and automatic student tracking (“Teaching tips,” 2021). The resources are categorized according to their grade levels and students’ abilities. For instance, the site has ESL beginning, intermediate, and advanced, making it convenient for English learners. Teachers get free access to selected programs, working demos, and implementation ideas that they can adapt in their classes.
News-O-Matic
The website was created to educate children about current world events and news, inspiring them to develop a reading culture. On a daily basis, the site publishes five stories written for grades K-8, and each story is translated into English, Spanish, French, and Arabic languages. The stories are then read aloud, and videos or audios are shared for kids to listen. The approach taken by the site makes it suitable for dual language learners because they can study the use of words in different contexts (“Daily literacy,” n.d.). The website hosts writing contests, user guides, and white papers students can use to advance literacy skills. Teachers get access to multiple lesson plans and a special dashboard they use to track student’s progression. Educators can adjust children’s reading levels accordingly based on the answers provided from comprehension questions.
Sadlier School
Sadlier School provides a variety of educational materials for grammar, English language arts, grammar & writing, and math for K-12 learners. The platform partners with schools, educators, and volunteers to offer standards-based learning resources that meet class needs. It develops learning strategies that enhance critical thinking and promote words knowledge. Teachers access games, activities, kits, eBooks, test preps, lesson plans, and tip sheets they can use in the classroom to educate language learners (Sadlier, n.d.). The site also contains grammar, writing, and vocabulary workshops and tools that allow ESL to practice and improve literacy skills.
Resources for Teaching English-Language Learners
Edutopia organization has a website that shares evidence-based and peer-refereed materials to improve K-12 education. Cronin (2016) shared a list of strategies and resources available to enhance teaching ELLs. The article begins with general tips, and strategies educators should adopt in their classes to effectively work and accommodate ELLs. Additionally, equity for English learners is crucial to ensure extra support and fair assessments, ensuring they do not lag during lectures. Further, Cronin (2016) identified a list of activities such as storytelling and game-based language learning that keep ELLs engaged. Accurate and appropriate instructions are also essential in English learning. It also presents ways teachers can make content and teachings suitable for ELLs.
iCulture
Exploring different cultures and languages helps students appreciate the uniqueness of their mother tongue. Home languages are considered essential in supporting ELLs because they find an easy time transitioning and speeds the development of basic literacy skills. Carnegie Learning center, through iCulture, provides learners with a curated library of videos, articles, oral assessment tools, and eReaders in multiple languages (“World language,” n.d.). The platform enables the learners to explore cultures that appeal to them, listen to songs and watch videos in that language. Some related activities and questions test student’s understanding, which process helps enhance language development. This platform allows the students to make meaningful connections between language development and culture.
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