Curriculum Mapping

What are Curriculum Maps? Curriculum Maps help teachers, administrators and parents answer the questions that many ask regarding our students' learning: What do my students know? What did they study last year? What are they studying in the classrooms throughout the district? How do I help my students understand the connections between my subject and others? They are easy to read snapshots of the educational activities taking place in classrooms across the district.

Curriculum Mapping Efforts Continue -  Performance Pathways will facilitate Diary Map Development

Science and math teachers have been working vigilantly to develop the first level of curriculum maps which are called "Consensus Maps."   Consensus maps reflect the key concepts, aligned to Pennsylvania Standards, that will be taught in each course.  The consensus maps reflect the key concepts that will be taught in each course and were developed through a series of curriculum development workshops held on in-service days, during the two hour early dismissal days and sometimes during the school day using release time.  One of the goals of curriculum mapping is to collect and make available district-wide, the best instructional options for teachers as they work through a unit.   We are now ready to begin the process of entering the Consensus Map data in a standardized format that will be used by teachers to develop "Diary Maps." 

Diary Maps are used to guide teacher planning of day to day lessons, hence the description as a diary.  Teachers will plan lessons and instruction using a standardized format known as Understanding by Design.  Understanding by Design is sometimes called Backward Design.  There are three critical components to backward design; 1.  Identification of desired results, 2.  Determination of acceptable evidence, and 3. Planning learning activities and instruction.  In order to ensure that all curriculum is written using this process we have adopted the use of Performance Pathways software.  Each teacher will enter their goals for the lesson consistent with state standards.  The teacher will then identify enduring understandings (i.e what students will know...) and essential questions (i.e  provocative questions that will foster inquiry, understanding and transfer of learning).  The previously constructed Consensus maps will provide valuable information to teachers as they move through this planning process.  Teachers will be asked to identify student knowledge and skills followed by assessment evidence that will be collected to ensure comprehension.  Finally, the teachers will be asked to develop a learning plan, i.e what learning experiences and instruction will enable students to achieve the desired results.  For a variety of reasons, teachers may design different learning plans from other teachers but will be expected to achieve the same enduring understandings. The critical piece of this curriculum planning process is to ensure that the enduring understandings are consistent across the district.  Teachers will be able to share diary maps if they desire, however, only Consensus Maps will be available to parents on-line.

To view an example of the Performance Pathways curriculum design program highlight the following URL and copy and paste it in your web browser.  You may click on the on-line demo.

http://www.techpaths.com/TheSuite/PerformanceTracker/tabid/138/Default.aspx

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