If you have an authorized TRA staff account for any of the internet options listed below, you may enter the program directly by clicking the program name. You wlll need to enter valid account information to proceed.
This page is updated frequently. TRA staff are encouraged to let the VP Education know about the usefulness and currency of these resource links and to suggest additional resources that may be helpful to other staff.
The resources below are selected based upon their likely interest to teachers. Included are sites providing instructional methods, lesson plans, worksheets, classroom activities, teacher tools and online computer programs that allow teachers to manager student use. Teachers are advised to also become familiar with the student resource page, containing numerous links that are not found on this teacher page.
ELA Resources for Teachers UPDATED Mar 2020
MATH Resources for Teachers UPDATED Jan 2020
ESOL / CIVICS Resources for Teachers UPDATED Jan 2020
ACLS (Adult Community Learning Services) - this is a useful link for Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) funded programs.The site includes DESE staff addresses, important documents to download such as DESE policies and procedures, ABE Curriculum Frameworks, and latest DESE mailings
MassSTEP (Adult Community Learning Services) - MassSTEP envisions a statewide network of pathways that prepare adult learners for promising careers with dynamic Massachusetts businesses. It leverages collaborations among education, job training, and employers to build innovative concurrent education and workforce development opportunities for adult learners. MassSTEP partners work together to create a stronger and more equitable workforce development system for the Commonwealth. NEW Oct 2021
SABES - the web site of the System for Adult Basic Education Support contains training calendars, documents, bibliographies,and resources on curriculum,assessment and content.
SABES Calendar - this section of the main SABES webpage provides a calendar of professional development activities. NEW Mar 2015
LACES User Information - this site contains information for LACES users including MA LACES Manual, FY 20 Intake and Release of Information Forms, LACES training webinars and LACES video tutorials. If you don't remember the required password for webinars, ask another TRA manager"> UPDATED SEP 2019
TABE Remote Proctoring This page contains several webinars provided by TABE including those on Remote Proctoring of the TABE. Staff should remember that any assessment test required by our funders must wait for guidelines from those funders about proper administration of tests. NEW Apr 2020
HiSET Test for Educators - Official site of the HISET Test, one of the tests leading to the High School Equivalency Credential in Massachusetts. This link will bring you to the section of the site that is intended for educators. Teachers will find detailed information about the content and process categories covered on the test with some sample questions. Here you will also find several series of printed free practice tests to download including the latest up to date practice test series which was released in Sep 2017. There are also additional resource on scoring tests and interpreting scores. UPDATED Apr 2020
GED Test for Educators- Official site of the GED test, one of the tests leading to the High School Equivalency Credential in Massachusetts. This link is to the section of the site that is intended for educators. Here you will find the "Assessment Guide for Educators", a resource for adult educators and administrators to better understand item types and assessment targets. Here you will also find free online practice tests and the Practice Test Companion, which relates the practice test questions to specific areas being tested. UPDATED Apr 2020
GED COVID-19 Educator Support- This page is to help educators, continue to help their students progress toward the GED test during this time of social distancing. They have gathered some great resources to help teachers put together lessons and continue to communicate with their students remotely. UPDATED Apr 2020
Active Parenting - This link leads to the website of the Active Parenting program. This program is used by TRA to provide our YPP Parenting curriculum. Here managers and teachers can find information about curriculum materials, teacher training options, and teacher certification. Teacher training may be provided through webinar or online self study. NEW May 2022
Engage NY (Revised Site) - this site makes available for use the common core aligned Math and English Language Arts curricular modules and units of the State of New York. Each grade level of Math or ELA includes an entire school year of lesson plans. Since ABE classes cover three (3) or more years of school, the challenge for teachers will be how to reduce or combine these ample lessons in such a way that objectives are mastered, but in a more economical way. You will find both PDF and Word versions available for your use. Lesson plans are designed to be adopted and/or adapted and to allow teacher flexibility. Each lesson includes sufficient problem sets to allow for ample student practice and homework. UPDATED May 2022
ICivics Teacher - this is the teachers login page for ICivics which provides teachers with access to all of the 15 interactive civics games available on the student site plus learning objectives and printable guides for each game. In addition to this, ICivics provides teachers with a complete civics curriculum consisting of 26 well developed curriculum units and over 270 lesson plans rooted in clear learning objectives with a complete scope and sequence, that combine lesson plans, games, webquests, and essay writing exercises. Teachers must create a login for this teacher's portal which allows them to download lesson plans, student material, game guides, and powerpoint presentations. They will also be able to create classes, assign and monitor student work. UPDATED May 2022
