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A number of sites on the Web provide lesson plans suitable for high-school. Below are some of our favorites. In some cases, a site also includes material for elementary and/or middle-school.

General Information

eSchool News Online
ESchool news online bills itself as "the K-12 decision maker's technology and internet newspaper." A monthly electronic newspaper ($72. annual subscription) provides a newsletter, education news, information on grants and funding, and general information on technology for the classroom teacher.

EduHound
EduHound.com is a highly specialized educational directory with built-in resource links offered free to educators, students and parents. It seeks to harness the vast information resources of the Web, while enabling educators to use the Internet as a classroom tool. Sections include internet tutorials, art, social studies, lesson plans, library research, special education, children's publications, math, substitutes, museums, student resources, the NEA and affiliated sites, teacher resources, and much more. The site covers grades K-12.

Microsoft lesson plans for students and educators
Microsoft has produced this site to make it easier to "find new ways to enhance student learning through technology." There are high-quality, creative plans that are well-organized, although much of the material requires useable vision; however, most of the lesson plans and related materials are accessible. Information is arranged by subject and grade levels from K-12.

Encarta Lesson Collection
The lesson plans on this site may be searched by grade level, subject, or key word.

Google Directory Educators' K through 12 Lesson Plans
Google provides an excellent page on its site containing lists of annotated sites with lesson plans divided by subject area. If you are interested only in lesson plans for history, art, or a specific subject, this is a great place to begin.

The Learning Network BLOG – New York Times
This site, sponsored by The New York Times, integrates material from the newspaper with suggested lesson plans. The authors are experienced classroom teachers employed by the newspaper. If you are looking for a way to relate classroom learning to contemporary events, this is an excellent source.

PBS Teachers’ Resources for the Classroom
Find lesson plans & activities that meet state, national, and Canadian standards at PBS TeacherSource. Materials may be browsed or searched by key word, subject, or grade level. Many plans focus on PBS programming.

PBS Teachers | Resources For The Classroom
Different from the preceding site, provides links to lesson plans and resources by grade level. Much material is linked to PBS programming.

Smithsonian Education
Smithsonian educational materials emphasize inquiry-based learning with primary sources and museum collections. Photographs and reproductions, guidelines for working with them, and links to other online resources are provided. Many lesson plans are interdisciplinary and may be listed in more than one area.

Awesome Library -- Library Materials Search – Lesson Plans
The mission of the Awesome Library is to broaden appreciation for different cultures, to enhance communication through the use of Web-based solutions, and provide information to enhance healthy life styles. Lessons plans, therefore, are concentrated in courses that are more likely to achieve these goals. The site may also be accessed in languages other than English.

Links for Social Studies Teachers
This excellent site provides links to some useful sites that are not commonly listed at other sites. For example, you will find links to information on behavioral studies/social sciences, black history, cap web (the Internet guide to Congress, economics, social studies, government, and much more.

Lesson Plans at TeachNet
This site provides an extensive list of lesson plans, catalogued by academic level and subject area. Special attention is paid to art, music, language arts, and science.

edHelper
EdHelper provides extensive lesson plans for math, writing, science, technology, social sciences, as well as other subjects. In addition, there are study questions, puzzles, study guides, and other resources for grades K-12.

The Lesson Plan Library
The Lesson Plan Library offers a comprehensive list of resources and plans for kindergarten, elementary, middle school and high school, ranging from physical sciences to ancient history. Materials are frequently related to programming on the Discovery Channel.

Lesson Plan Search
This site provides a lesson plan search engine for teachers that include math, science, reading, writing, social studies, and much more. Alternatively, the site may be browsed by use of the extensive list of subject areas.

ProQuest K-12 Online Research Tools for Schools and Libraries
ProQuest provides links to lesson plans, professional resources, and classroom activities for both elementary and secondary teachers. Links are divided grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 as well as by subject matter.

For Teachers: Library of Congress
This portion of the Library of Congress is specifically devoted to teachers and teaching. You will find links to lesson plans and activities for using primary sources in the classroom; the Library's collection of scores, audio, and films; the Library’s online reference service; classroom activities; lesson plans; international resources; reference sites compiled by the Library; webcasts for teachers; and much more.

