Lesson plans online

Experienced educators understand that lesson planning is an integral component of classroom management. But building a library of successful lesson plans takes several years of teaching the same grade and subject, and time to develop a deeper understanding of the curriculum. The Internet offers a vast resource for you to build your lesson plan library quickly and to help refresh the lessons already in your repertoire.

A Google search for “lesson plans” generates more than 9 million returns. But several lesson plan sources keep rising to the top because of the depth and breadth of the resources they provide.

The Teachers Network, a New York City-based nonprofit with an international scope, is loaded with lesson plans, videos, online courses and grant information for teachers. It has a lesson plans for new teachers written by new teachers and it has lesson plans written by veteran teachers. There is an extensive library of topics and the most-viewed lesson plans are highlighted right on the front page.

The Teachers Network Web site is organized by subject, grade level and topic, and is easy to use. Because the library includes so many lessons by New York City-based educators, it may be one of the best sources for you to use. It also has an extensive library of special education lesson plans.

TeachersFirst.com is a beautifully designed and organized site. What seems at first like a simple menu opens into a deep drop-down catalog of resources. Lesson plans are presented in a matrix of classroom resources that can be searched by grade level, keyword and holiday. There are also a lot of extras like Weekly Brain Twisters, Dates that Matter, and daily puzzles like Sudoku Mini and Rotonym. One standout is Interactive Raven, which includes hypertext and flash to teach poetry while reading Edgar Allen Poe’s poem. There’s a new unit on the Olympics that features the 2008 event in Beijing with links to the official Olympic committee site so you can download posters for your classroom.

Try this Web site for any subject and level and you are sure to find just about everything you need. Remember to take a look at to read reviews of current software and classroom technology. This is definitely a site that you will use throughout your career. One caveat that you should consider is that the lessons come from around the United States; therefore, some may not be appropriate for an urban school system like New York City’s.

Two other excellent Web sites for lesson plannnig are www.thinkfinity.org and www.thinkfinityNY.org. The UFT Teacher Center collaborates with Thinkfinity NY and Beyond. The lesson plans in ThinkfinityNY are based on New York State standards and are written by K-12 teachers. The Web site features student materials, interactive tools, and links to Web sites in seven academic disciplines.

Make sure you also bookmark Education World, the Gateway to Educational Materials(GEM) and EdSitement from the National Endowment for the Humanities. These sites offer extensive libraries of lesson plans and other education information and resources.

Don’t get complacent just because you can quickly find an excellent lesson plan online. You still have to tailor the contents to the level of your students and perfect the delivery of the subject. Lessons can still turn out to be unsatisfactory even though the lesson plan seems perfect.

This column only scratches the surface of lesson plan Web sites and lists some of New York City teachers’ favorites.

Multi links

0. Cool Teaching Lessons and Units - designed as a resource for teachers K-12 who wish to find quality ready-made units and lessons for all subjects, or who wish to develop their own units
0. Beacon Learning Center - Audio interactive lessons for all subjects.
0. Curriculum Archive - Central repository for free lessons and classroom projects.
0. Discovery School Lesson Plan Library - Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers. Use the pull-down menus below to browse by subject, grade, or both.
0. Education Links and Lesson Plans - resources,classroom projects, and lessons.
0. EM Tech has a long list of links
0. Florida Center for Instructional Technology - Great ideas for interactive lessons.
0. Internet Field Trip - index from Scholastic
0. K12 Lesson Plans - resource posted by the Los Angeles County Office of Education TEAMS Distance Learning Project for the following subject areas: Mathematics, Science, History/Social Science, Language Arts, The Arts, and Multi-Subject Lesson Plans. Each subject contains multiple sites you can explore.
0. Lesson Plan Templates - many to select from
0. Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies - a very long page of links (if printed, this would be 26 pages long!)
0. Library of K-12 Science Lesson Plans - Actually this site offers more resources than lesson plans, but there are some good possibilities here.
0. Marc Sheehan's Lesson Plans Page- resource of lessons, general sites and subject area sites, K-12
0. Mathematics Lessons - from Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) - the K-7 list is organized by Standard and the 8-12 list is organized by subject
0. Microsoft Lesson Plan Library - new ways to enhance student learning through technology - lesson plans from Microsoft organized by subject [K-12]
0. Quiz library - A site teachers can use for pre-assessment of a variety of skills from Teachervision.com. All subject areas are covered for grades K-12. You can search out quizzes by grade level or by subject area.
0. Resources for Teachers and Students - Ms. LeBeau's HomePage
0. Sites for Teachers - One of the most comprehensive sources of teacher lesson resources.
0. Teacher Tips presents a short list of lesson plan sites
0. Teachers.Net Lesson Bank - your opportunity to share your most precious asset - your teaching ideas and lesson plans!
0. Technology Lesson Plans - Lessons teaching skills and projects can be found here along with additional Technology Resources
0. Thematic Units with Connected Internet. Sites for Ready-Made Integration Activities Over 150 units in all subject areas with Internet. sites to go along with the unit. This site is from Gander Academy in Canada. Take a *Gander* at Themes with Online Lessons.
0. Thinkfinity - [formerly MarcoPolo] - no-cost, standards-based Internet content for the K-12 teacher and classroom, developed by the nation's content experts. Online resources include panel-reviewed links to top sites in many disciplines, professionally developed lesson plans, classroom activities, materials to help with daily classroom planning, and powerful search engines.
   0. EconEdLink from the National Council on Economic Education - Explore the connections between economics and real-world issues
   0. Xpeditions from National Geographic - The home of geography standards on the Internet
   0. EDSITEment from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Subject-based access to top humanities sites
   0. Illuminations by NCTM -  Gateway to Standards-Based Mathematics Education
   0. Science NetLinks from the American Association for the Advancement of Science - a comprehensive "homepage" for K-12 science educators [this link opens on a new page]
   0. ArtsEdge from the Kennedy Center - helps educators to teach in, through and about the arts
   0. Read - Write - Think - ReadWriteThink, established in April of 2002, is a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the MarcoPolo Education Foundation

