Articulating the Why and How Behind Curriculum Mapping

As educators, we know it is important to help our students understand how academic content connects to the larger world- we are better, more engaged participants when we understand the “why” behind what we are doing. However, when we work with adult learners, like teachers, sometimes we forget that it is equally important to articulate the “why” to help them understand the importance of tackling a new challenge. Maureen Cohen understood this need to articulate the reasons behind curriculum mapping when she pioneered the role of Curriculum Director at Mendon-Upton School District in Mendon, Massachusetts. As Maureen introduced curriculum mapping, she created and shared with her teachers a centralized curriculum website to communicate why this process is worth everyone’s valuable time and provided a variety of resources. She opened the website by outlining the importance of the work in relation to the district’s strategic plan: All of this information not only built initial knowledge for teachers, but it created a resource hub that could be referenced again and again.

Breaking down the “How”

Once Maureen built in the “why” (the vision and purpose of mapping), she added resources to support the “how.” One resource that is particularly helpful for teachers is a rubric. Though units are continuously re-visited, revised, and re-invented with no “end point”, when teachers’ maps reach a “Proficient” status on the team’s rubric, they are ready to go “live” and be published to a public site for parents, students, and community members to see. Maureen shared that, as a parent, she appreciates the idea of transparency even more, so she can know what’s occurring in her child’s classroom and support that learning at home. You can find below the rubric teachers use to review their units and create a shared language to talk about their work and prioritize their time. Click on the image below to download this resource- use it to spark conversation at your own school!

Curriculum Map Review Rubric

Criteria	Exemplary	Proficient	Emerging	Beginning Stages
Standards	Clearly tied to an assessment Cross-curricular connections Reflects what was actually taught at the end of the unit	All are clearly aligned to content/skills Few are tied directly to assessment (when you get to stage 2)	Included but not clearly tied to assessments Nice to know, but not relevant to unit focus Too many listed and not targeted within instruction	No standards indicated or the wrong standards indicated
Enduring Understandings	Aligned with essential questions Big ideas give meaning to content learned and have enduring value beyond the unit or classroom Are at the heart of the discipline	2-3 per unit Provide meaningful connection to the real world Format: bulleted list of sentences; capitalize the first word, period at end.	Unrelated to content and assessment (lacking alignment) Not age appropriate More than a few in number Errors in format	Absent Unrelated to unit or unclear Significant errors in format
Essential Questions	Engaging Guides students’ learning Endures and establishes lifelong understanding of the unit Thought provoking and insightful Age appropriate	Clear focus Alludes to an understanding Aligned to content/skills Questions can’t be easily answered Format: Bulleted list of questions, 2-3, Capitalize first word, end with question mark	Simplistic Uneven in quality More than a few in number Questions unrelated to content and assessment Errors in format	Absent Unit Questions Written as yes/no or right/wrong Significant errors in format
Content	Details specific, clear and succinct In list form rather than narrative References key concepts taught in unit Topics align with standards, skills and assessments, essential questions Noun: noun descriptor	Describe main concepts Aligned to standards Subject matter (descriptive) What students will know and understand Format: Bulleted list of phrases; written as a key noun or phrase, capitalize first word; no punctuation	Few topics/concepts identified Vague Long list of vocab terms, rather than phrases Errors in format	Generic Narrative Worded as skills Disconnected alignment to skills and assessments Significant errors in format
Skills	Precise and targeted Achievable and measurable Reflects proficiency levels Higher order thinking skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy used. Includes measurable verb, target (how it will be measured), descriptor (details with relationship to content)	Clear action verbs Aligned to standards Measurable A variety of levels used from Bloom’s Taxonomy Format: Bulleted list of phrases, begin with bold verb, capitalize first word; no punctuation	Generic verb Verbs not measurable Broad objectives Only low levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy used Errors in format	Vague Written as content or activity Disconnected to content and assessment Significant errors in format

And there you have it: Maureen brought the whole process full circle.

Why are we doing this?

• To reach our students, at school and at home.
• To make their learning journey full, rich, and comprehensive.
• To constantly improve.

Not only did Maureen answer the “why”; she also answered “how” to make it happen, all with her teachers’ support. The teachers at Mendon-Upton School District have now been mapping for about 7 years, demonstrating that laying a strong foundation leads to lasting results!