TV 411 - Website for popular video educational series produced by the Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA). TV411 is a collection of entertaining videos and engaging web activities, all designed to help students reach their learning goals. Pick a topic--reading, writing, vocabulary, math, science, or finance-and get started! You are not required to register but is is free if you do. UPDATED Oct 2018
OER Commons - this site contains a huge library of 50,000 or more Open Educational Resources (OER). OER are teaching and learning resources that you may freely use and reuse at no cost because the author chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. OER usually display a license to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared. These free resources may include complete courses, electronic textbooks, lesson plans, worksheets, interactive lessons, activitiew, simulations, and adaptatations of other open work. NEW Jan 2016
Wide Open School - ATTENTION TRA STAFF! Wide Open School is a new free collection of 25 online learning tools curated by the editors at Common Sense. I have added the site here in order for our teachers to search for additional resources. Please give priority to the resources we have already recommended to you and let us know if you discover another resource worth considering. NEW Mar 2020
PBS Learning Media - PBS provides a wide range of educational resources including videos, lesson plans, interactives and websites searchable by common core standard, grade level, and subject. You will discover huge libraries of resources in Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies,Science and the Arts. Teachers are advised to create a FREE account to insure full access. NEW Feb 2015 - Worcester
Edutopia- Find many video, presentation, and expository resources to help you implement a wide variety of cutting edge teaching methods, techniques and tips such as project-based learning, social and emotional learning, comprehensive assessment, differentiated instruction, teacher development, integrated studies, and technology integration. NEW Jan 2017
Mission US: A Revolutionary Way to Learn History - this multimedia project immerses players into U.S. history content through free interactive role-playing games. There are five (6)adventures currently available with more planned in the future. Current roles involve an apprentice choosing sides during the American revolution, a slave escaping from Kentucky, a Native American adjusting to the changing west, a Jewish immigrants adjusting to life in 1907 America, a dust bowl farm family attempting to survive the Great Depression, and the most recent adventure which features Japanese citizens being imprisoned during World Word II. Click on the Educator TAB and find comprehensive lesson guides for teachers with background information, supplementary activities, print resources and professional development videos to help expand the game into a classroom learning experience. UPDATED May 2022
Easy Teacher Worksheets - provides a free resource website providing a huge library of printable worksheets for a many different class topics and grade levels. New worksheets are added on a weekly basis. You may print any of these workshees for group or individual educational purposes but the copyright restricts them from being stored digitally, sold, or repackaged without permission. NEW Jun 2021
Common Core Sheets - provides a wide range of math worksheets and some worksheets in other subjects, which can be printed for use in classrooms. All worksheets are based on the common core and have several versions with an option to create your own worksheets. There is also a special feature that is called "One atta Time" that displays one problem at a time to facilitate using it with Smart Screen technology. It also keeps score while using it on screen. UPDATED sEP 2021
Workforce Development Transformation Agenda - this site provides a set of 36 contextualized curriculum modules created by the Massachussets Community Colleges and Workforce Development Transformation Agenda (MCCWDTA). These modules are contextualized to three separate industry clusters (Health, Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology). The modules are divided evenly between Mathematics and Literacy. This results in a total of seven Math and seven Literacy modules for the Health and Advanced Manufacturing clusters and four Math and four Literacy modules for the Information Technology cluster. TRA teachers are encouraged to explore the use of these modules in their classrooms, adjust them to fit the level and needs of their students, and provide feedback through this website. UPDATED May 2014
College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education This link connects to the report prepared by Susan Pimental for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) of the U.S. Department of Education (April 2013). This report produced a set of College and Career Readiness Standards by reviewing the Common Core State Standards and selecting Math and Language content that was most relevant to preparing adults for success in higher education and training. NEW Jun 2013 BROCKTON
Community Planning Webinars - this feature on the SABES website includes several webinars on specific areas of community planning NEW Aug 2016
Achieve the Core - this site includes a large number of annotated lessons in both Math and ELA that are classified by subject and level. The site also features great videos and writings about the Standards and Shifts in general to help teachers to implement them. NEW May 2014
TEAL - this is the official website of TEAL (Teaching Excellence in Adult Education). This site provides resources on teaching methodologies including two guides featuring research-based instructional methods. The Math Works! Guide summarizes important math methods while the Just Write! Guide explains proven methods for teaching writing. NEW Nov 2015
