Creating Unit Plans Video
Adding Units and Resources via Quick Add
Via your dashboard, clicking the top-left + Quick Add icon allows you to directly create a new unit, assessment task, or upload resources into an existing unit without navigating to a class.
Adding and Editing Units via Classes
Via Classes > select your IB PYP Homeroom class > Tasks & Units. Here you can see the current unit, upcoming tasks and a calendar of units shared with the class. On the right navigation panel, click Add New Unit.
Adding a new unit will prompt you to input a Title (1), select your Unit Planner Template (2), define a subject(s) focus (3), indicate any shared grades (4), select the starting month, week and duration of the unit (5), and an optional unit description (6). Lastly, select if you would like to save the unit as a Draft (7). Click Create Unit & Add Resources (8) to create the Unit of Inquiry and access the complete unit template.
Note: These fields can also be completed later on. To edit an existing unit, click on the unit and then Edit Unit Plan.
Unit Navigation Overview
Once you have entered the unit's basic information, you will see the complete in-line unit template.
Note: While ManageBac provides default templates for the IB PYP, your school can customize this via Settings. This tutorial uses the basic ManageBac template as a framework.
Quick Navigation Buttons
At-a-Glance: Provides a read-only unit summary view. This represents what a Student or Parent sees when accessing the unit. Upload a cover image to enhance visibility.
The cover image can be resized and moved to fit the At-a-Glance image field.
Planner: An in-line edit mode allowing you to browse the full unit while editing. Add additional
Stream & Resources: Group Tasks, Learning Experiences & Resources in a stream. Add Lesson Plans or identify Learning Support
Assessments: Add Tasks and assessment coverage details
Collaborative Planning
Online Presence: See if your colleagues are on ManageBac and if they are editing a unit section. You'll see their profile picture beside the section they're editing, and a blue circle around their profile picture on the left-hand side to signify ongoing edits.
Real-time Editing: See edits from colleagues reflected in real-time without having to refresh the planner. Either Save Changes or Discard to undo unwanted edits.
Collaboration: Multiple teachers can plan collaboratively similar to Google Docs. The section they are editing will appear under the Authors section, with their name also appearing on the section in the planner. An “Edit Lock” feature prevents accidental overwriting, with teachers able to edit different sections at the same time, and the edit section button being disabled if another teacher is editing.
Section Navigational Tips
Unit Outline: A menu streamlining navigation, providing a snapshot of overall progress, and quick links to navigate throughout the planner. Your menu will switch to a Lite Menu view to provide additional screen space when planning.
Ongoing Reflections: Click the speech bubble icon to open the right-hand side Reflection section. @Tag colleagues to bring them into the conversation and leave reflections throughout the unit.
Share & Star: Click the 3 dots icon in any section of the planner to share a direct link to your colleagues, or star a section to highlight it.
Guidance: View customized in-school guidance, as well as From Principles into Practice and IB Standards & Practices notes.
View other Units: Click the unit name to quickly navigate to other units in the class to cross-reference your planning.
Building your UOI
The Planner
Editing a unit is managed under the Planner tab.
- On the right-hand side, you can generate a PDF planner
- View the last time the unit was edited
- Add unit authors to collaboratively build the unit.
Note: Any teacher who is a teacher in a class of the same subject and year level as the unit will appear as an option in the Add Author list. Teachers can also add themselves as an author directly.
Plan - Summary
- Share the unit across year levels by ticking the year level check box
- Identify your subject(s) focus and share units to classes with these subjects enabled
- Update the start month, week, duration and hours of the unit. The unit will fall on your class unit calendar and Whole-School Curriculum accordingly
- Enter a unit description that will be shared with members of the class.
- Note: Ticking draft unit will hide the unit from your class schedule, as well as hide it from Students & Parents. Read more about drafting & hiding units here.
Plan - Inquiry
- Identify the unit's Transdisciplinary Theme and select from a list of theme descriptors.
- Enter your Central Idea in the text box. Each text box provides rich-text formatting options such as bold and italic text, numbered or ordered lists, embedded media or files, and the ability to insert links and tables.
- Click Add Line of Inquiry to create a LOI. Edit existing LOI by updating the text in the field, or delete by checking the box and Save Changes.
Note: Units on a Specialist template will exclude the Transdisciplinary theme.
Plan - Learning Goals
- Enter Connections to past and future learning, outlining opportunities for students to develop conceptual understandings to support the transfer of learning across, between and beyond subjects.
