Throughout the Curriculum Cooperative site, click on ? mark symbols to help guide you through every process. If you have further questions about searching and submitting lessons, please read the instructions below:

CCO-OP LIBRARY SEARCH INSTRUCTIONS:

Stipulate the type of lesson you want from the options organized in the tree view.

You may choose options from any level within the tree view. Nodes that do not constitute an option will only expand or collapse if clicked. Chosen options will appear in the header bar for the eight major criteria.

Click on the [+] to expand the list, click on [-] to collapse a list.

Choose options from as many or few of the criteria as you wish, but you must choose an option for Course or Concept.

The HELP icons that follow many of the options provide definitions.

Choosing a different option within the same criterion will replace the original choice. Alternately, you may un-choose an option by clicking it again.

When you are done specifying the type of lesson you want, click on the SEARCH button.

The Search will provide you with the available lesson closest to what you specified, with lessons listed above and below it that are progressively further away from the best-fit lesson (zoom-in and zoom-out) according to the order in which you specified the criteria.

COURSE versus TRANSFERABLE CONCEPT:
The Course option leads to the transferable concepts typically taught within the listed courses. The No Conceptual Focus option should be selected if you are focusing on skills or topical content rather than on conceptual understanding. You may specify skills or topical content through the other major categories in the tree. Choosing a concept from under the Course option is the same as choosing it from the Transferable Concept option. A selection under Course will take you to the Transferable Concept tree, where you can confirm your selection or adjust your conceptual focus.

SEARCH REQUIREMENTS and ORDER:
You may choose as many or as few of the over 850 options organized into eight major categories of educational criteria, with one major requirement: You must make a choice from Course or Concept (see above description).

When you finally click the SEARCH button, the search engine prioritizes its search according to the order in which you specified the eight major categories. The exceptions are that Language of the Lesson (if you specified one) and Transferable Concept are always the first and second criteria used to search the database of available lessons. You may adjust the order of search under the CHANGE THE SEARCH ORDER button.

The Search will index the Curriculum Library’s entire collection according to your specified criteria. It will provide you with the available lesson closest to what you specified, with lessons listed above and below it that are progressively further away from the best-fit lesson (zoom-in and zoom-out) according to the order in which you specified the criteria.

NAMING CONVENTIONS and SEQUENCE CODES in the CONCEPT BRANCH
The name of each of the transferable concepts is immediately followed by a letter, either upper or lowercase, that is its sequence code. You will find that some names include slashes or commas, and are sometimes notated by a pop-up list of terms. The key to both the naming conventions and the sequence coding is as follows:

KEY:

NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR TRANSFERABLE CONCEPTS
What is a Concept	The listed concepts are transferable concepts. Although half the words in the English dictionary are technically concepts, a small sub-set of transferable concepts are those that are used for problem solving, critical thinking and considered decision making within a domain of knowledge such as science.
Slash:	The names are major synonyms for the same transferable concept.
Comma:	The transferable concepts are closely linked and synergistic. They should be taught in tandem.

Pop-up:	Other synonyms and common associations of the transferable concept.

LETTER SEQUENCE CODES

A/a before B/b before C/c, etc.

Same letter indicates that the order of instruction does not matter; the concepts could be taught in any order.

CAPital letter indicates the concept is judged to be necessary to a minimal yet robust conceptual structure within a graduating high school senior’s mind. This minimal conceptual structure would constitute healthy scientific literacy for all students. It can support and give rise to future conceptual learning.

lower case indicates the concept is judged to be an enhancement, refinement, or strengthening of the minimal conceptual structure.

The transferable concepts have been sequenced and prioritized according to cognitive learning theory. Thus the concepts are organized in the tree-view and sequence codes are established according to three parameters and associated patterns of cognitive developmental:

PARAMETER		DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERN Students learn from … to
GENERALITY	How wide a variety of questions, topics, situations does it apply to?	General/Obvious … to … Specific/Subtle
COMPLEXITY	How many ideas (subordinate concepts) does the concept require be keep in mind simultaneously?	Simple … to … Complex
ABSTRACTNESS	How far from direct sensation and perception is the concept?	Concrete … to ... Abstract

A great deal of supporting research and theoretical explanation of the conceptual structure are available under the RESEARCH AND BACKGROUND RESOURCES tab on the home page.

