Submit Your Lesson
Publish Your Lesson Plan on NEA.org!
NEA Members, send us a lesson plan, and we'll publish it on NEA.org. If it works for you, it might work for someone else!
Here's how to get started.
Is Your Lesson Right for NEA.org?
Is Your Lesson Right for NEA.org?
You must be an NEA member to publish your lesson on the NEA.org website. You do not need to be a member to read, print or use the lessons found here, but only NEA members may publish.
Your lesson is right for NEA.org if it is:
- Relevant to a National Audience of Teachers
The lesson's subject should be relevant to a wide range of teachers across the country. For example, it should be just as relevant to a high school history teacher in Arkansas as a high school history teacher in Alaska or Maine.
- Addresses Common Subjects
Lessons addressing multiple subjects will be beneficial to the greatest number of teachers, but your lesson should address at least one of the following subject areas:
- Arts (Art Connections, Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts)
- Behavioral Studies
- Career Education (Agricultural Education, Arts and Communication, Business Education, Engineering Education, Family/Consumer Sciences, Health Education)
- Civics
- Economics
- Foreign Language
- Geography
- Health
- History (Historical Understanding, United States History, World History)
- Language Arts
- Mathematics
- Physical Education
- Science
- Technology
Writing the Lesson
Audience: your audience is other teachers, so be sure to write as though you are speaking to colleagues, not as though you are preparing instructions for students.
Voice & Tone: your writing should be relaxed and collegial but also professional — the way you might explain it to a group of teachers in the staff lounge. You'll want to sound knowledgeable and authoritative, so avoid using slang terms and colloquial language as you write.
Style: use complete sentences; avoid abbreviations and slang; and remember: plain language is best.
Format: prepare your lesson using a common word processing application, such as Microsoft Word. Make sure that each component of the lesson (as described below) is distinguishable and that list items are put in bullets or numbers. Don't worry about font size or type, bold and italics, indentations, etc. Your lesson will need to be reformatted for presentation on the NEA.org website regardless of how it is put together, so there is no need to be overly concerned with the formatting.
What the Lesson Should Include
Your lesson must be presented formally, using a format that includes the following items. View the lesson "Manifest Destiny" (www.nea.org/lessons/er060401.html) for an example of what should be included and how it should be written.
- Title: the lesson title should be practical and sensible, something that will tell readers at a glance exactly what the lesson is about; cute and witty wordplay doesn't work — no matter how funny or clever it seems. Busy teachers looking for lesson plans need to know quickly how your lesson can help them.
- 1-2 Sentence Summary: this should explain in a nutshell what the lesson will accomplish
- Subjects: a list of the subjects addressed by this lesson
- Grade Levels: a list of one or more of the following: preK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
- Time To Complete: an estimate of the time it will take to teach the lesson from start to finish, including the number of days and/or the length of time for each class period
- Objectives: a list of the skills students will practice or learn while completing the lesson (e.g., "students will: ...")
- Materials Needed: a bulleted list of all items teachers and students will need to assemble in order to implement the lesson, including pencil and paper, non-standard text books, Internet access (if applicable), etc. If your lesson requires or recommends the use of audio, video or still pictures, provide URLs for the websites where they can be found. If these materials are not available online, provide details about the title and author, so teachers may check them out of a library or purchase them.
- Detailed Teaching Procedure: a step-by-step set of instructions, explaining in detail what a teacher will need to do to implement the lesson; be thorough and don't assume all teachers are familiar with the same instructional procedures, methods, and activities that you are; and be specific (e.g., if the teacher is to hold a large group discussion, then provide a list of questions that could be used to start the discussion)
- Handouts/Supplementary Materials: if your lesson requires handouts or any other materials (such as photographs or recordings), be sure to include them as separate attachments from the lesson; if pictures, audio recordings or video can be found on the Web, you should include links to them, not the files themselves.
- Audio/Video: if the lesson recommends using portions of an audio tape, a VHS cassette or DVD, provide the time cues and the length of the clip, e.g.: cue the tape at 00:30:25 (30 minutes, 25 seconds from the start) and play for 03:30 (3 minutes, 30 seconds). For teachers unfamiliar with the A\V resources, this will save valuable time.
- Still Pictures: provide URLs for Websites where they can be viewed and downloaded. If they are not available online, provide details about reference books in which they can be found (complete title, author, date of publication, etc.)
- Web Links: provide the URLs for any Websites you may reference in your lesson; if the lesson requires the teacher and/or students to visit a Website, include the link in the teaching procedure; if you want to provide a list of Websites that make good background or reference materials, you may include them under a separate heading following the teaching procedure.
- Extension Ideas: if possible provide recommendations on how the lesson could be implemented with or without some of the needed materials, adapted for use by older or younger classrooms, or modified for use over shorter or longer periods of time.
- Assessment Recommendations: detailed recommendations for assessing student learning, which could include an answer key for teachers, recommendations for weighting certain parts of the lesson (e.g., group work 60 points, the final project 40 points), key learning concepts mastered, etc.
- Correlation to National Teaching Standards: Provide a list of the basic content standards for K-12 curriculum that are addressed by the lesson. The lesson is for a national audience of teachers, so the standards need to be applicable across the US. (Individual state & local curriculum standards are not appropriate.) Refer to the Mid-continent Center for Research and Learning (MCREL) Website for a compendium of national curriculum standards.
Submitting Your Lesson
After you have written the lesson, double-checked that it includes all the necessary items, and then proofread it, you are ready to submit it.
Email the lesson (by clicking on the "email" link to the left) as an attachment. Also include as attachments any materials (such as handouts, worksheets or answer keys) that supplement the lesson.
Please include:
- your full name,
- the name of the school in which you teach,
- the city & state in which the school is located, and
- your home address.
NOTE: Your home address will not be made available on the NEA.org website; we will use this information only to verify your NEA membership — then it will be discarded.
