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Curriculum Resource Links

Please see the below tabs for popular searches and curriculum resources.

Bibliographies
Curriculum Links

Within the curriculum topics listed below you will find links to websites, lesson plans, handbooks, tools, resources and more that have been found helpful and shared by others in your profession.

The Arts
Teacher Resources – Art
  • The Kennedy Center Digital Resources Library (formerly ArtsEdge) provides free digital resource for teaching and learning in, through and about the arts. Also included are arts activities, articles on arts education and additional links to arts education sites.
  • Michigan Humanities Council – Arts and Humanities Touring Program connects people and communities by fostering and supporting quality cultural programs, and supports a variety of activities that bring communities, students and scholars together.
  • Kinder Art – Lesson plans/projects for K–12 and information about art education.
Teacher Resources – Music
  • The National Association for Music Education is among the world’s largest arts education organizations and is the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. Provides links to articles, information, lessons and National Standards for Music Education.
  • The New York Philharmonic Kid Zone Digital Resources provides information and music fun for kids of all ages. Choose to learn about famous composers, identify instruments and their sounds, meet contemporary players and soloists, or play games that involve searching the various pages of the site for trivia and facts. You can drag and drop measures of music to compose your own minuets, orchestrate, or even change the instrumentation to familiar pieces, then listen to see how it changes compared to the original version.
Museums and Collections
Children’s/YA Literature
Comprehensive Sites
  • The Children’s Book Council (CBC) is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to encouraging literacy and the use and enjoyment of children’s books since 1945. The CBC sponsors Young People’s Poetry Week and National Children’s Book Week each year. Site contains articles, links to author sites and announcements of new books published.
  • Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) is a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. This site provides a collection of links to children’s and young adult books, bibliographies, authors, illustrators and resources for teachers and librarians.
  • The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL Foundation) is to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of the global community by making the best in children’s literature available online free of charge. The Foundation pursues its vision by building a digital library of outstanding children’s books from around the world.
Reader’s Advisory
  • Bloomfield Township Public Library: Reading, Watch, Listen – Youth librarians’ recommended reading lists, including titles for Pre-K–8 children, genre and topical bibliographies.
  • Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project that offers research-based and best-practice information on teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle. It is an educational service of public television station WETA in Washington, D.C. It provides a wealth of information about reading and links for teachers, librarians, parents and kids who are looking for books. You can find themed bibliographies and reviews, practice-based videos and a database searchable by topic, genre, age, reading level and keyword.
  • Rise, A Feminist Book Project for ages 0-18, formerly the Amelia Bloomer Project, is part of the Feminist Task Force and the Social Responsibilities Round Table (ALA). Each year, an annotated book list of well-written and well-illustrated books with significant feminist content, intended for young readers is compiled.
  • Scholastic Book Wizard – If you need to quickly assess the reading level, interest level or Lexile of a specific children’s book, the Scholastic Book Wizard allows you to search by title and retrieve information.
  • We Need Diverse Books – The website of a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.
Counseling
Associations Content Sites
  • Occupational Outlook Handbook – “ Describes what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations.” Can search by occupation, occupational groups or view an alphabetical listing.
Early Childhood
Organizational Journals Sites for Children and Adults
  • Sesame Street – Simple games, music and drawing activities. Some advertising.
English/Language Arts
Teacher Resources
  • Aaron Shepard’s Reader’s Theater provides a wealth of resources for reader’s theater, including background information, free scripts from Reader’s Theater Editions, worksheets for scripting, tips and much more.
  • Calisphere is your gateway to California’s remarkable digital collections. Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching and curious exploration. Discover over 925,000 photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings and more.
  • Core Standards for English/Language Arts – Link to the Common Core State Standards initiative.
  • The OWL at Purdue – Find help with grammar, style, formatting and writing tasks. Included are APA and MLA formatting and style guides, links to the writing lab resources, tutorials and a wealth of materials related to the writing process across disciplines and purposes. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) website is divided into four major sections: handouts and materials, Internet resources, workshops and presentations, and Writing Lab and OWL information.