SEARCH RESULTS:
Choosing more options with which to specify the lesson you want does NOT reduce the number of possible “hits” on the output side of the search process. The unique Curriculum Library search algorithm re-indexes its entire database of lessons according to your specifications, and in the order in which you specified the options. As you choose more options the end results of your search will be more finely sifted, but the number of lessons from which to choose will be the same. The best-fit, closest available matching lesson to what you want will be highlighted in the middle of the index. You can then explore lessons in ever-widening rungs of relevance above or below what you specified. How closely those rungs are spaced is dictated by how many options you specify when describing the lesson you want. Scrolling above the best-fit lesson is like zooming out according to the menus from which you chose options. Conversely, scrolling below the best-fit lesson is like zooming in according to the original menus.

WANNA HELP?
In the list of lessons presented after a Search is carried out, some of the lesson titles begin with the prefix, Wanna Help? These lessons are resources or instructional materials chosen or partly designed by another educator who is looking for collaborators to develop completed lessons. Contact the lead author who submitted the “Wanna Help” lesson for arrangements to collaborate.

HOW TO SUBMIT A LESSON:

All submissions to The Curriculum Library are subject to the Terms of Service.

BEFORE BEGINNING the process of submitting a lesson, you must have three things ready:

1. A file or folder stored on your computer with the lesson contents ready to upload. Supported file formats:
Word documents (.doc), Compressed files (.zip), Acrobat documents (.pdf), PowerPoint files (.ppt), Excel spreadsheet documents (.xls), or Open documents (.odt).

2. The submitter, all authors and owners of the lesson must already be registered. If any of the authors are not
     registered, please contact them and have them register with The Curriculum Library before you submit the
     lesson. You will need to know the exact spelling of the names they used to register when you submit the
     lesson.

3. At the end of the Submit process you will need to specify the percentage ownership of the lesson for each
author or owner. Therefore you also need to know the percentage ownership of the lesson for each author
and owner before you begin the submit process.

STEP ONE: CHARACTERIZE YOUR LESSON
Don’t Worry! If you are not sure how to proceed, just make a logical choice. A Mentor Teacher will be contacting you shortly after your submittal and will sort out any tangles with you.

A	Characterize the lesson you are submitting by click-choosing from the options organized in a tree view of seven major categories. You are required to choose from three categories: COURSE OR CONCEPT and LANGUAGE OF THE LESSON are two of the seven major categories, and the TIME DURATION for the lesson is part of the Instructional/Assessment Format major category. The more detail you provide beyond these three required categories the more useful the lesson will be to teachers who are looking for something specific.
B	You may choose options from any level within the tree view. Options that only lead on to more detailed options and cannot themselves be chosen as a characteristic will only expand or collapse if clicked. Click on the [+] to expand the list, click on [-] to collapse a list. To un-choose an option you must click it a second time. Chosen options for each of the major categories will appear in the header bars.
C	Ideally you should characterize the lesson according to all 22 sub-categories of choice, divided into the seven major categories. Any of the 22 criteria that you do not specify will automatically be coded as NOT APPLICABLE.
D	You may choose more than one option for any of the 22 sub-categories to reflect multiple perspectives on the lesson. When you make multiple choices from the same sub-category you are effectively creating a duplicate entry in the CL. You are limited to a total of 16 different entries for a single lesson. As you categorize your lesson a counter will be displayed keeping track of the total number of Library entries you are producing.
E	When you have fully characterized the lesson you are submitting, enter the lesson title and a brief synopsis of the lesson. You may also include a snippet of the lesson, usually some pasted portion of the first page. These are available to someone searching for a lesson before they make a decision to download it.

COURSE versus TRANSFERABLE CONCEPT:
The Course option leads to the transferable concepts typically taught within the listed courses. The Not Conceptually Focused option should be selected if you are focusing on skills or topical content rather than on conceptual understanding. You would choose Course materials if you were contributing curriculum documents or exams for a course. You may specify skills or topical content through the other major categories in the tree. Choosing a concept from under the Course option is the same as choosing it from the Transferable Concept option. A selection under Course will take you to the Transferable Concept tree, where you can confirm your selection or adjust your conceptual focus.

