As teachers work daily to prepare and work with students, curriculum development — however important — can seem overwhelming. Giving background information on the Model Curriculum Unit Project and showing how they’re created, this video highlights the backward design process used to create MCUs and discusses how teachers use first-hand knowledge of student needs in the process.

WGBH, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, wants you to know that whether you’re adapting or implementing the MCU Model or creating your own curriculum materials locally, the DESE has tools to support your efforts:

Creating Curriculum Units at the Local Level: an Interactive Guide on the ESE’s web site is full of guidance, examples, tips and video links to help you through the development process.

You can download the MCU lesson plan template here.   And many of the MCUs on the ESE web site are accompanied by implementation videos, denoted by a video icon on the MCU web page.