Unit plan: [Unit title]
How to use this template
Plan backward, in stage order. Stage 1 says what students should understand and be able to do; Stage 2 decides what evidence would show it, above all one performance task; Stage 3 is the lessons that get them there. Write Stage 3 last: lessons planned first tend to become the unit.
In the lesson sequence, mark each lesson's type: A when students acquire knowledge and skills, M when they make meaning of a big idea, T when they transfer it to a new situation. A good unit has all three, and ends in T. Leave a flex day every week or two for reteaching and catching up.
Course and grade | |
Teachers | |
Lessons and dates | |
Follows | |
Leads into | |
Core materials |
Stage 1: Goals
Transfer goal
On their own, students will be able to use what they learn to
Standards
Understandings and essential questions
Students will understand that… | Essential questions |
Questions worth a whole unit
An essential question has no single right answer, invites argument from evidence, and is still worth asking on the last day. If a student could look the answer up, it's a lesson question.
Lesson question: What year did the Civil War end?
Essential question: When is a war worth fighting, and who decides?
Lesson question: What is a food web?
Essential question: What happens to everyone else when one species disappears?
Knowledge and skills
Students will know | Students will be able to |
Stage 2: Evidence
Performance task
Goal | |
Role | |
Audience | |
Situation | |
Product | |
Criteria | |
Due |
See a performance task
Goal: Persuade the town council to protect or develop the wetland behind the school.
Role: An environmental consultant hired by the council.
Audience: The town council, played by parents and the principal.
Situation: A developer wants to build on the wetland, and the council votes next month.
Product: A five-minute presentation and a one-page brief.
Criteria: Uses at least three pieces of data from our field study; explains one food web the decision would change; answers a council question with evidence.
Other evidence
Check | When | What it shows |
Pre-assessment | Lesson 1 | |
Self-assessment |
Stage 3: Lesson sequence
Type: A acquire, M make meaning, T transfer.
Lesson | Focus | Students will | Type | Check |
1 | ||||
2 | ||||
3 | ||||
4 | ||||
5 | ||||
Last | Performance task | T | Rubric |
Differentiation
Support | |
Extension | |
Accommodations | |
English learners |
Alignment check
Every Stage 1 goal is assessed somewhere in Stage 2
The performance task asks students to apply what they learned in a new situation, not only recall it
Every lesson builds toward a goal or the task
Students meet the essential questions in lesson 1, and return to them
The sequence has lessons of all three types, A, M and T, and ends in T
After the unit
What worked:
What to change:
Results on the task: