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Reliable Education-focused Sites
The New York Times Learning Network: Lesson Plans"Every school day since 1998, we have offered fresh classroom resources — from lesson plans and writing prompts to news quizzes, student contests and more — all based on the articles, essays, images, videos and graphics published on NYTimes.com."
Edutopia - Lesson Plans"A comprehensive website and online community that increases knowledge, sharing, and adoption of what works in K-12 education. "
TED-Ed Lesson"TED-Ed is TED’s youth and education initiative. TED-Ed’s mission is to spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students around the world."
PBS Learning Media - Lesson Plans"PBS LearningMedia provides PreK-12 educators with access to free digital content and professional development opportunities designed to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. PBS LearningMedia was developed in partnership with the WGBH Educational Foundation and is offered locally by 155 PBS licensees, representing 356 stations in 55 U.S. states and territories."
Read Write Think - Lesson Plans"Here at ReadWriteThink, our mission is to provide educators, parents, and afterschool professionals with access to the highest quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials."
Scholastic: Lessons & Ideas"OUR MISSION:
To encourage the intellectual and personal growth of all children, beginning with literacy."
The Kennedy Centers - Digital Resources"Since the Kennedy Center’s opening in 1971, schoolchildren, parents and educators have turned to us as the nation’s premiere cultural resource. Embracing this responsibility, the Kennedy Center instituted ARTSEDGE in 1996 as its educational media arm, reaching out to schools, communities, individuals and families with printed materials, classroom support and Internet technologies."
National Geographic Lesson Plans"The National Geographic Society is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to exploring our planet, protecting wildlife and habitats, and helping assure that students in K-12 are geographically literate."
Smithsonian Learning Lab"The Smithsonian Learning Lab is about discovery, creation, and sharing.
The Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access created the Smithsonian Learning Lab to inspire the discovery and creative use of its rich digital materials—more than a million images, recordings, and texts."
Anti-Defamation League Lesson Plans"Our collection of K-12 curricula include timely lesson plans and multi-grade units that promote critical thinking and assist educators in teaching current events topics through the lens of diversity, bias and social justice."
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets"... designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide."
Poets.org Lesson Plans"The Academy of American Poets presents lesson plans, most of which align with Common Core State Standards, and all of which have been reviewed by our Educator in Residence with an eye toward developing skills of perception and imagination. We hope they will inspire the educators in our community to bring even more poems into your classrooms!"
"Reading Like A Historian" Lesson Plans"The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents designed for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities."
Teaching Tolerance - Lesson PlansA project of the Southern Poverty Law Center
"Founded in 1991 by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation's children."
Government Sites
EDSITEment Lesson Plans"EDSITEment is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for the Humanities.
EDSITEment offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies."
Library of Congress Lesson Plans"Teacher-created, classroom-tested lesson plans using primary sources from the Library of Congress."
"The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching.
Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations."
NASA for Educators"NASA's education program strives to "inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics" by supporting education in the Nation's schools and to "engage the public in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery" by supporting informal education and public outreach efforts."
National Park Service - Teaching with Historic Places"Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) uses properties listed in the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places to enliven history, social studies, geography, civics, and other subjects. TwHP has created a variety of products and activities that help teachers bring historic places into the classroom."