Middle School Curriculum Map

Map your grades 6–8 curriculum across the year, organizing units by department or across subjects, building in advisory and SEL connections, and planning for the adolescent transitions that affect pacing and engagement.

All SubjectsMiddle School (6–8)

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When to use this template

  • Annual curriculum planning for grades 6–8
  • Grade-level team planning in interdisciplinary or pod structures
  • When planning for the developmental needs of early, middle, and late adolescence
  • Department alignment for consistent curriculum delivery across middle school grades
  • Planning the advisory or SEL curriculum alongside academic curriculum

Template sections

Identify the course, the team or department context, and the integration opportunities.

Course name and grade (6, 7, or 8):

Department or team structure (solo teacher, grade-level team, interdisciplinary team):

Integration opportunities with other subjects:

Advisory period connection (if applicable):

Student population context:

Map the unit sequence across the year, accounting for adolescent engagement patterns.

Fall (high engagement): Units planned:

Early winter: Units planned:

Late winter (potential dip): Units planned (more structured? More hands-on?):

Spring (spring projects): Units planned:

Estimated weeks per unit:

Map standards coverage across units.

Standards by unit (by subject or integrated):

Essential skills for middle school readiness (e.g., independent research, extended writing, collaborative work):

College and career readiness skills developed this year:

Vertical connections to prior and subsequent grades:

Plan how units address the relevance, autonomy, and peer connection needs of adolescent learners.

Where students have genuine choice (by unit):

Identity and contemporary connections by unit:

Collaborative learning structures by unit:

Advisory or SEL connections:

Student voice opportunities:

Map where academic subjects connect across the team or department.

ELA-Social Studies connections by unit:

Science-Math connections:

All-subject thematic connections:

Advisory-Academic connections:

Coordination with other teachers needed:

Map major assessments and plan for student self-assessment and reflection.

Major assessments by unit:

Student choice in assessment format:

Self-assessment opportunities:

Portfolio or cumulative assessment:

Communication with students about assessment expectations:

The Flip Perspective

Middle school curriculum maps work when they account for how adolescent development actually affects learning across the school year, not just the content sequence. This map helps you plan your most ambitious work for the moments of highest engagement and build in the relationship maintenance that keeps middle schoolers connected to learning through the inevitable dips.

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Adapting this Template

For All Subjects

Apply Middle School Map by adapting the phase timings and prompts to fit All Subjects's unique content demands.

About the Middle School Map framework

Middle school curriculum mapping is complicated by departmentalization, multiple teachers, and the unique developmental needs of adolescent learners. Unlike elementary school (where one teacher can integrate across subjects) and unlike high school (where subjects are more completely separate), middle school exists in between, with both integration opportunities and departmental independence.

Departmental versus team-based planning: Middle schools that use team teaching or interdisciplinary teaming can plan integrated units more easily than fully departmentalized schools. A curriculum map for a middle school team can show where English and social studies connect around a common theme, or where science and math share concepts. A curriculum map for a solo department teacher focuses more on within-subject coherence.

Advisory and SEL connections: Most middle schools include an advisory period, and the most effective advisory programs connect to academic content. A curriculum map that shows where advisory SEL lessons connect to the academic units students are working on creates coherence rather than the experience of SEL as something completely separate from school.

Adolescent development considerations: Middle school curriculum maps should account for the predictable patterns in adolescent engagement across the year: high engagement in fall, potential dip in late winter, increased complexity (and distraction) in spring. Building your most ambitious projects in the fall and high-engagement spring, while planning for more structured and predictable work in late winter, is a practical pacing strategy.

Vertical alignment in the middle: Middle school curriculum occupies a critical position in the K–12 sequence. What students learn in grades 6–8 must build on elementary foundations and prepare for high school expectations. A middle school curriculum map should explicitly show connections to prior elementary content and to anticipated high school expectations.

Student transitions: Sixth grade is a major transition year. Students who are new to departmentalized instruction, longer class periods, and changing teachers throughout the day need more structured routines and more explicit relationship-building than seventh or eighth graders. The curriculum map for sixth grade should reflect this with more community-building time and more scaffolded early units.

Year-Long Map

Map your entire course across 36 weeks, organizing units, standards coverage, and major assessments so you can see the full year at a glance and spot gaps before the school year begins.

Scope & Sequence

Document the breadth and order of your curriculum: what you will teach (scope) and in what sequence, to ensure coherent vertical alignment and consistent coverage across classrooms or grade levels.

Middle School Unit

Plan units for grades 6–8 that balance rigor with the autonomy and relevance adolescents need, with structured collaboration, student choice, and connections to identity and contemporary issues.

Thematic Unit

Organize a multi-week unit around a central theme or essential question that cuts across topics, texts, and disciplines, helping students see connections and build deeper understanding.

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Frequently asked questions

Plan more structured routines and explicit community-building in the first 4–6 weeks of sixth grade than you would in seventh or eighth. Sixth graders are learning how middle school works (multiple teachers, lockers, independent movement) while also learning content. The curriculum map should account for this by scheduling less complex academic demands in September while students adjust.
Focus coordination on two or three key integration points across the year rather than trying to coordinate everything. One collaborative unit per semester is more effective than constant low-level coordination. Use shared planning time deliberately: agree on what you will coordinate and what you will handle independently.
Build your most hands-on, active, and structured work into late winter. This is the worst time for extended independent projects that require self-direction. It is a good time for collaborative activities, shorter tasks with clear deadlines, and content that connects directly to students' lives and interests.
The curriculum map should show how complexity increases across the three grades. Sixth grade units typically require more scaffolding and structure. Eighth grade units should require more independent work and more complex thinking. Show this progression explicitly in the curriculum map so the expectations are clear and intentional.
Look for natural connections: the SEL competency of perspective-taking connects to historical empathy in social studies. Self-management skills connect to independent research and project work in any subject. Group relationship skills connect to collaborative lab work. Map these connections explicitly so advisory teachers and content teachers can reinforce consistent language and skills.
Middle schoolers need to move, talk, and make choices. Your curriculum map can designate which units feature structured debates, collaborative lab work, community investigations, or design challenges so that active learning is built into the schedule, not improvised. Planning this at the map level also helps you coordinate across subjects to avoid weeks where every class is lecture-heavy. Use this map for the big picture and Flip to generate the individual lessons that keep students engaged.
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