Finding & Adapting Resources

Share / assign

Why it works

Creating all materials from scratch is a major driver of new-teacher workload and burnout, and much of it is unnecessary: strong curricula and shared resources already exist. The valuable skills are evaluating materials for quality and alignment, adapting them to your students and standards, and knowing where to find trustworthy sources, rather than building everything alone.

The research: Research on high-quality instructional materials and teacher workload.

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: find, judge, and adapt one resource

New teachers leave having found, evaluated, and adapted strong materials for one lesson.

Pick an upcoming lesson or unit.
Find strong existing materials (your curriculum, vetted sources, colleagues) rather than building from scratch.
Evaluate them for alignment, accuracy, and fit.
Adapt them to your students and standards instead of reinventing.

Find and adapt before you buildReinventing everything is how new teachers burn out. Start from strong existing materials, judge them, and adapt them to your students.

Facilitator notes

Give permission to use and adapt.
Share your materials and trusted sources.
Teach how to evaluate resources; discourage reinventing.

Not everything online is high qualityRandom internet resources vary wildly. Evaluate materials for alignment, accuracy, and fit before using them with students.

Adapt it

Elementary: adopted curriculum and shared units.
Secondary: vetted content resources and colleague materials.
All settings: evaluate before using, adapt to students.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning

Finding & Adapting Resources: don't reinvent

Work smarter: find strong materials, evaluate them, and adapt them to your students and standards.

The lesson or unit:
Where I will find strong existing materials:
How I evaluate them (alignment, accuracy, fit):
How I adapt them to my students:
My trusted sources and colleagues:

Make it stick

Find and adapt:

Find and adapt before building.
Evaluate before using.
Bring a resource you adapted well to your mentor.

Common questions

Isn't using others' materials lazy or lower quality?

No. Strong existing curricula are often better than what a first-year teacher builds alone at midnight. The skill is choosing well and adapting, not reinventing.

How do I judge whether a resource is good?

Check alignment to your standards, accuracy and rigor, and whether it fits your students. Not everything online is high quality, so evaluate before you use.

Where do I find trustworthy materials?

Your adopted curriculum first, then vetted sources and colleagues. Be cautious with random internet resources; evaluate them against your standards.