ASCD Poll: Curriculum Mapping

In the ASCD Poll, we asked you to tell us the most how you use curriculum mapping. If you haven't taken the poll yet, please vote now.

What successes have you had using curriculum mapping, and what difficulties have you had? Share your comments on curriculum mapping with your peers.

Comments

[Cori Cotner]

I work for an Intermediate Unit. Intermediate Units are educational service agencies mandated by law to serve districts in their regions.
I am the Professional Development Coordinator and we service 19 school districts in 4 counties. Because our schools are very rural, many of them do not have curriculum coordinators and we provide curriculum services.
Since taking on this endeavor for many of our districts, we have made several attempts to make curriculum maps living, breathing documents instead of something that sits on the shelf for years and years. We have guided districts through curriculum mapping using the Heidi Hayes-Jacobs model. We set it up in a database for each district so that it is searchable by grade level, topic, standard, assessment method, etc.
We have experienced a lot of success and have also come across some resistance, however, as a whole, I think educators see its benefits.

[Jason Waskiewicz]

My school does not use curriculum mapping in its conventional form. This was mostly due to poor training, poor implementation, and very unclear expectations. No one knew what to do.

Instead of solving the problems, the format was blamed. Now we're doing something new which does accomplish essentially the same goals, but it is spelled out differently.

I moved to this school from another district, so I was disappointed that they do not do mapping as I know it. However, I'm happy about the focus on standards and laying out curriculum through the year. It is so important to know what we teach. It's like running a household with a budget! Much scarier and more "seat of the pants" without a budget.

[David Gundlach]

Historically we had similar problems to many of those expressed here. Our published curriculum did not match actual instruction and there was no way to verify alignment to standards. In short...the curriculum was not communicated well or used by many.

We found a web-based program that was inexpensive, and VERY easy to use (which is important for teachers as they have very little time to learn intricate programs and processes). The program we use is called Build Your Own Curriculum and it is offered through a company called School Software Group.

We have had great success as our teachers actually prefer to use the system for their own purposes as well as providing state of the art curriculum mapping, alignment, and communication to administration, staff, parents, and (here's a novel concept)the students.

The other advantage of BYOC is there is another web based companion product called Build Your Own Assessment that takes the curriculum information from BYOC and allows teachers to create common assessments.

Probably the best curriculum tool I have been able to find to help me as a new curriculum director help improve instruction in our district. I Would be happy to answer any questions so feel free to email me.

[Virginia Belland]

A goup of schools in Colorado have joined together in a partnership (consortium) to share knowledge and resources related to teaching standards. We are using a web-based portal to host a document library. We have access to curriculum documents that prioritize the standards based upon the liklihood of them being assessed on our state test (CSAP). Each partner has an opportunity to share instructional strategies, assessment resources, and collaborate in a virtual "PLC". Many of our partners are small, rural schools with only 1 teacher at each grade level/content area and the partnership provides an opportunity for interaction via conference calls, emails, blogs, and discussion groups that would, otherwise, be unavailable.

[Arnold L Kaye]

We have engaged in curriculum mapping as part of our curriculum and program development model. Our Teacher Center director is the point person for delivering the "training" and guidance, while our Assistant Supt. for Learning/Accountability provides the direction. It is all part of our District Strategic Plan that is directly focused on creating and maintaining a "non-redundant curriculum" grades K-12. We have been at this approach for about two years in earnest, with the previous years devoted to getting ready, so to speak. The product is posted to our website, so that instructional personnel can access it, copy it and amend it for their personal use. For sure, this is a work in progress because curriculum is dynamic in its nature. Our curriculum mapping is also at the elementary stages of ensuring content articulation matched to state standards (NY) and some resources. The more sophisticated level would include assessment (the formative kind)that guides instruction. If there are others out there who would like to share their experiences, we would welcome the assistance, and we are willing to share whatever we have.

[Tim Olson]

In response to Dave Gundlach's blog posting, I think it should be disclosed that Dave helped develop BYOC and receives a financial payback for each instance sold.

I would think this should be a more impartial forum for sharing ideas rather than a mechanism to sell product.

