Introduction to Unit Planning

Unit planning and design is an essential step in planning for instruction in any classroom. Units of study
bring together standards across subject areas into meaningful clusters that merge academic learning
and real life applications. Teachers can plan for an academic year by organizing units of study into a
month-by-month plan for scope and sequence. All standards within the grade level or grade band should
be accounted for at the completion of this layer of planning.

Step-by-Step Directions for Unit Planning

At the unit planning stage the focus is on selection and organization of standards (general or extended)
and resources for the unit. A step-by-step guide is provided to show the steps within the unit planning
process.

Unit Planning is the first of the three layers of planning that are needed to lay the groundwork for high
quality instruction. This first layer includes the scope and sequence of thematic units. Examples provided
here are taken from concepts within the science and social studies standards. Science and social studies
standards are rich with topics that have the potential to spark special interests, hobbies, and functional
applications, and promote social and collaborative opportunities and skills rooted in many professions.
Science and social studies topics meld well as themes that can then be used to engage students in
activities in other content areas, such as literacy and mathematics.