Curriculum Mapping-Launching Pads to the Future

Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Heidi Hayes Jacobs is presenting: Curriculum Mapping- Launching Pads to the Future

The state of Curriculum Mapping is dynamic! Heidi will share her latest work and provide practical strategies on how to Upgrade the Curriculum in your school setting to respond to the needs o the “class of 2023″.

Launching Pad

Image licensed under Creative Commons by nasa1fan/MSFC

What year are you preparing your learners for? Consider changing your mission statement to reflect that you are preparing your students for the 2020s

Resistance to Growth

• myths- the good old days were good enough
• bring back papyrus
• The key to activities is lamination
• Habit of time and whom we meet with
• would you take your own children to a pediatrician who used the standards and approaches of the 1980′s
• ULTIMATELY it is a choice

History of Curriculum Planning

• Paper
• Ink
• typewriter
• xerox machine
• computers

Part of the curriculum mapping process is not only the content but also how we deliver it.

Beyond Reform to new forms.

Exporting and importing units of study, curriculum units of study. Not only can we share, but we can collaborate with other schools around the world.

Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs:

Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs

If you believe that an essential role of schooling is to prepare students to be successful in today’s world, then here is a must-read book that makes a powerful case for why and how schools must overhaul, update, and breathe new life into the K–12 curriculum. World-renowned curriculum designer Heidi Hayes Jacobs leads an all-star cast of education thought leaders who explain
Why K-12 curriculum has to change to reflect new technologies and a globalized world.
What to keep, what to cut, and what to create to reflect 21st century learning skills.
Where portfolios and new kinds of assessments fit into accountability mandates.
How to improve your use of time and space and groupings of students and staff.
What steps to take to help students gain a global perspective and develop the habits of mind they need to succeed in school, work, and life.
How to re-engineer schools and teaching to engage and improve students’ media literacy.

Upgrading starts a new habit of mind at schools.

Short term upgrades:

Revision and replacement of dated curriculum and assessment types with more vital contemporary forms.

Long Term- Versioning:

to new versions of the program structures in our school institutions that house curriculum and instruction.

Four key…school structures:

1. schedule- short term and long term
2. student grouping patterns
3. teacher configuration
4. Space- both physical and virtual

Strategic Grouping for Professional Reviews:

1. vertical- K12; extended departmental meetings
2. Targeted vertical: ex. K-1; 3-6
3. Across grade level- interdisciplinary
4. Extened team; special area teachers
5. Feeder pattern- in larger districts only those sharing same students
6. Expanded local team- virtual groupings (online)
7. Global team- feedback and collaboration with meaningful worldwide educators and students

Mapping changes the nature of the school. We can see what is happening in the classroom.

Curriculum 21 Teams- Provocation (purposeful interest), invigoration, and replacement

• What to cut?
• What to keep?
• What to create?

Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ Quotes:

Curriculum design requires us to make choices about what is essential now to help our learners for THEIR future.

Our standards have been written for other times. Standards are dated in their language and approach

Rethinking Standards, Mission Statements, and the Nature of Schools.

Replace one assessment type with a new one. Change one type of tool that you use.

Global Competency Matrix

Five Types of Alignment:

Curriculum Alignment

1. Internal
   The elements in a teacher or district curriculum map align to one another
2. Cumulative
   The curriculum maps build year to year; class to class k-12 and beyond
3. External
   Curriculum and assessment maps align to external standards geared toward future productivity
4. To Students
   Curriculum and assessment maps are designed to match the needs of specific learners in specific locations for the future
5. Global
   The aims and action of our school curriculum and programs will help our learners connect to global

A 21st Century Pledge : A Curricular Commitment from each teacher:

What this pledge/commitment for Curriculum is NOT:

• turning on an LCD versus Overhead projector
• using a computer versus a typewriter
• using e-mail instead of notes.

What this pledge/commitment for Curriculum IS:

• An integrated use  of technology that enhances content
• An application for a specific unit of study
• Evidence directly in student products and performance

Curriculum Mapping: The Process to Consensus

Presenter Earl Nicholas talks about A Necessary Prelude to Consensus Map

Practice beginning consensus building techniques to help establish the professional atmosphere needed to reach later consensus on major curriculum issues.

Why map?

Essential Question

How can we assure a meaningful set of learning experiences?

