Curriculum Mapping Reference Manual - Mabank ISD Mapping... · Curriculum Mapping Reference Manual...

MABANK INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum Mapping

Reference Manual

Volume

1

Compiled by D. Mojica July 2013

Table of Contents

Quality Curriculum Mapping ……………………………………………….1

Before You Map, Plan with the End in Mind ……………………………..3

Refining the Curriculum by Including Essential Questions………….10

Vocabulary Instruction …………………………………………………….14

Grading Guidelines ………………………………………………………….17

Appendices

M A B A N K I S D C U R R I C U L U M A N D I N S T R U C T I O N

1

Quality Curriculum Mapping

Based on Curriculum Mapping 101 by Janet Hale

urriculum mapping is a calendar based process for collecting and maintaining an ongoing database of the operational and planned curriculum. The process encourages teachers to be curriculum designers through collegial conversations and collaboration. The district curriculum team is challenged with writing an Essential Map. The Essential Map is created by a team of educators

representative of MISD. This map is a school year of learning recorded by grading periods and will serve as the base-instruction map wherein all who teach the course use the map to plan learning. A critical part of Curriculum Mapping is the ongoing collaboration of grade or course level teams (PLCs) to monitor curriculum map implementation, verify the cognitive alignment of instruction to assessment and making student-centered decisions based on relative data.

The district team should be focused on creating a blueprint of learning that is user friendly. The template can and should vary by course or grade level to allow teachers to collaboratively embellish the map elements as needed to support learning.

“Writing is thinking- and the arrangement of words on paper to effect instructional improvement in the classroom is a sophisticated task. – Erickson (2002)

REQUIRED ELEMENTS of MISD Curriculum Maps

Content and Skills chunked into titled Units of Study over the four 9

week grading periods with recommended time frames.

TEKS Content and Skills identified as Readiness, Supporting or Process. Highlight grade level standards that will be assessed on STAAR or align with a STAAR assessed TEK in a subsequent grade. Refer to Lead4Ward resources for clarification.

Lessons and activities aligned by content, skill and cognition level to TEKS by Units of Study. Data proven activities may be identified as Non-Negotiable.

Identified district approved resources aligned to TEKS and STAAR for lesson activities. All resources used in MISD classrooms must be

approved by instructional leadership team.

Key Academic Vocabulary by Unit (See Chapter 4)

Chapter

1

C


2

Examples of templates for Curriculum Maps are located in the Appendices. Team members may also reference the ALIEF ISD website at www.aliefisd.net for course and grade level specific curriculum guides.

Curriculum Teams will submit the completed documents by email. All documents will be accessible at Mabank ISD Paw Prints page starting SY 13-14.

K-6 Kathy Reynolds

7th-HS Carla Kennedy

The curriculum documents include

Year at A Glance by 9 week grading periods, refer to Appendices for example

Curriculum Maps by Unit

Grading Guide see Chapter 5 Grading

Standard Descriptor Page see Chapter 5 Grading

Two common assessments per 9 week grading period

Recap The Essential Curriculum Map is to be created as a resource for teaching on a daily basis. Team members should provide background information for the unit and curriculum pages for each concept to provide recommended resources and timelines. Students understanding will be assessed by common district and campus assessments which are based on TEKS.

http://www.aliefisd.net/


3

Before You Map, Plan With the End in

Mind

The UbD Process of Designing Curriculum, Assessment

and Instruction

Based on Understanding by Design® -

By Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins

Excellence in schooling requires a vigilant focus on learning - and, specifically, learning for understanding.- One of Four Beliefs of UbD at www.authenticeducation.org

Key vocabulary

Learning transfer: students transfer learning in one context to another context that share similar characteristics.

Authentic Performance tasks: students are given the opportunity to show their learning or

perform in a real life situation under real-life circumstances.

The following is directly copied and pasted from

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

Chapter

2

http://www.authenticeducation.org/



4

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS UbD™ FRAMEWORK?

The Understanding by Design®

framework (UbD™ framework) offers a planning process and structure to guide curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Its two key ideas are contained in the title: 1) focus on teaching and assessing for understanding and learning transfer, and 2) design curriculum “backward” from those ends.

The UbD framework is based on seven key tenets:

1. Learning is enhanced when teachers think purposefully about curricular planning. The UbD framework helps this process without offering a rigid process or prescriptive recipe.

2. The UbD framework helps focus curriculum and teaching on the development and deepening of student understanding and transfer of learning (i.e., the ability to effectively use content knowledge and skill).

