Learning Resources

Student Learning Resources

The Ministry of Education has launched Learn at Home, a new online portal that provides resources for families so that students can continue learning while schools are closed.

The Toronto District School Board continues to review a number of additional online resources that support the Learn at Home initiative. Below, TDSB staff have compiled a variety of resources that cover a range of grades and subjects that may be helpful for students and parents during this time. It’s important to note that these online resources are not mandatory or graded and are meant for families to use as optional resources to support independent learning while students are at home. We know these are challenging times for students and families and we are committed to working with the Ministry of Education to support you during this unprecedented interruption to student learning.

For students who require differentiation when accessing the provided curriculum resources, please note that assistive technology tools are available: TDSB Assistive Technology Tools. To support accessibility of resources you may find the following link helpful: AODA.

Below is a list of online/digital resources from the TDSB Virtual Library for students and families that do not require a login or password to access. To explore the full digital resources, please use the links within the second column. Have fun exploring!

Subject	TDSB Virtual Library Online Resource	Features for ESL & Accessibility	Early Years K-2	Primary 1-3	Junior 4-6	Intermediate 7-8	Secondary 9-10	Secondary 11-12
Literacy	TDSB Virtual Library collection: Capstone Interactive Temporary access to all titles from Capstone Almost 200 fiction & nonfiction read-aloud eBooks at a range of levels.	Read aloud Glossary	✔	✔	✔
Literacy	CBC Kids CBC Kids \| Play Games, Watch Video, Explore		✔	✔	✔
Math	Khan Academy Online instructional videos and support for students on related math strands.(Please note: resources may not align with the Ministry curriculum, but serve as supplementary resources.)		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Math	Mathies The mathies.ca website houses Ontario Ministry of Education developed resources to support mathematics learning from Kindergarten to Grade 12.			✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Kids InfoBits Temporarily opened by vendor - no login required. In the future, this resource will require a login found on the Virtual Library Learnmark. Curriculum-aligned books, magazines, news periodicals, images, and videos on a variety of subjects. Includes over 16,600 images, 1,700 charts and graphs, and 600 videos.	Read aloud Translation Embedded dictionary		✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	NFB Streaming videos on issues of global importance from a Canadian perspective including documentaries, animations, experimental films, fiction and interactive works for K-12 Canadian curriculum, critical thinking, and student engagement.			✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	TVO in the classroom More than 10,000 articles, videos, and games from TVO current affairs, documentaries, and TVOKids.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	CBC Curio Temporarily opened by vendor - no login required. In the future, this resource will require a login found on the Virtual Library Learnmark.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Gale in Context: Canada Temporarily opened by vendor An engaging experience for those seeking contextual information on a broad range of Canadian topics, people, places, and events.” Includes magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, and audio.	Read aloud Translation Embedded dictionary				✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Gale in Context: Middle School Temporarily opened by vendor Combines the best of Gale's reference content with age-appropriate videos, newspapers, magazines, primary sources, and much more.” Created specifically for middle school students but covers popular subjects in an accessible way for grades 6-12.	Read aloud Translation Embedded dictionary			✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Gale in Context: High School Temporarily opened by vendor Integrating reference content, biographies, primary sources, multimedia, critical essays, news, academic journals and more, High School is updated daily, offering nearly 1,000 issue, topic, and geographic pages across the curriculum.	Read aloud Translation Embedded dictionary					✔	✔