Learning Through Listening: Free Lesson Plans
This site, hosted by Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, is for educators in grades K-12. Its purpose is to provide quick access to lessons and information that focus on developing listening skills and meeting the needs of diverse learners. The content on this site has either been written by educators or reviewed by educators for its practicality and applicability. Includes lesson plans.

FREE -- Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans from the Federal Government
A cornucopia of information specifically designed for classroom teachers from various departments of the Federal Government. You’ll find extensive information on
Arts and Music,
Health and Physical Education,
History and Social Studies,
Language Arts,
Math,
and
Science

eThemes
eThemes is your source for content-rich, kid-safe online resources that will help enhance your teaching and save you time. eThemes provides free, fast access to over 2,500 collections of websites, on topics ranging from Aerodynamics to Zebras and everything in between. By researching and creating these resources for you, eThemes will save you the time that you used to spend wading through millions of hits on Google, trying to find a few websites that meet your teaching needs. The staff of this site does the searching for you, giving you more time to improve your lesson plans and actually teach. A service of the eMints National Center and maintained by University of Missouri-Columbia College of Education staff and graduate students from the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies.

Summer Reading That May Improve Your Fall Teaching
This summer reading list features titles on improving teaching and learning at the college and university level, most from a national association of faculty developers. From The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Lesson Plans for High-school American History and Government
This excellent site provides numerous lesson plans and resources for teaching everything from the voyages of Columbus to Watergate. At present, covers approximately 50 different topics. Searchable.

Teacher Resources - Lesson Plans Indexed by Themes, Topics, Disciplines or Eras One of the best single sites for online lesson plans. You can find extensive links to lesson plans in history, literature/poetry, government, ecology, culture, and a great deal more. While some of the sources that are suggested are highly visual and some lesson plans for that reason may not be accessible, there is so much else on this site of real value that is still merits serious consideration. Most lesson plans are designed for middle or high school. From the Library of Congress.

ARTSEDGE: Lessons
"ARTSEDGE — the National Arts and Education Network — supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance the K-12 educational experience. ARTSEDGE empowers educators to teach in, through, and about the arts by providing the tools to develop interdisciplinary curricula that fully integrate the arts with other academic subjects." You will find extensive and excellent materials for all grades on literature, theater, history, music, and more. From the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Thousands of Free Lesson Plans and Educational Resources for Teachers
" The easy-to-navigate K-12 resources are grade-specific and are aligned with state standards. Families and kids of all ages will also find excellent resources for practice, play, projects and reports on thinkfinity.org. Search for a specific topic, or choose from recommended activities, maps, games, reading lists and homework help. . . . All Verizon Thinkfinity content is endorsed by its content partners, the nation's leading education organizations, who either develop or review each resource. Each of these organizations is a recognized leader in the specific discipline for which they create Thinkfinity content. From the Verizon Foundation."

Lesson Planet
"When using a general search engine (i.e. Google) it is not possible for teachers to use search narrowing criteria that is meaningful to them. With Lesson Planet, teachers can easily refine their searches by grade, subject, teacher rating, resource type, teaching method, theme, calendar, technology, duration and more. In seconds, teachers are able to find targeted, peer-reviewed, standards correlated online curriculum resources that enable them to more effectively differentiate their instruction so that it fits the learning styles of their students." Select from over 350,000 plus teacher-reviewed lesson plans and worksheets. Browse by subject, theme, grade level, or state. Initial free membership available.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
"Discovery Education provides engaging digital resources to schools and homes with the goal of making educators more effective, increasing student achievement, and connecting classrooms and families to a world of learning." Site includes
Free Teacher Resources,
many of which are highly visual, and
Free Student Resources.

New York Times Learning Network
The mission of this site "is to offer rich and imaginative materials for teaching and learning using New York Times content. Every week day the site presents "new educational resources based on the articles, photographs, videos, illustrations, podcasts and graphics published in The New York Times – all for free. Parents, teachers and students who are 13 and older [are encouraged] to use [the site's] ideas and tools."