3. Understanding is revealed when students autonomously make sense of and transfer their learning through authentic performance. Six facets of understanding—the capacity to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess—can serve as indicators of understanding.

4. Effective curriculum is planned backward from long-term, desired results through a three-stage design process (Desired Results, Evidence, and Learning Plan). This process helps avoid the common problems of treating the textbook as the curriculum rather than a resource, and activity-oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.

5. Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content knowledge, skill, or activity. They focus on ensuring that learning happens, not just teaching (and assuming that what was taught was learned); they always aim and check for successful meaning making and transfer by the learner.

16. Regularly reviewing units and curriculum against design standards enhances curricular quality and effectiveness, and provides engaging and professional discussions.

7. The UbD framework reflects a continual improvement approach to student achievement and teacher craft. The results of our designs—student performance—inform needed adjustments in curriculum as well as instruction so that student learning is maximized.


5

Applying UbD to the MISD Process of Curriculum Mapping

STAGE 1- Identify Desired Results

The Curriculum Team should start by examining the district goals in regards to student achievement. Analyze your grade level EOY assessment results by reporting category, utilizing the heat maps on DMAC or results by SE. Ensure the team is looking at this by teacher performance as well as overall. Team members should be cognizant that instructional delivery and responsiveness to assessments results are critical to the effectiveness of curriculum implementation. Both elements of instruction vary from teacher to teacher. Consider individual student growth as well as overall class performance. Added Value by student documents are developed annually by the C&I office. Did students grow academically? Look back at common district assessment results. Did the results on the common assessments predict the EOY results? As a committee collaborate and identify your desired results prior to editing curriculum map.

03-578-9600 or 1-800-933-2723 | WWW.ASCD.ORG

Stage 1 Also focuses on “transfer of learning”. Team members should look for evidence of learning transfer opportunities in present curriculum documents. Research reveals that the failure of intelligent use of what we ‘know’ is common. Students typically will not cue themselves to use all their prior learning or recognize how the “new” situation reflects prior learning without ample training and repeated practice.

Key Questions:

1. What should students know, understand, and be able to do?

2. What is the ultimate transfer we seek as a result of this unit?

3. What enduring understandings are desired?

4. What essential questions will be explored in-depth and provide focus for all learning?


6

Teaching for Transfer Tips

Establish and keep highlighting clear transfer goals. Alert learners to the goal of transfer. Examples: “By the end of this unit, you’ll have to do this on our own, with no cues from me. Here are a few model papers and a rubric describing the end-goal.” Or “Initially, you will just mimic some approaches I teach you. But later, you will have to invent your own approach or adapt one you have learned to a new task.”

Always work on the Gradual Release of Responsibility (Pearson 1983 for Reading) sequence. I do, you watch; I do, you help; you do, I help; you do, I watch. This also aligns with Model, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, Independent use of all Strategies.

Highlight Essential Questions to suggest the kinds of connections students will have to make all year: The instructional practice of posting the Essential Questions and reminding students throughout the unit, will promote the likelihood that students will make connections on their own. Essential Questions will be covered in more detail in Chapter 3.

Ask students to generalize from their experience and immediate past lessons to more widely applicable principals, rules and ideas. Transfer is about using helpful “big ideas” to find connections where typically students only see newness.

Provide opportunities for students to practice judgment, not just skill. Transfer involves judging which skill and knowledge to use when. One example is the problem solving strategies and instructional practices detailed by Singapore Math Problem Solving Model. Students should have opportunities to hear teachers demonstrate think-alouds of problem solving or text comprehension. Then in turn, have students do think-alouds and justify why they did what they did.

Require students to constantly re-word or re-phrase what they learn. Making students re-cast what they have learned in their own words has a significant impact on aiding long-term memory.


7

STAGE 2- Determine Assessment Evidence

Now that you have determined your desired results, what will be considered evidence? Curriculum team members should begin to think beyond scoring 70% on the multiple choice tests. Mix it up, organize a tool box of assessment tools. UbD encourages teachers to think like assessors before developing the units of study. In Stage 2, UbD broadens the assessment repertoire by distinguishing between performance tasks and any other evidence. Performance tasks require students to apply their learning to a new an authentic situation as means of assessing their understanding- transfer of learning.

Key Questions

1. How will we know if students have achieved the desired results? 2. What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and their ability to use (transfer)

their learning in new situations? 3. How will we evaluate student performance in fair and consistent ways?