  • Read Write Think is a partnership between the International Literacy Association, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Verizon Foundation. Provides educators and students with access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.
  • Reading Rockets – Teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle.
  • Visible Thinking – Visible Thinking is “a flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students’ thinking with content learning across subject matters.” This website provides a convenient way to learn about Visible Thinking, as well as thorough descriptions of the ideals, routines and activities that have been developed from research in K–12 schools.
Professional Organizations
  • International Literacy Association (ILA) – Includes news, meetings and events, selections from print journals, an electronic journal of research and practice for K–12 teachers and reading suggestion lists.
  • Michigan Reading Association – Provides literacy resources to teachers, parents and universities, and convenes an annual conference in Michigan with inspirational speakers, educators, authors and more.
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) – Spotlight on related news, conventions, position statements, resources for new teachers and teaching ideas can be found at this site. Journals show table of contents for current issue and selections from previous issues.
Content Sites
  • Poets.org – From the Academy of American Poets, this site features biographies, clips of poets reading their poems, information about National Poetry Month (April), a poetry map listing poets, organizations, lesson plan ideas for teachers, and book stores and events by state. Grades 8–12.
  • Poetry 180 presents more than 180 poems suitable for reading and sharing, in printer friendly style, with advice about how to read a poem aloud and suggestions about good times and places for sharing poetry on a daily basis.
  • RPO: Representative Poetry Online – Poets and poetry searchable by name, first line and a keyword.
ESL/ELL
Teacher Resources Organizations Disabilities
  • Learning Disabilities Online – Information about different learning disabilities, conference schedules and kids’ page. Teacher page includes strategies, bulletin board for exchanging ideas, frequently asked questions and book recommendations.
Second Language Learners
  • English Club – Resources for both students and teachers for the study of grammar, spelling, pronunciation and usage, playing games, chatting and interacting with other English language learners. English Club is written mainly in British English, taking The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English as a reference, but has pages about other varieties of English such as American or Canadian. As a reference for American English, Webster’s New World College Dictionary is used.
  • Interesting Things for ESL Students – For people studying English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL), this site contains many activities, including quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions and anagrams.
Gifted and Talented
Professional Organizations and Information
Health/Physical Education
Teacher Resources
  • Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship Curriculum – A website with researched-based digital citizenship lesson plans for all grades.
  • Answer Sex Ed, Honestly – A website focused on providing high quality training to teachers and other youth-serving professionals. It highlights the National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12, which provide clear, consistent and straightforward guidance on the essential minimum, core content for sexuality that is developmentally and age-appropriate for students in grades K–12. You can also browse the strategic plan of Answer.
  • USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center – Information on food and nutrition topics, plus bibliographies of additional resources and information on borrowing books, videos and curricula.
  • PE Central – Resources include lesson plan ideas for physical education and health classes, Pre-K–12, links and information on topics like Adaptive PE, research article annotations, plus information about PE journals and lists of websites containing even more resources.
Associations
  • Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) – SHAPE America is the largest organization of professionals involved in physical education, physical activity, dance, school health and sport. SHAPE America’s mission is to advance professional practice and promote research related to health and physical education, activity, dance and sport.
Content Sites
  • GonnaNeedMilk.com – Remember “Got Milk”? Take a look at redesigned Milk Life website, a movement created to show how starting mornings with milk can help power the potential of every day. Recipes, food/nutrition facts, videos and more.
  • Kids Health – Articles for kids and teens on emotional and physical health.
Television
Information Literacy
  • IMSA’s 21st Century Information Fluency Project – The 21st Century Information Fluency Project (21CIF) began in 2001 when the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy received funds from the U.S. Department of Education to research and develop training in the largely unexplored field of online information literacy. It immediately became clear that the largest needs in this area were for professional development and resources to help educators and students improve their ability to locate, evaluate and use digital information more effectively, efficiently and ethically. That has always been, and remains today, the mission of 21CIF. In 2009, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and the authors of 21CIF agreed to transform this project into a business. All the products and services that were available when this was grant funded remains available today, the vast majority of them for free. Financial support for 21CIF comes through online course fees, face-to-face workshop fees and product licensing.
