By: Sohini Surapaneni
Summer doesn’t mean your child has to stop learning. Even during these upcoming months of social-distancing, our digital world provides a platform for students all over the world to continue their education online. We compiled a short list of online resources your child may use to learn or expand their skills in:
Reading and Writing
Math
Science
Coding
Languages
Public Speaking
Visual Arts
Performing Arts
You may also scroll to the end for a section on virtual museums and tours.
This blog post. will specifically be geared towards middle school students, with websites and content that are easy to navigate for those in this age group. It is a continuation of our blog post 12 Things Middle Schoolers Can Do This Summer, and will delve into the details of the best online resources for middle school students.
Reading and Writing
Middle school is usually the first exposure students have to classics such as Romeo and Juliet or Beowulf, that can sometimes be difficult to comprehend in class. Your middle schooler can get a head start by reading free classics through The Harvard Classics. If your family has an Apple device, the built-in Apple Books app also has hundreds of free e-books, especially for famous classic novels. If your child isn’t as into classics, they can check out the recommended book lists from their school. John Hopkins, Goodreads and K-12 Reading Lists are also good lists to browse. Most local libraries will also have recommended readings for every age group and e-books make it convenient to borrow and try out many of the books.
IXL is a popular resource used both in and out of schools. It allows students K-12 to do practice exercises and master various skills in the language arts, earning awards along the way. While there is a free version, you may purchase unlimited access with a membership. Double check to make sure your student doesn’t already have a school account!
Newsela offers up-to-date and interesting articles that match students’ reading levels based on their grade level or Lexile scores (which students often test for in school). This is best for middle schoolers that would like to get exposed to nonfiction works. Each article even ends with a multiple-choice quiz and a writing prompt to assess their comprehension. Newsela is free, but a paid version with additional learning tools is also available at $18 per student.
Zinc Learning Labs has tools, games, and quizzes to help middle and high school students improve their vocabulary. This is a paid program, but you can sign up for a free demo here.
Libivrox has over 5,000 audiobooks read by volunteers, free for those in the United States. Another audiobook website is Audible, which is offering hundreds of free audiobooks to children during Covid-19. Students can listen along as they actually read the books, or they can simply listen in their free time to get a better understanding of the fluency and vocabulary that goes into writing.
Write the World is an online community of writers ages 13-18. This resource allows students to compete in monthly writing competitions, have access to several writing prompts, and even participate in peer review.
Top Score Writing allows students between grades 2 - 8 to sign up for free weekly video lessons with an accompanying writing curriculum. Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab is an incredible resource that will teach students the fundamentals of writing including how to write a thesis, to develop an outline for essays, and how to provide proper citations. These skills will provide a solid foundation -- for not only writing in high school, but college as well.
Math
IXL is a popular resource not only for the language arts, but for math as well. The math topic stretches from kindergarten up until introductory calculus. IXL allows students to do practice exercises to master various math skills and earn awards. If the free version is insufficient, you may purchase a membership here and view the pricing for it here. As many schools use IXL, make sure your student doesn’t already have a school account before paying for one.
Khan Academy offers online tutorial for every core subject, yet their math program is exceptional in covering every topic, from counting to calculus. Your child can go through lessons by grade, or can skip around by math topics, such as algebra or geometry, to improve areas where they might be struggling. Khan Academy is entirely free.
Prodigy is a free math platform that covers over 1,500 math skills for students between grades 1 - 8. It tests skills through games, making this a popular and fun opportunity to practice math. Parents may also subscribe to a membership at a very low price.
Helping With Math has a large number of games, quizzes and printable worksheets for students up until eighth grade. Math Games has games, quizzes, and worksheets that covers math concepts up until eighth grade.
Freckle gives each student an online pretest to assess what level of math each student is at, and suggests practice based on their results. Although most popular for math, Freckle also has useful resources in the Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. Parents can read more about Freckle and create a free parent account here. Math Antics is another free website with video lessons on topics up until algebra basics. Subscription options are also available, which give access to additional materials.
