Audible (Grades 6 - 8) 
- Grade Levels: 6-8
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: For as long as schools are closed, we're open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. Explore the collection, select a title and start listening. It's that easy.
- Language: Multiple
Audible (Grades 9 - 12)
- Grade Levels: 9-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: For as long as schools are closed, we're open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet. Explore the collection, select a title and start listening. It's that easy.
- Language: Multiple
CNN 10
- Grade Levels: 7-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: None required Free. Can be streamed video or downloaded as a free podcast both available on the website.
- Description: CNN 10 is a daily digital video that replaced CNN Student News to serve a growing audience interested in brief news recaps. The 10 minute videos come with transcripts that can be read and used for students to reflect on specific comments they may have missed while watching the clip. The videos capture stories that are significant to people around the world, but affect the students' lives and local societies. These quick videos offer great content and information for teachers to use in a number of ways that may inspire blogs or argumentative/persuasive writing topics.
- Language: English
*Note: It is always recommended to preview each episode before using with students. Available Monday-Friday
EBSCO
- Grade Levels: 9-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Most schools in Texas have an account. Students and teachers will enter the site via TexQuest. From there, participants will choose "high school" in the Navigator. If the teacher of students does not know their ID and Password, they will more than likely be able to enter through their school library websites. Look for TexQuest!
- Description: TexQuest provides access to authoritative digital resources for educators, students, and students' immediate families in Texas K-12 public schools and open-enrollment charter schools. More importantly, EBSCO provides 6 collections of downloadable eBooks - K-8, High School, Business, Academic (post high school), Education, and History.
- Language: English/Spanish
Gale 
- Grade Levels: 9-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Most schools in Texas have an account. Students and teachers will enter the site via TexQuest. From there, participants will choose "high school" in the Navigator. If the teacher of students does not know their ID and Password, they will more than likely be able to enter through their school library websites. Look for TexQuest!
- Description: Gale offers articles from magazines, newspapers, academic journals, and reference books, videos, and images, as well as full text eBooks and magazines for all school levels and content areas.
- Language: English and other languages
Great Books Foundation
- Grade Levels: 6-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: These 9-12 open educational resources are available to download and come with suggested discussion questions to spur deep thinking.
- Language: English
Kelly Gallagher: Building Deeper Readers & Writers: Kelly's Blog
- Grade Levels: 8-12
- Audience: Teachers, Parents
- Access Code: Free
- Description: This site offers resources for both teachers and parents to use with their students. Teacher, author, speaker, and coach, Kelly Gallagher shares his high school literacy expertise in his free website. In the "kelly's blog" tab, Mr. Gallagher shares his day by day lessons from a unit he used with his own classrooms. Both teachers and parents can use this valuable resource where he describes what the teacher did, what the students did, and then reflects on the lesson. This is a great place to get ideas of activities you can use with your students. (see resource below for more information)
- Language: English
Kelly Gallagher: Building Deeper Readers & Writers: Resources
- Grade Levels: 8-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: In addition to the lesson ideas Kelly Gallagher provides on his site, he also offers resources for teachers that include: digital discussions, articles, book clubs, instructional materials, instructional videos, and lists of books and research he recommends. In the Article of the Week Archives, Mr. Gallagher shares articles from credible sources that he has assigned to his own students as a mentor text for the week. Not only do students stay up-to-date with relevant topics and issues in the United States and around the world, these 1-3 page articles are the start to a week full of literacy skills students will practice every day. The texts can be used as informational/expository and argumentative/persuasive. You will find enough articles to last an entire year!
- Language: English
The Learning Network - The New York Times
- Grade Levels: Ages 13+
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: This site uses content from the New York Times articles, and offers teaching ideas for teachers. Students can share their opinions with others near and far while building their critical thinking and reading skills. This is a great way to give students something authentic to read about, learn about, and respond to. Because it can feature places from around the nation and world, teachers have the flexibility to tailor it to fit their own state's standards.
- Language: English
For more information about the site and how you can use the site, you can visit these two links:
Quick Write Ideas
- Grade Levels: 6-12
- Audience: Teachers
- Access Code: Google Doc - no sign in required. View only.
