Curriculum Mapping Making Consensus Maps

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Curriculum Mapping- Making Consensus Maps

• Spring 2007

What is essential for us to teach?
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What is Curriculum Mapping?

• The process where each teacher records the
  content and skills taught and how they are
  assessed and aligned to the academic standards.

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Reasons For Mapping

• A roadmap for student success
• Accountability for standards
• Analyzing needs vs. wants
• Fine-tuning our curriculum (gaps, redundancies,
  etc.)

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Making Connections

• Curriculum Mapping is connected to the Minnesota
  Standards
• Curriculum Mapping is connected to the No Child
  Left Behind Act
• Curriculum Mapping connects teachers to teachers
  and our buildings to each other
• Its knowing what happens in the grade level
  prior to your own and understanding what your
  students are coming in with each fall

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Learning From The Maps

• Use the maps
• -updating, changing, analyzing, searching
• They will constantly change
• -based on students
• -external factors
• You now have AUTHENTIC information to work from
• What can we learn from each other?
• Looking at the mapping data through a variety of
  lenses

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The Best Part The Evolution!

• Collaboration
• -learning and talking with one another
• -working together to improve practice
• -supporting each other
• Reflection
• -identifying and focusing on key issues
• -analyzing and talking about real
  teacher-generated data
• Sharing a Vision
• -setting the direction for meaningful reform
• Student Achievement
• -as we become better and more informed student
  achievement will improve

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• Remember It is understood that students taking
  the same course from different teachers will
  receive the same content and skills methods
  will obviously be different but the CONTENT and
  SKILLS remain a constant.

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Curriculum Mapping A Process for Continuous
Quality Improvement
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Consensus Map What is it?

• A map which reflects teacher agreed-upon core
  content and essential skills that everyone in a
  grade level or course agree will be taught and
  implemented.
• Although based on individual maps, these maps are
  much less detailed.
• Example At the 5th grade, we all agree that we
  will multiply and divide decimals in October.

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Essential Learning

• What basic knowledge will the students need to
  know to be able to demonstrate the learning
  target?
• What are the non-negotiable skills?
• Why is this unit or topic of value to our
  students?
• What are the most important elements to teach
  about this topic, given the allotted amount of
  time?

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Essential Learning/Questions

• Focusing our curriculum should start to turn
  students into critical thinkers versus rote
  memorizers
• The items that you deem essential today should be
  able to be transformed into a higher-level
  question at a later time.

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A question is essential if it is meant to

• Cause genuine and relevant inquiry into the big
  ideas and core content.
• Provoke deep thought, lively discussion,
  sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well
  as more questions.
• Require students to consider alternatives, weigh
  evidence, support their ideas, and justify their
  answers.
• Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking of big ideas,
  assumptions, prior lessons.
• Naturally reoccur, creating opportunities for
  transfer to other situations and subjects.

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• The essential learning/question allows us as
  educators to
• Focus student learning. I will put my teaching
  skills into helping my students examine the key
  concept deemed as essential.
• Make decisions about what we will teach as well
  as what we wont teach. WE CANNOT DO IT ALL!

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Our students.

• As kindergarteners they burst in wondering about
  everything, they ask about everything-- an early
  learners questions are essential to him or her!
• As 4th/5th graders they start to ask fewer
  questions and more and more managerial or mundane
  questions.
• Early adolescence we hear too many variations
  like these, Teacher, is this what you want? Is
  this going to be on the test? How long does the
  paper have to be?

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• Essential Learning/questioning will further
  focus the learning experience.
• Example In a humanities unit for a junior high
  age curriculum, these were the essential learning
  questions that the students had to respond
  to..
• How does my community affect my life?
• What do I owe my community?... Or do I?
• Thinking of our students, do you think they would
  rather study these type of questions or be told
  that students will learn to recognize personal
  responsibility to the community?
• Think of what they would have to learn in order
  to respond to those 2 questions. Is the learning,
  then, more focused?

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Examples of Questions

• What is a true friend?
• To what extent does art reflect culture or shape
  it?
• Must a story have a beginning, a middle, and an
  end?
• To what extent is DNA destiny?
• In what ways is algebra real and in what ways is
  it unreal?
• Must heroes be flawless?
• What is the difference between scientific fact, a
  scientific theory, and a strong opinion?

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• These questions cannot (and should not) be
  answered in a brief sentence and thats the
  point about essential learning/essential
  questioning.
• The aim to stimulate thought, to provoke
  inquiry, and to spark more questions not just
  pat answers.

