Recommendations from:
Stephanie Barnett | Powell County Schools, 8th Grade Math Teacher
Erin Chavez | Frankfort Independent Schools, Mathematics Consultant
Mary Joal Clohisy | St. Anthony’s School Milwaukee, WI, 3rd Grade
Tiany Gruen | Erlanger-Elsmere Schools, 2nd Grade Teacher
Lindsey James | Walla Walla Public Schools, High School English Teacher
LaWanda Jeerson | Milwaukee Public Schools, 4th Grade
Casey McCormick | Diocese of Sacramento, 5th-8th Math Teacher
Joanna Schimizzi | North Carolina Virtual Public High School, Biology Teacher
Char Shryock | Bay Village City Schools, Director of Curriculum and Instruction K-12
Amy Steelman | New Hanover County Schools, 8th Grade English Language Arts Teacher
What I Use in My Classroom
Introduction
Looking for a new resource to excite and challenge your students this year? Have you been curious about
professional development opportunities but aren’t sure which are worth your time? While there are many free
resources out there, it can be challenging to navigate the options and feel confident you’re choosing the best ones.
Created by experienced educators in Student Achievement Partners’ Core Advocate Network, this document
contains personal recommendations for the tools and resources they’ve seen improve student and teacher
performance. The summaries include teachers’ reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of each tool as well as
how they’ve used it eectively within their own local setting.
All resources are free to access and use and align to college- and career-ready standards.
2
Resource How it Works How I’ve Used This Tool Caveats / Concerns
Academic Word Finder
www.achievethecore.
org/academic-word-
finder
From Tiany Gruen
Digital tool that allows teachers to upload
any text in order to determine the
valuable tier two academic words that are
sometimes overlooked. This tool highlights
the words throughout the text, provides
the grade-level complexity of each
identified word and various definitions.
I regularly use this tool when planning instruction around a
complex text. The AWF Academic Word Finder does the work of
identifying words that I might take for granted that are essential
for student comprehension. I am then able to better predict the
vocabulary needs of my students and build strategies into my
lessons in order to make sure that all of my students are able to
access the text.
While you can cut and paste any text into the
Academic Word Finder, you are not able to scan
and upload a PDF. So if you are unable to access
a digital version of your text and only have a
hard-back copy, then you will need to type in
your selected sections or convert the PDF to a
Word document.
Basal Alignment Project
http://achievethecore.
org/page/743/basal-
alignment-project
From Tiany Gruen
The Basal Alignment Project took
texts from popular basals and created
lesson plans that allow students to dive
deeply into the text through academic
vocabulary, rich text-based questions
and writing prompts. This tool is not only
a time and resource saver, but allows
teachers to see how the construction of
an aligned lesson can develop.
I used this tool with my ELA intervention and enrichment groups.
Coming from the social studies world, I feared that my Common
Core ELA implementation would not be up to par. This resource
provided me with supports to eectively teach using existing
texts that were tucked away on my book shelves and helped me
identify the true instructional Shifts of the Standards in a timely and
eective manner.
My only concern is that the Basal Alignment
Project only looks at series from grades 3-6. It
would be wonderful to see this same alignment
for the K-2 ELA basals, as well.
Achieve the Core -
ELA/Literacy Lessons
http://achievethecore.
org/category/411/ela-lit-
eracy-lessons
From Amy Steelman
This is a platform that oers a variety of
comprehensive lessons for close reading
of short texts or excerpts. Each lesson
plan provides related standards, a detailed
lesson outline, and additional resources
such as vocabulary lists and writing tasks.
Because these lessons are challenging but well-scaolded, I found
that even my struggling students can be successful and meet
grade level standards, which builds their confidence. In addition,
the variation and depth in each lesson helps me meet a wide
variety of standards with a single text. The high caliber of texts
that are used in these lessons also allows for questioning that
requires my students to go beyond the surface and creates a need
for them to read a text multiple times to gain a full understanding.
Unfortunately, not all of the texts are of high
interest to students and so getting students to
engage in close reading with an uninteresting
text provides challenges. In addition, some of
the lessons do not provide the text to be studied
and they are dicult to find digitally.