All Subjects	Gale in Context: College Temporarily opened by vendor Learners can access news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more. Empower learning with hundreds of thousands of images, videos, and audio selections that include archival film clips, broadcast video, BBC News, New York Times video, and NPR.	Read aloud Translation Embedded dictionary						✔
French	Mini TFO et TFO Enfants French streaming educational videos, films, music, games for students.		✔	✔	✔	✔
French	Curio FR Streaming educational video and audio from CBC and Radio-Canada for K-12 Canadian curriculum, critical thinking, current events and student engagement.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
French	ONF Streaming videos on issues of global importance from a Canadian perspective including documentaries, animations, experimental films, fiction and interactive works for K-12 Canadian curriculum, critical thinking, and student engagement.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
French (Social Studies, History & Geography)	Big Timber French eBooks 25 nonfiction eBooks for FSL learners with a focus on social studies and science	Annotation tool		✔	✔	✔
French (Social Studies, History & Geography	l’Encyclopédie canadienne Online Canadian reference articles on history, politics, arts, science & more. Includes timelines and browsable curriculum topics.				✔	✔	✔	✔
Science	Gale Virtual Reference Library Temporarily opened by vendor - no login required. In the future, this resource will require a login found on the Virtual Library Learnmark. Reference eBook collection supporting secondary science, social sciences and humanities curriculum.	Automated read aloud Machine translation Change text sizes				✔	✔	✔
Science	TDSB Virtual Library collection: Capstone Interactive Temporary access to all titles from Capstone Almost 200 fiction & nonfiction read-aloud eBooks at a range of levels.	Natural voice read aloud Glossary		✔	✔	✔
Science	Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org/science Online instructional videos and support for students on related science strands. (Please note: resources may not align with the Ministry curriculum, but serve as supplementary resources.)					✔	✔	✔
Science	PebbleGo Over 1,000 science and social studies articles with vocabulary support and read-aloud features.	Natural voice read aloud Simple text Videos	✔	✔	✔
Science	PebbleGo Next Over 150 science articles with vocabulary support and read-aloud features.	Natural voice read aloud Illustrations			✔	✔	✔
Social Studies/ History/ Geography	CultureGrams Temporarily opened by vendor - no login required. In the future, this resource will require a login found on the Virtual Library Learnmark. Primary source and cultural information about Canadian provinces and territories, and countries around the world including statistics, interviews, images, national anthems, recipes, infographics, and maps.	Automated read aloud Machine translation Word pronunciation		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Social Studies/ History/ Geography	Global Issues in Context Temporarily opened by vendor - no login required. In the future, this resource will require a login found on the Virtual Library Learnmark. Articles, biographies, images, videos, and more to support global awareness, inquiry, and critical thinking, including 250 different country topic pages and over 400 pages on specific issues for searching or browsing.	Automated read aloud Machine translation Change text size					✔	✔
Social Studies, History & Geography	tab-vue Almost 100 curriculum-aligned nonfiction Canadian eBooks in French & English.	Zoom in on text Search words in book			✔	✔
Social Studies, History & Geography	The Canadian Encyclopedia Online Canadian reference articles on history, politics, arts, science & more. Includes timelines and browsable curriculum topics.				✔	✔	✔	✔

