Developing Your

Unit Content Map

with Essential Questions

How can I help students

see how ideas fit

together?

What are the key

concepts?

How do I stimulate inquiry

learning?By Sherah B. Carr, Ph.D.

Revised from MRESA Best Practices Modules

CONTENT MAPS: Why are they so important?

Communication device

Conceptualize a unit

Enable consistent curriculum pacing and planning

Highlight important vocabulary

Enable students to "see" the knowledge gained over time and their learning

Content Mapping Key Points

• Content maps help students see mental schemas of information

• Content maps show how ideas fit together

• Use kid friendly terms and writing

• Include key vocabulary for the unit

• Post in your room or give students a copy

• For young children or ESOL you can simplify with main ideas and pictures.

Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept

Unit Topic:

Subject: Topic: Grade Level:

Unit Essential Question:

Lesson essential

question(s)

Lesson essential

question(s)

Lesson essential

question(s)

Lesson essential

question(s)

Lesson essential

question(s)

Key Vocabulary:

Content Map of UnitExamples / Steps (Optional)Unit Topic / Name

Unit Essential Question

Key Components / Issues / Concepts / Skills

Concept:

There are different kinds of shapes

Concept:You can write and read shape words.

Concept:You can sort

shapes.

Unit Topic: Shapes

Subject: Mathematics/Language Arts Topic: Shapes Grade Level: K

Unit Essential Question: How do you know the shapes around you?

Concept:

Shapes are alike and different

Where can you find shapes?

What are the names of the shapes you see?

How can you know a circle? square, triangle, rectangle, oval and diamond

How can you read and write shape words?

How can you make a story about shapes?

How can you sort shapes by kind? by color? by size?

Key vocabulary: shape, circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, sort

Concept:Shapes are

all around us.

How are shapes alike and different?

How can you use different shapes to create a shape city?

What do I know about shapes?

Kinds Words Drawing Using

Circle

Square

Rectangle

Triangle

Oval

Sorting

Content Map

How do I solve story problems quickly and accurately using multiplication?

Multiplication

Meaning & Models

Mental Math

Process

Times

Multiply

One digit

Application Relationships

Repeated Addition

Arrays

Symbols

Creating & Solving Story Problems

Estimating

Addition

Division – fact families

Patterns

Fact Mastery

10s, 100s

Compute Property

Sample Content Map3rd Grade Math: Multiplication

Key Learning: Multiplication is a more efficient way of adding.

Essential Question: How do we use multiplication?

Meaning

LEQ(s):1. How can arrays help you understand multiplication?2. How is multiplication repeated addition?3. How can you use skip counting to find a product?

LEQ(s):1. How do you multiply factors to get a product?2. What patterns can help you remember the multiplication facts?3. How can we find errors in multiplying?

Real-Life Application Process

LEQ(s):1. Where is multiplication used in real-life?

Vocabulary:large lotsbudgetingfinding areashoppingIndustry

Vocabulary:arraysrepeatedproduct digitvalue

Vocabulary:factorsproductreversinglattice methodpatternserrors

Instructional Tools:Graph Paper

Multiplication ChartsCalculator

Real Life Problems(finding area)

Sequence Chart of Steps

Content Map: Third Grade – Earth Science - Rocks and Soil

Key Learning(s): Understand what the earth is made of and how rocks and soil play a major role in our lives.

Unit Essential Question(s): What is our earth made of?

Concepts:

Character-istics of Minerals

Igneous, Metamorphic

, and Sedimentary

Rock Cycle Hardness of Rocks

Characteristics of soil

Characteristics of fossils

Un-Coveringfossils

Lesson Essential Questions:

What are minerals and how do we classify them?

What are the 3 types of rocks and how do I identify them?

What is the cycle of a rock?

How do we find the hardness of a rock or mineral?

What are the three types of soil and how are they different?

What are fossils?

What is a paleontologist?

