Creating the Curriculum Map

The start of the 2016-2017 curriculum map.

This morning as I planned for our upcoming "Amazing Adventure" in nature next week, I thought a lot about the importance of curriculum mapping. I was also propelled to think about this because last night I listened to a discussion related to the intersection of standards and curriculum.

As I create this experience in conjunction with my team and naturalists from Massachusetts Audubon at Drumlin Farm, I am realizing the importance of the following elements when it comes to quality learning/teaching programs

• Time for planning
• Interdisciplinary connections.
• Time to acquire the needed supplies and materials.
• Time for student/teacher reading, research, and study.

The curriculum map when done well provides a terrific guide for meaningful, engaging study. Our team will work with this map over summer to create a quality program for our fifth grade students. As we study the map, we'll be mindful of the following priorities:

• Embedding content, concept, and skill standards into meaningful, rich, and often interdisciplinary units of study.
• Teaching learning-to-learn skills/attitudes such as collaboration skills and self-advocacy.
• Developing strong teams and relationships within and amongst teams.
• Successful signature projects and events such as the fifth grade play, biography project, STEAM study, and more.
• A steady, purposeful pattern that include lots of learning, practice, assessment, and reflection related to basic reading, writing, and math skills, knowledge, and concepts.

How do you create your curriculum map? Who works with you with regard to this process? How do you ensure that the learning your map is enriching and meaningful to the students you teach? 

I look forward to this activity with my team. This was our first year with a three-classroom shared teaching model. The model was very successful and now we intend to grow it with even greater strength and depth for the year ahead.