I can’t even imagine what teaching was like before the internet. I would probably (most definitely) be teaching long division wrong, have no idea how to make learning fun, and would have to power through whatever resources were given to me.
Even though I work in a district that has a plethora of resources, our curriculum isn’t culturally relevant for the majority of our students. I’ve spent a lot of time using and losing resources from a variety of different websites. I have a handful of websites I use almost daily that enrich our learning by providing my students opportunities to learn about things they care about in fun, differentiated, and engaging ways.
In no particular order…
NewsELA
NewsELA is one of my favorite FREE websites for building authentic non-fiction reading and writing opportunities. NewsELA focuses around current events in the areas of science, health, politics, money, science– literally everything! The best part is each article has multiple lexile ranges making it the easiest resource for differentiating in your classroom. Each article comes with a 4-7 question reading comprehension quiz at the end that’s aligned with common core. I use newsELA articles to teach argumentative writing, informational, and explanatory writing, and how to cite evidence. For reading, I use newsELA articles for academic vocabulary instruction, decoding, and comprehension concepts. Here is a couple newsELA resources I use alongside the articles!
Website: www.newsela.com
Grade range: 2-12
Price: Free– has an upgraded option available
Digital or print: BOTH!
Content Area: ELA, science, social-studies, life, social-emotional, health– basically everything 🙂
Culturally Relevant and easy differentiation? Yes!
The Curriculum Corner
The Curriculum Corner is a k-6 JACKPOT when it comes to FREE common core, differentiated, and engaging activities for EVERY subject area. My favorite resources are the 4-6 seasonal math resources and sight word activities. Every season I print out their new resources and literally use them almost every single day. They update their content frequently and it’s the first place I go when I’m looking for something new. Each grade groupings (K) (1-3) (4-6) have their own website filled with amazing free worksheets, complete lessons, and every day resources. If I can’t find it on The Curriculum Corner, that’s when I head over to TpT!
Website: https://www.thecurriculumcorner.com
Grade range: K-6 — great resource for special education and english language learning classrooms
Price: Free!!!!
Digital or print: The majority of resources are meant to be printed but you can find interactive powerpoint games, writing prompts, and resources that can be “printed” to OneNote.
Content Area: All! When you go this website… You will see what I mean when I say all!
Culturally Relevant and easy differentiation? Easy differentiation, lacking a prominent sense of culturally relevance but still includes some.
Flocabulary
Flocabulary is a New York based hip-hop educational company that creates videos and lesson plans aligned with common core standards. Each video includes printable lyrics, a lesson plan, and worksheets. The videos are high quality and beat anything you can find on youtube. Every week we use the current event videos and when introducing new math, social-emotional, or english language arts concepts, we always kick off with Flocab! Flocab isn’t free– it’s around $99 dollars annually, but you can sign up for a free trial to see if it’s worth it. Flocabulary is culturally relevant and incorporates many different cultures and races into each video– that alone is worth it for me and my students.
I always dance and sing to these videos and that’s one of the major reasons my students think I’m so cringe, ha! Sign up for your free trial and let me know what you think 🙂
Website: https://www.flocabulary.com/
Grade range: K-12
Price: $99/year but can use a free trial
Digital or print: Both! Digital videos and vocabulary. Worksheets and lyrics can be printed.
Content Area: ELA, math, social studies, science, social-emotional, life skills
Culturally Relevant and easy differentiation? Incredibly culturally relevant! Using various teaching strategies can make flocabulary differentiated!
Readworks.org
Readworks.org one was of the main ways I learned how to teach reading comprehension. They have free lessons for every grade level and every reading standard, with explicit lesson plans for each lesson. It’s every thing you need in a reading curriculum! Because the lessons are aligned to each standard, it’s easy to differentiate by going back a grade level and fill in the instruction that our students might be missing. The lesson plans and resources are easy to follow and make for engaging lessons. One of my favorite sections is the article-a-day resource where there are differentiated lexile sets for a variety of culturally relevant topics. One a month we will do an article-a-day theme and students will practice using academic language, sharing the main idea aloud, and creating a quiz question from their article.
Website: https://www.readworks.org/
Grade range: K-12
Price: Free– has an upgraded option available
Digital or print: BOTH! There is a digital and print library!
Content Area: Reading and writing
Culturally Relevant and easy differentiation? Strong in both!
PBIS World
PBIS World is a FREE intensive comprehensive tier 1 thru tier 3 behavior strategies, accommodations, and interventions website. PBIS world includes hundreds of printable resources to address low level behaviors like rushing through work all the way to physical aggression. I love PBIS world because as it helps you find resources, it’s teaching us about behavior. For example, if you are looking for resources around disrespectful behavior, when you click the button, it takes you to a detailed description of what disrespectful behavior might look like. Then it asks you if this sounds like the student. Let’s just say yes– it provides you with a list of around 10-20 tier 1 strategies, resources, data-collection tools, and evidence-based implementation guidelines. There is literally so many resources and ideas on this website… It’s incredible!
Website: http://www.pbisworld.com/
Grade range: K-12
Price: Free!
Digital or print: Print!
Content area: classroom management, behavior, social-emotional learning, social skills
Culturally Relevant and easy differentiation? Easy differentiation, absolutely! When thinking about cultural relevance with behavior, this get a little tricky. Depending on the culture, these resources can be relevant and applicable. If you work at a diverse school, think about the students culture before implementing behavior strategies or interventions. I try to share different options with their families if I’m not sure.
I have 4 other favorites that I will share at a different time! Sometimes I get overloaded with all the resources, I can’t find a place to start. What are your favorite on-line, culturally relevant or differentiated resources that you use teaching? Share them in the comments below!