  • Noodle Tools: 21st Century Literacies – This page from the Educators Network provides tools for “reading the world,” listing links to information and plans for teaching language literacy, visual literacy, historical literacy, cultural literacy, information literacy, political and news media literacy, science literacy and mathematical literacy.
  • Resources for School Librarians – Provides links to lesson plans and thematic units for information skills instruction. This site is maintained by Linda Bertland, retired school librarian. She also includes a bibliography of books and resources.
Lesson Plans and Education Websites
Lesson Plans (Multiple Subjects)
  • Education World – Links to lesson plans, articles on topics in education and more content area sites.
  • EDSITEment – “The best of the humanities on the web from the National Endowment for the Humanities.” Lesson plans, learning activities and peer-reviewed websites.
  • Lesson Planz – Searchable directory of lesson plans for all subjects, grades K–12. Also allows browsing and offers worksheets and web-quests.
  • Middle Web – Comprehensive resource for middle school teachers includes links to many articles related to teaching middle school as well as lesson plans.
  • PBS Teacher Source – Over 3,000 lesson plans and activities. Searchable by subject and by standard.
  • Shaped - Free Teaching Resources – A community-driven blog supporting educators on the Houghton Mifflin website, includes “resources for elementary school teachers, students and parents; includes Reading/Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies Centers, Intervention, Professional Development, searchable activity database, educational games and textbook support.”
  • Teach-nology Drama, Theater Lesson Plans – Links to lesson plans and units, plus more drama links. Site contains external ads.
  • Teachers First – Teachers First is a rich collection of lessons, units and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly and ad-free format. Busy teachers, parents and students can find resources using our robust search tools.
Teacher Resources
  • Awesome Library – Links to sites organized by areas of interest. Some lesson plans.
  • Discovery Education – Lesson plans K–12, puzzle maker, clip art and sites for students.
  • Kids Discover – Free lesson plans and activities to go along with every issue of the magazine Kids Discover.
  • Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) – McREL nonprofit organization whose purpose is to improve education through applied research and development. K–12 standards, link by subject and some activities.
  • New York Times Learning Network – News summaries, news quiz, lesson plans for grades 3–12 and web tours.
  • Visible Thinking Core Routines – Visible Thinking is a framework for enriching classroom learning in the content areas and fostering students’ intellectual development. It emphasizes several ways of making students’ thinking visible to themselves and one another, so that they can improve it.
Education Associations
Libraries/Museums
Libraries
  • MeL - The Michigan eLibrary (MeL) is a statewide service of the Library of Michigan, an agency of the Michigan Department of Education. The Library of Michigan works with the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) to provide MeL services.
  • Resources for School Librarians – Links to resources for curricular areas, program administration, publisher, policies and procedures, continuing education and employment and additional web reference sources.
  • Library of Congress – Access to the collection, exhibits, legislative information, America’s Library, American Memory and more.
Local Libraries/Area Education Agency Museums
  • Smithsonian – Libraries and archives, online collections and museums and research centers.
Mathematics
Teacher Resources
  • Core Standards for Mathematical Practice – Link to the Common Core State Standards initiative.
  • NCTM Classroom Resources – The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Classroom Resources website is valuable for math teachers at all levels. It offers a wide range of high-quality resources, is easy to use, and is aligned with the NCTM standards.
  • Mathwire – This site is designed to provide Standards-based math activities and appropriate worksheets for teachers to use in their classrooms. All activities and worksheets support the constructivist approach to learning mathematics and the NCTM standards.
Organizations Content Sites
  • Science and Arts Gateway for Education (SAGE) – Links to math and science resources primarily for students/teachers grades 9–12, but a few links could be used with younger students.
  • Math League Help Topics – Part of the Math League pages, this is a resource for students in grades 4–8. It serves as an online textbook with explanations of fractions, metric units and many other topics.