Odell Education - this site features the Developing Core Proficiencies Curriculum prepared by Odell Education for the Regents of NY as part of the Engage NY curriculum. This free curriculum is comprised of a series of four units at each grade level that provide direct instruction on a set of literacy proficiencies at the heart of the Common Core State Standards. Each unit highlights a core literacy proficiency and provides approaches, instructional sequences, handouts, tools and texts for developing independent mastery and creative critical thinking in students. NEW Dec 2014
DESE Model Curriculum Units - this site on the DESE Curriculum and Instruction page posts model curriculum units and provides a great source of lesson ideas for teachers . Although designed for the K-12 system the units all integrate the CCR standards. Units range from K-4, Middle School (5-8) and High School (9-12). They contain fully developed units in Mathematics, English Language Arts, Social Studies,Science and Research. Some Science units are still in development. All units are available for printing in either Word or PDF formats. This page reportedly contains hundreds of annotated, multi-session lesson plans. NEW May 2014
Better Lesson - This site claims to provide over 10,000 free Common Core aligned lesson plans in Math, ELA and Science developed by Master teachers. Math lessons are divided into CC categories by levels K-8 with four additional categories at the High School level (Algebra, Functions, Geometry and Statistics & Probability). ELA lessons are developed for each grade level divided into the CC categories Reading Informational Text, Reading Literature, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. Levels K-5 also include the category Foundational Reading. REVISED NOV 2014
Forever Curious - website developed by a group of librarians and educators seeking to curate the best educational resources and lesson plans for people of all ages. Large number of lesson plans and resources are catalogued into major topic areas which currently include Green, Emergency Preparedness, Business Education and Math. NEW Apr 2017
Skills to Pay the Bills - Series of softskills videos developed by the U.S. Dept of Labor for youth. Videos are short but well done and cover such topics as enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, communication, critical thinking and problem solving, networking, and professionalism. You can download the complete curriculum at http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/youth/softskills/. UPDATED Apr 2017
The Real Deal - provides a large collection of shopping lesson plans ranging from elementary to high school level dealing with consumer math themes, such as planning meals, price per unit, comparison shopping, budgeting, taxes, discounts, healthy choices, mock store, mock bank, and customer service. Here are some resources you can choose from as you look for lesson plans for a shopping unit. Make sure you evaluate each of these lesson plans for student appropriateness and redesign them when necessary. NEW Apr 2016
Saylor Academy Open Textbooks - Saylor Academy, one of the providers of free MOOC courses that are listed below, also provide 100+ free textbooks for students and educators. Teachers looking for high complexity reading materials to prepare their students for success in college, should consider using sections from these books Some examples include many introductory College subjects as well as courses on College Success,Steps to Job Success, Business Writing, and Introduction to Algebra. NEW Feb 2016
OpenStax College - OpenStax College is a nonprofit organization committed to improving access to free quality learning materials. All textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure they are readable, accurate, and meet the scope and sequence requirements of most courses. Teachers looking for high complexity reading materials to prepare their students for success in college, should consider using single chapters from these book in subjects of interest to students. Some examples of appropriate subject areas are U.S. History, Biology, Psychology, Economics and Algebra. OpenStax College is an initiative of Rice University and is made possible through the generous support of several philanthropic foundations. NEW Feb 2016
New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) - this site, maintained by NELRC a part of World Education, provides many resources to assist educators. Recent webinars on the Math and ELA instructional shifts are archived there under Publications and Online Collections. Other resources are include such topics as technology integration, promising practices, learner persistence, multiple intelligences, ESOL, organizational development, and alignment of lessons to the Common Core. UPDATED Dec 2015
MOOC List - What is a MOOC? You may have heard this term but don't know what it means. The acronym MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course. This is a relatively new innovation in education that is seen as a way to provide college level courses open to everyone. A proper MOOC must be offered free, although some have an optional small charge if you desire a certificate be provided after completion of a course. This MOOC List site does not provide the MOOCs but is merely an collector of information on available MOOC courses and providers. Immediately following, we will list additional links for some of the major MOOC providers. NEW Dec 2014
Saylor Academy - Supported Courses (MOOC) - this MOOC site lists courses actively supported and maintained by the Saylor Academy staff, most of which provide certificates of completion. Saylor Foundation is a non-profit (501c3) organization based in Washington DC. It offers more than 300 free, college-level courses, representing high enrollment majors at traditional colleges. These courses are designed to be as open as possible, with all content accessible without the need to register or log in. They are also unique because they often include free textbooks made possible by Saylor's emphasis on finding,vetting, and assembling texts or developing them when needed, and making them openly available for free use. UPDATED Jan 2015
