Upper Secondary Teaching Units for Grades 11–12: Four Subject Strands
Upper Secondary Teaching Units for Grades 11–12: Four Subject Strands
Electives in Grades 11–12 are where teachers most often build from scratch: a philosophy option, a music and politics term, a media literacy course, a psychology elective. These units are written for that gap. Every one is built around original cases rather than textbook summaries, and every one separates evidence, interpretation and judgment. Each unit gives you a 32-page student book or workbook, a 20-page teacher guide with minute-by-minute plans, expected answers and a 100-point marking scheme, and an editable Word edition. The four music units also include three original WAV audio models.
See Upper Secondary Complete →Resources that fit
Units and bundles for this topic
Upper Secondary Complete covers all 24 units for whole-course planning. Below it are the six four-unit bundles at $49.90 each, which you can buy one topic at a time.
Music in Society Bundle | 4 Complete Units: Protest Songs, Music of Remembrance, Political Anthems, Music in Public Space | Grades 11–12
Language & Digital Media Bundle | 4 Complete Units: Emojis & Memes, Multimodal Analysis, Online Communication, Assessment Pack | Grades 11–12
Existentialism Bundle | 4 Complete Units: Sartre, Anguish & Bad Faith, Sartre and Neuroscience, de Beauvoir & Camus | Philosophy | Grades 11–12
Habermas & Ethics Bundle | 4 Complete Units: Truth & Ideal Speech, Discourse Ethics vs Kant & Utilitarianism, Digital Public Sphere, Assessment Pack | Grades 11–12
Aggression & Violence Prevention Bundle | 4 Complete Units: Heitmeyer, Group-Focused Enmity, Theories of Aggression, Violence Prevention | Grades 11–12
Moral Development & Socialization Bundle | 4 Complete Units: Kohlberg, Critiquing Kohlberg, G. H. Mead, Fend's Functions of Schooling | Grades 11–12
Upper Secondary Complete | 24 Units: Music in Society, Language & Digital Media, Philosophy, Psychology & Educational Studies | Grades 11–12
The teaching problem
Who these units are for and how the strands fit together
The units are written for teachers running upper-secondary electives and advanced courses: music, English language and media, philosophy and ethics, psychology and educational studies. They also roughly fit AP, IB Diploma, A Level and Australian senior secondary courses where those cover the same topics, for example Kohlberg and Bandura in psychology or existentialism in philosophy. Each unit stands alone, so you can drop one into an existing course for two weeks. The bundles group four units that build on each other, and Upper Secondary Complete is meant for a department or a teacher planning several electives across a year.
The four strands share a method more than a subject. Music in Society looks at protest songs, music of remembrance, political anthems and music in public space. Language and Digital Media covers emojis, memes and GIFs, multimodal analysis of posts and short videos, public and private communication online, and an assessment pack. Philosophy has two bundles: existentialism (Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus and the Libet debate) and Habermas with discourse ethics, the digital public sphere and an assessment pack on Hume and Feyerabend. Psychology and Educational Studies has two more: aggression and violence prevention, and moral development and socialization with Kohlberg, Gilligan, Mead and Fend.
Across all 24 units, students meet the same habits. They describe a case before naming the theory, separate what the material shows from what they infer, reconstruct a position before criticizing it, and qualify their conclusions. The cases are short and specific. Alex sends "Great" with a smile after a schedule change and again after passing an exam. A device has worked in 100 trials, so someone says it must work on trial 101. Four students all say "return the wallet" for four different reasons. Because the marking schemes follow one pattern, a student who learns to write a scope limitation in one strand can use it in the next.
A sequence that works
Where to start in each strand
Each strand has a natural entry unit; these are the orders the units were designed to follow.
- Music in Society (Units 17–20)Start with Protest Songs from Folk to Rap, where students perform call and response and move a rap line half a beat early. Continue with Music in Public Space and Political Anthems, and finish with Music of Remembrance on Schoenberg, Penderecki and Britten, which needs the most analytical care.
- Language and Digital Media (Units 21–24)Begin with Emojis, Memes and GIFs, then Analyzing Multimodal Texts, where students split a 12-second ad into four tracks. Private and Public Communication Online follows a screenshot taken out of context. The Assessment Pack closes the strand with the immediacy-distance model and two marked practice assessments.
- Existentialism (Units 25–28)Open with Sartre and the Priority of Existence and the scissors example, then Anguish, Abandonment and Despair with bad faith. Sartre, de Beauvoir and Camus compares three thinkers through shared questions, and Sartre and Neuroscience tests responsibility against the Libet experiment and the readiness potential.
- Habermas and Ethics (Units 29–32)Start with Habermas on truth and the ideal speech situation, where consensus is not voting. Discourse Ethics compares Kant, utilitarianism and Habermas on the same school cases. Habermas and the Digital Public Sphere brings in feed ranking, and the Assessment Pack adds Hume on induction and Feyerabend on method.
- Psychology and Educational Studies (33–40)Two four-unit sequences. Aggression and violence prevention runs from Heitmeyer's disintegration theory through group-focused enmity and theories of aggression to evaluating prevention programs. Moral development runs from Kohlberg to Gilligan's critique, then Mead's I and Me and Fend's functions of schooling. Each workbook ends with a 90-minute assessment.
Where it goes wrong
Misconceptions to plan for
A few misunderstandings come up when teachers first look at the units, so here are the answers.