Curriculum:

• A set of unit plans outlining meaningful learning opportunities that including concepts, skills, essential questions, assessments, activities and standards aligned
• blue print for teachers to guide their teaching
• broad picture that schools are experiences

Curriculum is the vehicle by which we facilitate student learning. Effective implementation results in student accomplishment of state and district commencement outcomes. To serve that purpose, the curriculum must be relevant and meaningful to the students to whom it is taught.
taken from the Canadaigua Curriculum & Instruction Procesures Manual Adopted 2003.09

Consensus: agreement, acknowledgment, accepting truth

Wikipedia defines “Consensus”:

in English as, firstly, general agreement and, secondly, group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its origin in a Latin word meaning literally to feel together.

Skills across the disciplines

• editing and revising skills in ALL work
• organizational skills
• reading for decoding
• reading for text integration
• speaking skills in a range of forums
• Instructional Technology Expectations
• Character Ed Connections
• Service Learning Outcomes

Activity for your staff.
Give  them list of verbs pulled from Standards. Have them categorize them into three columns (recall/compare/predict)

Parrot (recall)

• classify
• describe
• identify
• summarize
• observer
• respond

Process (compare)

• Connect
• Discuss
• Contrast
• analyze
• diagram
• organize

Prognosticate (predict)

• elaborate
• reason
• exploree
• visualize
• solve

My thoughts:

My thoughts...

Taking the time to develop a consensus map is to get the “buy in” from teachers. It is to set the stage… Consensus maps are not only horizontally among teachers of the same grade level, but also vertically among different grade levels. In order to prepare incoming sixth graders with the right skills, Kindergarten through 5th grade teachers will have to work together and decide what will be included and what will not be included in their curriculum map. Teachers can take what was put into the consensus map and transfer to their individual map, then add their individual activities and give it their personal mark (art of teaching)

Four Phases of Curriculum Mapping Training

Teachers learn different too...

Differentiated Staff Development.

1. Laying the foundation (Vision)
   Prologue to mapping
   establishing reasons for mapping
   Definition and vocabulary components.
   creating a shared vision/understanding
   identifying your leadership support structure
2. Launching the process/Getting Started
3. Maintaining, sustaining, and integrating it into the system
   consensus mapping, diary mapping
4. Advanced Mapping tasks.

Laying the foundation

Most important thing is to lay the foundation and understand WHY you want the faculty to map. Establish right away the reasons.

• Use the “chair” with the imaginary student, who we are doing this for. What do we want this students to learn.
• What is the best place for us to start?
• conversation, collaboration and laying foundation is an essential part.
• involve the principal (head of school). Let them create a map for professional Development. Let them identify the needs of the students (teachers)
• Some of the reasons why map:
  • Show all the initiatives that you have in place in school
  • Show student load
  • Integration of Resources
  • Evidence of  integration
  • Accountability

Self-Diagnosis

Where are you right now? Let a faculty self diagnose where the school is in the process.
Create a common language among faculty–> go to standards to get those words (unwrap standards)

Mapping is a HUB for other initiatives. You can map Understanding by Design, Literacy Strategy, Differentiated Learning, Integrating Technology. The map houses whatever approach you are using.

Sticky Activity for Teachers

Activity for faculty:

On Sticky notes have teachers:

1. List all the initiatives happening at their schools.
2. Write 3-4 bullet points under Curriculum Mapping how it adds value to the students
3. Pick two initiatives that are top priority at your school, the ones that you are spending the most time on
4. Write 3-4 bullet points under each one of them how it adds value  for students
5. How do those two connect?

Goals and Expectations

Time for Professional Goals

• Clarify goals
• Chunk it down into smaller time sets (20 minutes)
• Get the Professional Development approved

Let teachers know what the expectations/goals for curriculum mapping are. Teachers want to know:

• What has to be completed?
• What has to be turned in?

In a year from now, we are hoping that “we” will have: (What will we accept as evidence that we will have accomplished that goal after a year)

• Clear understanding of vocabulary
• Reasons why we will be doing Curriculum Mapping
• understanding from priorities
• started the mapping process
• deepen understanding
• being able to align activities with Higher Level thinking skills
• upgrade assessments to include digital tools
• Do a read through (mixed grade level and resource teachers)