Curriculum Framer Help

The Unit Portfolio: Creating and Editing Units

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"My Units" is the default view when you enter the unit portfolio. Any time you create or copy a unit, it will appear in this section. From "My Units" you can create new units, edit existing units, schedule units, and add additional designers to a unit for team design work.




How to Create a New Unit:
From the "My Units" section of the unit portfolio, click the "+Create New Unit" link above the list of units.



You will be prompted to title your new unit and designate the unit as either single or multi-discipline. If you select multi-discipline, you will be able to designate more than one subject area for the unit. You should only select multi-disciplinary if you plan to thoroughly address standards and big ideas in multiple subjects in the unit. The unit will then show up under all related subjects in searches and reports. Units created for grade levels above grade 5 will most often be single discipline units.

Next, you will be asked to choose the subject area(s) and grade level of the unit. Make the proper choices and click the button to continue.



If the unit is single discipline, and specific course titles exist for the subject you choose, you will be presented with a drop-down menu of course titles. You do not have to designate a course if none are appropriate. (Course titles are entered by the local administrator of Framer). Once you are finished, you can either click the "X" in the upper right hand corner of the pop-up window to return to your portfolio, or click the link at the bottom of the pop-up to go straight into the unit template.




How to Schedule a Unit:
By scheduling a unit, you make it visible to other designers in the "peer units" section of the portfolio. Also remember that only scheduled units appear in reports, so its a good idea to schedule the units you plan to use so that you can evaluate the overall learning plan for a class.



To schedule a unit, find the unit you want to schedule and click the red "Schedule" icon to the right (it looks like a big clock). Choose the beginning and end dates for the unit. You also must choose a classroom to assign the unit to. You can choose from other classrooms you have used in the past, or create a new one by typing in a name.

Your scheduling choices are not permanent - you can change the dates or classroom at any time. The schedule need not be exact.


The Unit Status Icons:
Underneath the title, subject, and designer of each unit listing is a series of unit status icons. These reflect the results of the last "completeness check" that Curriculum Framer has performed on the unit.



The numbered icons each refer to a stage of the UbD template (1,2, or 3). A red icon indicates that the stage is 100% incomplete, i.e. that no elements from that stage have user-entered content in them. A yellow icon indicates that at least some of the elements from that stage have content entered into them. A green icon means that content has been entered into every unit element form that stage. Note: a green circle does not necessarily mean that you are finished with that Stage, merely that content exists in each box. Note: stage 2 assessments are not considered complete until they have rubrics.

The final icon reflects the status on alignments in the unit. Red indicates that no alignment exists in the unit. In other words, no selections have been made to link that stage to another stage. Yellow indicates that some alignment work has been done, but there are still either stage 1 goals not aligned to stage 2 assessments or that there are stage 2 assessments not aligned to stage 3 learning events.

You can refresh the status icons by clicking the "Run Status Report" link. This will open a window giving you the full detail of the status report





Adding Additional Designers to a Unit:
Find the unit you want to add a designer to and click the red "Add Designers" icon to the right of it. The icon looks like a pair of silhouettes. A pop-up window will help you select another designer. If you want to add more than one designer, repeat the process until all designers are added. You will see the new designers name appear in underneath the unit title.


Creating a Microsoft Word Version of the Unit:
At the bottom of each unit listing is a link to either "Request Word File Now" or "Update" the Word file. Clicking this link will add the unit to a queue of units waiting to be converted into Word format. A pop-up window will give you an estimate of the wait time (usually only a few minutes). When your unit reaches the top of the queue, Curriculum Framer converts the unit into a Word document. After the conversion, a link will appear with the unit listing in the portfolio that will enable you to download the unit to your computer.

Note: the Word version does not automatically update if you make changes to the unit. You will need to click the "Update" link in the unit portfolio to update the Word document. The date that the document was generated is displayed next to the download link.

Duplicating Units:
If a unit will be taught more than once - whether teaching to different sections or classes in the same semester or simply repeating the teaching to a new class in the next semester - it is sometimes advantageous to create more than one copy of the unit. This allows mid-semester course corrections to occur in one or more of the copies without changing your original version.

To copy a unit, click the red "Duplicate" icon next to the unit title. The new copy will have the word "Copy:" preceeding the title in the "My Units" list. You can of course change the title of the unit if you wish.


Deleting Units
Move inactive units to the Archive (file cabinet) when you no longer wish to use them. You cannot delete units while in the "My Units" section of the portfolio, but you can move them to the File Cabinet (Archived Units) where you can delete them. From the File Cabinet, units can be deleted or moved back to the "My Units" section. To move a unit to the file cabinet, click the red "Archive" icon next to the unit. The icon looks like a 2-drawer file cabinet. Confirm that you want to move the unit and it will no longer appear in the "My Units" section of the unit portfolio. From here you can delete the unit or at some later date move it back to the active portfolio.

CAUTION! A deleted unit - with all of its related elements such as handouts and unit-unique rubrics - cannot be retrieved. We recommend keeping the unit in the archive and not deleting it unless it will never again be needed.