High School/ Middle School

0. Apple Learning Interchange - high school lessons and activities
0. Discovery School Lesson plan library for grades 9-12 and grades 6-8
0. Educator Resources - Lesson Plans and Activities
0. National Geographic Xpeditions lesson plans - The lesson plans on this site were written by educators and have been tested in the classroom. Together, they address all of the U.S. National Geography Standards, the five geography skills, and the main geographic perspectives.
0. The New York Times Learning Network offers lesson plans, education news and much more. Grades 5-12
0. Spelling lessons from the national spelling bee site. Five lessons for grades 6-8.

Subject Specific Lesson Plan Sites

0. 27 Ideas for Teaching With Topographic Maps - from the USGS
0. Art Lesson Plans from Dick Blick Art Materials
0. Biz/Ed - a service for students and educators on business and economics related subjects
0. Business Education lesson plans
0. Churchill House School of English Language - ready-to-use classroom materials for English language classrooms.
0. Columbia Education Center - lesson plans
0. EconEdLink - economics lessons and resources
   0. Economic Lessons K-12 - online interactive lessons. Browse EconEdlink online lessons by Title, Grade, Standard, or Lesson Plan Type
0. EdHelper - lesson plans, worksheets, WebQuests and more
0. EduWeb Adventures - Explore the world of art, science and history
0. Egypt - The Achievements and Challenges of Egypt
0. Elementary Math Lesson and Materials - lesson plan ideas from MathForum
0. Everything ESL - Content based ESL lesson plans for beginning through intermediate students
0. Fun and Sun Rent-A-Car - a Java based lesson
0. Growing With Technology - Interactive lessons for K-5
0. Health Teacher - lesson guide page
0. History
   0. America Responds - PBS resources to help educators teach students about peace, tolerance, war, patriotism, geography, and other related issues
   0. Ancient Egypt Lesson Plans
   0. Awesome Library - K-12 History lesson plans
   0. Best of History - links to help you find the best history lesson plans
   0. Crossroads - K-16 American History curriculum
   0. Discovery School: U S History Lesson Plan Library
   0. EdHelper - Social Studies theme units
   0. EdSitement Lesson Plans - a Thinkfinity partner site
   0. Educator's Reference Desk: History lesson plans
   0. Engaging Students in American History - lessons organized by topic, grade, time period, or standard
   0. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - lesson plans integrating music and history
   0. History Lesson Plans and Resources
   0. Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies
   0. Lesson Plans for Social Studies - categorized by grade levels; Pre K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, secondary
   0. Lesson Plans For A Variety Of Social Studies Topics
   0. Lesson Planz - social studies
   0. Mr. Donn's Pages - lesson plans, resources, and activities
   0. Mrs. G's American History lesson plans for 8th graders
   0. Smithsonian History & Culture lesson plans - 3-8 with one exception (6-12)
   0. Social Studies - lesson plans and resources from the Internet which social studies teachers will find useful
   0. Social Studies Lesson Plans - Lesson plans and teaching strategies
   0. Teaching about the Americas - lesson plans dealing with Latin America, the Caribbean and culture studies
   0. Teaching American History: History Teacher Toolbox - scroll past the lectures to find lesson plans
   0. Teaching with Historic Places - more than ninety classroom-ready lesson plans that together cover major themes of American history
   0. Tennessee History
      0. War Within A War: The Hidden Stories of the Civil War's Impact on Tennessee from Teaching Tennessee History Vol.II (2001)
      0. Facing Change: The New Deal and World War II in East Tennessee from Teaching Tennessee History Vol. III (2002)
      0. Teaching Appalachia: Image and Reality of Appalachian Culture from Teaching Tennessee History Vol.IV (2003)
      0. Creating America: Beginnings through World War I - resources, activities, and quizzes
   0. Text only Social Studies Lesson Plans - categorized by grade levels; K-5, 6-8, and 9-12
0. Improve Students' Self-Concepts - Ten activities from Education World