[Brenda Chambers]

In the past, grade level teachers at our school would get together to create academic calendars for Reading and Math and agree to how the curriculum would be implemented. Then, some of these teachers would go back to their classrooms close the door and teach what they wanted to and how they wanted to teach. Since we did not make our goals for State testing two years ago, there has more of a push to develop curriculum mapping. Before we received our results from State testing this year, our grade level was sent a copy of the district approved curriculum map based on the premise we would not meet our goals again and would be required to use the curriculum mapping to bring up our State testing scores. Then, we found out that we made our goals for this year. My principal told me that my class was one of the highest performing classes of the school on the State test. Therefore, he wanted me to continue doing what I did before. I did not have curriculum mapping before. However, I used all the tools of curriculum mapping. I always made my lesson plans using the academic calendar and the State Standards. Everything I taught was based on how I could tie the lesson to a State Standard. Since we have teachers that our resistant to change, I do not see our grade level implementing the curriculum map unless it is mandated.

[Rhonda Salazar]

My school is a Restructuring II school and I wish that Administration would initiate curriculum mapping and get the three schools (elementary, middle school, and high school) to start vertical collaboration. This would really benefit our district and just maybe get the "learning ball" rolling! I'm at the elementary and at our school site we have started the vertical communication and are in the process of aligning our lessons to the standards at each of our grade levels. However, I feel that it needs to be more formal with teachers being held to the process and implementation. Otherwise, as happened many times before, we will start but by midyear we're back to doing our own thing in our own classrooms without any outside collaboration.

[Marilyn Cole]

My school does not implement curriculum mapping at this time. We do participate in PLC’s, whereby we try to work as a cohesive unit in aligning our lessons to the state’s standards and benchmarks and in preparing an instructional calendar.
Regarding curriculum mapping, my first thought is “I hope that if and when our school district implements this program, they do it right,” The procedure that is continually stressed is that it takes time; upwards of 3 years, training (not a one day workshop) and committed leadership. In the past, new ideas to gain results started with an intense one day workshop and training, if any, was reserved for the administration. After the workshop, teachers were instructed to implement these various ideas in our classrooms. I don’t recall the administration ever coming back to the school sites to coach, assist or praise anyone. All of the “old-timers” kept saying it was just one more thing that the administration thought up but not through. They would wait awhile - maybe a year - and it would be gone and the powers that be would be onto another wonderful, foolproof program. My hope is that if my district does implement the curriculum mapping program that they will be committed enough for the administration to actually help at school sites to make it happen and follow the above stated guidelines for success. The program will only be as good as its leadership.

[Burt Bowles]

It is my belief that curriculum mapping is becoming the new “fix it all” for school districts that are having trouble with the NCLB laws. Not to say that curriculum mapping is a bad idea. However, to expect a whole entire school district to be able to maintain the map throughout the years is utter nonsense. We created district curriculum maps last year and just the problems that have risen up the first year of implementation necessitate a revamping of the whole idea of district wide curriculum mapping. For instance, staff leave all of the time, it is possible for a person coming into a position to not even know that a curriculum map exist. Furthermore, it is not possible for a whole entire district social studies department, or math department to meet and have the deep meaningful conversation to implement a well structured curriculum map. Curriculum mapping is a tool, just like all the other tools we use to teach. It should be used when and where that tool is required, and not to fix all the leaky holes on what NCLB has deemed a sinking ship.

[Amy Dumas]

I wish our school implemented curriculum mapping. As a second year teacher I have been overwhlemed with everything. It is nice to see what I will be teaching throughout the year and that way I may be more prepared for each day. Our school just adopted Everyday Math which does a little bit of mapping which has been useful to all of us while trying to figure out this new program. I hope one day we can do it for all subjects. My grade level (3 out of 6) collaborate and try to do some ourselves which is great.

[Greg Ericksen]

Curriculum mapping is a wonderful program that will certainly solve a lot of problems if it is implemented the intended way with fidelity. However, virtually all the programs that have "come down the pipes" over the years could have solved a lot of problems if they'd been implemented correctly. There in lies the problem. For any number of reasons including poor training, lack of staff "buy in", or the good ol' D.O. just telling the teachers to do something else (probably because they got a better deal on that something else), programs that work well on paper frequently don't work well in a school full of kids.
Unfortunately, I believe we are teaching in a system that politics, percentiles, and money speak louder than qualified educators and student needs. As cynical as this commentary sounds, I do feel things can improve but it will require revolutionary changes in the system. Imagine an education system that set long-term goals truly based on student needs with access to all resources necessary for success.
By the way, my school is attempting curriculum mapping. I'm confident it will improve things for now. Like I said, the program really does make sense. How long will it last? How well will it work? Only time will tell. Happy teaching!

[William Knight]

Good things about curriculum mapping. First year teacher will have a guide for their teaching of the subject. It would let them know what standards and bench marks they need tocover and when to cover them. In my district , we have a lot of kids that move around from one school to another school throughout the year. It's nice to know that, they should be close to what I'm teaching when they arrive. In the past we would have one school teach a subject in the fall and another school would teach the same subject in the spring. If a student moved they could completly miss a subject or have the same thing twice. If the district has a curriculum map this shouldn't be a problem.

