List: Publishers of Lesson Plans & Teaching Resources
This is a list of the major publishers of lesson plans and teaching guides for K-12 educators, with tips for identifying which publisher produces which materials. (For each work listed at LessonIndex.com, the publisher is identified in parentheses, to the right of the highlighted product title.) After the alphabetic list of publishers and notes, there’s a separate alphabetic list of products’ subtitles.
This list is a “work in progress” — your comments are welcome!
- Applied Practice: High school. Specialty publisher offers AP (Advanced Placement) and other standardized test sample questions for specific works of literature.
- Center for Learning: Middle and high school. Titled “[Book-Title] Curriculum Unit.“
- Classroom Complete Press: Elementary and middle school. Product cover says “Literature Kit.”
- ECS Learning / Novel Units Inc.: Elementary, middle and high school. Titles include “Novel Unit.” Under the “Novel Units” brand, the company sells a distinct “Teacher’s Guide” and “Student Packet” for each literary work.
- Edcon / Think Inc.: High school and middle school. Some materials apply to abridged versions of classic novels. Many cover titles include only the name of the novel, with no subtitle. Products include “Step Into Literature Study Guides,” “Think Inc Novel Links,” and “Easy Reading Shakespeare.”
- Educational Impressions: Elementary and middle school. Titled “Literature in Teaching Guide,” often abbreviated by resellers as “L-I-T Guide” or “Lit Guide” (but the term “Lit Guide” is also used to identify other publishers’ works.) Also sells “Literature in Context” titles. There appear to be distinct “Teaching Guide” and “Study Guide” (for students) products offered under the “L-I-T” brand.
- Garlic Press: Middle and high school. Titled “[Book-Title]: A Teaching Guide.” Product cover also identifies the work as part of the “Discovering Literature Series.”
- GrammarDog: Middle and high school. Specialty publisher offers grammar exercises using classic works of literature.
- Learning Links Inc.: Elementary, middle, and high school. Titled “[Book-Title] Novel-Tie.”
- Literature Resources Online: Offers “Bookfolio Activity Guide” products, sometimes called “Reading Guides.”
- Live and Learn Press: Elementary and middle school. Titled “Learn N Folders,” also sold as “Live and Learn Study Guides” (for home-schooling).
- Lorenz Educational Publishers: Middle and high school. Offers Side-by-Side modern-language versions of Shakespeare; also sells Teacher’s Manual for each title.
- Memoria Press: Christian. Elementary and middle school. Titled “[Book-Title] Literature Guide.”
- Milliken: Titled “[Book-Title] Literature Resource Guide” or “[Book-Title] Teacher’s Companion.”
- Modern Language Association (MLA): High School. Titled “Approaches to Teaching [Author’s] [Book-Title].“
- New Learning Publishing: Elementary and middle school. Titled “Novel Ideas: [Book-Title].”
- On the Mark Press / S&S Learning Materials: Elementary and middle school. Titles include “Lit Link” or “Lit Links.” The same product is sold as a “Lit Link” by On the Mark in the USA, and as a “Novel Study” by S&S in Canada. Note that some distributors use the terms “lit link” or “novel study” to refer to other products, and some distributors sell the OTM “Lit Link” products using other names, such as “Lit Guide.”
- P & R Publishing: Christian. Elementary and middle school. Titled “[Book-Title] A Guide for Teachers and Students.“
- Perfection Learning: Elementary, middle and high school. Products include “Portals to Reading,” “Portals Plus Teacher Resource,” “Latitudes,” “Reading Beyond the Basal Plus,” “Contemporary Classics Teaching Packet,” “Masterprose Teacher Packet,” as well as reproducible literature tests (multiple-choice, essay, and alternative assessments).
- Prestwick House: High school and middle school. Titled “[Book-Title] Teaching Unit.” PH also sells student study guides, and offers a variety of lesson-plan resources, including worksheets and tests, “a la carte. PH also owns Teacher’s Pet Publishing, whose main lesson-plan products are titled “[Book-Title]: A Unit Plan” or “LitPlan,” and also sells “LitPlan PuzzlePacks.”
- Progeny Press: Christian. Middle and high school. Titled “[Book-Title] Study Guide” or “Christian Study Guide.”
- Saddleback Educational Publishing: Middle and high school. Titled “Timeless Classics Study Guide: [Book-Title]“; also offers “Illustrated Classics” (comic or graphic novel adaptations of classic literature).
- Scholastic: Elementary and middle school. Titles include “Literature Circle Guide: [Book-Title]” and “Scholastic Book Guides: [Book-Title].”
- Secondary Solutions: Middle and high school. Titles include “[Book-Title] Literature Guide” and “Complete Literature Guides” (often resold as “Teaching Guides” or “Study Guides”).
