DecisionPoint Education

DECISIONPOINT CURRICULUM PLANNING TOOLS

Start with the evidence.
Build backward with purpose.

Align common assessments, dates, pacing, transfer, evidence, barriers, and learning experiences before filling the calendar.

STEP 1

Set the unit and calendar

STEP 2

Anchor the plan to common evidence

STEP 3

Answer the five planning questions

These answers drive the plan. Write in plain language; refine wording after the learning and assessment are aligned.

STEP 4

Choose supporting design moves

Ways students may show the evidence
Learning-sequence moves
Access supports that preserve the goal
STEP 5

Your dated backward plan

4-week unit · 0 assessment filesAssessment → transfer → pacing → learning
DECISIONPOINT EDUCATIONBackward design
BACKWARD UNIT DESIGN

UNIT AT A GLANCE
7th Grade Social Studies | How societies respond to change
Length: 4 weeks · 5 class days per week
Planned dates: Not set to Not set
Common assessment date: Not set
Culminating Depth of Knowledge: DOK 3 — Strategic thinking
Bloom’s cognitive process: Evaluate and create

PRIORITY STANDARDS
Students analyze causes, consequences, and competing perspectives using evidence from primary and secondary sources.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Whose choices shape change?
How does evidence change the story we tell?

COMMON ASSESSMENT ALIGNMENT
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Assessment expectations and imported TXT/CSV content:
Common assessment emphasizes defensible claims, relevant evidence, perspective analysis, and explanation of cause and consequence.

PACING PARAMETERS
Protect one flex day before the common assessment and two class periods for feedback, reteaching, and revision.

PLANNED CHECKPOINTS
End of Week 1: prerequisite and misconception check
Middle of Week 2: source-analysis checkpoint
End of Week 3: draft evidence conference

THE FIVE PLANNING DECISIONS

1. WHAT SHOULD LAST AFTER THE UNIT?
Students will use evidence to explain how decisions made during periods of change affect different groups.

2. WHAT MUST STUDENTS BE ABLE TO DO OR EXPLAIN?
Students can make a defensible claim, select relevant evidence, explain competing perspectives, and show how one decision affected different groups.

3. WHAT EVIDENCE WOULD BE CONVINCING?
An evidence-based explanation of a consequential decision, supported by primary and secondary sources and revised after feedback.

4. WHAT COULD GET IN THE WAY?
Students may confuse cause with chronology, treat one perspective as the whole story, or quote sources without explaining how the evidence supports a claim.

5. WHAT EXPERIENCES WILL MOVE STUDENTS FROM HERE TO THERE?
Begin with a disputed decision; compare accounts; model claim-evidence-reasoning; practice perspective analysis; complete a midpoint evidence conference; draft, receive feedback, and revise.

EVIDENCE DESIGN
• Performance task or authentic product
• Common assessment
• Writing or constructed response

SUCCESS CRITERIA
• Evidence directly addresses the priority standard and transfer goal.
• Students show the named thinking—not merely task completion.
• Criteria describe quality, reasoning, and use of evidence.
• Students receive feedback and an opportunity to improve.

RESPONSIVE PACING ARC
WEEK 1 — Launch the central problem, establish relevance, and uncover prior knowledge and misconceptions.
WEEK 2 — Build essential knowledge, study quality examples, and practice the first priority skill with feedback.
WEEK 3 — Move toward independent application. Use a checkpoint to decide who needs reteaching, another model, or greater challenge.
WEEK 4 — Complete the common or culminating evidence, use criteria-based feedback to revise, and reflect on transfer.

SELECTED LEARNING MOVES
• Launch with a compelling question or problem
• Model or analyze an exemplar
• Use formative checkpoints
• Include revision after feedback

ACCESS WITHOUT LOWERING THE GOAL
• Vocabulary and language supports
• Visuals, models, and worked examples
• Choice of response format

FORMATIVE DECISION POINTS
• Opening: Test anticipated barriers—Students may confuse cause with chronology, treat one perspective as the whole story, or quote sources without explaining how the evidence supports a claim.
• Mid-unit: Gather a short sample of the target performance—Students can make a defensible claim, select relevant evidence, explain competing perspectives, and show how one decision affected different groups.
• Before the common assessment: Compare work to the convincing evidence—An evidence-based explanation of a consequential decision, supported by primary and secondary sources and revised after feedback.
• Revision: Give feedback on the gap between current work and the transfer goal.

UNIT QUALITY CHECK
• Standards, common assessment, transfer, evidence, dates, and daily learning align.
• Activities earn their place by preparing students for the evidence.
• The calendar protects time to respond to formative evidence.
• Support changes access—not intellectual demand.
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