ELA Guidebook Units
from the Louisiana
Department of
Education
https://learnzillion.
com/resources/81666-
english-language-arts-
guidebook-units
From Amy Steelman
This resource provides a collection of unit
plans that align with the Common Core.
Each lesson plan within each unit provides
the teacher with standards alignment,
various literary, informational, and nonprint
texts that align to the anchor text, and a
detailed daily lesson plan that leads to a
culminating assignment, which is provided.
It is extremely time consuming to create your own high-caliber
text set. I often try to use lessons from this site because I know
they are aligned and I know that they all use the text set approach.
With such a long list of supplemental texts, I am also able to pick
and choose what will best meet individual students’ needs for that
unit.
As a result of being so comprehensive, units
often take several weeks to complete which can
be a drawback in some situations. In addition,
most of the units are on longer texts or books
that the teacher would need to already have
access to in order to use the unit.
Newsela
https://newsela.com/
From Amy Steelman
This website provides articles on current
events that can be filtered in various ways.
For every article, teachers can alter the text
to various Lexile levels to better meet the
needs of their students. In addition, there is
a writing assignment and quiz provided for
every article.
This is a great website to use to introduce a topic or provide
scaolding when introducing a new topic where students may
not have the background knowledge or vocabulary to access the
grade-level text immediately.
One concern about this website is that it is
so easy to adjust the Lexile that teachers may
tend to always tier the Lexile level for students
and neglect to expose all students to grade
level texts. In addition, there are only a limited
number of text sets provided.
What I Use in My Classroom
ELA / Literacy
3
Resource How it Works How I’ve Used This Tool Caveats / Concerns
Coherence Map
http://achievethecore.
org/coherence-map/
From Erin Chavez
An interactive, digital map that shows the
connections between the Common Core
State Standards for Mathematics.
I used the Coherence Map to access rich tasks tied to each
standard and learn how to engage my students in solving
problems that allow them to reason and make sense of
mathematics. These tasks also provide commentaries on possible
misconceptions students might have when solving the problem.
This tool helps me identify where to focus my instruction on
specific standards that represent perquisite math skills and
knowledge my students need to do on-grade-level mathematics.
Not all standards have Illustrative Mathematics
tasks or mini assessments linked.
Mathematics
Assessment Project -
Summative Rich Math
Tasks for High School
and Middle School
http://map.mathshell.
org/tasks.php
From Char Shryock
Developed as part of the Mathematics
Assessment Resource Services, the rich
math tasks available on this site are divided
into novice, apprentice and expert levels
based on the amount of structure built into
the task. Expert level tasks have the least
structure and are the most open-ended.
Each task comes with exemplar student
work and a scoring rubric.
These tasks can obviously be used to build a summative
assessment, but have many other possibilities as well. Students
could work through the tasks collaboratively as the basis for
student led number talks. When used with teacher teams, the
tasks become models for development of additional math tasks as
well as start points for discussions on standards-based assessment
items. The student work exemplars can help with finding
connections to the mathematical practice standards or possible
misconceptions. These tasks are a nice complement to the math
tasks that are located on the Achievethecore.org website: http://
achievethecore.org/category/416/mathematics-tasks
These tasks are designed for middle and
high school instruction. While the standards
alignment is generally accurate, teachers should
be aware that some of the tasks are not aligned
to the standards or grade-level listed. Teachers
should review the task thoroughly themselves
and compare it to what the Standards require of
students.
Robert Kaplinsky
Lessons
http://robertkaplinsky.
com/lessons/
From Casey McCormick
Website with free, engaging math lessons
designed by Robert Kaplinsky. These
lessons are mainly geared toward middle
and high school students, though lessons
are also available for elementary students.
A narrative is provided along with lesson
materials, photos/ videos, and suggestions
for questions to incorporate in each
lessons. Each lesson also explains how the
material supports specific Common Core
content and practice standards.
Robert’s lessons provide an interesting context for engaging
with the Standards. For example, a popular lesson presents
information about In ’n Out cheeseburgers and has students use
this information to determine the cost of a 100x100 cheeseburger.
