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Teacher resources with web resources.

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Textbooks are a great source of reliable information and ready-made activities, but the content they provide can be generic and not particularly engaging for students. By leveraging the instructional potential of web-based resources, you can increase student engagement, expose them to authentic content, and engage them in collaborative activities that trigger critical thinking and creativity. Following are six steps to get you started.

1. Select Your Website

Official sites are best.

Whenever possible, use "official" sites. Although independent sites might provide interesting content, you can usually trust the vetted content on official sites. Some fantastic sources of information include:

If you don't know where to find good sources for the subject you teach, then it is time to start assembling your personalized learning network (PLN).

Focus on curriculum integration.

Select websites closely connected to your curriculum. These sites should allow you to introduce or review content directly related to your learning objectives on the topic that you're teaching right now. If you find a great site for a future unit, bookmark it and move on!

Assemble a personal collection.

Use a social bookmarking system such as Delicious to create a collection of websites for future use. Consider setting Google Alerts to notify you when the topics and keywords you selected are mentioned on the web.

2. Website Review

Anybody can create a website and start blogging about Walt Whitman and quantum physics. Thoroughly review the content of the site you chose, asking:

Is it accurate, up-to-date, and appropriate?

What are the credentials of the author?

If there is advertising, what do the images say about the site owner?

Involve your students in the review process. Assessing the value of a web-based resource is a critical 21st-century skill.

3. Build Your Lesson Plan

Before building your lesson plan, review the website and list the concepts and vocabulary that your students will need for understanding and completing the activity.

List your learning objectives.

What will the students gain from interacting with the site? Keep a copy of the SAMR model handy and challenge yourself to design an activity that goes beyond information recall (copy-paste tasks). Use verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy to create high-level objectives.

Design a web-based handout.

A web-based handout should provide your students with clear directions on what to do. It also allows you to create links to specific web pages. This is useful when working with large sites.

Design a set of collaborative tasks.

These tasks should require student interaction, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Do not rely on the website to do the teaching. Start with simple tasks that allow students to become familiar with the structure and content of the site, and then move on to tasks that foster critical analysis and evaluation of information.

Reserve space for notes.

The handout should include space for note taking. Require detailed, juicy notes to make the students accountable for their learning.

Design a final product.

Your activity should culminate with a tangible final product: a role play, a short presentation, a debate, etc. If the website you worked on allows readers to post comments, consider asking students post their essays or reflections directly to the site.

Have an assessment plan.

The preferred form should be a rubric.

4. Test Your Lesson Plan

Check that the site you selected loads properly on the school computers, especially if it contains a lot of videos and animations. Have a backup plan in case the internet goes down!

5. Implement Your Activity

Use this checklist to keep the lesson running smoothly:

Set clear rules -- no Facebook, no email, no funny YouTube videos.

Brainstorm the etiquette for working in groups.

If possible, have no more than three students per device.

Keep students on track, monitor progress and time, and give frequent feedback.

If students are taking notes on a Google Document, hop in to monitor their progress and use the Insert Comment feature to give them pointers.

Have students build a final project that they can be proud of!

6. Reflect

After class, take a few moments to reflect on how the activity went. Could you have done it without the web? Were the students engaged? Take notes on what you will do differently next time.

Here's an example about Ecuadorean children reflecting on their village's relationship to the rainforest. This site presents the children's perspective on a complex question: feeding their families or protecting the environment?

Start by having students locate Ecuador using Google Earth and recall what they know about the rainforest. Then show the video while they take notes on the three aspects it covers: the environmental impact of road building, oil drilling, and logging. The handout could include a table of pros and cons for each practice. As a follow-up and final product, students could engage in a debate, brainstorm possible solutions in groups, and create a presentation. The class can then vote for the best solution or combine solutions. Students can write an essay summarizing their opinion and findings. The best essays could be shared on the school Facebook page as a comment to the article.

How do you use web-based resources in your classroom?

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Teaching With Web-Based Resources | Edutopia

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Textbooks are a great source of reliable information and ready-made activities, but the content they provide can be generic and not particularly engaging for students. By leveraging the instructional potential of web-based resources, you can increase student engagement, expose them to authentic content, and engage them in collaborative activities that trigger critical thinking and creativity.

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Follow a board! Start your own!

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Try Bamboozle and others!

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The application for this award is currently closed. The next award cycle will open on September 1, 2024, and will close on February 1, 2025.

