Getting results with Curriculum Mapping

Essential Questions:

How can curriculum mapping improve student performance K-12?

How can we revise our curriculum maps using assessment data cumulatively?

How can mapping upgrade curriculum and assessment decision making in our school settings?

CM help creates genuine operational professional learning communities.

CM works with VIRTUAL time. Giving the possibilities of technology to alter the way we work with time and space issues. We are in a global network of educators.

Mapping allows us to merge our assessment findings directly and strategically into structure curriculum decision making.

Professional Learning Communities and Curriculum Mapping

“A professional learning community is a place where teachers and students care about, look after, root for one another and work together for the good of the whole, in times of need as well as times of celebration.”

Roland Barth

Professional learning community tenets

Effective schools research Clear purpose Required product Flexible grouping Opportunities for collaboration and reflection Establishment of common ground/shared

vision Most important: constant focus on students

What Is Curriculum Mapping?

Calendar-based curriculum mapping is a procedure for collecting and maintaining a data base of the operational curriculum in a school and/or district.

It provides the basis for authentic examination of the data base.

Mapping is a coin with two sides:

One side is the documentation –the

maps themselves

One side is the review process –

examining and revising map

cumulatively between teachers

Technology is necessary to create a new type of paradigm for successful educational planning!

The Hub Effect

Identify initiatives that would be better served through the use of the CM review process

CM is a tool for solving problems

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CM

Current Trends in CM Practice

New versions in mapping software

Links to assessment data Tabs to differentiated curriculum Consensus Maps Statewide adoptions Regional service center software

and staff development adoptions Independent school networks International school networks

CM: Closing the Achievement Gap

Discerning selection of standards Focus on Active Literacy in ALL classrooms Integrating assessment data via software

Vertically Across Grades Formal BENCHMARK assessment Tasks AT

THE BUILDING Level

New focus on Essential Questions:

•Obtaining feedback on our questions•Using them to negotiate between teachers•Organizing instruction as “curriculum chapters”

CM: Key Tool for Sustaining Professional Learning Communities

Effective school research Common ground/common vision Flexible grouping for decision making Ongoing monitoring of student progress Professional development linked to student growth Focus on students in building

Adjustments in schedules-long term; short term Adjustments in teacher configurations Adjustments in student grouping patterns Adjustments in the use of space

Future Directions

Involvement at higher education institutions

Research studies: dissertations emerging

Links to report cards Student mapping Links to products/service

with new bandwidth possibilities

Integration with video conferencing

Blackberry + PDA versions I-MAPs (teachers on

earphones)

Targeting Needs: Discussions, debates, and decisions will be based on…

What is in the best interest of our specific clients, the students in our educational setting?

Their ages Their stages of development Their learning characteristics Their communities Their aspirations Their needs The need for cumulative learning

What information do we collect initially on a map?

CONTENT

SKILLS

ASSESSMENT

Content:

The subject matter itself; key concepts, facts, events, which may be presented with a map in three formats:

Content FormatsDiscipline-BasedFocus on subjects:math, science, social studies, literature, arts, physical education, etc.

Should be active: students as “scientists”; as “artists”

InterdisciplinaryFocus on connections between two or more subjects examining common organizing center

Rigorous; avoiding potpourri

Student- CenteredFocus on student- developed interests

Emerges directly from learner

Skills are displayed on a map as:

Precise skills that can be:

Assessed/measured Observed Described in specific

terms Skills are action verbs… Unlike general

processes

Precision expectation is crucial to skill development.

THE COACH DOESN’T SAY:

“We’re working on critical

playing skills today.”

THE COACH DOES SAY:

“We’re working on driving

into the basket.”

Precision Skills within Disciplines: In Science, there is the general process of INQUIRY … Precise Skills might be:

Observe and make

notations of an event in

the natural world or space

Collect and display data

Cite significant variables

Pose explanations

Predict future results

Skills across disciplines precise skills might include:

Edit and revise [skills] in all disciplines Utilize organizational skills Read for decoding Read for text interaction Speak in a range of forums Research using technology for information access Create a technological production purposes Isolate and improve career habits for personal

and group work

On Maps, Assessments are the Major Products and Performances:

Assessment is the demonstration of learning

Assessment is the observable evidence

They must be listed as defined nouns:

Tangible Products or Observable Performances

Learning to Analyze Assessment Data

Gap analysis Merging Findings into Maps

Multiple Choice Multiple Choice 50-Q M.C. Quiz

Constructed- Constructed- Response Response

Questioning?Questioning?