- Add Learning Goals and identify co-constructed Success Criteria between students and teachers.
- Select from your school's Scope & Sequence, selected by Subject, Phase or Year Level, organised by Overall Expectations, Conceptual Understandings, and Learning Outcomes that you plan to address.
- Use the search box to search for a particular standard.
Note: Submit a standards import request to update your own school-specific curriculum standards.
Plan - Key and Related Concepts
- Select your Key Concepts.
- Once selected, identify the subject focus and list related concepts to provide a lens for conceptual understandings within that subject for that concept.
Note: Any text box on ManageBac supports any written language. Select the text direction from left-to-right or right-to-left.
Plan - Developing IB Learners
- Select your Learner Profile connections and add a description.
- You can hover the 'i' icon to check out the definitions of each attribute.
Note: Units can be edited at any point in time, thus if you have missed a skill, you can edit and select when needed.
Plan - ATL Skills
- Click Add ATL Skills, select an Approaches to Learning category to view the full skills list and add a description.
- Use the search box to find a particular skill.
Note: For lists, we recommend using ordered or unordered lists with indentation.
Plan - Action
- Address opportunities for Student-initiated action.
Note: If you are typing a lengthy comment entry, click the Full-screen arrows button to expand the edit box.
Design & Implement - Assessment & Resources
- Add coverage on Ongoing Assessment.
- Create Tasks to assess student work and progress.
- Identity Resources that will be used to enhance and extend learning.
- Outline opportunities for Student Self-Assessment and Peer Feedback.
Note: Use the left-hand unit outline to quickly navigate up and down the planner via Quick Links.
Design & Implement - Learning Experiences
- Enter coverage notes on Designing engaging Learning Experiences
- Address how the unit will Support Student Agency
Note: Learning Experiences can be created directly under the Stream & Resources tab
Reflect - Reflections
- Reflections are supported both in line with each section of the planner, as well as a summary at the end of the planner.
- Enter Reflections on Looking forward and back on the unit, as well as Subject Specific Reflections
Note: Reflections are carried over with the unit from year to year, so you can track historical changes, and continue to develop the unit over time. Select the term dropdown to view reflections from prior academic years.
Stream & Resources
-
Create new resources including:
- Assessment Tasks
- Website and Video links
- Upload or Link Files
- Upload Photos
- Write a journal Note
Note: There is no limit to the number of resources added to your ManageBac account, however, each individual file must be under 500mb.
Stream View
- Organise your tasks and resources into a visual layout in the Stream by dragging and dropping
- Items in the Stream are automatically shared for Students & Parents to view
Resources
When adding a resource to a Unit, the Add Resource menu will show options for title, description and to select if you want to add the resource to the Stream directly or not. By default, resources are added to the Resources section.
The Resources section of the Unit allows for filtering by resource type via the Filter button. You can also add a resource to the Stream by clicking the arrow button next to each resource. Editing and additional resource options are available via the 3 dot menu for each resource.
Note: All resources listed in the Resources section of a unit can be added as Task resources to individual tasks. If a resource is added to the Stream, it will be unavailable to be added to a task.
Importing from Resources Bank
Importing from the Resource Bank allows you to add a unit stream and lesson experiences from other classes where the unit also appears.
1. Select the Unit where the Stream and Lesson Experiences need to be imported from.
2. Select which class the Lesson Experience is created in.
3. Select which Lesson Experiences to import and which resources in those to import.
4. Proceed to import or click Proceed and import Next if you want to add additional Lesson Experiences to this unit.
This will add these resources to your unit and resources section.
Lesson Experiences
- Create Lesson Plans via the Lesson Experience button at the top of the Stream & Resources page.
- Enter a lesson experience title, description and duration
- Resources in the stream can be dragged into a particular Lesson Plan. This allows you to organise the stream across Weeks, Topics or even Learning Support individualised learning.
See an example of Arranging Lesson Plan Resources below:
Assessments
Assessment & Resources
- If you are only looking to create tasks and add assessment coverage, quickly reference this under the Assessments tab at the top of the unit plan
Note: Task assessment settings can be customized by an admin in your school's Settings
Generating a PDF Planner
Under the Planner tab, click Generate PDF Planner on the right-hand side
- As a form of best practice, it is recommended to download planners as PDFs once a term or academic year, so you have a local copy on file
Planners can also be bulk generated via Dashboard > Curriculum.