This page is intended to help ABE practitioners embed ELA skill instruction in knowledge-building lessons and units related to social studies and science. The links below lead to websites that can be helpful for finding background information, curriculum ideas, instructional resources, and texts to use for instruction.

• For information on using leveled texts and creating text sets, go to Text Complexity and Text Selection.
• For ELA units that embed ELA instruction in knowledge-building contexts, go to Existing ELA Curriculum for Adult Learners.

Museums

• American Museum of Natural History
• National Women’s History Museum
• The Exploratorium (science)---see their Learning Toolbox for COVID-19 School Closures
• The Smithsonian--see their Learning Lab, with "pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources"
• United States Memorial Holocaust Museum

General Non-profits, NGOs, and Educational Programs

• Annenberg Learner
• Digital Public Library of America: Primary Source Sets
• If you haven't yet discovered Facing History and Ourselves, please do so! A few ABE programs in Massachusetts are using Facing History resources as part of their own curricula; here is one example. In addition, check out Facing History's teaching strategies, which "nurture students' literacy and critical thinking skills within a respectful classroom climate."
• Learning for Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is full of lesson ideas, magazine articles, webinars and instructional strategies "designed to help teachers improve their practice and turn schools into strong communities that welcome diversity, giving all students an opportunity to learn." Their educational kits and magazine subscriptions are free to educators.
• National Geographic Education
• National Science Teachers Association--see their Daily Do (daily sensemaking activities), free NSTA e-books, and Learning Together (teacher tips for teaching online). In addition, "To support all educators during this difficult time, NSTA is offering a free 30-day membership, providing access to more than 12,000 digital professional learning resources and tools."
• PBS/WGBH: Learning Media
• Primary Source
• Population Education
• Teaching for Change

Government Websites

• Census Bureau (U.S.)
• Civics and Citizenship Toolkit (U.S.)
• Environment and Climate Change (Canada)
• JetStream - An Online School for Weather from the U.S. National Weather Service
• Library of Congress (U.S.)
• NASA (U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for educators
• NIH Science Curriculum Supplemental Series, science units for middle and high school from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
• NOAA (U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) educational resources

Films, Trailers, Clips,etc.

• Independent Television Service
• Ken Burns in the Classroom), from WGBH/PBS
• Mama Hope: Stop the Pity, Start the Conversation
• PBS: Independent Lens, and Point of View
• Science video recommendations from a group led by David Rosen
• Lakshmi's recommendations for a few feature-length documentaries
• TED Talks and TED Ed

Untested But Potentially Useful Resources

• Council for Economic Education (CEE): "Some of CEE's very best resources to help you integrate economic concepts into all of your social studies classes"
• MAAP: "Mapping the American Past," a project of Columbia University
• SNCC Gateway: "Learn From the Past, Organize for the Future, Make Democracy Work"

Website links collected by the following:

• Core Advocate teachers
• The Fordham Institute for Advancing Educational Excellence
• The Reading and Writing Project, Columbia University Teacher College: "Digital resources to support students’ reading and research in informational texts on a range of topics and across levels"