With a 30-day free trial and a $10/month subscription, Flocabulary uniquely uses hip-hop music to teach concepts in math, language arts, science, vocabulary and life skills by providing fun activities and assessment tools to help students gain mastery.
Be sure to check out our blog Definitive Guide to Math Enrichment for additional information.
Science
CK-12 is essentially a free online textbook, with the additions of videos and interactive simulations, to help students learn key terms and concepts in physics, chemistry, biology, physical science, and earth science. This website also has resources for math, social studies, and english.
National Geographic has geography-based articles, encyclopedic entries, videos, maps and
photographs in topics that many middle schoolers coover in their science classes, including the water cycle, human impacts on the environment, and evolution. Although this website was meant to be used as a resource for teachers, the articles within can be searched for by topics (including physics, anthropology, engineering, and ecology) or grade level.
The National Science Digital Library is a large and free database with online lectures, assessments, courses, labs and interactives for grade levels K - 12. Once again, this resource is meant to be used by teachers, although the material that is found can be used by anyone for any student. Topics of potential study include air pollution, cells, and energy.
Khan Academy includes a series of videos and practice that allows students to delve into the basics or advanced topics of subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, health sciences, and engineering. They often partner with organizations such as NASA, Stanford School of Medicine, NOVA labs, MIT, and the American Museum of Natural History to provide self-paced video courses for students.
The Utah Education Network has a series of free labs and interactives for students in grades 7 -12. Students can learn the structure of neurons, how to balance chemical equations, or even do a virtual lab on gravity.
Science NetLinks has a science reading suggestion list and several free interactives that students can use to learn about topics such as the use of antibiotics, gravity, and planets.
Game On is a website dedicated to online learning for kids through the use of fun and free online games. Their attached links include the National Institute of Health Sciences and Physics Games.
Coding
Code.org is a nonprofit website geared towards teaching school aged children (K-12) how to code online for free. A full course list can be found here, with search filters to find the one that fits your child the best. They also have courses that teach students how to code for apps, games, and websites using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, where students can save their work with a free account. Their most popular course is a 30-hour online Computer Science Fundamentals Express course which is a great starting point for beginners. Code.org also has a 46-page Computer Science Discoveries curriculum designed for you or an educator to work with your child. This curriculum covers Problem Solving, Web Development, Animations and Games, The Design Process, Data and Society, and Physical Computing.
Code.org has an alternate program and website called Hour of Code, which has hundreds of projects that can each be completed in approximately an hour. You or your child may search for projects created for students between grades 6 to 8 here.
Another resource is Khan Academy, a recurrent staple for online learning. Their page on computer programming includes introductions to several coding languages, such as Javascript, HTML, CSS, and SQL. There are videos that will teach students how to manage data, animate, create games and code for websites. There is also a page where students can obtain project evaluations, ask questions, or request feedback. Khan Academy even has a partnership with Pixar, which specifically gives an insight on Pixar animation, useful for students looking to combine coding with their artistic interests.
Created by MIT students, Scratch is “a programming language and an online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world.” It was designed for children between the ages of 8 - 16. Rather than teaching kids to type out difficult code, it relies on pre-written blocks of code that students can stack to create projects. Children will ultimately outgrow Scratch, which is not a practical coding language like HTML or Javascript. Either way, it is an excellent introduction to the concept of coding, especially for younger middle schoolers.
Codecademy is a free online platform that offers programming classes in Python, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, C++, HTML, and CSS. It provides interactive lessons, using real-world skills, for daily practice. This website may not specifically be directed towards students in middle school, but has digestible courses that most middle school students would not struggle with. Free, but a premium version with additional features, including tailored lessons, is $19/month.
