Educational Resources for At-Home Learners

Below is a list of online resources for families and scholars currently at home as a result of COVID-19. Resources for food, utilities, and other services can be found here. 

General/All subjects

• MPS Distance Learning
• Calvert Home School: Calvert is offering its online homeschool system for free for the next 3 months. Starting Tuesday night, Calvert will allow parents to sign up and use their services to teach their kids.
• Great Minds: Free digital math and English language arts materials, including instructional materials, support resources, and free daily recorded lessons.
• Khan Academy: Free, age-appropriate PreK-12 content for parents, students, and educators.
• Minnesota Department of Education: Minnesota-specific COVID-19 updates from the Minnesota Department of Education, including FAQ on school closures and guidance on distance learning.
• NewSchools: Curated list of free resources for teachers, schools, and parents. The list is updated frequently.
• PAVE: A frequently updated list of education companies that are offering free subscriptions due to school closings.
• PIE Network: A collection of resources for states, districts, families, educators, students, and advocates.
• ST Math: MIND Research Institute is offering no-cost access to ST Math for parents, schools, and districts for students in grades K-8.
• Thomas B. Fordham Institute: Resources for learning from home during school closures.
• TNTP: Strategies and resources that school districts can use as they plan for high-quality, online learning opportunities.
• US Department of Education: Resources for educators and local leaders on K-12 flexibilities, student privacy, and educating students with disabilities during the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Khan Academy (all grades): Video lessons and practice across a wide variety of topics at all grade levels, from preschool through graduation. Check out the step-by-step video and quick-start guide for using remote instruction. High school math lessons, in particular, are a great accompaniment to teacher-created materials.
• NYC Department of Education “Learn at Home” materials (all grades): These standards-aligned packets are a good option for students without internet or computer access.
• Scholastic (K-8): Free lessons for all content areas.
• Reading A to Z (elementary): Encompasses Myon, Starfall, and IXL. Basic reading practice for learning readers; lean on the resources already in use in your school. Also offers authentic Spanish books.
• EPIC (elementary): Digital library for elementary students. Teachers must sign up and invite students. Also available in Spanish.
• TumbleBooks (elementary): Digital library for elementary students.
• Unite for Literacy (elementary): Digital library for elementary students.
• Time for Kids (elementary): Student articles for grades K-6; good for knowledge-building reading.
• CommonLit (upper elementary/secondary): More than 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12.
• Newsela (upper elementary/secondary): Nonfiction texts at different independent reading levels paired with activities, including news articles, science pieces, and social studies pieces.
• New York Times writing curriculum(secondary): Flexible program for middle and high schools based on the real-world writing found in newspapers, from editorials and reviews to personal narratives and analysis essays.
• Defined Learning: eLearning projects grades 3-12

Math

• Eureka (all grades): Great Minds is sharing free, recorded daily lessons delivered by their own teachers, viewable on any device (including smart phones). If possible, send students home with their Eureka Math student books.
• Open Up Resources (K-5): Offers family and student resources for virtual learning aligned to Illustrative Math 6-8 and High School Mathematics.
• Desmos (3-12): Interactive graphing activities to help students visualize and represent mathematics across mainly secondary mathematics topics, but some elementary topics are also included in their list of featured collections here.
• Illustrative Mathematics (secondary): Teachers and students can access the materials in English and Spanish with a free Kendall Hunt account; online materials include a course guide for teachers and information for parents. Kahn Academy also offers a video series designed to support the grades 6-8 curriculum. Districts looking for a long-term virtual solution should consider contactingLearnZillion, an IM-certified partner.
• Zearn (K-8): This curriculum includes a guide for distance learning.
• Learn Zillion (all grades): Short (3-10 minute) videos intended for teacher and student use focused on targeted concepts.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (pre-K/K): Toolkit of 20+ resources.
• Dreambox (K-8): Gamified, adaptive, online K-8 math program designed for developmental math strategies (paper/pencil should not be used). Currently free.

English Language Arts

• Core Knowledge (pre-K-5): Free downloadable core knowledge curricula in ELA, humanities, and science. It also offers downloadable read-alouds.
• Open Up Resources (K-5): Offers family and student resources for virtual learning aligned to EL Education K-5, Bookworms K-5, and Reading with Relevance.
• Expeditionary Learning (K-8): See their collection of free online resources to support distance learning.
• Wit & Wisdom (K-8): Great Minds is sharing free, recorded daily lessons delivered by their own teachers, viewable on any device (including smart phones).

Science

• PhD Science (3-5): Great Minds is sharing free, recorded daily lessons delivered by their own teachers, viewable on any device (including smart phones). If possible, send students home with their Ph.D. Science module 4 logbooks.
• Big Picture Learning Student-Centered Responses Library: A living document to help educators navigate both big-picture and practical student questions about COVID-19’s education impact.
• Zearn: Free digital math materials and guidance to support distance/virtual learning for families and educators