Welcome to the tour of Eureka!, a valuable resource for adult literacy instructors. At the end of each section of the tour, there are activities you may wish to complete. These activities will give you practice incorporating Eureka! resources into your teaching. Enjoy the tour.

To access the Eureka! resources, go to

Then click on Archimedes

And Find Free, Searchable, Online Adult Literacy Resources Your discovery of Eureka! will have you shouting “ I found it!” This resource for adult basic education instructors is searchable by topic and features lessons that have been successfully used in ABLE classrooms

Select the type of resources you are interested in from the Eureka! Agora In Archimedes’ time the agora was a marketplace where individuals could find almost anything they needed. In the Eureka! AGORA you will find an “Assemblage of Great Online Resources for Adults.” The titles under the arches show the types of resources available in Eureka!

There are two ways to find resources in Eureka!: Click on “Search All of Eureka! Click in any of the arches of the AGORA

Search All of Eureka! To search all of Eureka!, also known as an Advanced Search, enter a search term in the box; for example “weather”

You will get a list of resources about weather. The icons by each item let you know if that item is a book, lesson plan, or web site.

Clicking on a book title will take you to a summary of and teaching ideas for that book

Clicking on a lesson plan title will take you to that lesson

You can print the lesson out to use with your class

Clicking on a website name will take you to the information about and link for that site.

Think of a topic and type a word in the search box to see what books, lesson plans, and websites are available on that topic. The more specific the keyword, the better your search results will be. For example: I searched for “weather” instead of “Science”. If your search is unsuccessful, try a different topic. You will learn another way to search later in this tutorial.

The second way to find resources is to explore each section. In the next slides you’ll explore Instructional Planning resources

In the Instructional Planning section you will find resources to help plan instruction, for example Thematic Collections

Thematic collections are books on specific topics with suggestions for using the books in the classroom. Clicking on the title of the collection will take you to a matrix of books and information on that topic.

AuthorTitleTypeDifficultyFamilyCultureHistor y Notes Bial, R.Mist Over the MountainsNonficGEDXXXHistory and present Bradby, M. More Than Anything ElseBioEasyXBooker T. Washington Carson, J.Stories I Ain’t Told Nobody Yet PoetryMediumXXVignettes of life Fleischm an, P. Borning Room, TheHis ficMediumXUnderground Railroad Hendersh ot, J. In Coal CountryMemoirEasyXX Hendersh ot, J. Up the Tracks to Grandma’sMemoirEasyXX Link. O., & Hensley, F. Steam, Steel, and StarsNonficGEDXSteam railroads Lyon, G.E. ChoicesShort Stories MediumXXWritten especially for adults Clicking on a book title will take you to a summary of and teaching ideas for that book.

There are also teaching ideas for each of the thematic collections.

The Articles in the Instructional Planning section offer information and suggestions for using library books as part of your instruction.

Teaching Ideas are field tested activities for selected books from our Trade Books collection.

Clicking on the book title takes you to a printable page of classroom activities for that book.

The Standards, Components, and Benchmarks are a very important part of instructional planning. Clicking on this link will take you to the website of the Ohio Board of Regents where you can view them.

Activities for Instructional Planning Section (choose one activity) 1. Choose one of the thematic collections that may be of interest to your students. Review the information that is provided in the chart about each book. Click on several book titles and read the summaries and teaching ideas. Also read the teaching ideas included with the thematic collection. How would you introduce these books to your students? How might you use this collection of books to enhance your instruction in one of the GED topic areas? What evidence would you use to determine if these activities were successful? 2. Choose an article to read. Write a short summary of the article. Explain in detail why you would or would not use the suggestions in the article with your students. 3. Choose a set of teaching ideas for one of the books on the list. Pick out two or three activities that you think your students would enjoy. Explain which components of performance and benchmarks in the reading standard are addressed in the activities you picked. What evidence would you use to determine if these activities were successful?

In the next slides you’ll explore the Teaching and Learning Strategy resources

There are a variety of teaching and learning strategies you can use to help your students improve their learning and liven up your classroom.

The Teaching and Learning strategies are organized according to the EFF standards. Click on a standard to see a list of the strategies.

Clicking on a strategy from the list will show a printable page that describes how to use the strategy in the classroom.

Take a few minutes to explore the strategies for the Reading, Writing, and Math standards.

There are also links to more strategy resources.

Activity for Teaching Strategies Section Choose at least one teaching strategy from any of the standards on the wheel. Explain how you would use this strategy in at least 3 of the 5 GED topic areas.

In addition to a searchable database of over 1,000 library books, this section contains ideas and suggestions for using these books in adult literacy classrooms.

Searching for a single book allows you to use keywords to find books on a topic. These books should be available at your local library.

You can search for books in one of two ways: by typing a word into the search box or by clicking the link to the keyword list

If you know what you are looking for, enter a search term in the box; for example “weather”

You will get a list of the books in the database on weather. Clicking on a book title will take you to a summary of and teaching ideas for that book

If you are not sure what keyword to use, click on the keyword list and browse the books by their keywords.

Scroll down the keyword list until you find a topic of interest, then click on it. The more specific the keyword, the better your search results will be. For example: search for “founding of the country” instead of “U. S. History”.

A list of books on that topic will be displayed. By clicking on a book title, you can get a summary of and teaching ideas for that book

You can also see an alphabetized list of all the books in the database by clicking on “also available.”

Thematic Collections were described earlier in this tutorial.

General suggestions are ways to use the Trade Books in your classroom.

Using Books Thematically offers general suggestions for using text sets and the Thematic Collections.

Understanding the Symbols explains the information found on the book description pages.

Activity for the Trade Books Section (complete all three parts of this activity) Scroll down the list of keywords to find topics of interest to your students. Click on the keywords to display the titles of the books for that topic. Click on several of the book titles to read the summaries and teaching ideas for the books. List at least three book titles that you think would tie into GED study. Explain how you might use them. List at least three book titles that you think some of your students would like to read for pleasure. Explain how you might introduce them to your students.

In the Lesson Plans section you will find resources to plan standards-based lessons. You will also find ready to use standards-based lesson plans.

A printable version of the Student Experience Model is available.

Teaching Ideas and the Advanced Search were explained in earlier slides.

The lesson plan Advanced Search will search only for lesson plans.

You can search by a standard - reading, writing, or math; or by topic –for example, voting

A list of lesson plans will be displayed. Click on the lesson you would like to view

All lesson plans have a print friendly version with handouts

Clicking on Required Elements will show a list of the information required by the Ohio ABLE office to be included on lesson plans.

Thematic Collections were described earlier in this tutorial.

Lesson plan templates are also available for you to use to create your own lesson plans.

Activity for Lesson Plans Section (complete all three parts of this activity) Scroll down the alphabetical list of lesson plans. Choose one from each of the three standards (reading, writing, and math) that you think would work in your classroom. Explain why you chose these plans. Choose one of the three plans and determine which benchmarks are not addressed in the lesson. Keeping in mind that all the components of the standard need to be addressed, design a follow-up activity to address the remaining benchmarks.

This section contains other helpful instructional resources.

The Ohio Literacy Alliance has quick and easy reading assessments for adult students. Summaries of research are also available.

The Miami Univ. Picture Book database is a great way to find picture books that will interest your students’ children or grandchildren.

The Helping Books Connection is a searchable database of books that deal with sensitive issues children and families often face.

The Resource Collections are research based resources for adult literacy practitioners on a variety of topics.

This ends your tour of Eureka! We hope you found something useful. Visit often since we are always adding new resources.

If you have questions or comments about Eureka! or this tutorial, send an to