Unit Planning Steps for a Repeatable Teaching Framework

Grab the Secondary Teacher Systems Toolkit here: https://khristenmassic.thrivecart.com/systemstoolkit/?ref=pod

Too many preps and not enough time? Let’s make your planning period actually work for you. Reserve your spot in the Unit Planning Lab here: https://khristenmassic.thrivecart.com/unit/?ref=podcast

Planning for the next school year? If your day is organized by class period, your planning calendar should be too. Grab my Editable Class Period Calendar here: https://khristenmassic.com/secondarycalendarpod

Get the Planning Period Reset Toolkit—a free set of quick-start tools to help you protect your time, focus faster, and finally finish something… even during chaotic school days. https://khristenmassic.com/reset

Shop my Teachers Pay Teachers store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Khristen-Massic-Cte-Teacher-Coach

If every unit plan you create feels like you’re reinventing the wheel, you’re not alone. Plenty of secondary teachers land here, wrestling with planning systems for middle and high school while feeling like they’re always starting from zero. The real issue? You probably aren’t missing knowledge or effort—what you’re missing is a repeatable teaching framework that lightens the load every single time.

We’ve all sat through marathon lesson planning sessions, collecting activities and sifting through standards, only to end up with a pile of disconnected ideas and a heaping dose of teacher fatigue. Host Khristen Massic knows this pain firsthand. In this episode of The Secondary Teacher Podcast, she shares the “aha” moment that flipped her script: ditching endless explanations for live, step-by-step modeling. She put herself on the hot seat, building a brand new unit from scratch right in front of other teachers—showing not just the what, but the why behind every planning choice.

One of the biggest stumbles Khristen experienced was spending way too much time explaining her thinking. Sound familiar? It turns out, what teachers crave isn’t a longer list of concepts—they want to watch someone think out loud, solving real problems in the real world of curriculum planning. Watching the process, not just hearing about it, lets you see each decision, each fork in the road, in real time. That’s where the real learning happens.

The key teaching moment came when Khristen tackled a fresh 3D printing course—blank slate, unknown territory, multiple standards. Instead of robotically following the sequence in the standards, she asked, “What experience will convince students this class is worth staying in?” The answer: get kids printing as soon as possible. Not because the other stuff isn’t important, but because immediate engagement hooks them when they’re most likely to bail or check out. This shift doesn’t just build buy-in; it completely reshapes the order and flow of the unit.

If you’re bogged down wondering about the right order for your standards, take heart: standards tell you what your students need to learn, but they don’t tell you the best way to sequence that learning. For electives, CTE, or any course that you’re building from scratch—especially with no pre-made scope or sequence—it’s up to you to decide what makes sense for your students, right now. That’s not just curriculum design, that’s making intentional instructional decisions.

Khristen brings the “Introduce, Practice, Produce” framework right to the surface. It’s dead simple: every lesson is either introducing something new, letting kids practice, or letting them produce something to show what they’ve learned. No, the world doesn’t need another acronym, but sometimes you just need a way to categorize the endless decision-making so you don’t drown in overthinking. When each lesson has a clearly defined job, planning becomes sharper—less “What worksheet should I grab?” and more “What do my students need next?” That is the teacher tip that can truly change your classroom routines and your work life balance.

Here’s the tough love: stop collecting random activities. Stop scrolling Pinterest. Before you do anything, ask yourself: “What experience do I want my students to have first—and why?” Ignore the order your standards list. Focus on what students need to encounter first to make the rest stick. That one shift—starting with student experience—makes every next decision lighter and keeps you from getting lost in the weeds.

This episode is your first step if you’re looking to actually lighten your planning load and get out of the “start from scratch” trap. Especially if you teach multiple preps, electives, or any course where the curriculum isn’t handed to you on a platter, this approach is going to help you see planning as a series of small, intentional choices, not one giant mental mountain to scale.

Whether you’re new to the secondary classroom or a veteran stuck in a rut, this series is for you. Khristen’s going deeper in coming episodes—digging into what makes a killer introduction lesson and the difference between just a “hook” and an opening that actually moves the needle on learning. No fluff, just real strategies for teachers who want to spend less time in decision paralysis and more time making progress that matters.

So here’s your marching order: don’t just sit and think—get ruthless about your planning process. Every lesson serves a purpose, every choice can get lighter, and your sanity is worth more than “another cute activity.”

Do the work, trust the process, and never let a blank unit plan intimidate you again. Planning doesn’t have to hurt—so make tomorrow lighter, and don’t take anyone else’s script as gospel.

Burn the old playbook. Write your own.