10-Q Short-Answer Test

Collections of Assessments:

Portfolios Anthologies Recordings of observable

performances

Performance-Based Performance-Based Assessment?Assessment?

Mount Vernon Historical Research: Individual and Group Presentations

ASSESSMENT reveals:

_ Proficiency of targeted skill development-Knowledge and insight into content

Reaching new ground:

Guiding a staff to establishing benchmark assessments

Mapping Benchmark Assessments

Benchmarks can be designed on multiple levels: state tests, district, classroom tasks.

A school establishes a common set of skills needing development.

An internally generated benchmark assessment task is developed by teachers with the same protocols; the same timetable.

Continued...

The task should merge with the ongoing curriculum naturally.

Student products can then be evaluated both vertically and horizontally.

Revisions in the curriculum map should reflect a few targeted skills needing help.

Revisions should be applied thoughtfully to developmental characteristics of the learner.

Integrating Cross-Curricular

Identify grade level benchmarks Use map to identify where skills are

being taught Add appropriate benchmarks that

may be missing Align with classroom assessments Use feedback from assessments to

modify instruction if needed

Let’s remember …

Content - is the subject matter; key concepts; facts; topics; important information

Skills - are the targeted proficiencies; technical actions and strategies

Assessment - is the demonstration of learning; the products and performances used as evidence of skill development and content understanding

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Consider a Range of P.D.

Venues… Various Groupings Hands-On Labs Small Workshops Work Sessions On-line Courses Staff Development

Days Based On Data Observing Mentors Peer Coaching Video Conferencing

The CM Seven-Step Review Process:

1. Collecting the Data 2. First Read-Through 3. Small Like/Mixed-Group Review 4. Large Like/Mixed-Group Comparisons 5. Determine Immediate Revision Points 6. Determine Points Requiring Some

Research and Planning 7. Plan for Next Review Cycle (from Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating

Curriculum and Assessment K-12; 1997, ASCD, Jacobs, HH.)

Now…

Have you conducted reviews to determine gaps and repetitions?

Have you developed and implemented a process to deal with gaps and repetitions?

Have you developed grade level/course level essential maps? If so, have individual diary/projected maps been edited to reflect them as instruction is taking place?

What About a District/ Building’s Self-Assessment?(cont.)

Reaching New Ground…

Guiding a staff to establishing Benchmark Assessments

Mapping Benchmark Assessments

Benchmarks can be designed on multiple levels: state tests, district, classroom tasks.

A school establishes a common set of skills needing development.

An internally generated benchmark assessment task is developed by teachers with the same protocols; the same timetable.

The task should merge with the on-going curriculum naturally.

Student products can then be evaluated both vertically and horizontally.

Revisions in the curriculum map should reflect a few targeted skills needing help.

Revisions should be applied thoughtfully to developmental characteristics of the learner.

Mapping Benchmark Assessments (cont.)

How do we develop essential (master, collaboration, consensus) maps?

Wrestling with Consensus:Developing Essential Maps

How do we weave our individual maps into a meaningful design that will benefit all students?

CONSENSUS: Creating an Essential Map

Developing an essential map (sometimes referred to as a master map/collaboration map/consensus map) that eventually replaces course or grade-level guidelines

Considering each discipline separately Identifying cross-disciplinary consensus

Where is consistency critical for our students’ learning?

Where is flexibility equally as important?

Two Basic Approaches:

One: Using individual diary maps, have grade-level or course teachers develop a subject or course’s Essential Map by identifying: The core curriculum concepts The critical focal skills Benchmark assessments Common essential questions Essential learnings/Power standards

Two: Revising and reacting to an already existing set of guidelines,

Reviewing an agreed-upon district or school’s guidelines and modifying it so that it has a Curriculum Mapping “look” (by months, etc.);

Instructing in the individual classroom to see how the drafted Essential Map plays out

Re-visiting the first-draft Essential Map and converting it to an active Essential Map

Two Basic Approaches:

Other Considerations for Developing Essential Maps

Use National and State Standards

as a filter to validate. Work with teachers to ensure that

consistent terms are used K-12 Examine K-12 Systems’ Reports

to identify still-present gaps,

repetitions, etc.

Each discipline presents different considerations when wrestling with consensus…

RED FLAG

Next steps and resources