The UbD Framework identifies six facets of understanding for assessment purposes. The six facets of understanding are on page 9 of this manual.

STAGE 3- Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

At this point, the team has determined their desired results and assessment evidence. This process is similar to planning a winning season in football. The coach has established the goal to win district and understands the evidence his team needs to produce along the way. But what activities does he engage his team members in to achieve the end goal. Teaching for understanding requires that students be given numerous opportunities to actively construct meaning. Avoid limiting activities to merely presenting information or modeling basic skills for acquisition. Lessons should be extended to help students make meaning or transfer learning.

Key Questions 1. How will we support the learning as they come to understand important ideas and

processes? 2. How will we prepare them to autonomously transfer their learning? 3. What enabling knowledge and skills will students need to perform effectively and

achieve desired results? 4. What activities, sequence, and resources are best suited to accomplish our goals?


8

Recommended You Tube Clip on Backwards Design http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJWTKclIZnY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJWTKclIZnY


9


10

Refining Curriculum Mapping

By Including Essential Questions Warning: This section may be overwhelming to the novice curriculum map writer.

Based on Curriculum Mapping 101 by Janet Hale

hen thinking about mapping there are two parallel concepts. One is the content and skills (knowing and doing); what is taught. Secondly, is the context in which the student is expected to operate and be observed appropriately applying content skills through the Essential Questions and assessments. The content is taught with the skill set in mind.

As a support of the curriculum map, teams must develop a system to collect and discuss meaningful data to determine if students are performing appropriately and also monitor the effectiveness of teaching.

Graphic from www.tomdavis.com

Chapter

3

W

http://www.tomdavis.com/


11

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe are credited for encouraging the inclusion of essential questions in curricular design. “Essential Questions are broader, timeless concept-based questions that are not answered easily. A student must synthesize multiple facets of understanding to adequately answer Essential Questions.” – Understanding by Design Wiggins and McTighe

Graphic from Curriculum Mapping Refining Maps PPT by Janet Hale at www.CurriculumMapping101.com

Conceptual-based BIG Ideas cause your brain to GENERALIZE!!! Keep in mind that a concept is defined as a broad abstract idea, understanding, guiding general principle or a way of perceiving something.

Essential Question driven units of study are most often designed based on a combination of standard statements, content-skills sets and assessments. The essential questions should be posted in the room and asked often during the unit of study. They are a valuable tool in encouraging students to make connections in their learning. Many of the Alief ISD curriculum guides include EQs.


UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN®

FRAMEWORK

BY JAY MCTIGHE AND

http://www.curriculummapping101.com/



12

GRANT WIGGINS

Above Enduring Understandings are listed alongside corresponding Essential Questions. The term enduring refers to the big ideas or important understandings, that we want students to retain after they have forgotten the details.

As a curriculum team, challenge yourself to develop or find two Essential Questions per Unit of Study to include in the curriculum map. Encourage teachers to post and reference during instruction. Also reference EQs as part of your campus level PLCs to deepen teacher understanding of content and skill within a concept.

Additional tools to assist you with Essential Question development.


13

Website including videos, links and online webinars.

http://essentialquestions.org/

This website is based on the book Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding by J. McTighe and G. Wiggins

Website: Authentic Education by Grant Wiggins

http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=111

Sample EQs for SS from Grand Island, NE

http://www.gips.org/learning/Curricular-Areas/social-studies/k-12-Curriculum-Framework

Sample EQs for Math from Grand Island, NE

http://www.gips.org/learning/Curricular-Areas/mathematics/K-12-Curriculum-Framework

Sample EQs for ELAR from Grand Island, NE

http://www.gips.org/assets/files/Learning/Curriculuar_Areas/LArts/K-12%20Curr%20Framework_LA%20NE%20STAN.pdf

Sample EQs for Science from Grand Island, NE

http://www.gips.org/learning/Curricular-Areas/science/K-12-Curriculum-Framework

PDF document on writing EQs

http://www.kfalls.k12.or.us/kuhs/Seniors/Senior%20project/Writing%20Essential%20Questions.pdf

http://essentialquestions.org/

http://www.authenticeducation.org/ae_bigideas/article.lasso?artid=111












14

Vocabulary Instruction

Based on the work of Robert Marzano

Mabank ISD has embraced the importance of explicitly teaching vocabulary. All Essential

Curriculum Maps must include a list of vocabulary words for each unit.

Chapter

4


15

Curriculum team members should access the following Lead4Ward links to utilize vocabulary lists by course and grade level.

http://lead4ward.com/resources/

Scroll down to STAAR Academic Vocabulary to download a zipped folder. These will eventually be saved at the MISD C&I website by title.

