Curriculum

Design and the

Unit Work List

Andrew Fons’ Teacher Leadership Project

New Designs Charter School
USC Fullerton Online Teacher Induction Program
Presentation Objectives

• The objective of this presentation is to communicate to teachers a process for

creating a multifunctional curriculum map that is also designed for students and
parents to track their academic progress.
• The goal is to have more teachers unified on a progress monitoring system, so
progress tracking is more accessible and simpler to analyze across different subjects.
• Through this presentation, I am working on the following skills:
• NBPTS Proposition 4: Teachers think systematically about their practices and
learn from experience.
• Teacher Leader Model Standards Domain 4: Facilitates Improvements in
Instruction and Student Learning
Educational • Do you have trouble with any of the
following?
Hook, Inquiry • Students refuse to write down
Questions their assignments and tasks?
• Students not knowing what
assignment that they need to
do or makeup?
• Students not holding
themselves accountable for
their own academic success?
• Students always asking, “What
is my grade?”
• Parents not knowing their
student’s grades?
• What if…
• What if we gave the students a
playlist of all their assignment?
• What if students tracked their
progress on that playlist?
• What if we have students
record their current grade
every week, so they can see
their grades changing?
• What if we have parents sign
these grades every week?
• What if we could put all these
ideas together?
The Unit Work List

• What if we could put all these ideas

together?
• I would like to propose a different way
of organizing your curriculums with a
document I call the “Unit Work List”
What is the Unit Work
List?

• In short, the unit work list is:

• A curriculum map
• A student planner for the
academic year
• A playlist of all your graded
assignments
• A way to track student progress
and student growth
• A way to communicate with
parents
Culminating Activity/Question #1
• At the end of this presentation, you will create a
Unit Work List for your own class.
• You can make a single page version for a single unit.
• Please complete this Google Form so I have
preliminary intel about what material your unit
work list will cover.
• https://forms.gle/HcvcUvxaepBYqpPp7
The Evolution of the
Unit Work List
The Evolution of the
Unit Work List
• The List of Topics, by week
The Evolution of the
Unit Work List
• The List of Topics, by week
• Every Day Planned
The Evolution of the
Unit Work List
• The List of Topics, by week
• Every Day Planned
• The Unit Work List, the current version
my students are using
The Evolution of the
Unit Work List
• The List of Topics, by week
• Every Day Planned
• The Unit Work List, the current version
my students are using
• There is still room for improvement

• The Unit Work List, The Best Version

• The Unit Work List, Blank Copy

 The Benefits of the Unit Work List:
In your classroom As an entire grade
Monitor student Identify students
who are struggling
completion of
in a single subject
grades verses all subjects

Progress of grade Councilors can

Visual Aid for
Reaching out to assess student
changes from parent
parents conferences
progress and work
week to week habits

EL staff can
RSP staff can
Consolidating Emotional reference
support specific
documents Wellbeing topics
assignments and
current topics
Flexibility
• Backwards Planning taken to the next level
• Delaying assignments is easy
• Sometimes the students complete the assignments early, that is rarely a bad thing
• Assigning work early
• The creation of the unit work list allows assignment to be completed early, and at the student
pace.
• Canceling or replacing assignments
• Student were easily able to scratch out and replace assignments as needed
• Supplemental assignment
• Adding additional assignments to support student learning is possible
• If it is not going to affect the students’ grades, they it probably doesn’t need to be on the Unit
Work List
• Creating the entire document verses one page at a time
• Creating the who thing, but only giving one page at a time to student allows you to keep the
distant future flexible for modifications
Analyzing some sample
Unit Work Lists
Completed Unit Work Lists from 3 Students
Progress • On the next slide are the pages of a Unit
Work List for a single student from the

Monitoring beginning of the year until about 3 weeks

ago.

Question #1 • What conclusions can we infer about this

student’s academic progress?
• Work Habits?
• Grade changes from week to week?
• Willingness to improve their grade?
• Changes from semester 1 to semester 2?
• Any other observations?
Progress
Monitoring
Question #1

• Here are the pages of a Unit Work List for

a single student.
• What conclusions can we infer about this
student’s academic progress?
• Work Habits?
• Grade changes from week to week?
• Willingness to improve their grade?
• Changes from semester 1 to semester 2?
• Any other observations?
How to create your own
Unit Work List
Create your own Unit Work List, Research
The Unit Work List, Blank Copy 2021-2022
• Start with the school calendar
• Add important, unchangeable dates, such as breaks, days off, state testing, and finals
• Each page represents a 6-week grading period, the same grading periods the school uses
• Go to your CCSS, and identify your core standards verses your supplementary
standards
• Go to your primary educational resources, such as Edmentum, SpringBoard, and
your textbooks.
• Cross-reference your stand standards to your primary educational resources
• Go to your secondary educational resources, such as BrainPOP, Flocabulary, and
Kahoot
• Think about how these tools will support your primary educational resources
Create your own Unit Work List, Completion
The Unit Work List, Blank Copy 2021-2022
• Fill in your assignments into the Unit Work List
• Make sure the names of the assignments are the same as what the students
will see.
• [extra] Enter your assignments into PowerSchool, and make sure the names
of the assignments are the same.
Create your own Unit Work List, Submission
The Unit Work List, Blank Copy 2021-2022
• Please email your Unit Work List to
andrew.fons@newdeignscharter.net so I have tangible evidence
that you attended my presentation.
• I am not an administrator, so I will not be forwarding these to our
admin team.
Culminating Activity/Question #2
• Please use this time to create a Unit Work List
• You can make and submit a single page
version for a single unit
• Please complete this feedback survey/quiz on
Google Forms once you are done creating your
Unit Work List
• https://forms.gle/FMsfw61CQcPQm1sdA
Progress • How would you change or modify the
unit work list?

Monitoring • What do you like about it?

• What parts seem unnecessary?

Question #2 • What is missing?

Thank you for
your
participation