Week 6

Curriculum Mapping: Infusing 21st Century Standards and Academic Standards

Vlasis, C. C. (2003). Librarian morphs into curriculum developer. In B. K. Stripling & S. Hughes-Hassell (Eds.), Curriculum connections through the library (pp. 107-117). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.

“The map does not show those specific daily activities or lesson plans.  Most importantly, the map does not show the personality of the teacher delivering the lessons or the strategies he or she uses to inspire learning” (p.111).

            When I reached the above quote I felt a lot more “buy in” to the idea of curriculum mapping.  Until I read this particular chapter, I was rather skeptical about the idea of curriculum mapping.  In my first year of teaching, I taught at a charter school.  A huge push by the company running the school was to have all teachers on the same page, (down to the exact question/teaching point) at the same time.  This  literally resulted in the principal observing classes with an air-horn in her hand and pressing the button when the teacher fell behind in her lessons!  Aside from being very disruptive the idea of all students being on the same page at the same time is bad for students since they are discouraged from asking questions and the teacher is discouraged from supplementing learning when students need clarification.  The idea of keeping pace was more important to the principal (who had a MBA rather than a teaching background) than students’ mastery of a skill.  When I first started reading about curriculum maps I feared the maps were pacing guides, now I see they are extremely different.

As a 6^th and 7^th grade teacher, I teach both levels persuasive writing.  The 6^th graders are responsible for writing a shorter piece than the 7^th graders.  The foundation work for teaching the writing piece takes me longer than in 7^th grade because 7^th graders are more cognitively developed than 6^th graders and because the 7^th graders received foundation work in the prior year .  What is important to my district is that I cover this topic sometime within the third quarter.  This flexibility allows me to adjust my lesson plans allowing me to lead each group at the pace they need in order to reach the greatest level of success.  Without this flexibility curriculum maps would not have the same impact on the learning and teaching. Currently, we do not use curriculum maps in my district.  If I had the ability to view a curriculum map I would be able to easily tie the persuasive piece to what my students are doing in another class.  Currently, they are writing persuading their parents or our administration to make a change to a policy that effects them.  If I was able to view a curriculum map where I discovered, for example, that in social studies students were learning the policies which involve human rights in China, I would be more likely to make a curricular tie  to social studies with this assignment.  The result would be enhanced learning  in both curricular areas.

            The second point in this chapter where I felt much greater buy-in to the concept of curriculum mapping was when Vlasis states, “A curriculum map is a tool for communicating, planning and improving the curriculum.” The idea of having a communicative tool that allows teachers to know what is going on in all classrooms across the buildings in a true middle school model.  As a middle school teacher, I often feel that this information is not easily accessible to me.  Not knowing what is going on in other classes is a huge detriment to the students. As a language arts teacher I have the most flexibility in my curriculum and have the ability to house books that allow the students to explore the subjects they are learning in all classes in different ways.   Allowing media specialists to access this information is even more powerful because of her potential to obtain the needed materials and help teachers understand the cross curricular ties.  Her ability to pay acute attention to the information the students are learning school-wide will allow her to impact all students in the school.

            A final stroke of confidence for curriculum mapping is that there is an easy to follow format for the process of creating maps.  Although the process is tedious, it is not difficult and there is no reinvention involved.   In other words, maps grow organically to match the school district, state and national standards.  Each step is described on pages 113-114 and beginning steps are laid out on pages 115-116.  Even more encouraging is the fact that there is software available to create maps.  This is important because it allows all teachers to access the maps both to build on the information that has already been entered into the map and to access the maps via their computers.

            Between the personal research I have done on curriculum maps and what I read in this chapter, I see their inherent strengths.  When I am ready to move into a media specialist position, I hope that the district I work in uses curriculum mapping so that I will be able to coordinate efforts between the school’s teachers for the success of the students.