WANNA HELP? LESSONS
Do you have an idea or some beginning materials for a lesson but would like to collaborate with another teacher to develop it fully? If so, then submit your idea like you would a completed lesson, but you must name it beginning with the words Wanna help?

Then characterize it as if it were a lesson. Under the INSTRUCTION, ASSESSMENT FORMAT major category and its sub-category of Scale and Type of Materials, choose the first option: Wanna help? Collaboration sought for lesson development. You may need to ignore many of the other categories since they pertain to a finished lesson.

The MISCELLANEOUS CATEGORY
Every menu of options ends with a Miscellaneous (Misc.) category. This category is for lessons that do not fit well into any of the options. The expansion of the menu to include more options is based in large part of the accumulation of lessons under the Misc. category. If a pattern appears among these lessons then it will be translated into a new option to be included in the menu.

STEP TWO: SPECIFYING THE LESSON AUTHORS AND OWNERS
Click on the button Specify Authors and Price. Use the form to specify the authors, owners and the percentage ownership for each. This allocation will be used to disburse royalty payments for the use of the lesson. Be sure that all the authors and owners of a multi-author lesson are already pre-registered before you begin submitting the lesson. School districts that own lessons must also be registered as members, the same as an individual teacher.

Click on the appropriate button to list the authors, owners and lesson pricing (see below paragraphs for details). You must specify a percentage ownership for each entry, some of which might be zero.

An author submitting a Wanna Help? lesson should specify him/herself as the 100% owner and then, after the lesson is completed, change to an equitable division with collaborators. A Wanna Help? lesson is not sent to a mentor until it has been developed into a complete lesson.

A minimum ten percent ownership share is designated to the lesson mentor. For first-time contributors, the mentor will be assigned once you submit the lesson and will contact you by e-mail to review your lesson before approving it for Curriculum Library circulation. If the mentor provides substantial feedback or help then he/she will discuss appropriate percentage ownership levels beyond the 10% with you.

You may include notes pertaining to each author. For example, you may wish to specify who did the graphics, research, pilot testing, etc.

Using the check boxes, you must specify the submitter (person who is submitting the lesson), and a lead author. The lead author will be responsible for communicating with the CL about the lesson.

Set the retail price for your lesson. You may want to investigate the prices of lessons similar to yours in the CL. The designated lead author may change the pricing at any time.

WHO OWNS THE LESSON?
In general, the people who created the lesson own it. They may divide the ownership among them as they wish. However, if an author created the lesson for pay from someone such as a school district, then the lesson belongs to whoever paid the author. Almost all teacher employment contracts specify the daily times during which teachers are considered to be working for the school district. Lessons created outside of these specified times, such as during the evening or on weekends, belong to the teacher. The majority of teacher employment contracts assume that a teacher is professionally responsible for instructional (“lesson”) planning, but that the school district is responsible for providing the instructional materials such as the lessons in the CL. In such cases of clear independent creation the authors would share 100% of the ownership.

Of course, if the teacher is paid to create the lessons as part of their assigned duties, as part of a professional development program or otherwise then the lesson belongs to whoever is doing the paying, often a school district. For example, a teacher-author who created a lesson as part of a professional development program financed by a school district would be listed as the lead author with a zero percent ownership. The school district would be listed as the sole owner. Yet one of the authors would still need to be designated as the lead author. It is also important for all authors to receive credit for their creation, even if they do not own it.

COPYRIGHT AND OWNERSHIP COMPLAINTS
Any complaint of ownership, copyright infringement or plagiarism following the submission of the lesson will immediately result in the lesson being removed from circulation by The Curriculum Library. The lead teacher will be then be notified of the complaint and it will be up to the authors to settle the issue with the complainant before the lesson is reinstated in the Curriculum Library.

SETTING THE RETAIL PRICE
One indicator of a reasonable price range is what other similar lessons already in the CL are priced at. An easy way to get a sense of the price range is to search the CL by specifying lesson options that essentially describe the lesson you are trying to price. Then price the lessons that the results lesson wheel displays.

