Unit+Design

We had some requests for further background on how to design units that result in the kind of learning you saw in 'The Legless Lizard' and 'Making Meaning".

The following guide is a booklet we developed for schools participating in SparkL, CLiC and a Curriculum Project in SMR. It can be used to reflect on where you are now in your own Unit Design Process.



We currently have a new film in production which is the result of a TPL teacher (MJ Clarke) engaging with the ideas in the above booklet to expand her practice in the areas of learning design, pedagogy and assessment. Her school's Unit design template was the starting point, but she ended up revising it to just include the things that actually helped her to teach.

Her Year 8 English Unit is below:

The Assessment Tasks were then developed into a booklet in an attempt to clarify with students what they would need to produce and to what standard:

If you would like to view the 3 films associated with this Unit - please paste the following links into your browser - be patient as depending on the speed of your Internet connection they might take 10-20 mins to buffer:

//**Film 1 - [|Teacher Aspirations]**//

//**Film 2: [|Exploration of significant ideas and development of deeper understanding] **//

//**Film 3: [|Local Context Investigation and Action] **//

A Science teacher at the school then transferred her Unit Design into a similar structure and also found it more helpful than the original school template. This is her first draft:



This school is now commencing a whole school Unit Design Review and will draw upon the research of last year's TPL teachers to inform this.

Primary Unit Design Examples
Below is an inquiry planner for a unit of inquiry for junior primary around connectedness between living things

Below is an inquiry design based at a primary school with 12 Year 3 students. The group of students designed and lead the learning.

Following is a design for an independent inquiry with Year 4 Mathematics as the main content area.

Several of our Partner Primary Schools are currently revising the way they design for learning. A process we have used to ensure they end up with something everyone understands, values and will use is:

A School Review Process to Strengthen Unit Designs

 * 1. A provocation scenario:** You have just moved to a new school and you are handed a Unit Design for this term. You are relieved when you see it as it provides you with clear guidelines as for you teaching this term. What did the Unit Design attend to - just the categories e.g. Title, Learning Goals or intentions. Agree on what you all believe is necessary and important to attend to in a Unit Design.


 * 2. Read:** The above Introduction to Unit Design. Is there anything else you would add to the above list?


 * 3. Analyse:** A high quality Unit Design such as the Hunger Games. Is there anything this teacher has attended to that you think needs to be in your school's Unit Designs?


 * 4. Create:** a list of success criteria for Unit Designs in your school


 * 5. Analyse:** a selection of current Units. In light of our success criteria, where are we now? What are we strong in? What needs attention or strengthening? How well aligned are our assessments with the learning goals of the Unit? How well have the standards informed the design of the Unit?


 * 6. Plan:** how might we lead a similar process with our teams so that others have similar insights to those we've had today?

Below is an inquiry design based at a primary school with 12 Year 3 students. The group of students designed and lead the learning.

Following is a design for an independent inquiry with Year 4 Mathematics as the main content area.

How do we know if we have designed a high quality Unit?
Ron Ritchhart offers these 7 dimensions of quality:



=What language and scaffold will take place so to dig deep into the concepts?=