Overview

AASL's Best Digital Tools are recognized for fostering qualities of:

Innovation/Creativity

Active Participation

Collaboration

User-Friendly

Encourages Exploration

Information/Reference

Eligibility

Nominations may be submitted by developers, school librarians, or the general public. For a tool to qualify as "digital," it must be accessible remotely (website, app, etc.).

NEW - Tools that have been recognized previously may be submitted for repeat recognition. For tools that were recognized within three years or less (2020, 2021, or 2022) the committee will consider tools that demonstrate progress, improvements, or changes since the previous recognition. Progress is considered both in terms of new features or tools, but also for improvements in usability and accessibility.

Tools recognized prior to 2020 may be submitted for consideration without the need to demonstrate progress over time.

Preparation for Application

Incomplete applications will not reviewed. Please prepare the following information prior to submitting:

If your tool has received the Best Digital Tools recognition in the past three years (see lists below) you must submit any improvements, changes, or progress to the tool for consideration.

Committee members must receive full access to your tool including any features that are behind paywalls. Access must remain available through April 1.

If your tool has a pricing structure that is not available for public viewing an example of pricing must be included.

Download copy of application
* Please note: This downloadable version is for informational purposes only. All nominations must be submitted online, via the Apply Now button that will appear at the top of the page when the next award season opens in early September.

Questions

Allison Cline
Deputy Executive Director

Printable bookmarks (Word) Printable bookmarks (PDF)

Write the World
A free online global community where teens write, review, and share. A non-profit dedicated to developing teens' writing and critical thinking skills and equipping them with the confidence and competence to change the world, one word at a time. Privacy Policy. Grades 7-12

ChessKid.com
ChessKid.com is the scholastic extension of Chess.com, the #1 online chess site, and serves more than 3 million kids around the globe with lessons offered in English, Spanish, French, Korean and other languages. ChessKid is working to introduce chess education to as many students as possible worldwide and we pride ourselves as being the safest place for kids to learn and play chess in and out of the school. Media Specialists use ChessKid.com in their centers to help students enhance their creativity, improve their power of concentration, develop and expand critical thinking skills, boost memory and retention, and achieve superior academic performance. Find out if your school is eligible for FREE ChessKid accounts through our annual grant program at ChessKid.com. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12

The Choices Program
The Choices Program, based at Brown University, creates engaging digital educational resources and makes innovative scholarship accessible to diverse classrooms. Choices curriculum empowers students to understand the relationship between history and current issues while developing the analytical skills to become thoughtful global citizens. Choices curriculum resources tell an inclusive, responsible history, while also encouraging students to challenge and grapple with this history in the ways that historians do. Choices provides educators with high-quality, digital curriculum content that is used in all levels of high school classrooms as well as many middle schools and introductory level college courses. Choices currently offers curricula for U.S. History, World History, Current Issues, and Geography, as well as many electives. "Teaching with the News" from the Choices Program is a series of free online lesson plans and resource guides that connect classrooms to current events in the news. The Choices Program also offers a free collection of more than 1,700 short educational videos. Privacy Policy Grades: 6-12

iVOX
iVOX is a storytelling app that not only gives young readers the immersive technology they have come to expect from hours of video gaming, but which has been proven to support literacy development. Students interact with the app, allowing them to view the story from many angles and in some cases bring up further information. The story is read aloud for them as the words are highlighted at the bottom of the screen - a multi-modal approach that has been proven to aid in literacy development. Privacy Policy Grades: PreK-4
Historical List (2009-2021)

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Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning

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Weebly is the easiest way to create a website, store or blog

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Weebly’s free website builder makes it easy to build a website, blog, or online store. Find customizable designs, domains, and eCommerce tools for any type of business using our website builder.

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Elementary teacher Organization

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Fun stuff!

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10 Easy Classroom Management Hacks | That Teacher Life Ep 47

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Tools for free!

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The application for this award is currently closed. The next award cycle will open on September 1, 2024, and will close on February 1, 2025.

Overview

AASL's Best Digital Tools are recognized for fostering qualities of:

Innovation/Creativity

Active Participation

Collaboration

User-Friendly

Encourages Exploration

Information/Reference

Eligibility

Nominations may be submitted by developers, school librarians, or the general public. For a tool to qualify as "digital," it must be accessible remotely (website, app, etc.).

NEW - Tools that have been recognized previously may be submitted for repeat recognition. For tools that were recognized within three years or less (2020, 2021, or 2022) the committee will consider tools that demonstrate progress, improvements, or changes since the previous recognition. Progress is considered both in terms of new features or tools, but also for improvements in usability and accessibility.

