The curriculum mapping course of ensures complete training over time. On this article, Jay McTighe proposes a brand new course of for curriculum mapping, emphasizing genuine efficiency duties over content material enter. This shift goals to interact college students, combine Twenty first-century abilities, present proof of studying outcomes, assist digital portfolios, and foster steady enchancment, in the end getting ready college students for real-world purposes and accomplishments past conventional educational measures. 

Curriculum mapping is a well-established course of for serving to to make sure a “assured” curriculum. Not like a lesson plan that focuses on particular studying targets for a single session, a curriculum map data curriculum content material over time, usually for a complete college yr. Sometimes, a curriculum map identifies content material (i.e., what will likely be taught), together with when, and for a way lengthy will probably be taught.

Traditionally, there have been two main iterations of the curriculum mapping course of. I suggest that we’re prepared for a 3rd. Nonetheless, I’ll start by reviewing the primary two variations earlier than describing Mapping 3.0.

Curriculum Mapping 1.0: Diary Mapping by Lecturers

Fenwick W. English (1980) launched the thought of mapping the curriculum within the late Nineteen Seventies as a method of showing what lecturers have been really instructing. Nonetheless, the widespread software of curriculum mapping didn’t happen till the late Nineteen Nineties, when Heidi Hayes Jacobs’s influential e book, Mapping the Large Image: Integrating Curriculum and Evaluation Okay–12, propelled it ahead (Jacobs, 1997). The primary technology of curriculum mapping concerned lecturers producing private diary maps on which they recorded their unit subjects and abilities on a calendar map to indicate what they taught after they taught it, and for a way lengthy. This recording of the taught curriculum set the stage for lecturers to then meet in grade-level and division groups to share and examine their particular person maps to examine for horizontal alignment throughout a grade or course (e.g., asking, “Are any necessary subjects or abilities being missed?”). Diary mapping additionally enabled a vertical take a look at the curriculum throughout the grades, whereby curriculum groups might spot gaps (e.g., “We found that nobody is instructing college students the right way to write a analysis paper in highschool.”) in addition to acknowledge unproductive redundancies (e.g., “We discovered {that a} unit on dinosaurs is being taught in kindergarten and grade 2.”) Throughout this period, curriculum mapping software program packages emerged, offering educators with digital instruments for simply coming into and storing the maps, updating the curriculum, and producing quite a lot of reviews to examine for alignment.

Curriculum Mapping 2.0: Requirements-Primarily based Mapping

The second technology of curriculum mapping kicked in as states developed requirements within the numerous disciplines that have been meant to function the targets for native curricula. Generally known as consensus mapping (Jacobs, 2004), this subsequent iteration concerned grade-level and division groups working collectively to evaluation the requirements and agree on the general curriculum content material and sequence to make sure that the curriculum was aligned with the requirements, each horizontally and vertically. Some districts and faculties went additional, coupling the standards-based curriculum maps with pacing guides that specified the period of time lecturers ought to spend on designated subjects and abilities.

Curriculum Mapping 3.0: Mapping Performances

Each diary and consensus mapping have been priceless of their occasions. Nonetheless, each approaches targeted on figuring out curriculum “inputs”—usually lists of subjects or grade-level requirements—mapped on a calendar to specify what lecturers will train. I suggest that it’s now time for a revised conception of curriculum, one which focuses on desired pupil performances that mirror crucial targets of contemporary training. Quite than asking, “What is going to we train within the curriculum?” (indicating a concentrate on content material inputs), the elemental curriculum query turns into, “What ought to college students have the ability to do with their studying?” (indicating a concentrate on pupil efficiency). In different phrases, what if we structured (i.e., mapped) the curriculum round genuine duties and tasks?

Genuine duties name for college kids to use (switch) their studying inside a sensible and related context. Such duties embody a transparent function, a target market, and real constraints (e.g., schedule, finances, phrase depend). Since these duties are usually open-ended, they steadily provide alternatives for college kids to work towards their strengths and be inventive. Listed here are just some examples of the sorts of efficiency duties that may be mapped throughout the grades:

• Put together and current a multimedia Ted Speak on a researched subject.
• Compose an authentic story on a theme to current to youthful college students. Older college students might develop a screenplay.
• Create a mathematical mannequin to signify a “real-world” phenomenon.
• Conduct a scientific investigation to discover a phenomenon or reply a query (e.g., “Which model of paper towels is most absorbent?”).
• Put together a Public Service Announcement to encourage residents to…(e.g., vote, preserve water, volunteer).
• Develop a how-to information to show others a ability or course of that . Older college students might develop a technical handbook (e.g., for a brand new software program app).
• Think about a recent challenge, analysis completely different views, determine your place, and develop your argument, supported by causes and proof.
• Critically appraise info and claims discovered on web sites and social media.
• Create an infographic to elucidate…(e.g., how a invoice turns into a regulation, the exponential unfold of a virus).
• Create a murals in a selected medium to precise your ideas or emotions.
• Suggest and conduct a “ardour mission” on a subject of private curiosity.