[Penny Masden]

Our school uses curriculum mapping, pacing guides and units. All of these are dependent upon the acknowledgement that planning such as this is fluid and must be revisited in a consistent frequent manner. One cannot expect the curriculum map to be a stagnant tool. It is the flexibility of people collectively building it, trying it for at least a year and then re-hashing it again that enriches both the document and the people working on it. The same is true for the pacing guide and the units.
At our school, the district has the responsibilty of developing the curriculum map through district-wide discussion. Our school level horizontal planning teams develop the pacing guide and the units that follow the guide. Our Communities of Practice are the vehicles for vertical alignment, review of pacing guides and units based on the curriculum map.
When we first began our unit development six years ago, a young teacher stated she was so glad we were doing this because it meant she would only have to do a little up-dating each year. She and all the faculty have discovered that curriculum is fluid - from the state, from the district, from the school-wide Communities of Practice, from the horizontal teams to the classroom teacher. The thing to remember is to use the curriculum map as the guiding force and periodically review it. Try the tool(s) prior to tossing them. Use them as the vehicle for the next iteration.

[Treva Lee]

This is our first year with curriculum mapping. Although the principal has good intentions a large chunk of training has been left out. This has left me with plenty of questions and reservations. However, I am fortunate enough to know the state standards for first grade, this is a plus because the school curriculum is based on state standards. This model map helps me in that it gives me some direction to where I am taking my students. Ofcourse, in the end, it's all about making AYP.

[Laura Monagan]

We are in our fifth year of curriculum mapping. Initial training and data input took about three years and is, of course, ongoing. We use our curriculum maps as a foundation for discussions of curriculum on professional days. For instance, our history department use the "Search" mode to discover that our students needed more exposure to information about the Crusades. We then assigned teachers at the Lower, Middle and Upper School levels to develop units (or parts of units) to incorporate the topic in a spiraling pattern. In another instance, we used the "Analysis" mode to analyze the Lower School math program and make curricular adjustments for both our brightest and our most needy students. We re-designed the curriculum maps to use them to track administrative work, too. We are just starting that process. As in many other schools, our new teachers have found curriculum maps very useful in first-year planning. It seems to me that in the public school setting, the focus of curriculum mapping is on standards alignment, whereas in an independent school like mine, our focus is on curriculum alignment. By the way, our curriculum mapping program is administered on campus by the head librarian, the director of academic technology and the curriculum coordinator.

[Cotillion Sneddy]

I'm recently taking a class that is about Curriculum Mapping. Now I'm not sure if I was in a hole or something but I seem to be unaware that most schools have this. The school which I currently work at does not do curriculum mapping and it is in the Restructuring beginning phases. It seems that the more I learn about curriculum mapping and see the benefits that it has, I think that our school would benefit from it. It seems difficult to establish but once it's establish correctly it seems to have a smooth transition. I would definitely suggest that our school which is Pre-K through 8th grade seriously consider doing some mapping.

[Terry Stinson]

Reflection Chapters 1-4

Curriculum mapping is a very lengthy process which everyone has to buy into. This means that people need to be willing to put in the time it takes to create this together. For people to buy into this process of mapping, an incentive for teachers needs to be in place, whether it comes from the district or state level. Everyone should be making connections between the different levels within their school. If everyone could make these connections, figure out the gaps and repetitions more quality teaching may occur. Curriculum mapping will help new teacher get a bigger picture of a school's curriculum instead of just surviving their own lesson by lesson. It could help them see why they are teaching what they are teaching. Curriculum mapping can help new teachers make their lessons more meaningful and focused on the district and state standards and benchmarks. If only a few people are involved in this process, the outcome is not going to be very productive. If everyone jumps on board with this idea and helps in this process they will have ownership and therefore be more willing to implement this process. Hopefully, curriculum mapping will help build learning communities where we can create a more consistent and higher level learning experience for our kids.