"These are reading packets with questions at the end." Each section moves from explanation to an original case, an analysis task, a workshop or transfer task and a debate question, with a worked reasoning example to critique. The teacher guide gives expected answers for every task and a 100-point marking scheme for the practice assessments.
"I have to buy a whole strand to use one topic." Every unit is sold on its own at $24.99 and works independently with its own student book, teacher guide and assessments. The bundles are there for teachers who want the full sequence, and the order suggestions above are recommendations, not prerequisites.
"Upper-secondary units only work in 90-minute blocks." The lessons are planned as 90-minute double periods, but each plan is laid out in timed segments. In 45- or 50-minute periods you can split each lesson after the main analysis task and run the workshop, judgment and consolidation the next day.
"The units come with the songs, texts and recordings they discuss." They do not. Philosophical texts appear as clearly labeled original paraphrases, and historical music is named as listening references only. Recordings and lyrics are not included. Use lawfully available editions and recordings, and document the version you use, as the teacher guides recommend.
Course fit
Using the units in AP, IB Diploma, A Level and Australian courses
None of the units is written to a specific exam syllabus, and none carries any official endorsement. They roughly map to several courses where the topics overlap. The Language and Digital Media units fit AP English Language and Composition, A Level English Language or Media Studies, IB Language A: Language and Literature and Australian senior English. The philosophy units fit A Level Philosophy and IB Diploma Philosophy. The psychology and educational studies units fit AP Psychology where it covers Kohlberg and Bandura, A Level Psychology or Sociology, IB Diploma Psychology and Australian senior Psychology. The music units fit A Level Music, IB Diploma Music and senior secondary Music.
In practice that means the units are strongest as depth studies inside a broader course. A two-week existentialism block in an IB philosophy class, a unit on online hate speech and counterspeech before an AP argument essay, or a Kohlberg and Gilligan sequence in a psychology elective are typical uses. The practice assessments are original formats, not past papers, and their suggested times are the units' own. Check your course requirements before using them for graded work, and keep the teacher guides separate from student copies when you do. The worked reasoning examples are meant for learning before assessment, not as model answers to hand out on test day.
Bundles
Choosing between single units, bundles and Upper Secondary Complete
Single units cost $24.99 and suit a teacher filling a specific gap. A four-unit bundle costs $49.90, compared with $99.96 for the same units bought one at a time, and fits a teacher who wants a whole topic sequence for a term. The six bundles are Music in Society, Language and Digital Media, Existentialism, Habermas and Ethics, Aggression and Violence Prevention, and Moral Development and Socialization. Each bundle keeps the units in their intended order, so the concepts from the first unit are in place when the later units build on them, and the assessment packs in the media and Habermas bundles come last.
Upper Secondary Complete costs $149.90 for all 24 units. It makes most sense for a department sharing materials across several electives, or for one teacher who covers more than one strand over the year. It also lets you combine strands, for example the online communication unit with the digital public sphere unit, or Kohlberg with the discourse ethics comparison. All units are instant digital downloads. The student books and teacher guides are A4 PDFs that print on US Letter with fit-to-page, and every unit includes an editable Word text edition, which helps when you want to shorten tasks, change names in a case or build a quiz from the concept pages.
Questions teachers ask
Frequently asked questions
Which courses and standards do the units fit?
They are written for Grades 11–12 electives and advanced courses, and roughly map to AP English Language and AP Psychology topics, IB Diploma courses, A Level (Years 12–13) and Australian senior secondary courses (Years 11–12) where the content overlaps. TeachLessons is not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board, the IB, any exam board, ACARA or any state. The units were originally developed for German upper-secondary courses, and the English editions are full parallel versions.
What is in every unit?
A 32-page student book or workbook, a 20-page teacher guide and an editable Word text edition. The teacher guide includes sequence planning, timed lesson plans, differentiation, expected answers and marking guidance. Units 17–32 contain two practice assessments each; units 33–40 end with a 90-minute assessment practice with a 100-point rubric. The four music units add three short original WAV audio models.
How long does one unit take?
Each unit is planned as four 90-minute core lessons. Workshop and extension tasks can need extra time, and the practice assessments take 90 minutes each, or 135 for extended work in units 17–32. The teacher guides say plainly that four double lessons do not cover every activity, so you choose which extensions to use.
Are the units suitable for students reading below grade level?
Yes, with support. In units 17–32 each case has two support levels: the first starts with two observations and one justified connection, with vocabulary cards and oral rehearsal before writing; the second asks for alternative explanations. Units 33–40 give three-step graduated support for each case. The Word edition lets you simplify wording while keeping the same conceptual task.
Were the materials made with AI?
Yes, and the units say so openly. The final pages of each teacher guide list the subject sources and include an AI disclosure: texts, translations, tasks and suggested answers were created with AI tools, and the illustrations are AI-generated and labeled as such. They show symbolic scenes or fictional people, not historical figures or real measured data.
How do I receive the files and print them?
You get an instant digital download after checkout. The PDFs are A4 and print on US Letter if you choose fit-to-page in the print dialog. The Word edition has its own pagination, so use the PDFs for printing and the Word file for adapting. Audio files in the music units open in any standard player.
Plan your Grades 11–12 electives around tested units
Twenty-four units in four strands, sold singly, in topic bundles or as one complete set.
Browse the full collection →