Through questioning, determining needed information, looking at
patterns, developing an equation, and graphing the information,
students develop a solid understanding of linear relationships
incorporating multiple representations. When teaching this
lesson, I focused mainly on highlighting examples of the practice
standards as an introduction to my students at the beginning of
the school year.
While Robert has a general problem solving
framework handout available, teachers may
want to develop a handout/ follow-up activity
more specific to the lesson they are teaching.
Additionally, the lessons are tagged to standards
across many grade levels. Teachers should
modify each task to match the appropriate
grade level standard(s).
Visual Patterns
http://www.
visualpatterns.org
From Casey McCormick
A collection of patterns presented in three
steps. These patterns can be used with
students beginning in grade 6 – teachers
should adapt the prompts students are
given to align to grade-level expectations
Students may be asked to discuss how it’s
growing or find an equation that describes
the pattern.
Visual Patterns is used by many teachers as a warm-up in middle
and high school classes. By analyzing and then having a class
discussion about the dierent ways in which students see the
patterns growing and the resulting equations, students are able to
see the parts of an equation brought to life. Students can also start
to see the similarities and dierences between dierent types of
equations (linear, quadratic, etc.). Many teachers have also tasked
students to think deeply by developing their own patterns along
with an analysis of that pattern.
One thing to know about the site is that there
is no answer key. However, one is available by
contacting the site’s author. Additionally, while
children in K-5 may be able to describe how the
pattern grows, this does not align with what the
Standards require of children in this grade-band.
Zearn
www.zearn.org
From LaWanda Jeerson
and Mary Joal
Zearn is a free program that supports
rigorous math instruction by combining
small group teacher instruction and
personalized digital lessons that allows
students to move at their own pace.
The content is aligned to EngageNY and
Eureka Math.
With support from Zearn, it is easier to introduce each student
to the grade-level CCSS, push students who are ready for more
and provide extra support for the students that are behind. I use
the Eureka math curriculum to guide my small group instruction.
Using alerts within the Zearn program allows me to dierentiate
my groups based on their ability level. Zearn helps teachers
quickly plan dierentiated math lessons by giving a critical data
point showing each student’s progress and needs within the
grade-level standards and beyond.
There needs to be a perfect balance between
teacher instruction and computer aided
instruction, which Zearn can help with. Zearn
is more eective if at least half of your students
can be on an electronic device because without
enough time on the program, some students
will not have enough time to progress through
the grade level content.
What I Use in My Classroom
Mathematics
4
Resource How it Works How I’ve Used This Tool Caveats / Concerns
Inquiries from C3
Teachers
http://www.c3teachers.
org/inquiries/
From Erin Chavez
Free social studies lessons based on
student inquiry. The Inquiry Design Model
(IDM) is an instructional research-based
framework including: questions to help
students frame their inquiry, summative
and formative performance tasks, and
subject-matter-specific texts.
The IDM’s are a great tool for building well-rounded citizens in
classrooms. Students are able to analyze and articulate how their
ideas and perspectives change as their inquiry unfolds. I’ve used
this tool as a formative assessment to help me understand my
students’ progress toward meeting our state’s (Kentucky’s) draft
social studies standards.
Dierentiated reading supports may be needed,
since some students will have trouble accessing
these complex texts and won’t be able to use
the resource as-is. Also, teachers should be
aware that although the website is based on the
New York State Standards, the resources can
be used with any set of educational standards
based on the Common Core.
The Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American
History
https://www.
gilderlehrman.org/
history-by-era
From Tiany Gruen
This tool provides a wealth of historical
information broken down by era.
From timelines, to scholarly essays, to
rich primary sources and lesson plans
created by master teachers; this resource
is a treasure chest for every teacher of
American history.
I used the elementary lessons to engage my students through
rich, complex texts and essential questions to compare various
viewpoints within a given topic. By engaging with the provided
primary source texts, my students had an authentic access point
to draw conclusions from the makers of our history, versus my
own interpretation of the past. Students also analyze perspectives
and engage in inquiry and debate.
