Backward-Design (UbD) Template
Goals / evidence / activities frame.
A Backward-Design (UbD) Template is a three-stage planning frame drawn from Wiggins and McTighe's Understanding by Design framework. Instead of starting with activities, the teacher begins by defining the desired results — the enduring understandings and essential questions students should take away — then identifies acceptable evidence of learning, and only then plans the learning experiences that will lead students there. The blank template structures this reverse-engineering process with clearly labelled stages so every planning decision is tied back to the ultimate goal. Curriculum coordinators use it for unit design; individual teachers use it for lesson sequences; instructional coaches use it in professional learning workshops. Because the frame is subject-neutral and grade-independent, it works equally well for a Year 1 science unit, a high-school literature study, or a cross-curricular inquiry project. The disciplined structure it imposes consistently reduces the 'coverage trap' of activity-focused planning.
Learning objectives
- Anchor unit planning in clearly defined enduring understandings and essential questions
- Identify assessment evidence before designing learning activities
- Ensure coherent alignment between goals, evidence, and instruction
- Prompt reflection on what students truly need to understand versus what they merely need to know
- Support curriculum mapping and vertical alignment across year levels
- Provide a shareable planning artefact for team teaching and curriculum review
How to use this template
- Download and print the template or open it digitally; the three-stage layout guides the sequence.
- Complete Stage 1 first: write the unit title, relevant standards, enduring understandings, and two to three essential questions.
- Move to Stage 2: decide what evidence — performance tasks, quizzes, observations — will tell you students have achieved the goals.
- Complete Stage 3: plan the specific learning activities, resources, and instructional sequence that will prepare students for the assessments.
- Review the three stages for alignment before teaching; revisit and refine the plan after the unit based on student outcomes.
Classroom & home ideas
- Use the template as a whole-team planning tool at the start of a semester, with each stage completed collaboratively during a professional learning day.
- Display a large printed version on the staffroom wall during a curriculum review so colleagues can add sticky-note feedback on each stage.
- Give student teachers a blank copy and ask them to plan a mini-unit, then debrief on how starting with goals changed their activity choices.
- Cross-reference the essential questions in Stage 1 with the discussion prompts you use during lessons to check for genuine alignment.
- At the end of a unit, return to the template and annotate what worked and what to adjust, building a bank of refined plans for future use.
Skills & curriculum links
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be familiar with the UbD framework to use this template?
A basic understanding helps, but the labelled stages and prompt questions on the template guide even first-time users through the backward-design thinking process.
Can I use backward design for a single lesson rather than a full unit?
Yes, though the framework adds the most value for multi-lesson units. For a single lesson you can treat Stage 1 as the lesson objective and Stage 2 as an exit task.
Is this template suitable for cross-curricular projects?
It is particularly well suited to cross-curricular design because the enduring understandings section invites big ideas that naturally span subject boundaries.
How do I handle mandated curriculum content within a backward-design approach?
Map the mandated content standards into Stage 1 alongside your enduring understandings. The process helps you identify which standards require deep understanding and which only need coverage.
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