In addition to the student learning resources listed above, the resources listed below are also available to students and families but do require a login and password to access. The TDSB licences a wide range of selected digital content for K-12 student use. This includes ebooks, encyclopedias and informational databases. These can easily be found on the TDSB Virtual Library - Read Watch Learn The use of licenced content is effective as it allows for more focused searches, is fact checked, is often available at multiple reading levels and includes tools for translation, read aloud and note taking. Students can use these resources to more deeply explore or confirm information found on the open internet.

When students are in schools, they are automatically logged in to these resources. Outside of the TDSB network, passwords are required. TDSB Families can learn how to access passwords here. Families are encouraged to download, print, or screen capture a copy of the Learnmark so that passwords are readily available. Please do not post the passwords or the link on the internet.

Subject	TDSB Virtual Library Online Resource	Features for ESL & Accessibility	Early Years K-2	Primary 1-3	Junior 4-6	Intermediate 7-8	Secondary 9-10	Secondary 11-12
Literacy	BookFlix 140 animated stories paired with a nonfiction read-aloud eBook.	Read aloud Animation Spanish translation	✔	✔
Literacy	Destiny Discover 460 fiction & nonfiction read-aloud eBooks at a range of levels, includes annotation tool & downloadable content	Automated read aloud Ability to change display options Annotation tool Downloadable content		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Literacy/ English	Canadian Literary Centre A database of books, author biographies, essays, literary criticism, book reviews, and reference content from Essays on Canadian Writing Press (ECW Press).	Automated read aloud Machine translation					✔	✔
Literacy/ English	Literary Reference Centre Plus Full-text resources for information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes.	Automated read aloud Machine translation					✔	✔
Math	TVO Mathify Free 1:1 online Grade 6-10 math tutoring with Ontario Certified Teachers. “Until further notice, we are pleased to share that tutoring is extended to include grade 6 – and tutors will be available Monday-Friday 9am to 9pm and Sunday 3:30pm to 9pm!”				✔	✔	✔
Math	TVO mPower Online games that support the development of foundational K-6 math and STEM skills while fostering positive attitudes towards math.			✔	✔
All Subjects	Advanced Placement Source Database for secondary students in various Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses.	Automated read aloud Machine translation					✔	✔
All Subjects	Canadian Points of View Presents multiple sides of current issues with a focus on key topics of interest to Canadian researchers to help students think critically and develop persuasive arguments and essays.	Automated read aloud Machine translation				✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Canadian Reference Centre This database includes leading Canadian periodicals and international periodicals, reference books, thousands of biographies, and an image collection containing thousands of photos, maps and flags.	Automated read aloud Machine translation			✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Explora K-6 Over 180,000 full-text articles from popular children’s magazines, easy-to-read encyclopedic entries and over 1.8 million images on a wide variety of topics.	Automated read aloud Machine translation		✔	✔
All Subjects	Explora 7-12 Searches a variety of databases for grade 7-12 inquiry and research.	Automated read aloud Machine translation				✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	https://www.mcintyre.ca/ Collection of fantastic programs from our award winning producers that have been produced specifically for the Canadian educational market.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	http://www.accesslearning.com/ Educational media and resources on demand. Over 35000 video clips, guides, programs, projects.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
All Subjects	Learn360 Streaming video, audio, and accompanying support materials for K-12 curriculum and student engagement.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
French (All Subjects)	Canadian Reference Centre This database includes leading Canadian periodicals and international periodicals, reference books, thousands of biographies, and an image collection containing thousands of photos, maps and flags.	Automated read aloud Machine translation				✔	✔	✔
French (All Subjects)	Idéllo The Canadian reference in French educational content. Contains videos, websites and mobile apps across subject areas.		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
French (All Subjects)	Universalis Junior A French-language encyclopedia with over 4,000 articles (including 1,800 articles in French and English for bilingual education) featuring maps, integrated dictionary, animations, charts, images, and videos.	Read aloud Ability to change text size Embedded dictionary			✔	✔	✔	✔
French (All Subjects)	Encyclopedia Universalis An extensive French-language encyclopedia with over 38,000 articles featuring bibliographies, maps, timelines, integrated dictionary, images, videos, and primary sources.	Read aloud Ability to change text size Embedded dictionary				✔	✔	✔
French (Math)	NetMath French language math activities aligned with the curriculum.			✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Health & Physical Education	Teen Health & Wellness Nonjudgmental, straightforward articles on a variety of health & well-being topics reviewed by professionals in the relevant field.	Automated read aloud Machine translation				✔	✔	✔
Music	Naxos Online classical music library offering streaming access to more than 144,990 CDs with more than 2,244,500 tracks of both standard and rare repertoire.				✔	✔	✔	✔
Science	Science Reference Centre Full text resources from hundreds of science magazines, journals, encyclopedias, reference books and a vast collection of images.	Automated read aloud Machine translation					✔	✔
Social Studies/ History/ Geography	History Reference Centre U.S. and world history topics, featuring historical reference books, magazines, journals and thousands of primary source documents.	Automated read aloud Machine translation				✔	✔	✔

For a full and comprehensive list of resources, please visit the TDSB Virtual Library.