Tools recognized prior to 2020 may be submitted for consideration without the need to demonstrate progress over time.

Preparation for Application

Incomplete applications will not reviewed. Please prepare the following information prior to submitting:

If your tool has received the Best Digital Tools recognition in the past three years (see lists below) you must submit any improvements, changes, or progress to the tool for consideration.

Committee members must receive full access to your tool including any features that are behind paywalls. Access must remain available through April 1.

If your tool has a pricing structure that is not available for public viewing an example of pricing must be included.

Download copy of application
* Please note: This downloadable version is for informational purposes only. All nominations must be submitted online, via the Apply Now button that will appear at the top of the page when the next award season opens in early September.

Questions

Allison Cline
Deputy Executive Director

Printable bookmarks (Word) Printable bookmarks (PDF)

Write the World
A free online global community where teens write, review, and share. A non-profit dedicated to developing teens' writing and critical thinking skills and equipping them with the confidence and competence to change the world, one word at a time. Privacy Policy. Grades 7-12

ChessKid.com
ChessKid.com is the scholastic extension of Chess.com, the #1 online chess site, and serves more than 3 million kids around the globe with lessons offered in English, Spanish, French, Korean and other languages. ChessKid is working to introduce chess education to as many students as possible worldwide and we pride ourselves as being the safest place for kids to learn and play chess in and out of the school. Media Specialists use ChessKid.com in their centers to help students enhance their creativity, improve their power of concentration, develop and expand critical thinking skills, boost memory and retention, and achieve superior academic performance. Find out if your school is eligible for FREE ChessKid accounts through our annual grant program at ChessKid.com. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12

The Choices Program
The Choices Program, based at Brown University, creates engaging digital educational resources and makes innovative scholarship accessible to diverse classrooms. Choices curriculum empowers students to understand the relationship between history and current issues while developing the analytical skills to become thoughtful global citizens. Choices curriculum resources tell an inclusive, responsible history, while also encouraging students to challenge and grapple with this history in the ways that historians do. Choices provides educators with high-quality, digital curriculum content that is used in all levels of high school classrooms as well as many middle schools and introductory level college courses. Choices currently offers curricula for U.S. History, World History, Current Issues, and Geography, as well as many electives. "Teaching with the News" from the Choices Program is a series of free online lesson plans and resource guides that connect classrooms to current events in the news. The Choices Program also offers a free collection of more than 1,700 short educational videos. Privacy Policy Grades: 6-12

iVOX
iVOX is a storytelling app that not only gives young readers the immersive technology they have come to expect from hours of video gaming, but which has been proven to support literacy development. Students interact with the app, allowing them to view the story from many angles and in some cases bring up further information. The story is read aloud for them as the words are highlighted at the bottom of the screen - a multi-modal approach that has been proven to aid in literacy development. Privacy Policy Grades: PreK-4
Historical List (2009-2021)

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Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning

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Free-tools explained and recommended

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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The 2017 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.

Buncee
Buncee is a presentation and digital storytelling tool great for creating interactive multimedia presentations. Students, educators, and teacher librarians can integrate content using a wealth of sources as well as create within the program directly on each slide. An easy to use toolbar within the program provides ease of accessibility and preview without the user ever navigating away from the slide or program. Available via multiple platforms Buncee is appropriate for levels K-12. Use it with students in creating their own digital personal histories.

Gone but Not Forgotten

The following sites have closed, reorganized, or become pay-based since being recognized as an AASL Best Website:

The Learnia (Digital Storytelling)

2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009

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Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2017

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The 2017 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. Buncee Buncee is a presentation and digital storytelling tool great for creating interactive multimedia presentations.

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SCHOLASTIC- FREE WEBSITES FOR READING LEVELS

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SCHOLASTIC- FREE WEBSITES FOR READING LEVELS

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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How summer affects reading

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Libraries Matter: Impact Research | Libraries Matter

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Libraries Matter is a listing of studies that are useful in making the case about the value of libraries to community members and other stakeholders. The annotated list includes studies that show the economic, educational and social value of libraries. The links include bibliographic information to assist in locating the full reports.

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Curates materials, content creation, assessment tools, with educators

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The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.

MERLOT is an international community of educators, learners, and researchers.

Add a Material

Submit an online learning material you've found or created to the MERLOT Collection.

Create your own materials, add materials to the MERLOT collection, and be a part of the community. All for free!

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The MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers. MERLOT is an international community of educators, learners, and researchers. Submit an online learning material you've found or created to the MERLOT Collection.

