Despite the best of intentions on the part of overworked and undertrained classroom teachers, instructional planning can too often be described as idiosyncratic, haphazard, and lacking any logically or pedagogically defensible structure. In this article, Tim Westerberg highlights the importance of a unifying planning framework that ensures alignment between "stated" curriculum, "taught" curriculum, and "assessed" curriculum. A sound structure that guides teams of teachers in developing tightly aligned units of instruction, before the first lesson of the unit is taught, has the potential to significantly improve student performance. Herein, Westerberg describes a five-step standards-based learning planning framework that provides such a structure.