[Sheryl Whitehead]

Being a music teacher, I see my students from Kindergarten through to the 5th grade. This gives me the opportunity to be sure that all of my students learn in sequence, everything they need to know for music in the middle school. This is very helpful in fulfilling the curriculum and in meeting all the benchmarks and standards in the music program.
There are many holes in my education, as I moved so many times during my school years. I could jump as much as two years forward or behind, depending on where I moved. I do believe that curriculum mapping would be helpful in the schools and in situations like this. I think all teachers would benefit from having a curriculum map, especially those teachers who somehow just don’t get it.
This year, while at my child’s Middle School Open House, my daughter’s history teacher introduced herself and said, “history is boring, so in my class your child will do a lot of reading and essay writing, at least they will learn to write essays!” I think if this teacher had a curriculum map that she knew she could follow, maybe her class wouldn’t be so boring and maybe it would even inspire her to teach and teach outside the box.
I believe there is a lot to say for consistency in a child’s education. I also believe that to meet everyone’s needs there must be flexibility to allow for creativity within the curriculum.

[Kelly Yost]

After reading the chapters on curriculum mapping and how to begin implementing the process, I realize how fortunate I am to work with such a supportive and positive learning community. I consider this the most important step in creating a successful school. Without a good community and work environment, students will not be successful in their studies.
My school district is in the process of creating curriculum maps. Last year, the reading and math maps were made; this year, Science and Social Studies will be added. After some doubts on my part, I have decided that the ‘pros’ outweigh the ‘cons’ for curriculum mapping. I know this is the best way for teachers to all teach the same skills as prescribed in their specific grade level. Since there are many transient students, the mapping process helps students who move to different neighborhoods fit in achedemically in classrooms across the district. I realize we have three brand-new teachers at our school alone, and having the maps will be their primary way to stay on track with their lessons.
My one hesitation about using curriculum maps is the pressure teachers feel from the district to use only the textbooks and suggested activities in order to teach the standards. I learned of this after speaking with our school representative who is part of the mixed group who creates the maps. She explained that a teacher is free to use whatever source he/she feels will teach the standards, but those teachers must be ready to prove it. If a student has gaps in his knowledge, a teacher who didn’t use the adopted text and suggested activities will be held accountable. When I think about my education, some of my best teachers strayed from the texts. I learned so much from the whole language approach. (Must have been the newest thing when I was in elementary school). My fear is that students will get bored with the same teaching tools and same format. When a student is bored, he or she is not engaged in learning!
Even before considering curriculum mapping within my content area, I started creating 9-week maps for my own use. Even though we just adopted a new text for the music curriculum, I prefer using at least 60% of my own activities. I like the variety as a teacher. Even so, by using the 9-week maps, I am doing a better job staying on top of the skills I need to teach. Being able to mold my curriculum is why I love my job! I also collaborate with the classroom teachers to help support their special units. Maybe there should be a district-wide music curriculum map; that would be a way to ensure all the music teachers are teaching the same skills during the same grading periods. On second thought, I don’t think so—not unless the standardized tests start including music questions. I’m still of the opinion that music has great benefits for students, whether or not strict guidelines are followed. The experience each student gets from being in music class is extremely valuable to his/her overall education. Whether he or she is mastering the music skills, improving his/her self-confidence in a non-threatening environment or improving social interaction skills, each student’s participation in music class helps support the regular classroom content areas!
In conclusion, I am learning a lot by reading the mapping book and by talking to classroom teachers. This is a very difficult task. From what I can tell, our school is making great strides with the mapping process. Hopefully we’ll make AYP this year. I have to think though, what will the new idea be in 5 years?!

[Michelle Trotter]

Curriculum mapping helps new teachers by giving them a foundation. Having guidance really helps by giving new teachers confidence in using their own ideas to teach. I have been a part of creating curriculum maps for my subject area of science. Teachers should be able to use a curriculum map, note changes they would make by what worked and what didn't and have the opportunity to collaborate with others to make appropriate changes. I have had this opportunity and together with other teachers we have created a working curriculum map.

[Shawna Lee]

Although, I haven’t been able to use curriculum mapping myself, it seems like a positive, organization tool that would be helpful in planning your ideas for your classroom. I know I would love to have the chance to sit down with a group of teachers and collaborate and plan out a few months in advance, instead of flying by the seat of my pants, which is what I’ve felt like I’ve been doing since school began this year. But currently this is not happening in my school and as much as I would like it to come to pass, I don’t foresee this happen in the near future. Because of the requirements from the district and state I feel limited on how I can spend my time in the classroom – we are now in a block schedule (this is a k-3 school), specials first thing in the morning, then bilingual/enrichment (meeting times for the teachers), LA for the morning (where we should teach from the approved curriculum), math in the PM and then a 45 minute block of time to fit in Science, Social Studies, Art, etc. I’ve tried and it truly does not leave a lot of room for thematic based lesson plans.
Although I believe that consistency is the key to successful teaching, flexibility must be there also. I feel very lucky that I work at a school that, although most teachers are committed to the core curriculum (which is different than the preferred curriculum in our district), we also have some flexibility to supplement with other activities. This is beneficial because as we all know; kids are different and have different learning styles, which makes differentiated teaching so important. It is also a struggle when kids come into your classroom at varying academic and development levels and you’re unaware of how they performed or what they learned in the previous year. (Of course if I sat down with a mixed group to curriculum map, I would probably have a good idea of what the students should have learned the year before!) One day, I hope that I will have the chance to experience curriculum mapping for myself.