0. KinderArt Lesson Plans - in Alphabetical Order
0. Kodak Lesson Plan database - lessons involve photography
0. Literacy Assistance Center lesson plans
0. Maps Curriculum - Grades 2-6
0. Middle School Math Lessons and Materials - from MathForum
0. MysteryNet lessons for using mysteries in the classroom
0. National Geographic lesson plans
   0. K-4
   0. 5-8
   0. 9-12
0. Newspaper in the Classroom -Lessons to be used using the newspaper, created by The Boston Globe.
0. NWREL has compiled this vast array of lesson plans that any teacher for any grade level will find useful.
0. Physical Education Lesson Ideas
0. Physical Education Lesson Plan Page - The page is stored on a free server and if it is over viewed, Tripod (the free server people), will turn the page off for about two hours.
0. Scholastic Content Index - Lesson Plans, Thematic Units, Reproducibles, and Activities
0. Science
   0. Air Quality Lesson Plans and Data from the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
   0. Awesome Library - science lesson plans
   0. Changing World Lessons from USGS: Exploring Caves K-3 | Mud Fossils - K-3 | Global Change - 4-6 | Land and People: Finding a Balance - 7-12 | Geologic Age - 7-12 | Earth Hazards-Volcanoes 4-8 | Earth Hazards - a model of three faults 7-12 | Map Adventures - K-3 | What Do Maps Show? - 5-8 |
   0. Classroom-Ready Astronomy Lesson Plans - scroll one-third of the way down the page to Sky Paths
   0. Discovery School Lesson Plans - Earth science only, but look in the topical index on the left for more
   0. EdHelper - science theme units
   0. Educator's Reference Desk - science lesson plans
   0. The Fragile Fringe: A Guide for Teaching about Coastal Wetlands (from the USGS National Wetlands Research Center)
   0. Genetic Lesson Plan Ideas from the Genetics Education Center, University of Kansas
   0. Global Warming - Unit Plan with activities for Middle/High school.
   0. Lesson Plan page - categorized by grade levels; Pre K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, secondary
   0. Lesson Planz - science
   0. Life Cycle of a Mineral Deposit - teacher’s guide for hands-on mineral education activities from USGS
   0. McREL Resources: Lesson Plan Library
   0. Middle School Science lesson plans
   0. NatureScapes - a web project that provides multilevel, informational readings, resources, and activities related to nature including plants, animals, and habitats.
   0. New York Times Daily - science lesson plans
   0. Physical Science (Succeed in Physical Science) from the School for Champions - The purpose of these free online lessons is to give you a start at improving your scientific knowledge. The material combines physics and chemistry fundamentals in a way that will allow you to excel in future science studies and even become a scientific champion.
   0. Renewable Energy lesson plans - created by a team of professional educators and renewable energy experts
   0. Science Activities, Labs And Lesson Plans
   0. Science lesson plans and resources
   0. Science NetLinks - index
   0. Smithsonian Science and Technology lesson plans - grades 3-8
   0. Stellarium - free open source planetarium for your computer | Lesson Plans to accompany Stellarium
   0. Teacher-Developed Earth and Space Science Lessons
   0. Text Only Science lesson plans - categorized by grade levels; K-5 (most), 6-8, and 9-12 (fewest)
   0. USGS Learning Web - they also provide a list of links to other lesson plan sites
   0. Volcano lesson plans from Volcano World
   0. Working With Maps Lessons from USGS: Map Adventures K-3, What do Maps Show? 5-8, Exploring Maps 7-12
0. Spelling Worksheets from Spelling it Right - Learn to spell confidently with help, exercises and advice from an experienced teacher.
0. Teaching with Historic Places - a series of classroom-ready lesson plans created by National Park Service interpreters, preservation professionals, and educators, using historic sites to explore American history
0. TRIP for Teachers- Teacher Resources for Instructional Planning, Mobile County Public Schools. Social Studies - Science - Math - Language Arts - Within this site you will find over 5,000 links to lesson plans and educational resources that support national, state, and local standards for Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Math in the K-12 curriculum.

