Curriculum Mapping

Curriculum maps cover a wide range of important curricular activities.

They attempt to address the total education of the students in a building create a "word snapshot" of the educational activities of every classroom within a department, school, or district capture the content, skills, and assessments taught or administered by every teacher within a school building or district organize this information into an easily accessed visual that presents a timeline of instruction by teacher and course.

One of the most important features of curriculum maps is that they are geared to the school calendar, and each teacher's timeline is precisely displayed on the map. There are two groups of people crucial to the creation of a curriculum map: the teachers who provide the information and the curriculum team who organize the information.

The Curriculum Team The curriculum team begins working before asking teachers to become involved. This group creates a vision of the curriculum map and investigates whether school or district resources permit such a vision to become reality. This organizational hub should be comprised of educational leaders within the school or system, and might include central office personnel, instructional leaders, and department chairpersons.

Teacher Data Once a vision of the curriculum map is clear, the data collection process begins. Mandatory participation of all teachers is essential, as each provides information about the content, skills, and assessments administered in his/her class. The inclusion of every teacher's information determines the development of a comprehensive curriculum map that will eventually promote higher achievement. Teachers are requested to chronologically map important skills, content, and assessments addressed in each class taught. The information is then submitted to the organization team.

Map Review Once teacher data is organized, the labor-intensive portion of curriculum mapping is complete and the review process begins. Once the review is complete, the benefits of curriculum mapping are apparent: issues in sequencing of instruction become obvious and easily correctable. While review teams should be comprised of any combination of administrators and educators, subject review by department is a logical beginning point. Departments can investigate the map to identify gaps in the vertical and horizontal alignment of courses.

Vertical Alignment Courses that are correctly aligned permit teachers to quickly assess what students mastered in the preceding grade and to focus on building skills and knowledge, as opposed to consuming valuable time with unnecessary reviewing and re-teaching.

Horizontal Alignment Horizontal alignment often referred to as "pacing guides," assures that all teachers of a common grade level address specific subject matter following the same time line. Such alignment is crucial in school systems dealing with state-mandated, standards-based assessments. Initial review of the completed map by each department assures vertical and horizontal alignment and segues into a broader review of the map.

Interdisciplinary Connections After vertical and horizontal corrections have been made, a different review team comprised of instructional leaders from throughout the school reviews the map in search of common points of instruction. This team of reviewers informs teachers of overlaps in content or major assignments to promote interdisciplinary connections.

As teachers begin to build on interdisciplinary connections, students naturally begin to link information between and among courses, increasing the relevancy of skills and content in such courses. Additionally, teachers can verify skills or content addressed in other courses and alter their unit plans to a higher level, making learning more relevant.

While curriculum mapping is an intense and time-consuming undertaking, improvements to instruction such as vertical alignment, horizontal alignment, elimination of redundancies, and facilitation of interdisciplinary linking builds stronger curricula and improves instruction throughout a building.

A Work in Progress A curriculum map is a work in progress and schools that view it as such create and recreate review teams for it, always looking for ways to build bridges among curricula. Schools with established review teams are keenly aware of the changes within the building that impact instruction and assure that such changes are reflected on the curriculum map in use. Review teams work regularly to maintain an up-to-date curriculum map that can be reviewed quickly and efficiently by novice and veteran teachers alike. These regularly scheduled reviews preserve an on-the-same-page mindset among educators, asking and answering the questions that drive effective instruction.