Phase 2: Unit Plans

Create coherent, standards-aligned unit plans.

Curriculum writing is a research-driven discipline. The most effective curriculum anchors goals, assessments, and instruction in cognitive science, science of reading, backward design, and text complexity analysis. Following the principles of Understanding by Design, curriculum development defines the intellectual work students must do before planning instructional activities.

Our sessions show not just what to design, but why it works and how to design it well. Teams learn to design curriculum from the inside out: first clarifying what meaningful learning looks like by studying the science behind instructional design. They use high-quality rubrics and research-aligned frameworks to write coherent, rigorous units. Then the team writes assessments and instructional sequences that support effective learning. With shared frameworks and design tools, teams become designers of learning experiences that are precise, aligned, and ensure learning gains.

In action, this looks like:

  • Creating Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings and mapping them to standards

  • Using knowledge-building and text complexity rubrics to curate coherent text sets

  • Defining learning goals and assessments that drive each unit

  • Sequencing coherent instruction that methodically progresses from knowledge-building to higher-level thinking

  • Selecting or developing rubrics to evaluate curriculum