1. STRESS-FREE LESSON PLANNING:
BACKLOADING MINI-UNITS AND MINI-LESSONS
FOR STANDARDS-BASED INSTRUCTION
RATIONALE: All experienced teachers know how overwhelming it is to plan lessons and units.
This tutorial will help you break planning down into manageable pieces. The planning process
presented will make planning more efficient while making content more accessible to you and
your students.
BEFORE BACKLOADING MINI-UNITS AFTER BACKLOADING MINI-
UNITS
● Applying three content standards and ● Having clear learning objects that are
seven benchmarks for one offshoots of standards
ENORMOUS six-week unit plan
● Knowing what you want students to
● Planning lessons and then tweaking accomplish because you have
them so they fit the content standards objectives based on your learning
objects
● Being unsure of what to teach because
you don't know what you WANT your ● Designing lessons around standards
students to be able to do
● Organizing content into small,
digestible units and lessons (known as
“chunking”) so neither teacher nor
student get overwhelmed
KEY PRINCIPLES:
1. Standards form the basis for instruction.
2. Learning objects and objectives are guideposts for teaching according to
standards.
3. Students remember content best when it is taught in small pieces.
4. Teachers need to assess student interactions with content IMMEDIATELY after
instruction.
5. Mini-lessons and mini-units are the best strategy for putting these principles into
effect.

2. PROCEDURE: Follow these five steps in order. Each step will give you information and an
activity that will help you in the planning process. You will start by focusing your unit as a
whole, and gradually you will break information down into mini-lessons.
***
STEP 1: CHOOSE A STANDARD AND A BENCHMARK
WHY?
● Your whole unit will revolve around the standard and benchmark(s)
you choose.
● Schools require you to follow them.
ACTIVITY:
➔ Choose one standard and one or two benchmarks to provide the backbone
for your unit.
P.S. If this sounds overwhelming and excessive to only have one standard to
rest your whole unit on, rest assured: don't want your unit to be more than
ten days long anyway. A five-day unit is perfectly acceptable.
STEP 1B: IF YOUR STANDARD DOES NOT GIVE YOU A TOPIC FOR YOUR UNIT
PLAN, CHOOSE ONE.
For most subjects, the actual content for your unit will be contained within
the standard you chose in Step 1. If you teach literature or art, though, the
standard most likely gave you skills but not topics. Choose a topic, theme,
literary work, etc. now, and move on.

3. STEP 2: CREATE LEARNING OBJECTS
WHAT IS A LEARNING OBJECT?
A learning object is a piece of knowledge or a skill that students must get from
your course. Common learning objects might be a skill, a key concept, or an
important fact.
EXAMPLES OF LEARNING OBECTS:
● manifest destiny
● how to take notes for research using index cards
● the order of operations in math
WHY ARE THEY USEFUL?
● Each learning object will be the foundation for a different lesson or mini-
lesson.
● Because you base them on the standard you chose in Step 1, you can
forget about the standard after you complete this step.
ACTIVITY:
➔ Write down at least five learning objects that MUST be a part of your unit.
STEP 3: WRITE OBJECTIVES
WHAT ARE OBJECTIVES? Objectives are the activities students must be
able to do to show that they have mastered the learning object. They can be
as simple as defining vocab words or as involved as involved as evaluating
ethical dilemmas found in a case study.
EXAMPLES:
● Students will explain how the concept of manifest destiny impacted
American expansion.
● Students will format notes properly on fifty index cards.
● Students will be able to solve math problems using the correct order of
operations without cues.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
Objectives are learning goals. They determine what students must be able to do at
the completion of your unit.

4. ACTIVITY:
➔ Write one objective for each of your learning objects.
STEP 4: ASSESSMENT
WHY DOES ASSESSMENT COME BEFORE LESSON PLANS?
You have to determine what students need to be able to do in order to know what
you are going to teach them.
ACTIVITY:
➔ Determine what assessment you will use for each of your objectives.
STEP 5: INSTRUCTION
AT LAST: Now that you've figured out what your students need to know and
what they need to be able to do, you can choose your instructional methods.
ACTIVITY:
➔ For each learning object/objective/assessment, choose the instructional
methods that will best help them accomplish your learning goals.
***
CONGRATULATIONS! If you followed these directions, you should now have an overall
unit plan with five lesson outlines to go with it. Have fun teaching!
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:
● You will want to choose a final assessment for the entire unit. You can build this using
the assessments you have used for your lessons and mini-lessons.
● Just because you're breaking learning down into bite-size pieces doesn't mean you can let
your students forget content from units past. You'll want to give comprehensive
assessments periodically to keep the material fresh.