The texts might need to be excerpted for
elementary readers, which takes pre-work on
the teacher’s part. This may take time, but the
knowledge building and academic vocabulary
output far exceeds the input.
Reading and Writing Like
A Historian
https://sheg.stanford.
edu/rlh
and
http://beyondthebubble.
stanford.edu/
From Char Shryock
This should be a first stop for teachers
looking for model lessons, strategies for
teaching reading/writing in a social studies
context, or developing high-quality
assessments based on the Library of
Congress resources.
The historical thinking and close reading posters are a good
classroom reminder of specific strategies for approaching primary
and secondary sources. The inquiry lessons are designed to
help students learn the skill of posing a historical question,
evaluating evidence and stating a historical claim. Lessons also
include documents that reflect multiple perspectives on an event,
allowing students to engage with the content and establish a
clear understanding of the context of an event. The Beyond The
Bubble assessment tools incorporate primary documents as the
base for asking rich, evidence based questions that help student
move beyond rote memorization to analysis and synthesis of
historical events.
A free account is required to download the full
set of resources on both of the partner sites.
This is an instructional planning tool not a tool
designed for student use. My only suggestion is
that teachers should have the option of using
more of the original primary sources for close
reading. Many of these primary sources are
written by the likes of Jeerson, Lincoln, Adams,
and Hamilton.
Zooniverse
https://www.zooniverse.
org/
From Char Shryock
A crowdsourced citizen science website
that takes advantage of the combined
eorts of 1000s of people across the
world to analyze and find patterns in large
amounts of data. From exploring lunar
craters to transcribing Shakespearean era
journals, this site can spark interest in a
wide range of science, literature, fine arts,
and history projects.
This is an opportunity for students to contribute to authentic
research while learning about scientific concepts or historical
events. Most recently, the site’s participants helped to process
hundreds of pictures from the Ecuadorian earthquake to identify
areas that may contain potential survivors. Families can also
participate, involving the entire school community in doing
authentic work that will make a dierence in our world.
This is a complex program and while the
resources are high-quality, teachers should allow
ample planning time to become familiar with
the site and determine how to incorporate the
materials into their curriculum. Teachers should
be aware that many of the projects also contain
chat boards that allow participants to share
comments or ask questions.
WordSift from Stanford
University
http://wordsift.org/
From Char Shryock
WordSift generates a word cloud, shows
selected words in context, and shows
related images.
I’ve used this tool as a complement to the Achievethecore.org
Academic Word Finder. I use the word cloud as a pre-reading tool
to identify keywords that may need to be part of the pre-reading
instruction. The wordlist tool can highlight academic words or
content area words. Pasting the same text into the Academic
Word Finder Tool will help to identify what words are below, at
and above the targeted grade level.
There is a related visual thesaurus tool, but it
is available only by purchasing a subscription.
For teachers who want to save the word cloud
to use as part of the class lesson or put it in a
PowerPoint presentation, it will be necessary
to take a screenshot because there is no “save”
feature within the program.
What I Use in My Classroom
Social Studies
5
Resource How it Works How I’ve Used This Tool Caveats / Concerns
PhET Simulations for
Math and Science
https://phet.colorado.
edu/
From Char Shryock
Searchable by topic and grade level, these
interactive math and science student
controlled simulations can be used by
individual students or as a class on an
interactive board.
Simulations can be used as an inquiry activity at the beginning of a
unit to help students build their own definitions or understanding
of a concept. This is a good chance to facilitate discussions and
listen for possible misconceptions. Simulations can also be used
through a unit as a way for students to model their thinking, and
explain their thinking to others. This strategy helps all students
to be successful by building their own knowledge o of the
experience and thinking of others. All simulations can be played
in explore mode, which is good for building understanding, and
game mode, which is good for formative assessment of skills.
No login is required for this site, but the
simulations need to be downloaded to the
device or embedded in another website to run
them. There are no related teacher lesson plans,
but there are many teachers who have shared
their lessons and resources through the site.
Journey North -
Annenberg Learner A
Global Study of Wildlife
Migration and Seasonal
Change
http://learner.org/jnorth/
From Char Shryock
A citizen science site that enables
any student or class to contribute
observational data on plant and animal
seasonal activity or migration. This
longitudinal data can then be used by
students to look for patterns or make
predictions.