Vocabulary:

LusterHardnessTexture

IgneousMetamorphicSedimentary

Cycle Mohs ScaleMineralologist

SandLoamClay

ExtinctFossil

paleontologist

What is a seed? How does a seed become a plant?

What are the parts of a plant?

What does a plant need to live?

Unit Topic: Seeds and Plants

Subject: Science Topic: Plants Grade Level: 2

Unit Essential Question: What do we know about seeds and plants?

How do people benefit

from plants?

•Have shell

•Can travel

•Can vary in size and shape

•Need soil and water and light to grow

•Plant life cycle

•Plant growing experiment

•Identifying parts – root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit/seed

•The job of each part

•Comparing parts on different plants

•Soil, water, air, light

•Plant growth experiment

•Photo-synthesis

•Ways we use plants

•Plant parts we eat

•Other uses: fibers, medicine, paper, fuel, crafts, furniture, etc.Key vocabulary: seed, plant, soil, light, water, life cycle, stem, leaf,

flower, petal, fruit, photosynthesis, hypothesis, experiment

Resources

• Georgia Performance Standardshttp://www.georgiastandards.org

• Carroll County Schools Content Mapshttp://carrollcountyschools.com/home/curriculum.asp

Essential Question What is the power of essential

questionsfor our students?

• of the utmost importance : BASIC, NECESSARY, CRITICAL

• so important as to be indispensable: FUNDAMENTAL, VITAL, CARDINAL

Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition

Essential Questions….Have no easy “right” answer; they are

meant to be discussed.Provoke and sustain student inquiryRaise other important questionsAre framed in kid languageAre simple!

Understanding By Design,McTighe and Wiggins

Essential Questions….

Are objectives in the form of a question

Are posted in the classroomSet the focus of the lessonClarify what we want students to

know at the endLearning Focused Schools,Max Thompson

Essential Questions Promote deep enduring understanding

Can not be answered with a yes or no, or even one sentence

Are engaging and thought provoking

Generally do not begin with WHAT (How or Why are better choices)

Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Do these EQs invite the student to search for an answer through critical

thinking ????How does a lack of natural resources

affect a nation?How do we use symbols in mathematics?What are examples of scarcity in the

Americas, Europe and Oceania?What are the symbols for equality and

inequality?Why do you need to recognize an odd,

even, prime and composite number?What are even, prime and composite

numbers?

Is open-endedCalls for understandingRequires critical thinkingProvides incentive for learningPromotes high student engagementProvides a way to measure interim

progress

Is short answerCalls for definitionIs closed-endedSeems shallowFocused on what is not essentialIs too generalAsks for a memorized list

Try to think the boxwhen writing Essential

Questions

Inventions = Mother NecessitySimple Machines = Work

Maps and Globes = Directions/LocationsGraphs = 1 Picture is worth 1,000 words

Meiosis & Mitosis = Life Cycle

outside

Standard: General Science (Kindergarten)

• Recognizes individual uniqueness

What makes you special?

Standard: Social Studies (Second)

• 9. Explain how money is used to facilitate trade and that people spend or save some or all of their available resources

How do we use money?Why do people spend and save money?How does your spending money help your community?

Kid friendly language?

EQ: What are numbers and how do we use

them?

EQ: Why is estimation not an exact number

and when do we use it?

EQ: How is fiction used to organize and tell a

story effectively.

EQ: How do we recognize a fraction?

1st Grade EQ: What is a noun?

2nd Grade EQ: How are nouns and pronouns similar and different?

4th grade EQ: How do readers and writers use nouns ?

5th grade EQ: How can nouns help you with comprehension and understand vocabulary ?

Lesson EQ’sUnit EQ:

In nature, only the strong survive- what do we mean by strong?

How do some insects survive so well?

What is the value of predator /prey relationships?

What environmental characteristicswould determine survival a species?

How does nature control it’s own population growth?

ESOL How do things change?

SUMMARIZEWhat are the main things to remember about content maps

and essential questions?