Saylor Academy - Legacy Courses (MOOC) - this site contains Saylor Academy courses that are designated as Legacy courses. Although designed and curated by experienced professors and other professionals, these courses are no longer actively maintained by the Saylor Academy staff. As a result, some resources may be missing, in error, or otherwise out of date. The site depends on the community of learners to help maintain these courses for the benefit of all. More on how you can contribute will soon be available on the Community page. UPDATED Jan 2015
edX (MOOC) - this other non-profit MOOC site includes over 350 courses developed by founders Harvard and MIT or one of another 30 or more institutions of higher learning including Dartmouth, Berkeley, Boston University, Columbia, Cornell and Notre Dame. Most courses have designated start dates but many are listed as archived or available to start anytime. Many courses provide "Verified Certificates" and a few even provide college credit. NEW Jan 2015
Coursera (MOOC) - this MOOC provider is one of the largest with over 750 courses listed in English alone. More than 20 courses are identified as available anytime indicated by a "Learn Now" button. Many courses provide "Verified Certificates" for an extra charge if requirements are met up front. NEW Jan 2015
Canvas Network (MOOC) - this MOOC site includes many courses which seem ideal for college and career readiness use including math, reading, writing, and career exploration. Many courses start at a future date, but others are available immediately. Some courses have already started in the past but can be joined as long as they are completed by the indicated end date. NEW Jan 2015
Open2Study (MOOC) - this MOOC site includes only a small number of courses but does offer a few interesting possibilities including a course called Teaching Adult Learners, which we are currently evaluating. NEW Jan 2015
TEDEd Lessons Worth Sharing) Within the growing TED-Ed video library, you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which represent collaborations between talented educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform. This platform also allows users to take any useful educational video, and "flip" it. This process of "flipping" turns a video into a customized lesson that can be assigned to students or shared more widely. You can add context, questions and follow-up suggestions. > NEW Dec 2013 - Brockton
GCF Learn Free - this site is sponsored by the Goodwill Community Foundation. It offers free online classes in Microsoft Office Suite products and tutorials in the many useful aspects of technology. There are also a limited numbers tutorials in mathematics, reading, work and career skills, and lifeskills. NEW Oct 2015 - Brockton
Common Core Standards This link leads to the home page of the Common Core State Standards. It provides links to the complete Mathematics and English Language Arts standards. These standards are meant to provide a clear understanding of what students are expected to learn and they strive to reflect the knowledge and skills that are needed for success in college and careers. The new GED 2014 will be based on these standards. NEW Feb 2013
Teach Teen Parents This web site is for teachers looking for educational resources to use in a classroom setting, particulary those programs devoted to assisting teen parents and other youth. You will find lessons that cover most major life skills such as nutrition, child development, health and safety, relationships, newborn care, discipline, legal issues, financial literacy, career planning and budgeting. NEW Feb 2014 - BROCKTON
2014 GED Test Curriculum Blueprint This site displays an educator's guide published by GED Academy, a software vendor, which is subtitled "An Educator's Guide to Being GED Test-Ready". This publication contains much useful information on changes to the new GED test. There is a clear presentation of the Webb's Depth of Knowledge scale and a listing of major content changes to the tests. There is a guide and template for building lesson plans with many reproducible lesson plans included. NEW Jul 2013
Teaching Channel This website is a video showcase of innovative and effective teaching practices in America's schools. It includes 228 videos on topics related to grades 9-12 and 230 videos related to grades 6-8, incluldling math, language arts, scienc and social studies. More than 160 videos deal with teaching to the common core standards, while other videos deal with digital literacy (technology),collaboration, and differentiation. You must register to use the site but there is no cost. NEW Jun 2013
Superteacher Worksheets - this site features thousands of printable PDF files. Our collections include math worksheets, spelling lists, reading comprehension passages, education board games, graphic organizers, handwriting practice pages, educational card games, flashcards, and manipulative teaching materials. Visitors have only limited access without becomeing members.. NEW Jan 2012 - Brockton
Good Character- this content-rich website is loaded with free resources, materials, and lesson plan for teachers wishing to provide character education for students. Teaching guides are available which provide discussion questions, writing assignments, and student activities. Useful for work readiness lessons... NEW Jan 2012 - Brockton
Teacher Tube
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) - website which makes teaching and learning resources from across the federal government available in one place
Massachusetts Workforce Board Association - main site of the Massachusetts Workforce Board Association which contains current information on the role and activities of the Workforce Investment Boards (WIB), One-Stop Career Centers and Youth Councils in your region. This site contains links to all the local workforce board websites.
