Curriculum maps serve many purposes: aligning curriculum to written standards, developing integrated units, providing a baseline for the curriculum review and renewal process, identifying the staff development needs, and providing communication amongst the teachers (accesslibrary.com). By aligning curriculum to the written standards, the curriculum map will assist the district with meeting those standards more efficiently. Curriculum maps will assist teachers with planning lessons and integrating units because the curriculum lays out timelines for what subject matter is supposed to be taught throughout the year. Using the curriculum map as a baseline allows the district to evaluate it and improve it periodically. When implementing the curriculum map, staff and administrators can identify and seek improvement for areas of weakness. Curriculum mapping will prompt communication and collaboration among the teachers, since they will all follow the same timeline, and with the community.
Creating a curriculum map is a seven step process: data collection, individual reviews, small group reviews, large group comparisons, identify immediate revisions needed and create suitable timetable, identify areas needing further research and a suitable timetable, and planning the next review session (educationworld.com). The first step in curriculum mapping is data collection: core skills, content taught, assessments used, and progress made. Individual teachers would need to review each map and give feedback in small groups. Larger groups would then meet to review the feedback from the small groups. The curriculum team must then remedy the areas that need immediate attention and plan long-term for the areas where more data is needed. However, the process cannot stop there; curriculum mapping is an on-going work of progress.
There is a variety of templates for curriculum maps, but they all have three main areas in common: the essential questions, skills, and assessment. In order to develop a curriculum map that will be effectively implemented through lessons, the map-makers need to develop the curriculum map with the following considerations (tnellen.com): Essential Questions: highlighting key concepts, relating questions to skills, logical sequence, engaging the learners, open-ended, realistic time-frames and levels, appropriate number of questions, and non-repetitious. Skills: written with action verbs, linked to the essential questions, level-matching, and cross-curricular skills. Assessment: detailing the assessment, evaluating specific skills, reflect essential questions, level-appropriate, show evidence of progress: growth or regression.
Curriculum mapping results in shortening meeting time due to focusing on details, providing real data on assessment and skills, assisting teachers with planning, reinforcing value, and providing a tool for communicating with the parents, staff, administrators, decision-makers, grant providers, government officials, and other community members (leasttern.com).
Curriculum mapping has some downfalls. It is a time-consuming task. It lacks clearly defined goals. There is a variety of curriculum map templates and vocabulary, which makes curriculum maps inconsistent across the board. If developed without consideration and input from the staff, it would be difficult to implement, making it more useful for the map-makers (leasttern.com).
Many districts are already set up in favor of developing and utilizing a curriculum map (leasttern.com). Districts that have curriculum guides and classes that are laid-out in themed units and learning objectives are on the right track for curriculum mapping. Evaluation checklists and activity archives also aid in the process of starting a curriculum map. Also weekly planning meetings could be used in the processes of collecting data for the development process map and reviewing the curriculum map for the renewal and improvement process.
accesslibrary.com
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-112211344/curriculum-mapping-building-collaboration.html
educationworld.com
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/virtualwkshp/virtualwkshp004.shtml
leasttern.com
http://www.leasttern.com/workshops/Mapping/WhatIsCurricMapping.ppt.pdf
tnellen.com
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