Connections
"a place to view and share educational material . . . that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute . . .. Content in Connexions comes in two formats: modules, which are like small "knowledge chunks," and collections, groups of modules structured into books or course notes, or for other uses. [An] open license allows for free use and reuse of all content." At the time of this review, there were almost 18,000 modules and over 1,100 collections. Searchable.

Teaching Resources: Online University
"Online resources provide teachers with unique ways to teach every subject, making it both fun for students and more effective. Monthly themes, lesson plans, worksheets and tests can all be found online. Online resources also often have multimedia including video or use technology to enhance the lessons." Subject areas include social studies and history, math, reading, literature, grammar, writing, science, music, and more.

The 10 Education Blogs Every Teacher Should Be Reading
A convenient list of some of the best Blogs written by and for K-12 teachers focusing on instruction in foreign languages, science, reading, math, the arts, and technology as well as lesson plans, professional burn-out, beginning teachers, and making teaching and learning fun.

InformED: Lesson Plans
"This is a portal for you to hunt-and-gather training news and industry insights in the universe of eLearning and educational technology. The focus is on computer-based learning. To that end you will find lesson plans for math, health, history, music, economics, English, science, literature, and information technology, most designed for high school or college. While generally accessible, some aspects of the site will be especially challenging for a screen-reader user.

Educational Section
This portion of the Australian business site,StartLocal®, is "dedicated to providing educational articles on a variety of topics for students of all ages (from primary school to post-graduate education)." You will find clear, concise, annotations of each link, making it easy to decide whether or not it will meet your needs. There are extensive resources on biology, English grammar, geology, chemistry, math, climate, geography, zoology, astronomy, history, writing, Greek mythology, search engines and Internet safety, and much more.

Math and Science

American Museum of Natural History
Resources for Learning is a collection of activities, articles, evidence and analysis and more, for educators, families, students and anyone interested in teaching or learning about science. Of special interest is the link to
Kids and Families.

BioEd Online: Biology Teacher Resources
This website's goal is "to provide useful, accurate, and current information and materials that build upon and enhance the skills and knowledge of [K-12] science educators." Although large sections are highly visual with streaming video presentations, a slide library of lesson plans and activities, "hot topic" pages, and science news, the site is refereed by experts and is of universally high quality. In addition to topical content, the site includes teaching strategies and lab techniques. Also includes a special section with K-5 content. From the Baylor College of Medicine.

Science Line
"UCSB ScienceLine is an innovative 'Ask a Scientist' program where students and teachers primarily from our local K-12 schools can submit science and engineering questions. . . . The scientists usually send their responses back within one week. All questions and answers are posted in our archive." Archives are searchable, or browsable by topic such as astronomy, physics, and geology. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

JetStream: An Online School for Weather
"JetStream, [is] the National Weather Service's Online Weather School. This site is designed to help educators, emergency managers, or anyone interested in learning about weather and weather safety. The information contained in JetStream is arranged by subject; beginning with global and large scale weather patterns followed by lessons on air masses, wind patterns, cloud formations, thunderstorms, lightning, hail, damaging winds, tornados, tropical storms, cyclones and flooding. Interspersed in JetStream are
Lesson Plans
which can be used to enhance the educational experience.

Math Forum
This site bills itself as "a resource for teachers and parents who have questions about teaching mathematics." It is both searchable and browsable, with an extensive archive as well as chat room to communicate with others interested in math. Materials are divided by educational level.

Teaching Resources: Math and Science
". . . a series of resources to help teachers make their lesson plans and curriculum captivating. Many of the science related resources are more focused on one particular discipline, while the math resources often contain a variety of information on many different mathematics, including K-8, algebra, geometry, and multiplication/division. Many of the links in [this] collection of resources contain advice and samples for how to efficiently design lesson plans around topics to generate the most interest."

Literature

Web English Teacher
At Web English Teacher educators can take advantage of online technology to share ideas and to benefit from the work of others. Beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration. Think of it as the faculty library and faculty workroom on a global scale.