Elementary students could participate in the seasonal tulip garden
to compare growing seasons locally and nationally. Kindergarten
students can track daily sunlight and seasonal changes at their
own location and compare their data to other locations around
the world. Students can track robins, hummingbirds, monarchs
and whales and also use the live cams to provide students with
opportunities to make observations of wildlife behavior. Another
use is to participate in a mystery class project and connect with
other classrooms across the globe.
The website requires a login that can be created
by a class or an individual. It’s sometimes
easier for students to use the app version on a
smartphone than the web version.
Exploratorium - Institute
of Inquiry Facilitator
Guide
http://www.
exploratorium.edu/
education/ifi/workshops/
facilitators-guides
From Char Shryock
A series of hands-on workshops that
will help teachers from kindergarten to
high school build an understanding of
the inquiry process by actually working
through the stages of inquiry.
Use this workshop series to help all science teachers grades K-12
develop a common understanding of the inquiry process. It can
also be used with a mix of content area teachers since inquiry
is also a part of social studies, math and English Language Arts.
The first workshop in the series would also work well as a team
building activity. It works best with mixed grade level groups or
even teachers from across dierent districts
It is helpful to have a teacher who is comfortable
acting as a process facilitator lead these
activities. Be prepared for questions about how
inquiry diers from the scientific method. Plan
on spending some time on building common
vocabulary around inquiry.
Using Data to Predict
Life Choices
https://www.
oercommons.org/
authoring/7874-using-
data-to-predict-life-
choices/view
From Joanna Schimizzi
A set of cross-content lesson plans
where students use a literature review and
associated primary sources to evaluate
if data can predict future life choices.
Students learn content in Math, Biology
and Language Arts during these literacy-
based lessons while using textual evidence
to develop and support claims.
This set of lessons was collaboratively designed by a math,
language arts and biology teacher. I was the Biology teacher on
the team, and we grew in our understanding of both the Common
Core Standards and collaboration through our work together. We
focused clearly on choosing complex and aligned texts and on
using a series of questions to scaold students as they learned the
content from a text. Using a single anchor text encouraged us to
seek cross-content connections and pay attention to the multiple
meanings of a text.
The lesson plans are very integrated. This is great
if you choose to use the lesson in collaboration
with other teachers. Otherwise, you’ll need to
use the individual links to access the resources
for each content. You will want to consider
your own students and “remix” or make slight
changes based on your students’ needs.
Unit Template for Text
Based Reading in STEM
Inquiry
https://www.oer-
commons.org/
authoring/13650-
unit-template-text-
based-reading-in-stem-
inquiry/view
From Joanna Schimizzi
A unit template designed to incorporate
text-based inquiry into STEM classes.
This template has been used by teacher/media specialist teams
in New Hampshire as they collaboratively design lessons. It helps
teachers focus on the goal of having students dig deeply into a
complex text that teaches content. The template focuses on the
ideas of the ELA shifts (choosing a complex text, using evidence
from the text, and learning content through the text) to help
media specialists become an integral part of literacy lessons.
The unit template is designed to be covered
over a period of collaboration, with both co-
design, co-implementation and co-assessment.
You will want to already have background
knowledge for how to select a complex text and
how to write text-dependent questions.
What I Use in My Classroom
Science
6
Resource How it Works How I’ve Used This Tool Caveats / Concerns
Doctopus and Goobric
https://chrome.google.
com/webstore/category/
apps
From Lindsey James
A pair of Google add-ons that allow
teachers to organize and evaluate student
work digitally. Used in tandem, they
take assignments that have been turned
in through Google Classroom, organize
them into a Google Sheets spreadsheet,
embed a teacher-created rubric, and notify
students of updates to their assignment.
Both add-ons can be downloaded from
the Chrome Web Store.
Doctopus and Goobric are tools that allow me to create custom
rubrics that target key aspects of each mode of writing, to
comment directly on assignments, and to organize assignments
so that I can read and respond to every student’s writing more
quickly. It helps me better support my students as they become
more confident and proficient writers.