- Description: This Google doc includes 12 Quick Write topics, questions, videos, and/or images to assign to students. Teachers can use the prompts as is, or they can borrow the graphics and create their own prompts. The beginning slide explains that these are meant to be 5 minute writings, and that students can produce any form of writing they choose: poem, story, reflection, song, or comic strip. The author encourages students that the idea is to get their thoughts on paper and not worry about grammar at this point, but teachers can always use these short writing pieces later to create polished pieces. Teachers should make those instructional decisions as they see fit, and refer to their TEKS to create more grade-level appropriate and specific instructions if there are certain student expectations that need to be mastered.
- Language: English
Scholastic Learn at Home
- Grade Levels: 6-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students, Parents
- Access Code: Free
- Description: Day-by-day projects to keep students reading, thinking, and growing. Provides students with 20+ days' worth of exciting learning journeys that span content areas. Students will have access to approximately three hours of meaningful and engaging learning opportunities per day, including projects based on articles and stories, virtual field trips and reading challenges. Accessible on any device.
- Language: English
Short Stories for High School Students 
- Grade Levels: 9-12
- Audience: Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: Readings are chosen for their literary significance and to deepen student appreciation for the short story genre. Many are iconic works, often anthologized, and serve as common cultural reference points in literature, film, music, and popular culture. These are the stories that well-read students should know as they prepare for college and life!
- Language: English
For additional reads, visit their encore collection of readings
SIRS Discovery
- Grade Levels: 6-8
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Most schools in Texas have an account. When in doubt, enter through your school library's website.
- Description: SIRS Discoverer informs 6-8 students (and lower) with vetted, age-appropriate articles, books, maps, multimedia, images and issues that align to core subjects.
- Language: English/Spanish
Texas Gateway
- Grade Levels: 6-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Sign up for Free
- Description: Gain instant access to the content you seek, whether you are looking for “just-in-time” resources that you can leverage during a particular lesson, sequenced binders of instruction that you can assign to students, or self-directed PD training courses that you can take to earn CPE credit hours. This is the gateway to the content you need for your classroom and for yourself, even as these needs shift from day to day.
- Language: English
Texas Performance Standards Project
- Grade Levels: 6-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: The Texas Performance Standards Project (TPSP) provides a series of TEKS-based performance tasks and assessments for gifted/talented (G/T) students in grades K-12. These interdisciplinary research units, some of which have a discipline-specific focus, can be used by schools and districts to enrich G/T programming.
- Language: English
Exploring the Genre of Review Writing 
- Grade Levels: 6-8
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: Think about all the ways reviews are used in our marketable and advertised world: books, restaurants, movies, video games, technological gadgets, and even running shoes have an audience eager to learn and read more. This type of writing is all around us and is used frequently. In this unit, students will investigate three areas of review writing: food, movies, and books.
- Language: English
How to Write a Great Job Application Email
- Grade Levels: 9-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: HR professionals and hiring managers are often besieged by emails, so those that fail to grab their attention immediately are likely to be ignored. Because you only get one chance to make a first impression, the site offers guidance on the dos and don’ts when constructing job application emails. This is a wonderful site for those students who are learning to write effective and professional correspondences.
- Language: English
5 Business Email Format Tips That Will Help You Succeed
- Grade Levels: 9-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: How you format your business email makes a difference. This site helps your students recognize how to make their emails look like a polished professional.
- Language: English
Books, Periodicals, Web Materials: Source Formats
- Grade Levels: 7-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: This site offers a downloadable overview of viable resources students can use towards research. Moreover, it offers in-depth discussions on topics such as websites versus web pages.
- Language: English
Digital Public Library of America
- Grade Levels: K-12
- Audience: Teachers, Students
- Access Code: Free
- Description: The Digital Public Library of America has primary source sets that tie with content taught in ELAR such as Beloved and To Kill a Mockingbird. This resource may provide students context for whatever they are reading!
- Language: English
College Preparatory ELAR
All four Institutes of Higher Education (IHEs) have signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). View the updated MOU and a list of participating LEAs here. Please note that this list includes only Region 2 LEAs who voluntarily reported an MOU to ESC-2. For LEAs not on the list of participants, the best way to determine their College Prep MOU status is to contact them directly.
Local Education Agencies (LEAs) may submit a signed-updated MOU to Melissa.Morin@esc2.us, the ESC-2 contact who maintains a repository of signed MOUs.
If you are a teacher of a College Preparatory ELAR class and would like more information please contact Matthew Leal (matthew.leal@esc2.us).