Teen Books and More
Collection of fiction and nonfiction book reviews by library staff and by teen contributors. Also features topical fiction and nonfiction reading lists covering such subjects as sports, music, crafts, faith, family relationships, gender issues, war, and travel. Includes links to resources for teens in areas such as money, careers, and volunteering. From the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Mark Twain and American Humor
This lesson plan for high school students examines the "structure and characterization in the short story and consider the significance of humor through a study of Mark Twain's 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.'" Includes links to the short story and to related material on topics such as literary humor (and "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," by Nathaniel Hawthorne).

English Lesson Plans -- The Lesson Corner
Clean, easy to navigate design with lesson plans on authors, famous books, English as a second language, grammar, linguistics, literature, parts of speech, reading, spelling, and writing. From an educational technology company. There is an annual charge.

Social Studies

Kids in the House
Use this interactive site to help children learn about the United States House of Representatives, the Office of the Clerk, and their roles in lawmaking. Also find historical material on important House events, historical figures, and works of art in the House; take a tour of the U.S. Capitol complex, the House chamber, and Statuary Hall; play games; and more. Of special interest is the page
For Teachers
with resources, activities, and lesson plans that complement the material on this site. From the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives.

Our Courts
"Justice Sandra Day O'Connor welcomes teachers and students to the site for civics games, lesson plans, comprehensive resource link, civics-in-action projects, and more." Use the "Learn About Civics" section to find material about current members of the U.S. Supreme Court (and Sandra Day O'Connor), the three branches of government, tribal government, and state resources. Includes lesson plans on the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. From Georgetown University and Arizona State University.

iCivics The Democracy Lab
The site is focused on providing games to help students to better understand government and how it works. In Do I Have A Right?, students run their own firm of lawyers who specialize in constitutional law. In Executive Command, they can be President for four years. In Supreme Decision, students help cast the deciding vote in a Supreme Court case.

The Declaration of Independence: An Expression of the American Mind
This 2-part lesson plan (grades 9-12) covers the structure of the Declaration of Independence ("introduction, main political/philosophical ideas, grievances, assertion of sovereignty") and the ideological and political origins of the ideas in the Declaration. Includes background for teachers, suggested activities, and links to additional material. From EDSITEment, a joint project of the National Endowment for the Humanities and other organizations. Primary source materials are visual, however, there is much in the site of value that does not require sight.

My Wonderful World
A campaign -- backed by a coalition of national business and non-profit organizations -- to expand geographic learning in school, at home, and in communities." Find campaign materials, games and activities, geography quizzes, and ideas for parents, educators, and children and teens to incorporate geographic knowledge and learning into daily life. From the National Geographic Society.

German-American Teaching Resources and Units
Collection of links to resources related to the study of German-American history and culture. Topics include German-American dialects, German names and words, German immigration, Germantown, Pennsylvania, Saint Nicholas and Christmas, and more. Sponsored and maintained by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) University Libraries.

FactCheckEd
Collection of classroom materials focused on helping students learn how to research and examine messages and claims encountered in media and advertising. Provides lesson plans, websites recommended for research, answers to common questions about government and politics, a dictionary, and a discussion forum for teachers. From the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

World History for Us All
This website provides "a powerful, innovative model curriculum for teaching world history in middle and high schools." Features an overview of the integrative approach to world history, lesson plans arranged by "Big Eras," a glossary, and links to related websites. Some portions in development. A project of San Diego State University in cooperation with the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles.

American Indian Teaching Resources
Classroom materials for the celebration of American Indian Heritage Month (November), including publications from the National Museum of the American Indian, lesson plans (on topics such as the Bering Sea Eskimo people and buffalo hide paintings), and online exhibits of American Indian collections at the Smithsonian museums. From the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies of the Smithsonian Institution.

Lesson Plans in History
While the site features an excellent list of games, projects, lesson plans, etc., much of this material is highly visual. Nonetheless, the quality is high and is worth the attention of any teacher with enough vision to make use of the resources.

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