Helpful Websites for Vocabulary Instruction

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/16-websites-to-teach-and-learn.html 16Websites to Teach and Learn Vocabulary

http://www.k12reader.com/effective-strategies-for-teaching-vocabulary/ Effective Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary

http://lead4ward.com/resources/

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/16-websites-to-teach-and-learn.html

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/16-websites-to-teach-and-learn.html

http://www.k12reader.com/effective-strategies-for-teaching-vocabulary/


16

Grading Guidelines

MISD is all about Standards Based Learning

MISD continues to implement common curriculum and assessments based on clearly defined academic standards of knowledge, understanding, and skills. We continue to move toward instruction that incorporates clear communication of learning targets, quality feedback, and relevant practice with multiple re-attempts to increase understanding. The district continues in this process to provide a grading system that conveys only what students know and are able to do in regards to the academic standards.

Lessons of Mastery Learning

Thomas R. Guskey

Bloom observed that teachers' traditional practice was to organize curriculum content into

units and then check on students' progress at the end of each unit. These checks on

learning progress, he reasoned, would be much more valuable if they were used as part of

the teaching and learning process to provide feedback on students' individual learning

difficulties and then to prescribe specific remediation activities.

Bloom outlined a strategy to incorporate these feedback and corrective procedures, which

he labeled mastery learning (Bloom, 1971). In using this strategy, teachers organize the important concepts and skills

they want students to acquire into learning units, each requiring about a week or two of instructional time. Following

high-quality initial instruction, teachers administer a formative assessment (Bloom, Hastings, & Madaus, 1971) that

identifies precisely what students have learned well and where they still need additional work. The formative

assessment includes explicit, targeted suggestions—termed correctives—about what students must do to correct

their learning difficulties and to master the desired learning outcomes.

When students complete their corrective activities (after a class period or two), they take a second, parallel formative

assessment that addresses the same learning goals of the unit but includes somewhat different problems, questions,

or prompts. The second formative assessment verifies whether the correctives were successful in helping students

remedy their individual learning difficulties. It also serves as a powerful motivational tool by offering students a

second chance to succeed.

Along with the corrective activities, Bloom recommended that teachers plan enrichment or extension activities for

students who demonstrate their proficiency on the first formative assessment. Enrichment activities give these

students exciting opportunities to broaden and expand their learning. Bloom believed that nearly all students, when

Chapter

5

Excerpt

October 2010 |

Volume 68 | Number 2

Interventions That

Work Pages 52-57


17

provided with the more favorable learning conditions of mastery learning, could truly master academic content

(Bloom, 1976; Guskey, 1997a).

End of Excerpt

New to Curriculum Team Assignment

Grading Guides

List of Standard Descriptors

Both of these documents are being created to provide more validity to MISD grading practices, monitor student performance by standards and monitor implementation of Curriculum Maps

Grading Guides

1. A sample document is on the following page and an EXCEL template will be provided.

2. Due to the district’s commitment to providing grades that reflect student’s level of understanding of standards; teams should provide recommendations on forms of summative assessments and timelines. This document will be considered a guide

for campuses.

Standard Descriptors List

1. All formative and summative grades will be posted by standard descriptors (often referred to as Power Standards) starting SY13-14.

2. The Curriculum Team will annually review TEKS and STAAR Blue Prints to develop recommended list of standard descriptors. Note that denoting grades for formatives may require a precise descriptor; whereas a summative

assessment may be assigned a broader descriptor. See the examples on page 18.


18

EXCEL document of the above located in the Appendices


19

Possible Standard Descriptors List

Formative Summative

Place Value/ WN Place Value

Place Value/DEC

Fractions/Equiv Fractions

Compare Fractions/PS

Decimals to Fractions

ELAR Standard Descriptor Examples from Fair Isn’t Always Equal by R. Wormeli

Usage/Punc/Spelling, Analysis of Literature, 6+1 Traits of Writing, Reading Comprehension, Listening/Speaking, Research Skills


20

Appendices

1. Sample Curriculum Mapping Templates 2. Learning Goals and Teaching Roles from Understanding by Design


3. Connecting the Systems STAAR-Curriculum-PLC Process by Lead4Ward

4. Year at a Glance Sample 5. Grading Guideline Template on EXCEL (will be posted as separate

attachment on email)




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Complete document accessible at http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_W

hitePaper0312.pdf




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