Curriculum Mapping
Introduction My Grade 3 Colleague and I recently reworked our Curriculum Map. |
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We wanted to maintain the spirit of integration from previous curriculum maps, but wanted also to ensure that the template we created was usable for the classroom teacher. In addition, although we wanted to map out our curriculum in a manner that we could refer to frequently to guide our daily and weekly planning throughout the year, we still wanted to leave enough “space” for students to guide the curriculum, as suggested in the research on teaching for social justice and critical literacy. Finally, we wanted to incorporate the four critical/social considerations offered by our program support staff, but again, in an authentic way that would breathe life into our daily classroom activities.
The following two pages – submitted to our principal in early May -- comprise the 7th incarnation** of the template we began thinking about last fall and working on in February. A “good” curriculum map is never done, but we feel optimistic that the document as it currently exists is comprehensive enough to drive our teaching next year while still allowing space for the development of details as we learn from and with our students.
The following two pages – submitted to our principal in early May -- comprise the 7th incarnation** of the template we began thinking about last fall and working on in February. A “good” curriculum map is never done, but we feel optimistic that the document as it currently exists is comprehensive enough to drive our teaching next year while still allowing space for the development of details as we learn from and with our students.
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Headings and Content
We will be using the new ETFO “Social Justice Begins with Me” resource across the school next year. As the themes are laid out by month, we began with those, across the top of our map.
Next, we consulted the front matter from the various curriculum documents (especially pg 5 of the Science and pg 4 of the Social Studies docs), and mapped out which fundamental concepts (“big ideas”) seemed to align. We also consulted various “think papers” and other board-provided documents about curriculum connections, big ideas and embedding social justice. The book “Creating Critical Classrooms”, recommended by our ELT, served as further inspiration.
We soon discovered that in order to do all this authentically, we really needed to combine ALL the science and social studies units into one larger “theme”. Although this seemed daunting at first, our emerging understanding of “integration” also excited us, and we decided to maintain an open mind while moving forward with our brainstorming and planning.
Thus, the cross curricular big idea overarching each of the two terms was born! (That's the green part near the top of our map.)
From there, we began to consider rich tasks that would allow students to demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways using differentiated approaches (i.e. different ways to “say”, “do” or “create”). Open-ended, engaging questions to guide the students’ learning were developed. We tried to choose questions that were relevant to the science and social studies fundamental concepts we had selected, and which would also link to the four critical social considerations.
As literacy expectations would be met thematically and across the year (and individually in response to observations during guided groups and individual conferences with students as per our Daily 5 Literacy Block structure), rather than being separated and isolated into two terms, we attempted to keep our reading, writing, oral and media sections fairly open and uncluttered. We did include the text forms and reading strategies throughout the year directly on our map, to remind us as we went about our weekly planning.
A Few Words About Math...
Although we originally intended to integrate Math into the overall Big Idea for each term, we wanted to be realistic in our first attempt at big picture curriculum integration and mapping of this nature. Although we did consider some links with math (especially with data management), we wanted to be sure that links were authentic, not contrived. We also wanted to ensure that students were exposed in meaningful ways and enough detail to the full grade level curriculum in math. Therefore, for now, math is mapped out on page two, distinct from the Big Idea for each term (though of course links will be made where relevant as the year unfolds). Also, since we are involved in a special Ministry Math Project next year, we hope to flesh out page two by adding Marian Small's "Big Ideas" and some guiding open questions and paralell tasks from her book and the curriculum for each unit.
Resources
In an attempt to build schema and provide students with rich mentor texts, we have pre-selected several picture books (which we intend to revisit multiple times) and affordable field trips which provide foundation and extension relevant to our Cross-curricular “BIG Idea” for each term.
We will be using the new ETFO “Social Justice Begins with Me” resource across the school next year. As the themes are laid out by month, we began with those, across the top of our map.
Next, we consulted the front matter from the various curriculum documents (especially pg 5 of the Science and pg 4 of the Social Studies docs), and mapped out which fundamental concepts (“big ideas”) seemed to align. We also consulted various “think papers” and other board-provided documents about curriculum connections, big ideas and embedding social justice. The book “Creating Critical Classrooms”, recommended by our ELT, served as further inspiration.
We soon discovered that in order to do all this authentically, we really needed to combine ALL the science and social studies units into one larger “theme”. Although this seemed daunting at first, our emerging understanding of “integration” also excited us, and we decided to maintain an open mind while moving forward with our brainstorming and planning.
Thus, the cross curricular big idea overarching each of the two terms was born! (That's the green part near the top of our map.)
From there, we began to consider rich tasks that would allow students to demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways using differentiated approaches (i.e. different ways to “say”, “do” or “create”). Open-ended, engaging questions to guide the students’ learning were developed. We tried to choose questions that were relevant to the science and social studies fundamental concepts we had selected, and which would also link to the four critical social considerations.
As literacy expectations would be met thematically and across the year (and individually in response to observations during guided groups and individual conferences with students as per our Daily 5 Literacy Block structure), rather than being separated and isolated into two terms, we attempted to keep our reading, writing, oral and media sections fairly open and uncluttered. We did include the text forms and reading strategies throughout the year directly on our map, to remind us as we went about our weekly planning.
A Few Words About Math...
Although we originally intended to integrate Math into the overall Big Idea for each term, we wanted to be realistic in our first attempt at big picture curriculum integration and mapping of this nature. Although we did consider some links with math (especially with data management), we wanted to be sure that links were authentic, not contrived. We also wanted to ensure that students were exposed in meaningful ways and enough detail to the full grade level curriculum in math. Therefore, for now, math is mapped out on page two, distinct from the Big Idea for each term (though of course links will be made where relevant as the year unfolds). Also, since we are involved in a special Ministry Math Project next year, we hope to flesh out page two by adding Marian Small's "Big Ideas" and some guiding open questions and paralell tasks from her book and the curriculum for each unit.
Resources
In an attempt to build schema and provide students with rich mentor texts, we have pre-selected several picture books (which we intend to revisit multiple times) and affordable field trips which provide foundation and extension relevant to our Cross-curricular “BIG Idea” for each term.
In Summary...
My colleague and I have thought a great deal about this document over the past several months, and it works for us in the context of how we manage (and plan to manage) our classrooms next year. There are other resources (our day plans, new individual student conference sheets we are developing, and so on) that form part of the "planning package", and that would look different in different people's schools and classrooms, and which would perhaps alter the nature of the curriculum map those teachers use.
Our hope is that if this document is shared, it is done so as one example of what might work for some people's contexts, rather than as "the" way it should be done.
Thanks for your interest, and feel free to comment, provide feedback or ask questions.
Update June, 2012-- several more incarnations have emerged since this page was developed... please download the file at the top right for the most up to date curric map. Also, you may be interested in this: LNS Monograph on Integrated Curriculum (we did not use this in our planning; I found it online later on).
** Most recent version, Sept 2012, available at the top right... also check out this blog post!