Model Curriculum Units

Thank you for your interest in the Model Curriculum Units (MCUs) developed by Massachusetts teachers and administrators working with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Developed between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the majority of MCUs no longer align to the current curriculum frameworks and will not be updated. A subset of MCUs that have been updated will appear here. For copies of older MCUs, email the Center for Instructional Support.

DESE holds the copyright to MCUs. Educators may use and copy them for non-commercial educational purposes. Some units contain materials subject to additional copyright protections. This additional copyright information will be found at the beginning of each unit. By accessing this content, you acknowledge and agree: you understand the units are copyright protected; you will honor all copyright protections associated with these materials; and you will not knowingly violate those protections. For example, you will not claim these copyrighted materials as your own or sell them.

English Language Arts/Literacy & Humanities

• Activist Movements Since 1970 (Grades 9–12)
  • The Great Fight for Disabilities Rights Video
  
  

• Heroes of the Iliad (Grade 6)

• Analyzing an Author’s Style: Macaulay’s Unique Way of Explaining a Complex Process (Grade 7)

• The Words We Live By: The Fourth Amendment (Grade 8)

• Defending Democracy at Home: Advancing Constitutional Rights, Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) Same-Sex Marriage (Grades 11–12) Also Appropriate for History & Social Science

• Writing Effective Research Papers for English Language Arts (Grades 9–10)

Career and Vocational Technical Education

• Food Safety and Sanitation (Grades 9–12) (Video )

• Carpentry — Floor Framing Systems (Grades 9–12)
  • Lesson 2: Words for Wood
  
  

• Professionalism and Planning (Grades 10–12)

Science and Technology/Engineering

• Sound and Music (Pre-Kindergarten)

• Sunlight Warms Earth's Surface (Kindergarten)

• Light and Shadows (Grade 1)

• The Effects of Wind and Water Movement on Earth’s Landscape (Grade 2)

• Investigating Material Properties (Grade 2)

• Weathering and Erosion (Grade 4)

• Plants Make Their Own Food (Grade 5)

• Causal Patterns in Density (Grade 6)

• Differential Survival of Organisms (Grade 7)

• Invasive Species: A Study of the Disruption of an Ecosystem's Dynamics (Grade 7)

• Thermal Energy Design Challenges (Grade 7)

• Shaping Natural Systems Through Evolution (Grade 8)

• Bioplastics (High School)

• Ocean Systems (High School)

• Ocean Systems (High School) Resources

Mathematics

• Representing Addition and Subtraction (Kindergarten)

• Problem Solving using Addition and Subtraction Situations (Grade 2)

• Exploring Fractions (Grade 3)

• Multiplication of Fractions (Grade 5)

• Experimenting with Congruency Transformations in Geometry (High School Geometry)

• Financial Applications of Inverse Functions (High School Grades 11–12)

• Reasoning with Equations (High School Algebra I)

Last Updated: September 24, 2019