[Misti Phelps]

I am a maximum level teacher teaching in a multi-impaired classroom. In my position I often feel like I am out of the loop when it comes to curriculum mapping. I know that my school has a program where grade levels come together to discuss issues relating to their specific grades these are called “Professional Learning Communities”. My program has been using a program called FACES, which adapts to students with special needs. Recently we have been redirected to follow the Exceptional Grade Band Expectations in developing our curriculum in the maximum level classrooms. The MI program meets about once a month to discuss issues relating to our individual needs.

[Iva Alexander]

Last year our graduation team a mixed-group developed ways to help students that are the lowest 20% to graduate. This year we want to get the percentage higher and add new ideas and techniques to make our team even more successful with its graduation rate.
A variety of teacher groups benefit all teachers and supports all areas of learning. A learning community needs all teachers to be part of the team to be successful as a whole.
My school did develop leadership teams last year to bring up test scores. There was a Math team and a Literature team that developed lessons to be taught in all subject areas. A problem of the week was done in all classes on most weeks to support and for Literature support a model was taught for writing assignments. This was very successful and we plan to build on all of our teams.

[Caroleen Damon-Frank]

Right now, our school does not use curriculum mapping. I do notice some gaps and overlaps in our teaching. It seems like I spend a lot of time introducing new concepts and a lot of re-teaching. I wish the administrator and educators at our school would start curriculum mapping. I would really help the learning community in our area.

[Betty Damon]

The information from all the chapters I have read leads to using curriculum mapping and getting all school staff involved in improving the curriculum for our students. Teachers need to fully understand how important it is to work together as a team.
At the administrators level, principals need to know how important it is to provide training for teachers, assistants, special programs, and any staff member that is involved to improve student learning.
Curriculum mapping needs to be reviewed in a timely manner. Different staff members need to be a part of the team to review the curriculum mapping.

[Allison Schott]

It seems that every year our school embarks on the Curriculum Mapping process. We have a representative come in and provide a full day of training for the staff. We are given so much information that we become overwhelmed and quickly begin to lose interest with the process. I strongly believe that Curriculum Mapping can work, but initially, it must be presented in a well-planned manner, using simple language in a non-threatening environment. If the “big picture” is understood by a committed staff, Curriculum Mapping can be a success.

[Lisa Minnehan]

My special preschool does not do curriculum mapping. We have 9 teachers in our school and 2 speech pathologists and 1 part time. We do a program called Zoophonics. It is a bases for reading program. Some of the elementary schools in Farmington do use this program, but not all. The schools that use it are really glad our students have been exposed to it.
We teachers just follow the state standards and benchmarks for the curriculum. We do have a two year program that was purchased called "Scholastic" that covers 18 "units". We decide from these 18 units, which ones we will use for the course of two
years. We meet and discuss all themes and teach all subjects within the theme. It is a good program and very successful.

[Lynda Aberasturi]

I have been to a few meetings on a half work day to improve the curriculum. During this time we worked on the curriculum, but we never had enough time to do a really good job. So over the years I been there we have had several turn-overs in the curriculum. Then after several meetings our school just adopted the New Mexico State Standards, and the decision was made to use the Standard 10 test. At the elementary level where I teach we have not had any curriculum meetings in the last three years. At the high school level they only have one person working on improving the curriculum. I understand that he engages the teaching staff in monthly meetings that sound unproductive and boring. I like the ideas discussed in Curriculum Mapping. I think curriculum mapping is definitely beneficial to schools. It provides information for the teachers to teach relevant material, without over-lapping and leaving gaps in instruction from grade level to grade level. The curriculum of a school should spiral, be relevant to the students, provide a quality education to students, and tweak their imagination and creativity. A curriculum should never be boring, or have so many benchmarks in it as to overload the teachers and students. I would like to use the quality cell strategy, the curriculum frameworks, and the essential questions at our school. I think these tools are some I could use with a part of my curriculum, because I feel our standards are too unwieldy even now, and I think there has to be a better way to improve the readability of these standards, such as putting them in a different format.