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The Goddard Space Flight Center at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a suite of resources for educators. There are activities for both formal and informal educators, which means there is something for everyone, regardless of how much science or instructional experience you have. For educators who want to let youth take the lead, there are also activities for “amateur astronomers.”

Read alouds aren’t just for young children. This article from Edutopia describes one educator’s positive experience reading out loud to middle school students. The article explains how the practice reinforces skills and sparks interest in reading. It also lists some reading practices that educators can model when reading to their middle school students.

Learn about how one afterschool program used drones to harness technology for student learning. This article from ASCD shares lessons learned in areas such as content integration and community partnerships, and provides tips for implementing a drone program at your afterschool site.

Science Buddies is a K–12 nonprofit that has developed a unique library of quality STEM resources that are free for students, parents, and teachers. These resources include standards-aligned lesson plans, career profiles, hands-on activities, and more than 1,000 project ideas.

Looking for ways to help students master the math in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) activities? This archived webinar from Click2Science shares strategies for integrating math into afterschool activities. The webinar also provides links to resources and tips for building staff confidence in math.

A new research summary from the Wallace Foundation shares findings from an evaluation of READS, a school-run program that provides students with books and supports to encourage summer reading at home. Evaluating reading skills of 6,000 second- and third-grade students in 59 moderate- to high-poverty schools, the study found that participants gained nearly one month of reading skills. Students in the highest poverty schools made average gains of 1.5 months.

How can educators help students with varying reading abilities access and learn from complex texts? This blog post from Achieve the Core helps educators provide scaffolding and supports to help all readers. Suggestions include supporting vocabulary, pre-annotating texts with key ideas, using questions as scaffolds, and allowing time for reflection and discussion.

Students find math more meaningful when they are able to connect it to real-world situations. Radical Math is a resource that helps educators integrate economic and social justice issues into math curriculum and instruction. The website has links to more than 700 lesson plans, articles, charts, graphs, datasets, maps, and books that help educators support students in using math to understand and solve social problems.

With the growing focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in afterschool, it is tempting to think of the arts in opposition to STEM subjects. This blog post from Click2Science explains how afterschool programs can integrate the arts into STEM programming to offer STEAM. The blog post describes the characteristics of STEAM projects and provides examples of STEAM activities.

Do you want to keep up with the latest strategies, lessons, and resources for Illinois standards and academic content? The Summer 2018 issues of the Illinois Classrooms in Action newsletters feature the favorite stories that were shared throughout the school year. There are newsletters for four different grade bands, ensuring that educators have access to age-appropriate lessons and resources.