All Grades

0. Core Knowledge Lesson Plans - Pre-K - 8th. The units are organized by grade level, and within grade level by subject area; click on the links on the left-hand side of this page to begin browsing.
0. Chicago Public Schools had instituted a structured science curriculum with daily lesson plans for every grade K - 12. Look at your grade level to see if there are suggested activities you wish to adapt for your own classroom. Adobe Acrobat is needed to view these lesson plans.
0. Curriculum Tracking Templates - Created by Brent Phillips, these links for grades k-8 will take you to specific tracking templates for each strand in each subject area. The easiest way to utilize these templates is to print a copy of each template from all of the strands you teach and then use them for planning your activities and curricular goals. The whole strand on one sheet! No more awkward and poorly organized curricular documents! These templates can also be used to provide the teacher with an overall picture of which expectations specific students have achieved, and at what level of performance. Excellent for tracking progress throughout the year for each student.
0. CyberGuides are Web-based activities and units centered around particular pieces of literature. CyberGuides are supplementary, standards-based, web-delivered units of instruction centered on core works of literature. If written correctly they could be effective and engaging in terms of motivating students to read and think more deeply about what they are reading. Note: many of these do not require higher level thinking. Use them as a model, but make improvements
0. edHelper has over 6000 lesson plans organized by subject, and over 1000 WebQuests.
0. Gifted - A Different Place - online resources and lesson plans for the gifted student
0. Teachersfirst.com -Very user friendly site divided by subject and grade level that has a classroom resource finder which you can use to search for Internet. resources or lesson plans. And if you can not find what you are looking for there, a keyword search is provided.
0. Teachers' Guide to the Professional Cartoonists Index -Lesson plans for K-12 teachers in Social Studies, English and Art based around a collection of newspaper editorial cartoons
0. Teachers.net contains a Lesson Bank that stores teaching ideas and lesson plans ,divided by subject and grade areas, submitted by teachers around the country. You can also find teacher chat and other support features. An interesting Homepage Maker is also provided.

Databases of Lessons

0. 4Teachers database allows you to select a subject, then a theme and finally a specific topic.
0. ABC Teach database of thematic units
0. About.com database of lesson plans; middle and high school
0. Activity Search from Houghton Mifflin
0. Alabama Learning Exchange - Lessons categorized by subject and grade levels.
0. Alfy Database of lessons
0. Alfy's Library of Thematic units - Thematic lesson plans about literature activities
0. Apple Learning Interchange - You will need to register before using this free database of teaching ideas. Then you may search for lessons organized by subject area and grade level. You may also submit your ideas to the Interchange.
0. Awesome Library database of lesson plans
0. Best Lessons from WNET, the great PBS station in New York (the first page is social studies only, but there is an index at the top of the page to other subjects)
0. Blue Web'n - an online library of over 1800 outstanding Internet sites categorized by subject, grade level, and format (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, & tools)
0. Columbia Education Center - text only lesson plans
0. Commonwealth of Knowledge - lesson plan database from Virginia
0. Discovery School lesson plan library
0. Education World's Lesson Planning Center
0. Education World's Teacher Submitted Lesson Plans Collection
0. Educator's Reference Desk - lesson plan database
0. ForLessonPlans - an online directory of free lesson plans for K-12 teachers
0. Frank Potter's Science Gems: lists of links to all science areas
0. The Gateway to Educational Materials database offers the key to one-stop, any-stop access to high quality lesson plans, curriculum units and other education resources on the Internet.!
0. Gigglepotz - Curriculum and Lesson Plans
0. Illuminations Lesson Plan database from the NCTM sponsored Marco Polo site
0. Internet. Field Trips from Scholastic - provides quick suggestions for using targeted web sites to teach a specific topic
0. Learning Page - This is a huge collection of professionally produced instructional materials for you to download and print. To get all worksheets you must be a member, but registration is free. (elementary grades)
0. Lesson Plan Search - over 2000 lessons in their database
0. Lesson Planet directory of lesson plans
0. Lesson Plans Page - over 2,000 free lessons
0. LessonPlanz.com - a searchable directory of free online lesson plans
0. Library of Congress Learning Place
0. McREL Lesson Database
0. Math Archives K-12 Teaching Materials
0. Math Forum lesson plans - organized by topic or grade level
0. Microsoft lesson plan library
0. Monthly Themes from Houghton Mifflin
0. PBS Teacher Source database
0. Preschool Lesson Plans
0. Preschool Themes - ideas from A to F | ideas from G to L | ideas from M to R | ideas from S to Z
0. Primary Resources - Lesson plans, activity ideas and resources for Primary teachers
0. The Rice Model Science Laboratory has a great Science Links Page which includes several categories in each of the five major science topics
0. Quia Index - Quia users have created activities in the following topics. These activities have been created by Quia's subscribers and are of varying quality.
0. Schoolhouse: Science
0. Science Activities Manual: K-5 Curricular Emphasis by Grade Level and Content Topic
0. Science Activities Manual: K-8 Curricular Emphasis by Grade Level and Theme
0. Smithsonian lesson plans - emphasizing inquiry-based learning using primary sources and museum collections.
0. The Teacher's Corner - primary and intermediate resources
0. Teachers.net lesson plan database
0. Teaching Online database of lessons
0. TeachNet.com database of lessons
0. Terrorism - KidsClick! Lesson Plans and Resources About Terrorism
0. Thematic Units from ALFY
0. Trackstar - Find lessons by themes and standards for a variety of age groups.
0. Utah Education Network lesson plan database, organized by subject or grade level
0. WNET Database of lessons
0. Xpeditions Lesson Plans from the National Geographic sponsored Thinkfinity site
0. Yahoo directory of lesson plans

