Selecting Learning Materials
Teachers rely on textbooks, lessons, and activities to support classroom instruction — often collecting personal favorites over years of working with a subject. Designing new materials that reinforce the standards and adapting existing ones to weave in all three dimensions is a critical step to integrating the Next Generation Science Standards into the curriculum.
Because the standards are still new, it will take some time for policy makers and publishers to develop and endorse instructional materials that align effectively. But there are guidelines teachers and schools can use to develop, evaluate, and adapt materials on their own.
The EQuIP Rubric provides criteria to help educators judge how well instructional materials support the practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts in the NGSS. It also guides thinking about how you can use the materials to monitor student progress.
While it’s possible to apply the EQuIP rubric to materials for your own lessons, it works best with a team of reviewers recording and discussing their thoughts in a collaborative process.
NSTA also offers a forum where educators can share materials, advice, and their progress with each other as they work toward implementing the new standards into their school systems.
Additional Resources on Selecting Learning Materials
Other Steps in the Process