Unit Plan Generator

How to Use the Unit Plan Generator

1. 1. Set the unit's size. Enter a title, subject and grade, then choose the number of weeks, the lessons per week and the lesson length. The tool works out the total number of lessons and teaching time.
2. 2. Plan backwards. Work through Stage 1 (what students should understand, know and do), then Stage 2 (the evidence that shows it), and only then Stage 3 (the lessons). Each field takes one item per line.
3. 3. Add the lessons. List your lesson titles in order. They are spread across the weeks and each lesson is marked with its place in the unit's arc. Leave titles blank and the lesson stays as a numbered placeholder.
4. 4. Check and take it away. The completeness check shows which parts are still empty. Copy plan puts a formatted version on the clipboard for Word or Google Docs; Download saves it as a text file in Markdown.

What Understanding by Design Asks For

Understanding by Design (UbD) is the planning framework set out by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in their book of that name, first published by ASCD in 1998 and expanded in 2005. Its central idea is backward design: begin with the learning you want at the end of the unit, decide what would count as evidence of it, and only then plan the lessons that get students there. The reasoning is that a unit planned from activities risks being busy without being purposeful.

Writing Good Stage 1 Entries

• Understandings are full sentences, not topics. Energy enters most ecosystems as sunlight and moves through food webs states an idea; Ecosystems only names a subject.
• Essential questions are open. A good one — How can removing one species change a whole ecosystem? — has several defensible answers and can come back throughout the unit. A question with one correct answer is better placed under Knowledge.
• Knowledge and skills are the building blocks. They are what students need in order to reach the understandings: the vocabulary, the facts and the techniques.
• Keep goals few. Three or four goals or standards that the unit can honestly assess are worth more than a dozen it only touches.

How the Lesson Sequence Is Arranged

Stage 3 in UbD is organised around the acronym WHERETO: Where is the unit going and why; Hook the students; Equip them with experiences and tools; give them chances to Rethink and revise; Evaluate their work; Tailor the plan to the learners; and Organize the sequence for deep understanding. The generator does not write the lessons, but it gives each one a place in the arc of the unit and shows the WHERETO elements that stage normally serves.

This is a default pattern, not a rule. If your unit needs two launch lessons or the performance task is staged over a week, change the lesson titles to say so; the labels are a prompt for your thinking, and the plan you copy or download shows them next to the titles you wrote.

From Unit Plan to Daily Plans

A unit plan sets the direction; each lesson still needs its own plan with objectives, activities and checks. Use the unit's essential questions as the thread through those lessons, draft the daily detail in the Lesson Plan Generator, and write precise lesson aims with the Learning Objective Generator. Build the rubric for the Stage 2 performance task before the unit starts, so students see the criteria from the first lesson.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a unit plan?

A unit plan is a teacher's outline for a block of several weeks of teaching on one theme or topic. It sets the goals, the way learning will be assessed, and the sequence of lessons, but it leaves the daily detail to individual lesson plans. This tool follows the three-stage Understanding by Design layout.

What are the three stages of Understanding by Design?

Stage 1 identifies the desired results, Stage 2 decides the assessment evidence, and Stage 3 plans the learning experiences and instruction. The order is deliberate: because the lessons come last, they are chosen for how well they lead to the results and evidence, not for being familiar activities.

What does WHERETO stand for?

Where is the unit going, and why? Hook and hold students' interest. Equip students with experiences and tools. Rethink and revise their understanding. Evaluate their work. Tailor the work to different learners. Organize the sequence to maximize engagement and understanding. Wiggins and McTighe offer it as a checklist for Stage 3.

How long should a unit be?

Between two and six weeks is typical, long enough for students to meet a big idea from several angles and short enough to keep a performance task in sight. This tool accepts one to twelve weeks and one to seven lessons a week, with lessons from 20 to 120 minutes.

Does the generator write my unit for me?

No. It arranges what you type: it counts the lessons, spreads your titles across the weeks, labels each lesson's place in the unit, and flags the parts you have left empty. The goals, questions, tasks and lessons are yours. Honest templates, no AI.

Can I use this for a curriculum that does not follow Understanding by Design?

Yes. The three stages are headings, so you can fill them with whatever your curriculum calls for: learning outcomes in Stage 1, assessments in Stage 2 and a lesson list in Stage 3. The WHERETO labels are optional guidance, and you can ignore them.

Is my unit plan saved or uploaded?

No. The plan is built in your browser from what you type, and nothing is sent anywhere or stored. Copy it or download it before you close the page, because reloading clears the fields.