Curriculum Mapping or Backward Design

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Curriculum Mapping or Backward Design

• Presentation to teachers in the Western Quebec
  School Board
• May 18, 2000
• By Ainsley B. Rose
• Director of Education

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Elephant Story

• Implementing the reform is like two elephants
  mating
• Its done on a high level
• Its accomplished with a great deal of roaring
  and screaming
• It takes two years to achieve any results

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outcomes

• To encourage cycle teamwork
• To promote curriculum coordination within cycles
  and between cycles
• To focus on how students learn rather than how
  teachers teach
• To validate current best practices

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The Context!

• Transition or articulation between cycles and
  across cycles
• Integrate the competencies, skills and abilities
  of the programs
• The need to be able to use assessment as a
  learning activity
• The need to be able to connect learning
  activities to real - life situations

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Benefits of Curriculum Mapping?

• Gives teachers control of instructional
  management to insure student-centered learning
• Increases the knowledge of assessment of learning
  across cycles
• Allows for collaborative planning and support
  from and for the professionals

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Michael Fullan
Schools that manage change best are those with
a collaborative work culture they develop a
collaborative work culture as they become
professional learning communities
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Why mapping? A metaphor

• A tool for integration
• Includes content, skills and assessments
• A tool for communication
• Aid in planning curriculum
• Avoids repetition and/or gaps in curriculum
• Helps with organizing the school year for
  students, staff and parents

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Seven Phases of Curriculum Mapping?

• Collecting data
• Individual review
• Mixed group review
• All school review
• Immediate action
• Long term action
• Review and revise

?Heidi Hayes Jacobs Mapping the Big Picture,
1997
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1. Collecting Data

• What each teacher is presently teaching in the
  course of the academic year
• Based on a calendar
• What is actually going on the classroom
  project, themes, activities etc.

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2. Individual Review

• Teachers look for gaps or repetition in the
  outline of all the teachers maps
• Each teacher works alone in this phase
• Allows for a better insight into the schools
  flow of the present curriculum

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3. Mixed group review

• Should be composed of people who normally do not
  work together
• Each teacher shares his/her observations from
  their individual review of the maps
• They identify the present gaps or repetition
  within and between cycles

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4. Large group review

• All staff attend the review
• Look for emerging patterns and gaps
• Decisions are made as to how to proceed with the
  data
• Move from a review mode to an editing, revising,
  and developing mode

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5. Immediate action

• The staff agree what can be adjusted immediately
  without major changes
• No further study is required to make these
  changes
• It is easy to accomplish

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6. Long term Action

• More in-depth discussing required
• Major revisions are needed
• Might result in structural decisions or long term
  consequences

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7. Review and revise

• Curriculum mapping should be dynamic and central
  to instructional leadership
• Review and revise to keep the maps current
• Allows for correcting errors or necessary
  adjustments
• Encourages integration of curriculum across
  cycles and domains

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What is backwards design?

• Identify desired results
• Determine acceptable evidence
• Plan learning experiences and instruction

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Howard Gardner
What we need in America is for students to get
more deeply interested in things, more involved
in them, more engaged in wanting to know to have
projects that they can get excited about and
work over long periods of time, to be stimulated
to find things out on their own.
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Identify desired resultsBegin with the end in
mind - Covey

• The competencies of the domains and the program
  of programs

Worth Being familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring Understanding Big Ideas
Wiggins Understanding by Design, 1998
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Determine acceptable evidence

• How will we know that students have achieved
  desired results and met the standards?
• What will we accept as evidence of successful
  (deep) understanding.

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Plan learning experiences and instruction

• What knowledge will students need to perform
  effectively
• What activities will be needed to allow students
  to construct their own learning
• What will need to be taught, coached

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Therefore Backward Mapping?

• Big ideas
• Critical Issues
• Essential Questions

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The Essential Question

• E.g.
• Why is life as it is in a pond?
• What is the effect of light on the pond?
• What nutrients control life in the pond?
• What are the relationships among different kinds
  of life in the pond?
• Reconnecting the Sciences Education Leadership
  Magazine. May 1996 Vol.53, NO. 8 pages 4-8

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How will my school and my teaching be different
after the implementation of the reform?
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How will I now that I am successfully
implementing the essence of the Reform?
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How will I know that my students are truly
engaged in their learning?
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Essential Questions - Snow

• What is snow?
• How does it affect me?
• How does it affect people?
• Why does it melt?

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Issues for School Teams

• What is experienced in each cycle?
• What is expected at the end of each cycle?
• What kind of testing will there be at the end of
  each cycle?
• How will technology be used to enhance learning?

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Application

• Identify what you do already that is very
  successful by month or term
• Map it on the year calendar and share according
  to the seven step process
• Now align with the discipline competencies, cross
  curricular competencies and the life long
  learning competencies

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All I really need to know about the Reform, I
learned from the Story of Noahs Ark!!!
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Noahs Lessons

• Dont miss the boat
• Dont forget were all in the same boat
• Plan ahead. It wasnt raining when Noah built
  the ark
• Stay fit. When youre 600 years old someone
  might task you to do something really big
• Dont listen to critics just get on with what
  has to be done
• For safetys sake, travel in pairs (teams)

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Noahs Lessons

• Build your future on high ground
• Speed isnt always an advantage after all the
  snails were on the same ark with the cheetahs
• When youre stressed, float awhile
• Remember the ark was built by amateurs the
  Titanic was built by professionals
• Remember the woodpeckers inside are a larger
  threat than the storm outside

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