Installing Doctopus and Goobric is a multi-step
process, so you may want to use an online
tutorial to guide the initial setup. These add-ons
are also only fully functional when used with
Google Classroom, so it would be optimal for a
classroom that is already using Google Apps for
Education.
PicMonkey
https://www.picmonkey.
com/
From Char Shryock
PicMonkey is a free, web based photo
editing and graphic creation tool.
Students and teachers can use this tool to create memes,
visuals to support evidence based presentations or discussions,
emphasize key quotes from literature, model mathematically or
annotate historical images. It is a powerful photo editor for fine
arts projects. The combination of text and image also is useful to
create graphics to use with social media.
No login is required, but a login feature is
available. Some of the tools are only available
if the Royale package is purchased. The free
version does include scrolling ads at the bottom
and along the right side.
Thinglink
https://www.thinglink.
com
From Joanna Schimizzi
This website allows you to upload pictures
or videos and add tags. This allows
students to take an image to the next level
by adding new facts, analysis or evaluation.
When I am asking students to analyze a diagram or picture as part
of a complex text, it can be really helpful to have them annotate
directly on the image. Since this allows it to be electronic, students
are able to make connections to other resources and enrich their
understanding of the text. This allows the work to be driven by
the student and allow for collaboration as students give feedback
digitally to their peers.
Students do need an email address to make
an account. Students must be made aware of
copyright and fair use explanations.
Teacher Desmos
https://teacher.desmos.
com/
From Stephanie Barnett
and Casey McCormick
Classroom activities available on Teacher
Desmos are interactive lessons developed
by the Desmos teaching faculty and
classroom teachers. Students tend to
think of these activities as “games,” rather
than actual lessons. The nature of the
activities allows for trial and error, as well
as a great deal of reflection on learning.
Activities in Desmos allow students to work through a series of
“pages,” each designed with an interactive prompt. The prompts
could be things such as: move a point on a graph, analyze another
students’ work or advise them in improving their work, create a
graph or equation, provide an explanation about a method of
solving, etc. Many of the Mathematical Practice Standards arise
naturally in these activities, while students are working hard on
interesting content, typically presented as a challenge of some
kind. There is a bank of activities that has been curated by the
Desmos teaching faculty, but teachers have the ability to design
their own lessons as well.
While each student can work individually,
many teachers recommend a 2:1 ratio (two
students to one tablet or laptop) for work on
the activities to encourage more conversation
and collaboration. Some teachers have
also suggested incorporating “stop signs”
into activities to allow for whole classroom
discussion at particular points in the activity.
Plickers
https://www.plickers.
com/
From Stephanie Barnett
Plickers is a digital tool that provides
teachers with real time feedback on
student assessment. Teachers place a
multiple choice question on their board
and provide students with an individual
card that is unique to the student. The
student answers the question by turning
the card so that the correct response
is at the top and the teacher scans the
responses using a mobile device.
This tool is amazing for formative assessments and collecting real
time data. I have used this tool as a bell ringer or exit ticket to see
if my students mastered the concept.. It provides me with data
that I can use to make adjustments to my lesson plans. I group
my students according to how they performed on their questions
and provide support for those that struggled. Students who may
have guessed or didn’t feel they had adequate time to answer are
provided with activities to help them develop their problem solving
skills.
Each card is assigned to a dierent student. In
order for a teacher to collect data, a student
must be assigned a card number and teachers
must type their students into the website. If
students lose or rip their card they will need an
extra copy.
What I Use in My Classroom
Digital Resources
7
Resource How it Works How I’ve Used This Tool Caveats / Concerns
Coherence Card Activity
http://achievethecore.
org/page/400/deep-
dive-into-the-math-
shifts
From Erin Chavez
An activity to engage educators in
uncovering the Math Progressions woven
into the Standards and illustrate the
concept of coherence across grades and
within a grade.
The Coherence Card Activity is a resource that I used when
delivering professional learning on the Shifts required by the
Common Core State Standards. This resource gives educators
the opportunity to dive deeply into the Standards and engage in
purposeful conversations about the coherence of the standards.