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Examples of questions/learning in skill areas

• Life Skills class Teaching skills to develop
  self-sufficiency
• What few skills do I most need to develop to be
  self-sufficient?
• What must I learn to do (versus having others do
  for me) to maximize my self-sufficiency?
• Phy Ed class Teaching skills that involve
  swinging with long-handled objects, like baseball
  bats, golf clubs, tennis rackets.

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• PE key concept is power, torque, and control.
• How does torque affect power?
• How can you hit with greatest power without
  losing control? (to help students develop
  effective strategies for their swings keeping
  eyes on the ball and follow-through)
• When should we swing softly? (related to context)

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• Math a sample question
• What is the pattern and how do you know?
• This is central to all mathmatical thought and
  problem solving but if the students are required
  only to come up with a single response, on cue,
  with simplified data, they are not being required
  to transfer knowledge of patterns outside of
  filling in the blank.

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Any question that is meant to culminate quickly
in a fact or a completely settled conclusion is
not essential, because no sustained inquiry and
argument is intended or warranted.(This is not
to say that we DONT need these kinds of
questions because we do! We should make sure that
our skills and outcomes dont ALL surround this
thinking.)
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• Example of Progression to Essential question
• How does food turn into energy? (even higher
  level Blooms)
• Next
• How do our various body systems interact? (higher
  level Blooms)
• Even lower level
• What body system is responsible for moving
  blood? (knowledge level)
• Bottom level
• The _____ is part of the
  circulatory system.
• (fill in the blank kind of question)
• We want them thinking NOT just memorizing
  information

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Without a focus without essential learning

• Our students will be left with a mass of
  unconnected activities and undeveloped ideas
• We will have students that will receive the
  message, listen and read, recall or plug in what
  is taught
• We as teachers will have committed the twin sins
  aimless coverage and activity no matter how
  interesting or lively the lessons are

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How do we get started?

• Grade level meetings between both buildings
  (horizontal meeting)
• Vertical meetings (1st round)
• 1st with 2nd
• 3rd with 4th
• 5th with 6th
• K with each other to finalize maps
• Refer to schedule for 2nd round of vertical
  meetings.

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Horizontal Meeting

• Develop a consensus map.
• Come to an agreement within your grade level,
  about what content and skills are taught when.
• Product a completed copy of a consensus map that
  will be taken/used at your vertical meetings in
  the afternoon.
• Also A list of math skills that you wish the
  students coming in had better acquired before
  reaching your level. This will be shared at your
  vertical meetings in the afternoon.

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Vertical Meeting

• This is where you will be looking to answer the
  questions
• Are there any gaps in our math curriculum?
• Are there any redundancies?
• Are the skills spiraling?
• Example of a problem graphing-some graphing at
  2nd grade, no graphing at 3rd grade, and a lot of
  graphing at 4th grade is this working? Do we
  need to make adjustments?
• Alter your consensus map according to the result
  of the discussion.
• Product a copy of a consensus map that will be
  given to your building administrator.

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Setting up the Meeting Elementary

• You will need to determine a recorder for the
  consensus map.
• Part of your team will need to keep a focus on
  the MCA data that was given to you and that you
  brought with you.
• Part of your team will need to keep a focus on
  the benchmarks that were provided for you and how
  many questions are indicated that will be on the
  MCA II test.
• FYI We have the opportunity to actively make
  informed decisions regarding our math curriculum.
  This has the potential to positively affect our
  MCA II test scores.

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What if I dont teach math?

• All staff not teaching math will meet with those
  in their departments
• Morning session within departments, grades 7-12
• Afternoon session finishing up the maps and
  developing a list of what skills you wish the
  students coming in had before they reached your
  content area.
• Product a copy of a consensus map that will be
  given to your building administrator

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Setting up the Meeting Secondary

• Most of you will be developing your own consensus
  map one has been provided for you in your
  folder.
• You will need to discuss with your department
  team what skills should be laid out at what
  level.
• Those departments that dont have
  benchmarks/standards to adhere to, need to come
  up with what you deem important in those areas
  (creating your own benchmarks, so to speak).

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WHY? WHY? WHY? Map??

• Lets be a proactive staff and not have to
  react to something that might come down the
  pike.
• THIS IS GOOD FOR TEACHING AND IT IS GOOD FOR OUR
  STUDENTS.
• ITS NOT ABOUT US ITS ABOUT WHATS BEST FOR
  OUR STUDENTS.