Teachers in Teach, the lesson preparation area in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, can now plan entire teaching units instead of individual lessons. From just a few inputs, a draft for several weeks is created: an overview, guiding questions, and a week-by-week sequence in which assessments are scheduled at suitable points. Microsoft added the worldwide rollout on October 30 to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap; until then, only selected schools could test the feature in advance.
How is a teaching unit created in Teach?
You can find the tool in Teach among the tools for lesson planning; in the English interface the entry is called "Unit plan" under "Curriculum planning". First you enter the subject, grade level, a title, and a short description of what the class should understand or be able to do at the end. The more precise this description is, the better the draft will fit, Microsoft writes in the guide on Microsoft Learn.
How a unit is created in Teach
Teaching units spanning several weeks, rolling out worldwide since the end of October 2026
- Key detailsEnter the subject, grade level, title, and learning goal of the unit
- FrameworkChoose the duration of the unit, lessons per week, and length of a lesson
- BasisSelect a curriculum from the list, attach your own files
- DraftReview the weekly plan, add lessons and quizzes, save as a Word file
The weekly plan is an AI draft and needs your review
Sources: Microsoft 365 Roadmap, Microsoft Learn
In the next step, you set the duration of the unit, the number of lessons per week, and the length of a lesson. If needed, you attach materials from OneDrive, SharePoint, or Teams; under the further options ("More"), you can specify guiding questions and planned assessments. From each lesson in the weekly plan, Teach generates a complete lesson draft or a quiz with one click, and both remain linked to the unit. You export the finished plan as a Word document.
Who can use the feature?
Teach is available to teachers and school staff with a Microsoft 365 for Education license; according to Microsoft's help page, the area does not require a paid Copilot subscription. The AI features are included in the licenses Microsoft 365 A1, A3, and A5 as well as Office 365 A1, A1 Plus, A3, and A5 for teachers and staff.
However, access is only opened up by the school IT, which must enable Copilot Chat for the teachers' accounts. The rollout is worldwide, so it also applies to schools in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The tool for teaching units runs in the browser and in the desktop app. The Teach interface is available in more than 100 languages; which languages the teaching unit generator supports, Microsoft has not yet published.
Which German curricula does Teach know?
For mapping to curricula, Microsoft works with the US provider EdGate. In its list, to which Microsoft's help page refers, there are 19 curriculum specifications for Germany. Eleven of these are core curricula from North Rhine-Westphalia. The remaining eight do not have a federal state in their name, including "Primarbereich", "Sekundarstufe I", and "Allgemeine Hochschulreife" for language, mathematics, and natural sciences. The list does not include curricula from Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, or any other federal state.
Microsoft's own figures vary: The Education blog speaks of curricula and educational standards from more than 50 countries, the help page of 36 countries plus all 50 US states.
What this means for you
- If you teach in North Rhine-Westphalia, it is best to try out the unit with the matching core curriculum from the list.
- In other federal states, you attach your curriculum or your own materials as a file so that the draft builds on your content.
- If Teach is missing in your app, it is best to ask the school IT whether Copilot Chat is enabled for teacher accounts.
- Go through the weekly plan lesson by lesson before exporting, because Microsoft delivers a draft, not a verified plan.
How Copilot works in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is shown in the video training on Microsoft Copilot.
Microsoft announced the teaching units on October 20, 2026, in the Education blog and added the worldwide rollout to the roadmap on October 30, 2026.
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