Languages
Perhaps one of the more popular language websites, Duolingo offers free, interactive and bite sized lessons in 35 different languages. Each lesson is personalized, allows each student to learn at one’s own pace, and the short 5-10 minute lessons allow for incremental breaks for those with shorter attention spans. You can see a full list here. Duolingo is available as an iOS and Android app, allowing your child to learn on the go. This platform is known for its green owl logo, which will take your child through their lessons and send daily reminders. Some of the most enrolled languages on Duolingo include French, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Duolingo is free, although it costs $9.99 a month to go ad-free.
On the other hand, Rosetta Stone is an award winning language program that requires a paid subscription, and is available as an app and online. It offers instruction in 25 languages, listed here. One unique aspect of Rosetta Stone is that it helps people improve accent-specific pronunciations through an advanced speech-recognition engine. It is especially recommended for beginning language learners, as its software drills students until they have the vocabulary down. This repetitive format makes it an excellent choice for middle schoolers and younger students, it may not be the most useful for students close to achieving proficiency. Currently, there is a three month free trial for students available here. Usually, the cost is $179 for the first “level” of language, in which all five levels cost $479.
While online software is effective, middle school students may lack the motivation to stick to a steady self-learning schedule. For this reason, online tutors are perhaps the best way for middle schoolers to learn a language online. Not only will tutors help instill a sense of responsibility in your child, but they can also personalize a study plan based on how advanced your child is in a language. Tutors are more likely to catch onto pronunciation errors and help your child work on conversational skills they may not be able to practice otherwise. Popular online tutor websites include Verbal Planet, italki, and livelingua, where you can match your child to a tutor. Websites like lingoda and Take Lessons offer group lessons too, which are a cheaper alternative and might even introduce your child to other middle schoolers learning the same language. The cost is approximately $20 - $40 for a 45 Minute Private Lesson, and can drop as low as $10 for a 60 Minute Group Lesson.
Public Speaking
This course on Udemy, called Public Speaking for kids, is taught by instructors with decades of experience, all for $115. If the price is a little steep, don’t worry! Udemy often offers discounts, and you may be able to access this course for as low as $15. Just keep an eye out for any coupons, or keep checking the website to see when there is a sale. This course requires students to record themselves and is actually targeted towards elementary students, so younger middle schoolers are more likely to benefit from this course.
Elder students may actually benefit more by taking online adult courses for public speaking, such as this one on Coursera by the University of Washington. This course can be made free with an audit, which means the student will not receive an official certificate of completion. It teaches students how to understand speech, make their ideas compelling to others, delivery, and overcoming fear. It can be paired with a series of other similar courses to get a comprehensive understanding of public speaking. Other adult courses include this one by Harvard, and this one by Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Academy for Public Speaking is another option, currently with online camps, courses and private lessons. The start dates and registration for a lot of these courses at the moment have passed, but the academy hosts programs regularly. They even have occasional free classes that you may request a notification for here. Their private lessons can get expensive, costing hundreds of dollars, but can really tailor to your child’s needs.
Visual Arts
The Art Studio NY, one of the best art studios in New York, is offering online art classes through the online chat platform Zoom. Their classes for kids work with cartooning, drawing, painting, fashion design, and even step-by-step drawing. Current pre-teen and teen classes can be found here. They usually cost a couple hundred dollars, but each purchase includes several sessions and topics.
Another art studio to look into is Private Picassos. Their lessons each follow a specific lesson plan, with topics including bookmaking, clay modeling, acrylic on canvas, watercolors, and drawing technique. Private lessons can be booked for several siblings at a time for a discounted price, which you can read about here. If your child is more skilled, you may even inquire about adult lessons for them.
Video School Online has a database of several art courses, including drawing/painting and photography classes for kids, which both cost under $15 dollars. Video school also offers a one-month free trial, which you may then choose to turn into a $12/month subscription.
Kitchen Table Classroom is a free art website that also offers several free online classes, in painting and drawing. New materials are regularly posted online. Parents must subscribe by filling out a free form available at the end of this page, to get the password to access the free resources.
