National Geographic Education (education.nationalgeographic.org) has multiple videos, articles, encyclopedia entries, and more that you can use for free in your classroom.
If you would like to save any of these resources, you can sign up for free on the website. You can sign up with Google, Microsoft, or LinkedIn. Each resource is printable, but you can also share the resource via email, Google Classroom, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft Teams. Some articles have a leveling feature where teachers can adjust the level of the text for certain grade levels while other articles may come with a vocabulary list. Below are the articles “Aftertaste” by Paul Salopek and the article “Nature and the Environment” by the National Geographic Society. “Aftertaste” is a leveled article and “Nature and the Environment” is an article with a vocabulary list.
On the site, resources can be filtered grade level, content type, and subject. The subjects are not listed as simply Math, Science, Social Studies, and English, but are filtered as specific sciences and topics, such as Storytelling, Conservation, and Chemistry.
Some people may ask, “Isn’t National Geographic a Science and Social Studies magazine? How does it relate to Literacy?” Literacy can be taught in any classroom and could benefit students if Literacy is showcased and applied in multiple contexts. National Geographic could be a good tool to integrate different subjects/topics into your classroom or to synch lessons with another content teacher, drawing attention to the jargon used and how professionals speak about their experiences. The site also has videos and live sessions on Explorer Classroom. These are live interactive sessions that schools, teachers, and students are free to attend to listen to stories from National Geographic explorers/researchers and ask them questions about a specific topic or about their work. Previously hosted sessions are available to view and upcoming sessions are advertised.
One thing that I find difficult when teaching research is finding a starting point/examples of reliable and credible websites for students to start their research at. National Geographic Education can be a great starting point for exploring different topics and tying in what students are learning in other classes with the research and writing skills I want them to learn. Therefore, I think that National Geographic Education is an effective literacy website in that it has multiple modes of conveying information and applications in multiple classrooms beyond English Language Arts classes.
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