Resources
Results
Teaching To Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
This book offers educators tools to increase democratic participation in the classroom and to think about education as a practice of freedom. From the back cover: "Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for the author, the teacher's most important goal."
Project-Based Learning: The Online Resource for PBL
This website contains links to numerous PBL resources, including guides for designing projects, a project library, teaching and learning online strategies, and articles about PBL.
Project-Based Learning: Explained
This short video explains the essential elements of Project-Based Learning (PBL) and how they enable collaboration, critical thinking, and communication to develop.
Starting Small with Project-Based Learning
This article from Edutopia gives teachers three tips for starting to implement Project-Based Learning (PBL) in their classrooms.
Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning
This article from Educational Leadership describes seven elements the authors have found every meaningful project needs to have: (1) A "need to know," (2) a driving question, (3) student voice and choice, (4) 21st century skills, (5) inquiry and innovation, (6) feedback and revision, and (7) a publicly presented product.
Getting Started with Effective Math Talk in the Classroom
Using mathematical discussions in the classroom is a powerful way to increase our students’ critical thinking and communication skills. This article explores ways to get your students thinking and communicating mathematically from the very first days of school. The article is written for K-12 teachers, but the language and strategies work well with adult learners.
PowerUp: What Works – English Language Arts Teaching Strategies
This website was built for teachers with a variety of learner levels in their K-12 classes and offers resources, strategies, and practical tips to personalize instruction to meet the needs of struggling students. The teaching suggestions and instructional suggestions can easily be applied to adult ESL classrooms where English Language Arts CCRS are being applied. This page provides information on topics such as teaching context clues, self-questioning, visualizing, and semantic mapping.
Teaching the Skill of Self-Correction
This article offers several suggestions on how teachers can help students to take ownership of their reading, monitor themselves while they are reading, self-correct when they need to.
Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
This resource repository contains videos, articles, and handouts on the topic of culturally responsive teaching. The executive director of CCRTL, Dr. Sharroky Hollie, is a nationally recognized leader in the field of culturally responsive education.
Curriculum as Encounter: Selves and Shelves
In this article by Emily Jane Style, "a veteran teacher expresses the importance of drawing on the life-texts of students and recognizing the ways that personal experience influences a student’s perception of the world."
Global Oneness Project
According to their website, “We aim to connect, through stories, the local human experience to global meta-level issues, such as climate change, water scarcity, food insecurity, poverty, endangered cultures, migration, and sustainability. Through featuring individuals and communities impacted by these issues, our stories and lessons provide opportunities to examine universal themes that emphasize our common humanity... Our lessons facilitate the development of students' critical thinking, inquiry, empathy, and listening skills."
Economics and Budget Creation
In this unit, students explore concepts and vocabulary that are important to the study of economics, think critically about wants versus needs, and engage in exercises to help them prioritize spending and make financial decisions. Students also begin to learn about credit and how credit scores are determined.
Visible Thinking
Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. This website provides a convenient way to learn about Visible Thinking as well as thorough descriptions of the ideals, routines and activities that were developed from research in K-12 schools.
Talking Politics: Valuing Different Perspectives
This video from Edutopia demonstrates how high school students learn how to share and listen to opposing beliefs with empathy in the classroom.
ReadWriteThink
Search the extensive classroom resources section of the ReadWriteThink website to find a wide variety of writing lesson plans and activities. All activities were written and reviewed by educators, and many align to standards-based teaching practices.
Project-Based Learning for Adult English Language Learners
This article provides a rationale for using project-based learning with adult ELLs, describes the process, and gives examples of how the staff of an adult ESL program have used project-based learning with their adult learners at varying levels of English proficiency.
Project-Based Learning: Buck Institute for Education
The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) website was created to show teachers how to use Project Based Learning (PBL) in all grade levels and subject areas. The website provides articles and books, research summaries on PBL, videos, a library of sample projects, downloadable teaching tools, and more.
Looking at the Bigger Picture: 7 Tips for Using Project Based Learning in the ESL Classroom
This article gives an overview of project-based learning, including why it is good for ESL students and what the teacher's role is. It also provides seven tips for successful project-based learning implementation in the ESL classroom.
New Resources
Beginning ESL Literacy Distance Learning / In-Class Units
These lessons for Beginning EL Literacy (NRS ESL Level 1, CASAS STEPS 160-183) can be used in class, or assigned out of class as proxy hours by a TVM-certified teacher. The lessons are paper-packet based, and each has a QR code link to a video for the lesson. Each unit contains 5 lessons. Each lesson introduces 6-8 new vocabulary words, and is meant to build knowledge based on previous lessons.
Beginning ESL Literacy Distance Learning or In-Class Units
The Beginning EL Literacy (NRS ESL Level 1, CASAS STEPS 160-183) lessons provided here can be used in class, or assigned out of class as proxy hours by a TVM-certified teacher. The lessons are paper-packet based, and each has a QR code link to a video for the lesson. Each unit contains 5 lessons. Each lesson introduces 6-8 new vocabulary words, and is meant to build knowledge based on previous lessons.
Presenter Information
Get information about stipends, reimbursements, the MN Adult Ed policy on use of images in presentations, and other instructions for presenters.
MN Adult Ed YouTube Channel
The MN Adult Education YouTube Channel is a free online PD resource that you can use to explore teaching techniques and classroom ideas in action! Find out more in this MN ABE Connect newsletter article.
ATLAS Announcements & Future PD
Check out the latest list of ATLAS professional development announcements and opportunities! This is the document that is shared at all ATLAS events.
Virtual Meeting Resources
Find resources for conducting online meetings/events/presentations! You are welcome to use and adapt these materials to fit your own needs and context.
Upcoming ABE Events
March 16, 2026
6:30 pm–8:30 pm
Online
Volunteer Core Training Module 2: Understanding Adult Learners
Online
Registration Deadline: MON. 3/16/26 Venue: Online (see details below) Participants develop their personal cultural awareness and learn how expectations around school culture shape how people teach and learn. Guiding principles for effectively delivering instruction to adults are also covered. Finally, participants increase their sensitivity to the challenges of… Learn More
Online
March 18, 2026
2:00 pm–4:00 pm
Online
Antiracist Praxis Study Circle
Online
Application Deadline: FRI. 2/13/26 Many of us have heard the terms antiracist and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), but how do we actually implement these large frameworks into our adult English classrooms? This study circle goes beyond defining antiracism and explores how the research around Translanguaging by Ofelia… Learn More
Online
March 20, 2026
1:00 pm–3:00 pm
Online
Comprehension Strategies for Intermediate-Level Readers
Online
Registration Deadline: FRI. 3/20/26 Venue: Online (see details below) Research shows that explicitly teaching a set of comprehension strategies is a great way to help intermediate-level readers maximize their understanding of texts. Come learn a handful of great comprehension tools that will help students develop critical thinking skills… Learn More
Online