One of many key options of Curriculum Mapping 3.0 is that the assorted efficiency genres (e.g., writing for diverse functions and audiences, investigation, creative expression, design considering) will recur throughout the grades. Simply as studying a sport or a musical instrument requires a number of alternatives to observe and carry out, college students will obtain proficiency in refined abilities equivalent to writing, analysis, problem-solving, argumentation, and oral communication solely via ongoing alternatives to study, refine, and apply these abilities to more and more advanced conditions throughout the grades.

Mapping the curriculum round a coordinated set of genuine duties recognized for every grade and course gives noteworthy advantages. Such a system of genuine duties can:

• Interact college students in wealthy and motivating studying experiences. Since these open-ended duties are set in real, real-world contexts they contribute to pupil motivation and engagement in 3 ways: (1) college students usually tend to see function and relevance when they’re engaged on issues which are valued on the planet past the classroom; 2) college students usually tend to acknowledge the necessity to study foundational content material and primary abilities as requisites for genuine work, and (3) learners are extra engaged in schoolwork that enables them some “voice and selection” and connects to their pursuits and abilities.
• Shift instructing away from a content material “protection” method. A curricular concentrate on efficiency encourages instructing that prepares college students to use their studying throughout new and various conditions. Consider teaching in athletics—coaches recognizing that their job is to arrange their gamers for the sport (genuine efficiency), to not cowl the playbook web page by web page!
• Naturally, combine the “Twenty first-century abilities” with disciplinary content material and abilities. Expertise which are extremely valued on the planet past the varsity, and which are usually recognized in a Portrait of a Graduate (e.g., crucial considering, collaboration, communication, innovation), have to be developed and assessed—by design— inside the curriculum.
• Present proof of valued studying outcomes (argumentation, design considering, multi-media communications, historic inquiries, scientific investigations, collaborative neighborhood tasks) that aren’t adequately measured on standardized checks. And not using a systematic option to acquire proof to monitor college students’ development on these necessary outcomes, they will simply fall via the cracks of standard instructing and evaluation.
• Help the event of digital portfolios that educators and college students can assemble to seize proof of real accomplishments by learners throughout their college careers.
• Assist set up a tradition of steady enchancment when skilled studying communities (PLCs) meet periodically to guage pupil work on the frequent efficiency duties/tasks and share their concepts for enhancing areas of weak spot (DuFour, 2004). Moreover, the common use of PLC groups gives an antidote to the isolation of the classroom, fosters a collaborative tradition of steady enchancment, and establishes a professionally enriching, results-oriented atmosphere (McTighe, 2008).

Conclusion

It’s my rivalry {that a} trendy curriculum needs to be directed towards getting ready college students for switch—to have the ability to apply their studying to the brand new alternatives and challenges they’ll face in an more and more advanced, interconnected, and unpredictable world. Accordingly, we will map the curriculum by figuring out the important thing switch performances that honor the requirements, contain Twenty first-century abilities, and supply proof of deep studying.

My longtime writing accomplice Grant Wiggins as soon as opined that college students ought to graduate with a resume of accomplishments, not only a file of Carnegie Items, seat time, and a GPA. By mapping the curriculum round genuine efficiency duties, we will understand his imaginative and prescient. Now could be the time to convey this concept to fruition.

References:

DuFour, R. (2004). What’s knowledgeable studying neighborhood? Academic Management, 61 (8), 6–11.

Jacobs, H. H. (1997). Mapping the massive image: Integrating curriculum and evaluation Okay–12. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Jacobs, H. H. (Ed.). (2004). Getting outcomes with curriculum mapping. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

McTighe, J., Doubet, Okay. & Carbaugh, E. (2020). Designing genuine efficiency duties and tasks: Instruments for significant studying and evaluation. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

McTighe, J. & Curtis, G. (2019). Main trendy studying: A blueprint for vision-driven faculties (2nd version). Bloomington, IN: Answer Tree.

McTighe, J. (2008). Benefiting from skilled studying communities. The Studying Principal, 3(8), 4–7.

In regards to the Creator:

Jay McTighe brings a wealth of expertise developed throughout a wealthy and various profession in training. He served as a trainer, administrator, program coordinator, and director of the Maryland Evaluation Consortium, a state collaboration of college districts working collectively to develop and share formative efficiency assessments.

McTighe is an completed creator, having co-authored over 18 books, together with the award-winning and best-selling Understanding by Design® collection with Grant Wiggins. His books have been translated into 14 languages. He has additionally written greater than 50 articles and e book chapters and has been printed in main journals, together with Academic Management®.