Although there is an answer key, I encourage educators to refer to
the Standards to find the answers.
It is essential to have discussions about the
Mathematical Progressions and how they are
integrated into the Standards. If the activity is
only left as a card sort without any discussion, it
loses its impact.
Webinar “What is text
complexity and why
does it matter?”
http://achievethecore.
org/page/2793/what-
is-text-complexity-and-
why-does-it-matter-
2016-feb-webinar
From Lindsey James
This webinar focuses on the central role
that complex texts play for students
and for teachers. Using a qualitative text
analysis rubric and an exemplar text, ELA
specialist Silas Kulkarni leads teachers
through the process of eectively planning
scaolds that enable students to interact
successfully with rich, engaging texts.
Prior to this webinar, I recognized the necessity of teaching
complex texts, but I was struggling to help my students
successfully engage with these texts. This resource helped me
plan more thoughtfully. Most importantly, this webinar helped me
develop questions and tasks that will guide my students around
potential pitfalls and draw their attention to important ideas so
they are able to discover the richness and meaning of the text for
themselves.
This webinar would be best for teachers who
already have a solid understanding of the Shifts
and of text complexity. It also uses Abraham
Lincoln’s second inaugural address as an
exemplar text, and I would recommend reading
it through once or twice ahead of time.
Lesson Planning Tool
http://achievethecore.
org/lesson-planning-
tool/
From Lindsey James
An interactive guide for creating close
reading lessons. It provides questions,
examples, and support as it leads teachers
through each step of the process, from
determining a text’s quantitative and
qualitative complexity to designing the
culminating task and appropriate scaolds
for a rigorous, standards-aligned lesson.
Taking a key text through the process of planning a close reading
lesson helped me to be able to clearly identify and address the
shortcomings in weakly-aligned curriculum as well as understand
exactly why strong lessons are eective. This understanding
gave me the vocabulary and confidence to be able to articulate
the weaknesses in our current textbook and collaborate with
my grade-level team as we work to supplement our existing
curriculum and get closer to standards-based instruction.
To use the Lesson Planning Tool, teachers will
need to create and login for a free account at
Achieve the Core. The Lesson Planning Tool is
a time-intensive process, so it is best used with
only the most essential texts or as a professional
learning module.
Stanford University
Understanding
Language Project
http://ell.stanford.edu/
teaching_resources
From Char Shryock
Don’t let the ELL in the website fool you,
the resources for educators on this site
are appropriate for closing the literacy gap
for all students. The tools are designed to
build language skills in all content areas.
The math tools include annotated math tasks at for K-12 students
with a focus on building math language skills. The best resource
on the science tool pages is the color practices Venn Diagram
pdf located at the very bottom of the page. It shows overlapping
math practice standards, literacy standards and science standards.
Use this with all of your content area teachers to emphasize the
focus on evidence based speaking and writing, perseverance
and modeling. The English Language Arts tools include a set of
guidelines for developing ELA materials with ELL students in mind.
These are instructional planning tools and not
designed for student use.
SAS Curriculum
Pathways Writing
Reviser Add-On for
Google Docs
http://blogs.sas.
com/content/sas-
cp/2015/08/11/
how-to-get-started-
with-the-writing-naviga-
tor-add-on-for-google-
docs/
From Char Shryock
Once this Writing Reviser Add-on has been
installed in Google Docs, students can
use the tool (which opens as a sidebar)
to find ways to make their writing more
interesting or more clear and concise.
It has stretch, so students within a wide range of grade levels
can access the tool, focusing on basic sentence structure to
understanding parallelism. Diverse learners can also benefit from
using this tool. By pasting text into a Google Doc, the students
can then use the tool to find examples of jargon or cliches. It will
also find simple sentences and sentence fragments, and provide
guiding questions to students who might want to revise their work.
The tool works best in Google Docs as an Add-
on, but can also be accessed directly for free
by creating an account at the SAS Curriculum
Pathways website and searching for “Writing
Reviser.” https://www.sascurriculumpathways.
com/portal/
What I Use in My Classroom
Professional Development