- Shmoop: High school and middle school. This study-guide publisher offers some teaching resources (including some lesson plans and activities) for free, but charges $5.95 (per literature title) for teachers to “unlock” certain materials (including quizzes and discussion questions).
- Small Planet / Planet Book Club: Middle school. Cover page reads, “Book Club Novel Guide: [Book-Title].”
- Sundance Publishing: Middle and high school. Product lines include “LIFT Guide,” “ReAct Guide,” and “Novel Ideas Plus.”
- Teacher Created Resources: Elementary and middle school. Titled “A Guide for Using [Book-Title] In the Classroom.” Many online merchants display these products’ titles as “[Book-Title] Literature Guide.”
- Teacher Time Savers: Middle and high school. Titled: “[Book-Title] Novel Study.”
- Teaching Bank: Elementary and middle school. Products titled “[Book-Title] Novel Unit.”
- Walch Education: Middle and high school. Publishes a series of books that each contain teaching ideas and quizzes for many novels (often 5 to 7 pages per novel).
- Zaner-Bloser: Elementary and middle school. Titled “[Book-Title] Teacher Resource Guide.”
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Notes:
- GoTeachIt.com and TeachersPayTeachers.com are two “specialty marketplaces” where teachers (and some publishers) offer their lesson-plan resources for sale; the quality of these materials will vary widely.
- Some eBay and Amazon Marketplace merchants (some unsophisticated, some unethical) assign incorrect ISBNs and titles to products they resell. Several times, I’ve paid a premium price for “Teacher’s Guide” materials (and for rush delivery) but received a battered copy of the novel instead.
- Some of the resources listed in the LessonIndex.com directory are collections of criticism or “related readings,” from specialty publishers like Greenwood Press and from Gale’s Greenhaven and Twayne brands.
- Some distributors and resellers deliberately obscure the identity of the publisher, and change product titles.
- In some cases, the same product title may be used to identify distinct “teacher’s guides” and “study guides” for students.
- Many publishers are also distributors of other publishers’ products, which can be confusing for shoppers, but might make it easier to obtain certain products through a school district’s regular procurement process.
- Most publishers and resellers now provide “sample pages” for the resources that they sell, which usually makes it easier to identify the actual publisher.
- The word “Christian” is used here to identify publishers whose material contains overt Christian religious content.
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Here’s a list of commonly-found “subtitles” and the publishers I’ve found most frequently associated with them:
- “: A Unit Plan”: Prestwick House (Teacher’s Pet)
- “A Guide for Using …”: Teacher Created Resources
- “Complete Literature Guide”: Secondary Solutions
- “Contemporary Classics Teaching Packet”: Perfection Learning
- “Discovering Literature Series”: Garlic Press
- “Guide for Using …”: Teacher Created Resources
- “Illustrated Classics”: Saddleback Educational Publishing
- “… in the Classroom”: Teacher Created Resources
- “Learn N Folders”: Live and Learn Press
- “LIFT Guide”: Sundance Publishing
- “Lit Link”: On the Mark Press / S&S Learning Materials
- “Literature Guide”: Teacher Created Resources or Secondary Solutions
- “Literature in Teaching Guide”: Educational Impressions
- “Literature Resource Guide”: Milliken
- “LitPlan”: Prestwick House (Teacher’s Pet)
- “Live and Learn Study Guide”: Live and Learn Press
- “MasterProse Teacher Packet”: Perfection Learning
- “Novel Ideas Plus”: Sundance Publishing
- “Novel Study”: On the Mark Press / S&S
- “Novel Unit”: ECS Learning
- “Portals Plus Teacher Resource”: Perfection Learning
- “Portals to Reading”: Perfection Learning
- “PuzzlePack”: Prestwick House (Teacher’s Pet)
- “ReAct Guide”: Sundance Publishing
- “Reading Beyond the Basal Plus”: Perfection Learning
- “Teacher’s Companion”: Milliken
- “Teaching Guide”: Garlic Press
- “Teaching Unit”: Prestwick House
- “Think Inc”: Edcon
- “Timeless Classics Study Guide”: Saddleback
- “Unit Plan”: Prestwick House (Teacher’s Pet)
Hello,
I am trying to find a way to publish two units I currently have ready for print. They are, in fact, at a publisher right now but have been there for over 2 years and are still not published. The units are on Treaties and many teachers here in Saskatchewan have been asking for them.
I am prepared to pull my units and therefore am looking elsewhere. Do you publish units or do you know of any way I can get them published? I do not have a lot of money but am not afraid of work. If it is possible to self-publish, I would be interested to know the steps involved.
Thank you for your time and any help you might be able to provide.
Sincerely,
Barbara Wright