Another approach to arriving at a reasonable price is to use a base price of approximately $5 for a one-period lesson (a period being 50-60 mins). So a lesson that might take students three periods would be priced at $15. A unit plan, including all the student hand-outs and worksheets, that would take students three weeks (15 periods) to complete might be priced around $75.

Someone who buys retail is allowed to use the lesson as many times as they wish, but may only use the material with a single class of live students with whom the teacher communicates directly. A separate purchase is required for each class’s set of materials, similar to how a textbook would need to be purchased. (See below for the Usage Agreement that all members of the CL agree to before they may download or purchase from the CL.)

STEP THREE: SPECIFY THE FILE TO UPLOAD.
Then click the button Choose File to browse your computer and locate the lesson file. When you “open” this file in your browser it will be transferred to the Submit Lesson page of the Curriculum Library.

After completing the Authors and Pricing information, return to the main Submit page and click on the button to locate the lesson file or folder on your computer and upload it to the CL. If your lesson consists of more than one file, then create a zip folder containing the multiple files.

You can upload files with the following extensions: ,ZIP, .DOC, .DOCX, .XLS,.PPT, .PDF., ODT.

Instructions for creating zip files.

Using the file manager on your computer, create a folder in the same directory as the lesson files.
Name the folder what you would want the lesson to be named.
Copy all files associated with the lesson into the folder. You can even create subfolders to organize the files if need be.

From the file manager Right-Click on the folder. Then …

Windows

Click on “Send To”
Click on “Compressed (zipped) Folder”

Apple (Mac)

Click on “Compress [your folder name here]”
Click on “Compressed (zipped) Folder”

Finally, click the button Add Lesson. On the page that follows a successful submittal you will be informed of the name of the mentor teacher assigned to your lesson. The designated lead teacher will be contacted through e-mail by this mentor teacher who specializes in lessons similar to the one you submitted. Your mentor teacher will review your lesson, the characterizations you chose when you submitted it, help you with any changes, and authorize the final inclusion of your lesson to the CL. Your mentor will also familiarize you with our community of teachers.

MATERIALS USAGE AGREEMENT
You may use the material or lessons you download from The Curriculum Library only under the following conditions. These conditions are a reasonable interpretation of the federal Fair Use Paragraph that governs how teachers may use lesson materials created by others.

You may make as many copies as you need for one use. Each copy must maintain any copyright notice. IF YOU PURCHASED THE MATERIALS RETAIL: You may use the materials as many times as you wish.

You may only use the material with a single class of live students with whom you communicate directly. A separate purchase is required for each class’s set of materials, similar to how a textbook would need to be purchased.

You may not store copies, paper or electronic, after using the material. IF YOU PURCHASED THE MATERIALS RETAIL: You may store copies, but you may not distribute them to others.

You may modify Curriculum Library materials and lessons for your own use, but you may not claim as your own similar materials or lessons that are substantially derived from them.

Members may bookmark lessons within the Curriculum Library.

MENTOR TEACHERS
Mentor teachers are awarded a minimum 10% ownership in the lessons they review to compensate them for their time and effort to review the lesson content and the characterizations you chose when you submitted it, help you with any changes, and authorize the final inclusion of your lesson in the Library. If the mentor provides substantial feedback or help, then he/she will discuss appropriate percentage ownership levels beyond the 10% with you.

Mentor teachers can also help with curriculum planning, alignment, coordination, or documentation. All mentors have access to a domain supervisor, one of whose major responsibilities is to plan and provide such curriculum help in concert with the mentor. Your mentor and supervisor can arrange appropriate help for you and would discuss cost at that time.

Mentors can also help you with using the Curriculum Library and answer any questions you might have on the Curriculum Library community of teachers and the resources available to you. They are also responsible for ensuring that teachers who use the Curriculum Library for a significant portion of their class materials either submit their own lessons to the Library or purchase a site license.

All teacher-authors are encouraged to become mentors themselves. In order to become a mentor teacher you must:

submit between 5 and 10 quality lessons, depending on their length and sophistication, within the same area of the conceptual structure. The lessons must have been pilot tested by the teacher-author and revised as a result of the classroom experience
take and pass the on-line professional development program (See the Professional Development tab on the home page).
be recommended by an acting mentor teacher who reviewed the majority, if not all, of the 5 to 10 lessons submitted.