Miscellaneous

0. "Are We There Yet?" - report of a problem based lesson plan, use her idea to design your own lesson
0. Brain Games - Many lessons can be created collecting this data on the various ways our brains work. From games to learn about our brain and nervous system to games that show how the brain sends mixed messages to reaction time games to precognition challenges, this site is full of fun learning activities for your classroom!
0. Growing With Technology - Interactive lessons for K-5
0. Internet. Field Trips are guided tours to the best of classroom-appropriate Web sites. Each field trip provides quick suggestions for using targeted Web sites to teach a specific topic. Within each area you'll find field trips in an alphabetical list of the following topics:Children's Literature, Language Arts, K-2, Math , Science, and Social Studies.
0. Spelling it Right - Learn to Spell Confidently - free worksheets and advice from an experienced English teacher
0. Switcheroo Zoo! - Switch the animals' heads, legs and tails to make new creatures. Then use the new animal image as a writing prompt.
   at this surrealistic virtual zoo. Teachers say it is great for imaginative language work where students name the new animals they create, describe the habitats in which they live, describe how they move and what they eat - the possibilities are endless.
0. Teddy Bear Magic Cards - A math magic trick that includes a lesson and worksheet on how to use math logic to discover how the "trick" works.
0. Thematic Units - Browse free unit studies. Each unit study contains 6-8 lessons, plus worksheets, answer sheets, and book resources. These are from the Home School Learning Network.
0. Thematic Units For Primary Grades from the University of South Carolina

Help with Rubrics

RubiStar - a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics but does not have the time to develop them from scratch

0. Creating Rubrics: Tools You Can Use - an article from Education World
0. Examples of Rubrics created by classroom teachers - posted by the University of Wisconsin-Stout
0. Guidelines for Rubric Development from San Diego State University.
0. Kathy Scrock's Assessment and Rubric Information - multiple links on this subject.
0. Project Based Learning Checklists from 4Teachers.org
0. Rubric Generators from Teach-nology - (scroll past the membership information) The generators will allow you to make several types of grading rubrics by filling out a simple form. The materials are made instantly and can be printed directly from your computer.
0. Rubric for Evaluating a WebQuest
0. Need to see some sample rubrics before you start writing them? The Staff Room for Ontario's Teachers has a ton of them! 
0. The Rubric Bank - from Chicago Public Schools
0. Using Rubrics In Evaluation for Science Classes
0. Rubric Construction Sets
   0. 3 objective rubric
   0. 4 objective rubric
   0. 5 objective rubric
   0. 6 objective rubric
0. Specific rubrics
   0. Book Report Rubric
      0. Web page format
      0. Acrobat Reader format
      0. MS Excel format (zip file)
   0. Collaboration Rubric
   0. Report Rubric
   0. Scientific Report Rubric
   0. Student PowerPoint Rubric
   0. Web Page Design
0. Related article - Designing Performance Assessments: Challenges for the Three-Story Intellect