Resources for Globalizing the Curriculum
A wide variety of materials are available in libraries throughout the State of Illinois. These include books, journal articles, ERIC documents, lesson plans and much more. This guide provides you with a starting place to access those items that might be of most interest to you for use in your classroom.
Library Catalogs - The State of Illinois has one of the best systems for library resource sharing in the country. The Illinet Online catalog will lead you to resources available in over 60 academic libraries in the state. Talk to your school or public librarian for assistance in borrowing the tools found in these catalogs if they are not held in your area.
Illinet Online provides statewide access to the collections in over 60 libraries. You can use this catalog to identify items for your class and yourself. If you are not located in the vicinity of one of these libraries, you will want to use interlibrary loan to obtain materials from them. The following links will lead you to the items related to globalizing the curriculum that are available through this catalog. The bibliographic information for the item will be listed, as well as the locations. If an item is not available in your area, you may want to see if it can be borrowed via interlibrary loan.
Remember to check with your school library as well for related resources in your area.
Indexes and Abstracting Services
Probably the best known and most useful resource in education is the ERIC database. Made up of citations to journal articles in education and microfiche documents deposited at various clearinghouses throughout the country, this resource has recently undergone changes. The sixteen ERIC Clearinghouses were closed by the Department of Education, but the resources of the database continue to be available through several outlets. Public access to ERIC is available through the University of Syracuse via the Educator's Reference Desk. Here you will also find lesson plans, frequently asked questions, and much more. Try searching the ERIC database with terms such as global studies, global approach, or international education. You might want to try these terms in searching the lesson plans available at this site as well.
The Education Index is a bibliographic database that provides indexing and abstracting for journals publishing material in the discipline of education, as well as some books in the subject area. Access may be available at an academic library near you.
Kraus Curriculum Development Database. This resource is a searchable database of curricula, frameworks, and standards that brings together educational objectives, content, instructional strategies, and evaluative techniques for all subjects covered in PreK-12 education.
Web Resources
The Gateway to Educational Materials is also sponsored by the Department of Education and provides access to a large amount of free materials that can be used in the classroom.
Education World was created to provide a "home" for educators on the internet. Lesson plans, research materials, and newletters are a few of the resources included on this site. Searching the term global studies might provide some interesting material.
The Globalist may also provide some interesting materials for the classroom. Although targeted at an advanced audience, much of the information and several of the links on these pages might find their way into your teaching.
CPAW -Computer Pals Across the World is a site supported by the University of Southern Florida to provide an avenue for communication and cultural exchange between schools with shared interests and age groups.
Internet Projects Registry provides a clearinghouse for international projects related specifically to education. You can search for a project to participate in or begin your own.
Awesome Library The web site of the Awesome Library covers material from arts to technology. This site provides lesson plans for most subject areas and includes links to other informational sources that can be drawn upon to create original lesson plans. The extensive listings about multicultural holidays and current events are especially useful.
Blue Web'n Learning Sites Library Contains educational sites in twelve subject areas, including the arts,business, foreign languages, science, vocational education, and more. Sites are categorized as web-based tutorials, activities, projects, unit & lesson plans, hotlists (lists of links), reference sources and tools, and other resources. It allows users to browse by subject area or type of site, or to conduct searches by grade level,type of site, subject, Dewey number, or keyword. Sites are rated according to a five-star system and are annotated.
Digital Cultural Heritage Community Curriculum Units The Digital Cultural Heritage Community Project contains links to curriculum units supplied by 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers. Units on communities, the U.S. Constitution, the French in Illinois, and Westward Expansion are just a few of the topics you will find covered here.
Teacher's Page of Lesson Plans Compiled at the University of Alberta, this is a list of web sites containing lesson plans on various subjects, including art, math and science, environmental education, English as a Second Language, and Social Studies. Includes links to sites with subject archives, lesson plans utilizing the Internet, and lesson plans from Canada.