  • National Library of Virtual Manipulatives – Supported by the National Science Foundation, this site contains a library of virtual manipulatives and interactive activities which teach mathematical concepts K–12.
  • Vi Hart's YouTube Channel contains short, engaging, fast-paced videos that use everyday objects, food and doodles to demonstrate math concepts such as pi, Fibonacci numbers, mobius strips, binary numbers and patterns, measuring angles and much more.
Professional Organizations
Children’s and Young Adult Librarianship
  • The Association of Library Service to Children provides many practical and excellent resources to support children’s librarians and educators in their work, while also guiding children and their families and caregivers to the best resources available in print, non-print and emerging formats.
  • The Young Adult Library Services Association advocates for, promotes and strengthens service to young adults and supports those who provide service to this population. Find links to bibliographies of recommended books for teens and young adults, great graphic novels, books for the college bound and book awards such as the Alex Award, the Margaret A. Edwards Award and the Michael L. Printz Award.
Early Childhood Education Guidance Health
  • Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) – “Society of Health and Physical Educators is the nation’s largest membership organization of health and physical education professionals. Since being founded in 1885, the organization has defined excellence in physical education, and our National Standards for K–12 Physical Education serve as the foundation for well-designed physical education programs across the country.”
Mathematics Music Reading/English
  • International Literacy Association – Includes news, meetings and events, selections from print journals such as The Reading Teacher, Reading Online, an electronic journal of research and practice for K–12 teachers, and Children’s, Teachers’ and Young Adults’ Choices reading suggestion lists.
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) – Spotlight on related news, conventions, position statements, resources for new teachers, LISTSERVs and teaching ideas can be found at this site. Journals show table of contents for current issue and selections from previous issues.
Science Social Studies Special Needs
Science
Teacher Resources Organizations Content Sites
  • Educational Resources – Science Education – Created by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, this site provides powerful teaching tools for use in high schools, colleges and universities across the country, free of charge.
  • Learning and Teaching About the Environment – Global warming, Earth Day and recycling are only some of the topics addressed in this website that contains coloring pages, puzzles, games and stories. Grades 4–8.
  • Imagine the Universe – “This site is intended for students age 14 and up, and for anyone interested in learning about our universe.” News, special features and many explanatory articles. Includes math and science lesson plans.
  • The Nine Planets – “An overview of the history, mythology and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system.”
  • Physics Quest – From the American Physical Society, lessons and inspiration ideas to advance students' passion for science.
  • Star Child – Two levels of information for elementary students about the solar system—the universe and “space stuff.” Includes links to other astronomy sites for kids.
  • U.S. Geological Survey – Articles on biology, geology, hydrology and geography, sites for kids, plus lessons and activities for grades K–12.
  • Visual Elements – Flash version gives pictorial representation of the Periodic Table. HTML version also available. A description, history, chemical data and uses given for each element. Information on the table as a whole is presented, plus more links to other chemistry sites.
Museums and Science Centers
  • Exploratorium – The Learning Studio has fun activities, links to ten cool sites (selected monthly) and interactive exhibits. This is only one of the informative and entertaining sections of this site.
  • Field Museum – Online exhibits include Sue, the world’s largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex, the butterfly collection and the man-eating lions of Tsavo.
  • National Museum of Natural History – Through educational resources, find several electronic field trips plus additional information for students and teachers.
Social Sciences
General Social Studies/Social Sciences Sites Michigan History and Social Studies
  • Historical Society of Michigan - The Society helps to connect Michigan’s past to students, educators, historical organizations and the public through educational programs, conferences, publications, awards, workshops, referral services, networking opportunities, and  support for local history organizations.
  • Michigan’s Women Forward: Herstory and Hall of Fame - Michigan women have shaped our todays and benefited our tomorrows. Explore their stories of perseverance, innovation and inspiration.
  • Michigan History Center (MHC) - The Michigan History Center, which includes the Archives of Michigan, the Michigan History Museum and 11 museums and historic sites, continues to expand its reach – online, on trails and onsite. We share not only collections and ideas, but also the experience of asking questions, finding answers and reaching conclusions. Check out the Michiganology for Kids section.
