The following set of criteria was developed by Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity (BranchED) to evaluate Open Educational Resources (OER) objects through an equity lens. These criteria were adapted from the Inclusive Instruction and Intersectional Content principles from the BranchED Quality Framework.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
With the help of simple, teacher-led demonstration activities, students learn the basic concepts of heat transfer by means of conduction, convection, and radiation. Students then apply these concepts as they work in teams to solve two problems. One problem requires that they maintain the warm temperature of one soda can filled with water at approximately body temperature, and the other problem is to cause an identical soda can of warm water to cool as much as possible during the same thirty-minute time interval. Students design their solutions using only common, everyday materials. They record the water temperatures in their two soda cans every five minutes, and prepare line graphs in order to visually compare their results to the temperature of an unaltered control can of water.
Material Type: Full Course
Global Citizens in Action is a civic engagement curriculum that focuses on cultural exchange, media literacy, and global citizenship. Through exploring the driving question, “How do we, as youth, engage our communities to create positive social change?”
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Case Study, Full Course, Interactive, Lecture, Lesson Plan, Student Guide
This course for Administrators provides knowledge and skills in supporting diverse families and enhancing English LanguageDevelopment (ELD) across expressive and receptive language domains for school-age children who are English Language Learners (ELL) or have other learning and language barriers. Administrators learn about key standards and best practices and explore strategies to implement improved practice, creating a shift in policies and programmatic culture to embrace and support diverse learners, welcoming non-native English speaking families and enhancing the ELD progress of students who are learners of English.
Material Type: Full Course
This course is designed to early childhood education professionals with the knowledge and skills to teach each content area according to the preschool learning guidelines, or state standards. This module as part of the course on the preschool learning experiences will explain each part of the standard and give examples of how to teach the standard within an integrated curriculum. Through presentations, online resources, readings, and assignments students will gain knowledge of the components of each area: mathematics, English language arts, science and technology/engineering, the arts, and health education, and history and social science. The last module will cover the content of the Early Childhood Program Standards and how to incorporate those standards into daily practice.
Material Type: Full Course
This course provides knowledge and skills in supporting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) infusion throughout Out-of-School (OST) environments. Educators learn to support STEM skill development through active, engaging, and fun approaches to each topic, while aligning to the MA-CF and engaging best practices such as ULD and TC/PBL.
Material Type: Full Course
In this lesson, created in partnership with the Association for Cultural Equity, students trace how the French and Indian War led to the Acadians' displacement and their resettlement in Louisiana by examining historical maps and reading excerpts from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie. In addition, students will examine historical documents and ethnographic film clips from the Alan Lomax Collection to consider how music and dance has been a way for the Acadian/Cajun community to preserve their cultural and genetic lineage, even in the most perilous of circumstances.
Material Type: Full Course
The First Note music curriculum is made up of 30 complete multi-cultural lessons broken down into 4-5 separate videos for each lesson. The program incorporates proven methods of music instruction developed by Carl Orff (Orff Schulwerk), Emile Jacques Dalcroze, Zoltan Kodaly and others. Video teaching tips are also included. The program is a standards-based music program for use in Kindergarten and 1st Grade classrooms. Best of all, it's designed to be facilitated by all K-1 school teachers, and as an aid to all music instructors.
Material Type: Full Course, Lesson
Members of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have designed a suite of atmospheric science learning modules for middle school students. The curriculum, which implements a flipped-classroom model, is cross-referenced with Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. It introduces students to topics such as temperature, pressure, severe weather safety, climate change, and air pollution through short instructional videos and critical thinking activities. A goal of this project is to provide middle school science educators with resources to teach while fostering early development of math and science literacy. The work is funded by a National Science Foundation CAREER award. For a complete list of learning modules and to learn more about the curriculum, visit https://www.atmos.illinois.edu/~nriemer/education.html
Material Type: Lesson Plan, Module
Rubric Element 1.10 Teachers implement routines and procedures for efficiently guiding students through digital and non-digital work time.
Material Type: Primary Source
This is an introduction to autism and Asperger Syndrome. The document defines autism, describes characteristics and implications for instruction, outlines suggested strategies for instruction and classroom management, and lists additional resources. A summary of educational strategies for teaching students with Asperger Syndrome is also included. The information is written for educators, but may be of interest to parents and others who live or work with individuals with autism or Asperger Syndrome.
Material Type: Reading
This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including community members such as parents and board members in these processes - a total system makeover. At the conclusion of this text, the student, educator, or mental health professional will have a deeper understanding of what trauma-informed practice requires of them. This includes practical strategies on how to transform our learning communities in response to the devastating effect of unmitigated stress and trauma on our student's ability to learn and thrive throughout the lifespan.
Material Type: Textbook
This course provides knowledge and skills in supporting English Language Development and Inclusive Learningthroughout Out-of-School (OST) environments. Educators learn learn to welcome, support, and enhance language and literacy skill development for all children and youth and respond appropriately to the individualized ELD needs of non-native speakers of English.
Material Type: Full Course
This is a collection of mini lectures created by anthropologists and those in conversation with anthropology as supplimental material to assist college and university instructors who were made to shift their courses online because of COVID19.For more information, see here.To contribute, please create an OER author account and send your name and OER registered email to AnthropologyTeaching@gmail.com.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lecture, Lesson Plan, Reading, Syllabus, Teaching/Learning Strategy
Biology is designed for multi-semester biology courses for science majors. This version has been adapted by faculty at Austin Community College. It is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand. To meet the needs of today’s instructors and students, some content has been strategically condensed while maintaining the overall scope and coverage of traditional texts for this course. Instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand—and apply—key concepts.
Material Type: Full Course
Technology can be a powerful tool to assist students with special needs or any sort of learning challenge. In particular the Chrome web browser allows users to install a wide variety of web extensions that provide tools that can help all learners, regardless of ability level. In this blog post we will take a look at over 30 Chrome web extensions that can assist students in five main categories: Text to Speech Readability Reading Comprehension Focus Navigation Some of the tools fit into more than one topic, but each is only listed once. Certainly this list does not cover all of the useful web extensions available for struggling learners, but it is a great place to begin. In addition to the list of extension, I have also linked in the video from a webinar I did a while back on "Google Tools for Special Needs".
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
This revision of the Teaching and Learning in New Mexico: Considerations for Diverse Student Populations Module offers a broad overview of how diversity (i.e., culture, language, exceptionality, and socioeconomic status) affects learning and how teachers can better meet the needs of all their students in their classes.
Material Type: Module
This Module examines the ways in which culture influences the daily interactions that occur across all classrooms and provides practice for enhancing culturally responsive teaching (est. completion time: 1 hour).
Material Type: Module
This Module offers an overview of young children who are dual language learners. Further, it highlights the importance of maintaining children and families’ home language at the same time they are learning a new or second language, discusses considerations for screening and assessing these children, and identifies strategies for supporting them in inclusive preschool classrooms (est. completion time: 1 hour).
Material Type: Module
High-Incidence Disabilities are disabilities that are more often seen in the regular education classroom. This resource is intended to be used by pre-service teacher who are learning about disabilities in the classroom and how to make accommodations for all learners.
Material Type: Assessment, Case Study, Homework/Assignment, Lecture Notes, Module
