Have you ever googled the teaching standards you need to teach and wondered “but where does it say how to do this?” Maybe you’ve asked someone or searched “what is curriculum mapping” and ended up more confused by the answer you got.
The truth is, we aren’t taught how to plan an entire curriculum. Nobody has ever sat us down and said, “okay, so first you’re going to decide this, then you’re going to plan that, and then end with this”.
Instead, we are left trying to decipher the curriculum as if we’re in a James Bond film and the bomb is about to go off! What’s even worst, we feel as though every other teacher has the code to the bomb, they just forgot to share it with you!
Enter curriculum mapping!
Curriculum mapping is something that should have been taught and practiced relentlessly during our pre-service teaching days. You know, instead of learning about that education philosopher who lived over 100 years ago.
I swear, curriculum mapping is a must for teachers who have ever asked themselves, “okay but what do I teach now?”
Be sure to get my free “Roadmap to Curriculum Mapping Success” by clicking here!
What is curriculum mapping?
Curriculum mapping is the process of creating the big picture of what you are teaching your students and when you are going to teach it. It is basically a big picture of your entire school year.
Yup, I said it…The whole year!
Curriculum mapping allows you to have a birds-eye view of the year. It has you:
- Choose unit topics
- Decide which standards you are going to teach and in what order
- Design learning experiences that match those standards
- Plan for assessments that will help you evaluate students
Get my free “Roadmap to Curriculum Mapping Success” by clicking here.
Once you have completed your curriculum map, you will know exactly what you are teaching for the entire year!
Can I get a “Hell yeah!”?
So how do we do this magical, mysterious thing called “curriculum mapping”?
Let’s take a closer look…
What is curriculum mapping process?
Before we look at what the process looks like, I want you to mentally divide your year into 6 units. These units will be anywhere from 4-6 weeks.
Now, there are 8 considerations when mapping out your curriculum.
You can find a more detailed list in my free “Roadmap to Curriculum Mapping Success” by click here.
1. What is curriculum mapping juice?
I like to call step 1 “The juice”. The juice consists of….
- The title
- Essential questions
- Big idea
Why do I call this part of the process the I “the juice” is because these three components are what give your unit flavor. Check out my Essential questions examples resource!
2.The standards to assess students.
You need to take a long, hard look at your teaching standards. Basically, you need to live and breathe these standards.
3. How, where, and when the standards are placed in the curriculum
This is probably the hardest part. Deciding which standards are going to fit into each unit.
4. Assessment types and purposes
Just like you need to know what the standards are, you need to have a good grasp on what assessment is, what types there are and why we assess students.
5. Assessments embedded in the curriculum
Once you know what you are going to teach, you can decide how you are going to assess students’ to know that they have learned what you have taught them.
6. Instruction
This part of the process is where we decide what your daily and weekly teaching is going to look like. Many teachers focus on this part of the planning process before doing the rest. There is a reason this step is number 6 and not number 1! Be sure to check out 7 activities I recycle and reuse throughout the year!
7. Resources
What tools are you going to use to teach students and support their learning? Are you going to use certain novels, picture books, websites, worksheets, etc…? Check out some of my favorite novels to use in the classroom by clicking here!
8. Success
I wish I could say that once you have done these steps that you’re done, your units are perfect and there’s no need to fine-tune. You need to actually put this process into practice and test it on your students. Was it successful? Did students grasp the concepts you taught? This is the part of the process where we check in with ourselves and see if it worked! Chances are, you will need to make tweaks and adjustments! But that’s ok!
Final words about “what is curriculum mapping”…
Want to learn more? I go into tons of more detail about this process in my F-R-E-E workbook “The Roadmap to Curriculum Mapping Success!”. Get it now!
Once you have received your roadmap, I want to hear from you! Be sure to reply to the email that includes your free roadmap! Can’t wait to connect!
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