  • Michigan History for Kids - Written for third and fourth graders, this magazine goes beyond the textbooks, exploring the history and heritage of all Michigan’s peoples. It also thoroughly integrates Michigan’s Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs) into the content. 
  • Michigan Memories -  provides access to collections from cultural institutions throughout the state of Michigan, which are created and maintained by archivists, librarians, and curators who are dedicated to the preservation of Michigan's history and heritage.
  • Michigan Social Studies Standards – An information hub for educators to find standards, professional learning partnerships and teaching resources.
  • Michigan Tribal Education Directory – Contact information and links to specific web pages for Native American sites in Michigan
American History
Civil War Groups/Time Periods
  • Black History – Black history teaching resources on the Smithsonian Education site.
World History
 Comprehensive Sites
  • Internet History Sourcebooks Project – Each sourcebook is a gateway to hundreds, even thousands of resources—texts, images and additional links. Among the numerous topics for which a sourcebook exists are African, ancient, Jewish, modern and women’s history. Searchable.
Ancient World Modern History Geography
  • National Geographic Society – Online adventures, lesson plans and printable maps.
  • State Facts for Students – Created by the U.S. Census Bureau, this site allows users to click on their state and learn many fun, fast facts. Also available is a teacher guide with lesson ideas for using this site with students.
  • The World Factbook – Country information, including political parties, geographical information and population.
Civics
  • U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets – U.S. Department of State publications that include facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy and foreign relations of countries, independent states, some dependencies and areas of special sovereignty.
  • Ben’s Guide to Government – Information and activities for teachers, parents and students K–12 (with grade ranges K–2, 3–5, 6–8 and 9–12) about our government and how it works.
  • Democracy Web – An online study guide and interactive world map based on Freedom House’s Freedom in the World reports, which allows secondary students to use comparative studies to better understand the American form of government and compare levels of freedom and civil rights across nations.
  • The Digital Civics Toolkit is a classroom resource that offers lesson plans and content for students of all grade levels, so educators can help them productively engage in digital life. It's meant to encourage students to recognize, take seriously and act on the civic potential of digital and social media. Read the Harvard Graduate School of Education research story about the toolkit website posted on October 7, 2018.
  • Project Vote Smart – Information on candidates, issues and election results. Middle school/secondary.
Special Needs Learners
Teacher Resources Organizations Disabilities
  • Learning Disabilities Online – Information about different learning disabilities, conference schedule and kids’ page. Teacher page includes strategies, bulletin board for exchanging ideas, frequently asked questions and book recommendations.
Second Language Learners
  • English Club – Resources for both students and teachers for the study of grammar, spelling, pronunciation and usage, playing games, chatting and interacting with other English language learners. English Club is written mainly in British English, taking The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English as a reference, but has pages about other varieties of English such as American or Canadian. As a reference for American English, Webster’s New World College Dictionary is used.
  • Interesting Things for ESL Students – For people studying English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL), this site contains many activities, including quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions and anagrams.
Web Tools and Tech Resources
Teaching with the Internet Creating Web Pages
  • Weebly.com – “Made for creative entrepreneurs, by creative entrepreneurs.” Weebly allows you to create your own website for free, with a drag-and-drop website builder tool that makes it fast, easy and efficient.
Where to Find Royalty Free Music and Images
  • Every Stock Photo – A search engine for public domain and Creative Commons licensed pictures that pulls images from multiple sources on the web.
  • Flickr: The Commons – A collection of public images that have been contributed by 70 libraries and museums around the world.
  • Morgue Files – High resolution, free reference image stock photos for your illustration, comp or design needs.
  • National Gallery of Art – More than 25,000 open access digital images up to 3,000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.
  • Pixabay – A keyword searchable website to find and download quality public domain images.
Frequent Catalog Searches

Educational Resources Lab

Pawley Hall, Room 350
456 Pioneer Dr.
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
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(248) 370-2485
fax: (248) 370-4226


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