The Teacher's Corner - a large site that provide a wide range of resources and lesson plans to assist teachers with class planning. Site features include lesson plans, thematic units, printable worksheets, seasonal material, bulletin boards, collaboration projects and message boards. Examples of printable worksheets include Sudoku Puzzle, Brain Teasers, Word Searches, Word Scrambles, Match-up Worksheets, Crossword Puzzle Maker, Telling Time Worksheets, Money Worksheets, Printable Calendars, Printable Maps, Cloze Sentence, Fill in the Blank, Maze Maker, and Graph Worksheets. Use of the site is FREE and does not require a subscription. (suggested by Michelle Ramirez-Worcester)
Online Crossword Puzzle Maker - easy program from the Teacher's Corner site to allow teachers to make online crossword puzzles for students on any subject just by making a list with the words and their clues. UPDATED Oct 2016
EdHelper - another site devoted to providing assistance to teachers. This one requires a membership subscription for access to the best areas of the site. If using this site, please consider appropriateness of activities for adults. Emphasis is on elementary school needs.
House Plans and More - a large collection of lesson plans grouped by subject which are billed as appropriate for parents and students involved in homeschooling. Teachers should evaluate these plans for age appropriateness and adapt them where needed before using with older youth and adults.
Curriki - a collaborative curriculum development website where teachers can find a large library of already developed lesson plans and activities, share curriculum resources, and collaborate with other educators to create curriculum. Curriki = curriculum + wiki.
Focus on Basics - quarterly publication of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL). The website includes all back issues of the publication with articles on best practices and current research on adult learning and literacy.
AcademicInfo - this is an online education resource center with extensive subject guides and distance learning information.It provides free, independent and accurate information and resources for current teachers (research tools, writing guides, journals, books etc) as well as study information for prospective teachers.
Gateway to Educational Materials - the key to one-stop, any-stop access to high quality lesson plans, curriculum units and other education resources on the Internet!
Assessment Strategies - resources are extensive for multiple-subject assessments at Scoring Guides, Portfolios, Performance Tasks, Peer Evaluations--all are covered.
Teachers.Net - large teacher site which includes lesson plans, discussion areas etc.
Teachervision.com - large teacher site which includes lesson plans, printable handouts, graphic organizers, subject materials, professional development materials, classroom organization tools and a teacher store.
The Study Place - after registering, a teacher of adults age 18 and above may create your own online lessons using simple forms, find ready mand online lessons, create a class home page and track student progress online.
Writing Lesson Plans - a collection of articles which useful information on how to write quality lesson plans. It includes such topics as Lesson Plans the Easy Way, How to Write Behavioral Objectives, Verbs for Behavioral Objectives, Lesson Planning: Teaching Questions, How to Write an Assessment Based on an Objective, and the Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans
Webquest Information - this site includes a large number of materials to assist teachers interested in developing Webquests. A Webquest is a a formalized web-based activity that promotes inquiry-based learning by assigning students a task and a step by step process to accomplish the task. Various resources are suggested to guide the student to the information needed to accomplish the task. A Webquest may be developed by teachers as a learning activity for their students or developed by a group of students as the focus of a class web page development project.
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