What a template has to do
A template is a decision about columns. Every column you add is a field that someone must fill, keep current and be trusted for, so the aim is the smallest set that lets a coordinator answer questions about progression, coverage and assessment.
The trap is one template for everything. The PYP, MYP, DP and CP plan around different things, and a single set of columns either omits what a programme needs or fills with fields that mean nothing for it.
The fields every programme shares
Keep these consistent across the school so maps can be read side by side.
- Programme, year group and subject or transdisciplinary area
- Unit title and approximate timing
- Key concepts and related concepts, where the programme uses them
- Skills, including approaches to learning
- Assessment: what is assessed, formative or summative
- Resources and links to the unit planner
- Owner, last review date and status
PYP: add the inquiry fields
For the PYP add the transdisciplinary theme, the central idea, the lines of inquiry and the learner profile attributes the unit develops. The whole-school view is the programme of inquiry, so a PYP map is most useful when each unit can be seen in its year-by-theme cell.
Add where the unit connects to the exhibition in the final year, so the earlier years can be seen building toward it. The full anatomy of the programme is in the PYP programme of inquiry, explained.
MYP: add the concept and criteria fields
For the MYP add the key concept, related concepts, global context and the statement of inquiry, then the subject-group objectives and the assessment criteria the unit will use. Record the assessment task against the criteria, because that link is what lets a coordinator check that every criterion is assessed across a year.
The unit-level detail is covered in how to write an MYP unit planner.
DP and CP: pace the two years
For the DP the content is set by the subject guides, so the map is mostly a pacing document: how the two years divide, where internal assessment falls, and how the extended essay, theory of knowledge and CAS deadlines sit against the teaching. Add higher or standard level where it changes the plan.
For the CP add the core components and the career-related study alongside the DP courses the student takes. In every case, the IB's current subject or programme guide is the authority on what must be covered.
Where skodle fits
This section names our own product, so read it as that. The structure above works in a document or a spreadsheet, and it is a fair place to start.
The reason to move it into skodle is what happens after a hundred people have edited it. There, PYP and MYP units carry their programme's own fields (central idea, lines of inquiry, key and related concepts, learner profile and approaches to learning for the PYP; statement of inquiry, criteria and tasks for the MYP), a map is a versioned record holding the units and lessons for a grade and subject, and a gap report counts concept repetition and unmapped or unassessed objectives from the mappings a person approves. The IB Engine holds those programme structures, so one map does not need one template stretched across four programmes.
The limits. skodle does not hand you a pre-filled template of your school's curriculum. The gap report covers PYP and MYP units only and counts what people link, so DP and CP planning is tracked as components per student, and Cambridge or CBSE schools work through the school structure and framework-tagged unit planning. A Cambridge syllabus is not modelled the way an MYP unit is.
Why a static template stops being enough
A document starts a planning process well and maintains it badly. With many teachers editing, versions multiply, columns are changed by whoever needed them, and nobody can tell which copy is current. It also cannot count anything: it can show you a row, but not that a concept appears in four units in a row.
A template checklist
Before rolling a template out, confirm that it has a small number of common fields kept consistent, programme-specific fields only where a programme needs them, an owner and review date on every row, a version history, and a way to link a unit to its objectives and its assessment. If it has all of those, it is a working map; if it lacks the links, it is a list.
