At NCIC-Immersion, we know that planning for student learning must be intentional if it is to be effectual.

While there are many considerations involved in developing substantive and meaningful units of study, certain school-wide planning structures help teachers develop curriculum units to optimize student learning.  

Drawing from the Common Ground Collaborative’s (CGC) framework for curriculum design, the following provides an outline for how NCIC-Immersion faculty design learning experiences at the unit level.

Unit planning, like other essential elements of our school, begins with a clear understanding of our “Why,” which is established by a compelling question and the unit story.  

In essence, the compelling question is the title of the unit written in question form, which is designed to be open-ended and intended to spark an interest in students as they explore the unit’s content.  

The “story” helps to establish why the unit’s topic is worth learning by providing a clear understanding of the gist of the unit and its importance.

The second key component of our unit planners is the “What.” 

This div includes three important features that serve as the backbone for the learning that will take place throughout the unit: the illustrative content, the learning goals, and the content standards.  

Building on the unit’s story, the illustrative content provides the context through which learning goals and content standards will be explored.  

The learning goals are organized around our 3Cs: concepts, competencies, and character.  

These provide descriptions of what students should understand, be able to do, and become after their time exploring the unit.  

The unit’s content standards provide a basis from which the learning goals are developed and are selected from our adopted curriculum standards (e.g., Chinese National Curriculum and US Common Core). 

The third div of our unit planning documents is the “How.”

In this part, teachers identify the unit’s framing questions and learning sequence.  The framing questions align with, add detail to, and further contextualize the overall compelling question (unit title).  

The final unit component, the “Evidence,” includes three main parts: a description of the culminating demonstration of student learning (summative assessment), learner’s goals connections, and unit reflection exercises.   

As a central ingredient in building student agency, teachers heavily consider student choice and voice in developing unit summative assessments.  

This is often accomplished by allowing students to select one of two summative assessment options that they would like to complete to demonstrate their understanding of the 3Cs and content standards.  

In all subjects throughout the year, teachers support students in their development of the NCIC-Immersion learner’s goals: negotiator, collaborator, inquirer, and complex thinker.  

To ensure that these skills are cultivated, the evidence div of unit plans includes a place for teachers to describe how the unit’s learning experiences are connected with one or more of the school’s learner’s goals.  

Finally, a reflection component of the plan provides teachers with guiding question stems that they can use as students consider their learning over the course of the unit. 

While the key components described above are organized sequentially, it is important to note that in keeping with our adopted Understanding by Design (Ubd) planning approach from curriculum experts Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, NCIC-Immersion faculty apply a backwards design method that begins with the end in mind. 

In this way, teachers identify desired learning results, determine appropriate evidence, and then plan learning experiences.  

And of course, all throughout the design process, students’ developmental needs as well as our schoolwide learner’s goals are kept in focus as teachers collaborate to develop learning opportunities that will nurture and extend the knowledge and skills of all students. 

Colt Turner

Director of Teaching&Learning