It's Sunday evening. The coordinator needs unit plans by Monday morning. You open the blank template and stare at eight empty fields: Statement of Inquiry, Key Concept, Global Context, Related Concepts, inquiry questions across three categories, summative task, ATL skills, and lesson sequence. You know the content. The format is what takes three hours.
That's the real problem with MYP unit planning. Teachers don't struggle because they lack pedagogical knowledge. They struggle because the IBO's planning structure is genuinely complex, the coordinator's template is unforgiving, and you have to hold every component in your head simultaneously while writing coherent prose.
PrepAiro's Unit Planner is a five-step AI wizard that generates a complete, coordinator-ready MYP unit plan. It handles the structural logic so you can focus on the content.
💡 Key Takeaways
- MYP teachers write 8-12 unit plans per year, each taking 2-4 hours when done properly.
- The Unit Planner generates all eight required components in a single workflow.
- Step 2 produces three SOI options and nine categorised inquiry questions, all editable.
- The coverage check in Step 5 flags criteria gaps before the plan reaches your coordinator.
- Beta teachers report saving 45-90 minutes on formatting alone per unit.
What Makes MYP Unit Planning So Demanding?
MYP unit planning is not hard because the content is hard. It's hard because a single unit plan requires eight distinct, interdependent components. Each must align with the others: the Statement of Inquiry connects the Key Concept to the Global Context, the inquiry questions must span three cognitive categories, the summative task must map to specific criteria, and every criterion must be assessed at least twice per year.
Most MYP teachers write 8-12 unit plans per academic year. At a realistic estimate of 2-4 hours per plan, that's 16-48 hours of planning time annually, not counting revision requests from coordinators. Curriculum planning and documentation represent the highest administrative burden reported by MYP teachers.
Formatting adds another layer. Coordinators work from standardised templates. Matching margins, section labels, font styles, and layout conventions typically takes 45-90 additional minutes per plan, time that has nothing to do with teaching.
How the Unit Planner Works: Step by Step
Step 1: Set Your Basics
The planner opens with five fields: Year Group (MYP 1-5), Subject, Topic, Unit Duration, and Periods per Week. Subject options cover Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Standard Mathematics. If you've completed your teaching profile, Year Group and Subject pre-fill automatically.
Unit Duration choices are 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 weeks. Periods per week defaults to 4. These two numbers drive the lesson sequence in Step 4, so getting them right here saves editing later.
Step 2: Build the Inquiry Framework
Based on your topic, the AI pre-selects a Key Concept and a Global Context, with a dropdown override for both. Related Concepts appear as a toggleable set pre-selected by the AI, adjustable from the full IBO list.
The right panel generates three distinct Statement of Inquiry options. Each takes the same Key Concept and Global Context but frames the connection differently. You select one, or use them as a starting point for your own wording.
Below the SOI, nine inquiry questions appear in three labelled categories: three Factual, three Conceptual, and three Debatable. This categorisation matters for IBO moderation. Factual questions establish knowledge. Conceptual questions ask students to transfer understanding. Debatable questions require evaluative thinking. Moderators check that all three types are genuinely present. The tool enforces the category distinction structurally, which means your plan arrives with that compliance built in.
Every question is editable inline. You can remove individual questions, rewrite them, or hit Regenerate for a full fresh set.
Step 3: Define the Assessment
The AI pre-fills a summative task title from your topic and selected SOI. You choose the task type from six options: Investigation, Project, Performance, Test, Portfolio, or Presentation. Criteria toggles (A, B, C, D) appear with AI pre-selections appropriate to your subject and task type.
The "Generate Questions" button connects directly to the Assessment Generator. It opens with full unit context pre-loaded: subject, year group, topic, SOI, and selected criteria carry over without re-entry.
Step 4: Build the Lesson Sequence
The planner generates a complete lesson sequence for your full unit duration. An eight-week unit with four periods per week produces 32 lesson cards. Each card shows lesson number, title, inquiry type tag (Factual, Conceptual, Debatable, or Summative), criteria tags, and duration (50 or 80 minutes).
The sequence follows a deliberate pedagogical arc:
- Weeks 1-2: factual foundation, Criterion A emphasis
- Weeks 3-4: conceptual connections, Criteria B and C
- Weeks 5-6: critical and debatable thinking, Criteria C and D
- Weeks 7-8: summative preparation and assessment, 80-minute blocks
You can drag cards to reorder, remove lessons, or add lessons within a week. The "Plan" button on any card opens the Lesson Planner with the full unit context pre-filled.
Step 5: Review and Export
Step 5 is the quality gate. The coverage check scans every lesson card and the summative task, then flags any criterion that doesn't appear assessed at least once across the unit. IBO requires each criterion to be assessed a minimum of twice per year, so this catches gaps before they reach your coordinator.
The full Step 5 panel also includes ATL skills across all five IBO categories with specific lesson references, Learner Profile attributes, differentiation paragraphs for content, process, and product, and a resources list with type tags.
Export options are PDF (coordinator-ready formatting applied automatically) or Word (editable for coordinators who prefer their own template). Beta teachers reported saving 45-90 minutes on formatting per unit, with total planning time dropping from an average of 3.2 hours to under 45 minutes for a familiar topic.
How It Connects to Other Tools
From Step 3, the Assessment Generator inherits your unit context automatically. From Step 4, any lesson card opens the Lesson Planner with the unit's SOI, criteria, and lesson details pre-filled. Both connections work in one click with no copy-paste and no risk of the lesson plan diverging from the unit plan.
How Does This Compare to Other Tools?
Toddle has the strongest MYP unit planning interface on the market. The limitation is access: Toddle is B2B-only. Your school must purchase a licence. Individual teachers cannot buy access.
ManageBac provides blank templates and submission workflows. It has no AI generation capability. Teachers fill in ManageBac manually, which means ManageBac is the destination, not the tool for building the plan.
ChatGPT can help draft prose but has no model of IBO's 16 Key Concepts, no awareness of MYP criteria per subject, no GRASPS framework for summative task design, and no understanding of inquiry question categories as IBO defines them. The output requires significant manual verification before it's coordinator-ready.
PrepAiro is currently the only option providing individual teacher access to AI generation with IBO-specific structure built in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Unit Planner work for all MYP subjects?
The current subject set covers Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Standard Mathematics. Additional subjects are on the development roadmap.
Can my coordinator tell the plan was AI-generated?
Every field in the plan is editable before export. Most beta teachers revise 2-4 inquiry questions and adjust the SOI wording before exporting. The exported PDF matches standard coordinator template formatting.
What if the coverage check flags a problem?
Return to Step 4, locate the under-assessed criterion, and either add a lesson or update an existing card's criteria tag. The check updates immediately. Neither fix requires re-entering other information.
How does the inquiry framework handle niche topics?
For unusual topics, the AI pre-selection may not be the best fit, which is why every field is overridable. The SOI generator and inquiry questions work from whatever Key Concept and Global Context you confirm.
How long does a full unit plan actually take?
For a familiar topic, most beta teachers complete all five steps in 18-25 minutes. A genuinely new topic takes 35-50 minutes. Both are well under the 2-4 hour baseline for manual planning.
Start Your Next Unit Plan
MYP unit planning will always require professional judgment. The format shouldn't be the hard part. PrepAiro's Unit Planner handles the structural logic, the IBO alignment checks, and the coordinator-ready formatting so your time goes into the decisions only you can make.