As the visual arts have a large range of categories, we also suggest you take a look at this link for compilation of best traditional online art classes. For beginner and advanced photography courses, we suggest you accordingly take a look at this and this for a complete list. Some of the best online film courses can be found here. These are not specifically designed for middle school children, yet most of these courses are self-paced, allowing them to go at a pace that suits them.
Performing Arts
Playbill has put together a list of 25 Theatre-Related Online Resources, including free online musical theatre classes and free weekly theatre workshops for teens.
Additional resources include Sparketh, which teaches art, dance, music, singing, and acting to kids and teens through high quality video courses. Mentors, or experienced creative professionals, create these video lessons that have unlimited access for a subscription of $25/month.
Certain acting studios offer online classes. LA-based Michelle Danner is a reputable example. Online lessons are offered in five different European languages, including Spanish, and last between 4 to 8 weeks, costing hundreds of dollars. The structures and topics of each course are available here. Beyond acting techniques, courses teach students how to manage their anxiety, reduce accents, and develop creative writing skills. Private coaching is also available; Michelle Danner herself teaches classes with a maximum of 12 students. Keep in mind that you may also research your local acting studios and inquire about online coaching. The biggest barrier to online classes at studios tends to be prices.
Take Lessons connects students to online instructors in music, languages and academics, including acting teachers. You can scroll through this list of currently available online acting instructors, and adjust the search filters by ratings, languages, and specialities. The best part about private teachers is the flexibility, and they will plan out coursework that matches their students’ strengths and weaknesses. Private lessons usually cost about $25/half an hour, and even less for group lessons. Live online classes are most recommended for students looking to master an instrument or vocals.
Virtual Museums
The New York Met is one of the largest art museums. This website has a “Big Ideas” search tool that allows kids to look into topics like inventions, fashion, battles, and view artifacts related to the topic. There is also an interactive map, complete with various exhibitions on art around the world. Art museums like The Met may be especially interesting for students interested in art, history, politics, culture, or global matters.
Most famous for the Mona Lisa, the Louvre is an art museum located in France that also offers online tours on exhibitions ranging from ancient Egypt, to medieval architecture, to the connections between art and politics.
Additional art museums with online tours include the British Museum, where the real Rosetta Stone is located, Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art, Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea.
For students interested in natural science, The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History includes online and even narrated tours of their permanent exhibits, current exhibits, past exhibits, and research centers. These exhibitions include an insight on dinosaur skeletons and ancient civilizations. Not only that, the virtual tours also have several follow up activities or readings to do after completion.
Space science is also a popular museum topic. NASA's Glenn Research Center lets students view wind tunnels, laboratories, and even the famous Hubble Telescope. If your child is especially curious, they may even search through the official NASA website to listen to their podcasts, read their ebooks, or look through their official images of space.
Other science-lovers may prefer the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, which includes online tours on exhibitions for every age group on subjects ranging from math, to biology, to engineering.
Virtual tours are available for countless museums that cover all sorts of historical events, aquariums, sciences and art forms. Some museums may even have specific online interactive readings or games for kids. A good place to start touring, however, may actually be Google's Arts and Cultures database, which includes online tours and walkthroughs of over 1,200 international museums.
Need help digesting all of this?
The amount of resources out there can be overwhelming. We are here to help. If you would like help planning enrichment activities for your student, please get in touch with us so learn how we can help your family through this unusual time.
Be sure to download The Versed Middle School Guide below for insights into how to help your child get the most out of middle school years.
Here are some additional insights on the middle school years:
12 Things Middle Schoolers Can Do This Summer
Guide to Gifted and Talented Programs and Are They Worth It?
7 Things Every Middle School Parents Should Know
Parenting Advice: How to Help Guide Your Child to Find an Interest
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About Sohini Surapaneni:
Sohini is currently a student at New York University focusing on Economics major and a double minor in philosophy and business studies. She is passionate about helping Versed’s mission to make educational resources accessible to everyone, and regularly contributes to the blog. Her articles are researched and supplemented by her and her peers experience going through the college application process (and of course with her immigrant parents by her side!).
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