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By Jessica Sanders

Leveled reading websites allow students to read the same text, regardless of their level of comprehension.

As such, it's an important way to facilitate class-wide assignments without boring higher-level students or leaving strugglers behind.

Many of these sites also make reading more engaging, provide you with lesson tips and supplemental materials that can be printed or viewed online.

Add some of these to the bookmarks tab on your classroom computer for easy student access.

Allow students to read current events at a level they can comprehend with Newsela. Students can read at five different levels, starting with 600L and ending at "Max." They can also answer questions that you create without leaving the article and even take a quiz. Both of the latter features require students to have an account-which is free for you and them.

This site is similar to Newsela, but a little less appealing on the eye and does not offer the interactive quizzing and question features. While it seems to be created for English language learners, it does serve as a simple, leveled reading news platform for students of all abilities.

Students can browse by reading level-1, 2, or 3-and choose stories in various categories, such as news, sports, nature, and funny. At the end of each article, the "difficult words" are referenced and defined, which is great for expanding student vocabulary.

Note that this website can be accessed online or through the Android or iOS app.

This free website gives teachers access to the largest, high-quality library of non-fiction articles. As a teacher, you also get access to vocabulary lists, assessments, lesson guides and the option to download or print the text. All texts are leveled, and if you want to keep everything online, sign up for ReadWorks Digital, which allows you to create classes, assign articles, and track progress all online.

Get students hooked on the "Article-A-Day" feature to make reading a daily habit in your classroom. Each week ReadWorks provides you with a set of articles on one topic, at all reading levels. Students take just 10 to 15 minutes each day to read the articles and complete the comprehension assignments.

This is an interesting tool that students can use to get simplified versions of the text they're reading. After copy and pasting the words into the text box, Rewordify breaks it down to be more digestible. The site also highlights and defines challenging words and phrases within the text, making it easy for students to understand and learn at the same time.

You can modify settings to edit the way the reworded text is chosen and how the vocabulary words are presented-highlighted within the text, as a list, with or without definitions, etc. You can also print the vocabulary words, auto-created quizzes, word banks, cloze assessments and more.

All of this is available for free, and with an account, these settings, and the documents you create and print, are saved.

This website offers leveled reading at the core, with many valuable features for both teachers and students to access as well. Reading is broken up by grade, from 5th to 12th, and is a collection of fiction and non-fiction texts. The themes are especially interesting, ranging from America and comedy to fate and freewill and growing up.

Once students are reading a text, they can use the guided reading mode to quiz themselves along the way, increasing engagement and understanding. They can also take an assessment and add their opinion to an ongoing discussion.

Other extras include assigning specific texts, tracking progress and comprehension, translation, text highlighting, dictation and vocabulary look-up. The amazing part is that this is free for teachers and schools.

Tween Tribune was created and is maintained by the Smithsonian. It's similar to Newsela in both what it offers and how it looks. Students can browse news articles by grade (K through 12), and then choose from a variety of reading levels once their article is chosen-levels are based on Lexile.

With an account, you can assign work to students and they can take quizzes and leave comments with each article. Accounts are free for teachers and students, and give you access to a variety of resources and lesson plans based on upcoming holidays, current events and more.

Similar to Newsela and News In Levels, this site provides students with news stories that are accessible at a variety of reading levels. Levels range from 0 to 6, and the website also provides "mini-lessons" and "4,392 more lessons" all of which appear to be created by Sean Banville, an ESL teacher.

Students can also have articles dictated to them, if they're still learning how to reach. As a resource created for teachers by a teacher, it's worth checking out.

This leveled reading program provides leveled e-text for students. While it does cost educators $99/month (up to 45 student accounts), the school can also purchase for $999/year, giving them unlimited accounts, student management tools and a free trial.

The library is filled with a mix of primary documents, classic fiction, biographies, and original science and history books. Each book is accompanied by a teacher guide that provides tips to teaching the text and background for building out a lesson.

Reading levels are sorted by grade and Books That Grow levels, and are matched up with a variety of standard reading measurements including Lexile, Reading A-Z, DRA and more. Check out the leveling breakdown here.

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8 Leveled Reading Websites for the Classroom

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By Jessica Sanders Leveled reading websites allow students to read the same text, regardless of their level of comprehension. As such, it's an important way to facilitate class-wide assignments without boring higher-level students or leaving strugglers behind. Many of these sites also make reading more engaging, provide you with lesson tips and supplemental materials that can be printed or viewed online.