The county office of education is hoping to get all county
teachers and schools excited about a new way of laying out lesson
plans called curriculum mapping.
San Benito County – The county office of education is hoping to get all county teachers and schools excited about a new way of laying out lesson plans called curriculum mapping.
The organizational concept, which has been used in other counties for years, has teachers create their lesson plans in a calendar form for the entire academic year. With curriculum mapping, teachers in different subject areas decide which topics to teach simultaneously, making the educational experience more beneficial for the student.
“One example of this would be: Say they’re (the students) learning about persuasive speeches, the teacher might decide to teach social studies that same week and talk about the elections,” said Liz Talbot, special programs coordinator for the county office of education. “By tying things together, the student is learning more.”
Another benefit of mapping is helping the students relate what they’re learning to the real world, Talbot said. Part of mapping is having the teachers stop, look at what they’re teaching and have the students ask themselves “when will I ever use that?”
“By tying things together, the student gets to see how what they’re learning can be used outside of school,” Talbot said. “The curriculum is being related to issues happening in the world today.”
While the teachers plan their curriculum in themes, they are also aligning them with the state standards, which Talbot said, makes curriculum mapping a good way to assure the students are being taught what is required.
“When you have everything mapped out, you have a stronger, more cohesive program,” she said. “By doing this you can also see where there may be an area of weakness, and then you know to put more resources there.”
Schools who decide to try this program, would have the teachers meet five times a year, and they would have a lead teacher facilitate everyone’s ideas and shape them into a map. One map, the projection map, would show what the teachers planned and hoped to teach throughout the quarter or semester. The diary map, would be a week-by-week map that identifies what was actually taught. Hollister School District has used curriculum mapping for two years, and Talbot said Southside School and the Aromas San-Juan Unified School District has shown interest in starting the planning at their sites.
“Teachers can discuss throughout the school to make sure they’re teaching the same thing, and if more schools starting using mapping throughout the county, they would be able to share maps so that all schools in the county are on the same page,” Talbot said.
