General Lesson Resources

Please visit the Help by Subject area for dozens of pages of links to lesson plans, educational websites, and other resources organized by subject. The links below take you to websites that also offer lesson plans and worksheets but you will have to do your own searching from their homepages for specific topics.

Khan Academy

Founded by Salmon Khan based on his experience tutoring his nephew online, Khan Academy is perhaps the largest free online learning resource in the world. It offers a large college admissions section in addition to the learning resources.

PBS TeacherSource

The site offers free lesson plans and activities (indexed by grade level and topic) that tie into PBS educational programming. You can subscribe to an email newsletter and get tips on upcoming PBS programs that might be of interest for your family.

KidsDiscover Free Lesson Plan Downloads

KidsDiscover is a popular educational magazine with each issue dedicated to a specific topic. The website offers teachers teacher’s guides and power vocabulary guides for dozens of topics.

edX AP® Courses

edX is an online open courseware provider founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012. Most courses are self-paced and currently available; some are upcoming or archived. The courses are usually free to take with an option fee for a verified certificate.

42eXplore

Why start with a search engine, when you can find a pathfinder to fit your needs at 42eXplore? When learning something new, it’s nice to have more than one resource to explore. This web project provides “four to eXplore” for each topic. On each page you’ll find definitions, activities, the 4 good starting points, and many more links and resources for the thematic topic. Go to the About Site page for more information about the website.

Read Write Think Student Materials

The Student Materials are part of a larger project from NCTE, Marco Polo, and and International Reading Association. The larger site includes many lesson plans, easily sorted by topic and grade. The Student Materials include online tools that teach students concepts like acrostics, bio-cubes (for biographies), comic creators, drama maps, essay maps, and much more. Kids who don’t like the physical aspect of handwriting will enjoy using the tools on Read Write Think to show off their writing skills.

NY Times Learning Network

The Learning Network offers lesson plans, writing prompts, contests, critical thinking exercises, and more based on content from the NY Times. Start with “How to Use This Site” to make the most of the resources offered.

CNN10

“CNN 10 replaces CNN Student News, the network’s longest-running show that first aired in 1989. CNN 10 more effectively serves a growing audience interested in compact on-demand news broadcasts ideal for explanation seekers on the go or in the classroom. The show’s priority is to identify stories of international significance and then clearly describe why they’re making news, who is affected, and how the events fit into a complex, international society.”