Reading Units Website

Website with unit lesson plans for a variety of intermediate (grades 5-8) books.  This site provides teachers with chapter by chapter vocabulary, printable questions, and activities for students.  There are over 80 books indexed on the site.

great website to assist with guided reading groups. This website has questions and activities for many popular and classic books.  Thanks to Jason Hugues at Minnesauke for the link!

Firefox Add-ons for teachers

Nuke Anything is a Firefox add-on that could be handy the next time you choose to print a webpage. With Nuke Anything installed in your browser you can right-click on any element of a webpage and remove it before printing that page. When you right click on an element a red outline will appear so that you can be certain you're not removing something that you didn't intend to remove.  If you have students or colleagues that are in the habit of printing articles to read offline, try getting them in the habit of using Nuke Anything. Using a tool like Nuke Anything could save a lot of wasted ink and paper.  For people who aren't Firefox users, you might want to check out Joliprint.

Kadoo A fast easy way to share files

Share files with students use the cloud service Kadoo.  You can upload files that can be accessed by students using a web browser or a hand held device like the iphone or ipad.  Simply set up your free account and upload your files, including video files for students.  You have up to 200 MB per upload and 5 GB of storage space.

The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor

The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor has a New Online Guide to Common Canal Structures. The guide is intended as a quick and easy reference for millions canal visitors and students looking to identify some of the historic and current-day working structures along the New York State Canal System. “The guide offers every fourth grader who studies the Erie Canal the opportunity to see the canals’ famous locks, low bridges, and other working parts,”

New York State Education Department’s Document Showcase

The New York State Archives provides a wide variety of archives and records management publications for specific audiences such as researchers and genealogists, records managers and archivists, students and teachers, state and local government officials, as well as for the general public.

The Civil War In honor of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, the New York State Archives presents its latest edition of Document Showcase. Document Showcase is a regular feature that highlights a topic from State history using records from the New York State Archives.    http://www.archives.nysed.gov/education/showcase/index.shtml.


Remembering World War I the New York State Archives holds a plethora of records pertaining to the role New York played in the Great War and has placed many of them online with accompanying lessons. The website is comprised of more than 350 historical records that are grouped by topics. The topics are interesting and varied, including: Animals, Children, the Armenian Genocide, Army Health, African Americans, In the Trenches, Homecoming and Memorials, Industry, and much more. Teachers can use this site to incorporate primary sources into classroom instruction. A "Build Your Own Worksheet" option offers teachers the ability to customize a lesson. Teachers may use the lesson provided, or write in their own caption, historical background information, and questions; then print out the lesson with the document.  http://www.archives.nysed.gov/projects/wwi/index.shtml


Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and Its Legacy As a reaction to the March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, New York State formed a Factory Investigating Commission to inspect and examine the working conditions in factories and businesses in all the major cities in the state. This web exhibition highlights the Commission’s investigation and its impact on the development of laws for workers, including women and children. http://www.archives.nysed.gov/exhibitions/triangle/fic_triangle.shtml

Read Works

ReadWorks provides teachers with a proven, research-based program focused specifically on teaching reading comprehension.  Lessons, units, and non-fiction reading passages. Online, webinar, and distance training to improve teaching practice. It's free. As educators, our non-profit mission is to close the achievement gap in reading throughout the country. Lessons and units explicitly teach the essential Concepts of Comprehension. Research and extensive experience as teachers have shown that reading comprehension is the area of reading instruction most challenging for both students and teachers.

KHAN Academy: Watch. Practice. Learn almost anything—for free.

What started out as a few Math videos this site now has 2,100 videos and 100 self-paced exercises and assessments covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history. Useful as a resource for students to consult when they are working on mathematics assignments and cannot get direct instruction from a teacher.