Teach an Adult Education Class

The calendar of classes is divided into three terms:

Fall: September–December

Winter/Spring: February–May

Summer: June–August

Classes take place in the afternoons and evenings from Tuesday through Thursday and during the day on Saturdays.

A minimum of seven registrants are needed to run a class. If a class doesn't have at least seven students, it will be canceled.

Registration fees are determined by the duration of a class. Instructors receive fifty percent of total registration fees collected. Therefore, instructor compensation is based on the number of participants enrolled in a class. Payment is made after the last session of the class.

We evaluate proposals based on the following criteria:

• Applicants must demonstrate knowledge of the subject and relevant teaching experience.
• Successful classes approach their subject matter in a critical way that explores the ideas, assumptions, and impact of a literary or cultural object; interrogates the narratives of historical moments; or places texts, events, art, or material objects in context.
  

• Classes should appeal to a general audience and demonstrate the value of humanistic inquiry.

• Classes should serve the Newberry's mission, collections, and audience.

While we accept proposals for topics across the humanities, we're especially interested in proposals in the following areas:​

• Chicago, including the city's history, arts, music, literature, and social movements
  
• Black, Latino/a/x, and Indigenous studies
  
• Writing workshops, including fiction, nonfiction, short stories, poetry, memoir, etc.
  
• Experiential learning, including crafting workshops, walking tours, how-to classes in genealogy or oral history, and follow-along creative demonstrations
  
• Topics relating to current or upcoming exhibitions at the Newberry

Fall term: mid-May

Winter/Spring term: mid-September

Summer term: mid-February

The title should grab attention—keep it clear, inviting, and intriguing for a general audience.

The description should give a lively snapshot of what your class is about: What themes or topics will you explore? What can participants look forward to learning or experiencing? Use accessible, engaging language to spark curiosity and excitement.

Your bio is your chance to connect with potential participants. Share a little about who you are, what you do, and what makes you passionate about this topic—no need for formal jargon!

We’ll use this information in marketing materials and may edit for style, clarity, and length.

This is the bulk of your proposal. We want to know what ideas and themes you want to discuss, what interests or excites you about your topic, and why you want to share this with people. We look for clear organization of lesson plan and materials as well as appealing and engaging content for our audience.

The overview should explicitly include:

• Your approach to the topic—What is the thesis statement of your class?
• A detailed outline or syllabus, including weekly assignments, classroom activities, and discussion topics
• An explanation of how your class relates to the Newberry’s mission and collection

Your CV or résumé should highlight relevant experience (particularly teaching experience), and any research, publications, or other relevant activities.

We ask you to describe what makes you the right person to teach this class. Some questions to consider are: How well-versed are you in the topic? Why do you want to share this with people? What is your positionality in relation to the topic? You don’t need to answer each of these questions explicitly, but they should help you think about how to describe yourself.

We also want to understand your teaching style and approach to working with students. We ask for a description of how you conduct your classes. For example, are your classes mostly lecture-based, or do you prefer to lead class discussions? What can participants expect from you as an instructor?

Indicate what type of participation is expected of people taking the class. Is this a lecture, a discussion seminar, or a workshop?

Classes meet one day a week. Our most successful classes range in length from one-day sessions to six weeks. Class sessions can last 1 hour, 1.5 hours, or 2 hours. One-day classes may last up to 3 hours. In rare cases, we offer day-long intensives.

Classes longer than six weeks are accepted only in special circumstances. Class proposals from new instructors are only considered if they are six weeks or fewer.

We may ask you to revise the number of sessions to meet the needs of the program.

We offer both in-person and virtual classes. We are unable to provide a hybrid option as our classrooms are not all equipped for livestreaming, and we do not have enough staff to continuously manage hybrid classes.

Our virtual classes are conducted through Zoom. Instructors teaching virtual classes must have the necessary computer equipment, internet access, and comfortability with remote teaching. All virtual classes are recorded and available to registered participants until two weeks after the class ends.

All in-person classrooms are equipped with internet access, overhead projectors, HDMI cords to connect to your laptop, and HDMI Adapters (for USB-C).

Classes occur on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

During the week, we offer classes in the afternoons (between 1 and 4 pm) and evenings (between 5:30 and 7:30 pm).

On Saturdays, we offer classes in the mornings (between 10 am and 12 pm) and afternoons (between 1 pm and 4 pm). Longer format classes also may be accommodated on Saturdays.

Please indicate your preferred time slots. We create a tentative schedule of the term before we send out the committee’s decisions, so it is important that we know when you’re available.

Many but not all instructors ask participants to complete voluntary reading assignments outside of class. In general, we ask that you assign no more than about 75 pages of academic reading or 200 pages of narrative reading per week. (This is not a strict rule but a guideline). Our classes generally do not have assignments other than reading, unless the class is a workshop.

• Books: You may ask participants to read one or more books or suggest books for optional further reading. The Newberry Bookshop will stock available required books at the bookshop manager’s discretion.
• Articles, Excerpts, Digital Readings: We have two ways to distribute shorter readings.
  • Digital Course Packet: Distributed by the Newberry. Participants will receive this when they register. Upon proposal acceptance, we will ask you for these materials for us to compile.
  • Instructor-Distributed Materials: Distributed by you. You will receive participant contact information one week before the class starts.
• Other: Any additional supplies for a hands-on workshop, digital or physical media (film, music, etc.), notebook or journal for a writing workshop, group tickets for a concert, performance, tour, etc.

Ensure that books you assign are reasonably priced, written to be accessible to non-specialist readers, in print, and widely available. Preferably, required books should cost a maximum of $40, ideally less. Note that commercial textbooks are usually not appropriate for adult education classes.

Scholarly articles should have accessible language and should not be centered around highly theoretical or field-specific academic discussions.

List all materials you intend to assign. All books listed must include the author, title, publisher, year, and ISBN.

In the proposal form, there is a section to indicate any reading or assignment that participants should do before the first class meeting. Please write this as you would like it to appear on the website and in the confirmation email that participants receive when they register.

A collection presentation gives you the opportunity to directly engage with the Newberry's collection as part of your class. You can select materials for our librarians to display during your regular class time or as an additional meeting. Use these guidelines to decide whether to request a collection presentation for your class:

• Newberry Reading Rooms are open 10 am to 4 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays. Collection presentations are only available during those hours.

• Instructors may request one collection presentation per class.

• A collection presentation may feature up to ten collection items.

• Instructors and class participants must follow reading room policies during collection presentations. Food, beverages, and personal items are not allowed during collection presentations; participants may store them in lockers on the first floor or basement.

• While instructors are responsible for researching and selecting collection items, Adult Education staff can connect you with Reference Librarians who are happy to consult.

• Learn more about collection presentations here. (Note that the listed fees do not apply to Newberry adult education classes).

While we typically do not provide online presentations, we encourage instructors, especially of virtual classes, to explore and use our digital collections website for class material.