A Curriculum Map

Secondary School Science Teaching Methods

 

For this final activity, you can take some artistic license and run with it.  All that you need to do is map a year’s worth of curriculum for a 7^th or 8^th grade integrated science course!!!  The rest is up to you: fitting the major objectives (YOUR LEARNING GOALS) into your curriculum map.  This kind of planning is crucial, since before you can do anything else with your curriculum, you need to identify these goals.  Once this is done you need to think about the ILOs, Assessment, Community Resources and other things you have identified as important and determine how they will all be integrated into one fantastic whole.  Think about your learning goals as well as the USOE goals - they don't have to be identical.  You should have some overarching learning goals (think back to your first response paper about your classroom).

 

Your map could take a variety of forms, such as:

• A linear outline of objectives in which you give a top-down timeline of objectives, listed in order.
• A spiraling outline of objectives for which goals are continually readdressed and reassessed, but at ever increasing levels of complexity, synthesis, and/or application.
• A concept map of objectives for which a sequence of goals is still apparent, yet links between objectives is made explicit.
• A blueprint of curricular blocks/pieces, so that you could outline big themes, as well as the more pinpointed objectives.
• Any other artistic form, so long as sequence and timing are made clear.
• It needs to be clear to me where I can find the items on the rubric – I suggest that some form of tabs will work for many formats and a cover letter discussing Learning Goals and how you will integrate Nature of Science, Habits of Mind and Community Resources (and anything else you want to include) will help insure that I understand  these critical components of your map.

 

The details?  What am I going to be looking for?

• We (i.e., the entire class) need to see all of your learning objectives for a given year, how they are sequenced, and how much time you imagine devoting to each objective.  Be realistic.
• Give everyone a sense for how this is all going to fit together into your year.  What pieces could be removed if necessary?  What pieces are crucial and non-negotiable?  What themes unite different objectives?  What objectives outside of your core are necessary to you?
• I am NOT expecting to see lesson plans, or any level of detail beyond a broad map of your curriculum.
• I AM expecting to see a few examples of where and how you will use higher level (Bloom’s) assessment and well as where/how you will incorporate Nature of Science, Habits of Mind, the other components of the ILOs as well as Community Resources.
• LOOK AT THE RUBRIC ON THE REVERSE OF THIS PAGE TO GET A CLEAR SET OF CHARACTERISTICS THAT I WILL BE LOOKING FOR.

 

In a discussion on the day that you turn these in, we will be addressing the following:

• Why are you organizing your curriculum in this way?
• Are your goals assessable? 
• What assessments will be most useful to you?
• Is your goal congruent with your teaching philosophy?
• Is this the most sensible timeline/organization, given what you want your students to take away from your class?

 

What are my goals for this task?

• To give you something to work from as you continue to design curricula, and to receive valuable feedback from your peers in this process.
• To force you to take this as a first step in designing a curriculum; the second step will be to more specifically consider assessments, and the third will be to actually develop individual lessons.

Curriculum Map Rubric

	BASIC	PROFICIENT	DISTINGUISHED
YOUR Learning goals and assessment: I expect these to be different from the core objectives	Overarching goals of learning are not clearly presented.	Goals of learning are clearly and explicitly stated. Assessment is not clearly addressed.	Goals of learning are clearly and explicitly stated; and these goals are associated with assessment measures where possible.
Curriculum	Curriculum does not match the state core curriculum well.	Curriculum mostly matches the state core curriculum , including most standards and objectives.	Curriculum matches the state core curriculum, including all standards and objectives
ILOs	Only some ILOs or not clearly integrated	All ILOs indicated appropriately, once	Many ILOs cited repeatedly
Integration and organization	No clear structure exists for how the curriculum is sequenced.	Follows Utah core with some justification regarding the sequence.	Curriculum demonstrates a thoughtful sequence regarding the goals of learning, how they build and a strategy for integrating multiple content areas together.
Assessment	Vague	Assessment unclear and mostly lower levels of Bloom’s, not much diversity	Higher levels of Bloom’s clearly incorporated, good assortment of assessment types
Higher order thinking / Habits of mind	Curriculum, as presented, does not allow for any learning beyond “facts” and rote memorization.	Curriculum is designed to allow for students to think beyond the knowledge base of science and begin to possibly apply such knowledge.	Curriculum is explicitly designed to encourage students to reflect upon, apply, and synthesize scientific knowledge.  Curriculum develops students’ scientific process skills and habits, in addition to knowledge.
Nature of science	Nature of science may be an implied part of the curriculum, but without specific mention.	Nature of science is implicitly addressed in curriculum, 1-3 times.	Nature of science is interwoven explicitly with traditional course content and appears more than 3 times.
Community resources	Curriculum mentions few interactions with local community resources or issues.	Curriculum shows explicit ties to local issues or makes use of community resources.	Partnerships with community resources and/or projects embedded in the local community are an explicit part of the curriculum.
Cover Letter    I can't read every section in detail, you need to make sure I can find all requested parts of this assignment	none or seriously incomplete	incomplete letter and/or can't find required assignment elements.	sufficiently detailed letter and easy to find required components.
Map design / aesthetics / originality this is an extra credit- type component	A basic outline or similar structure is shown.	An outline with “extras”, possibly including graphical connections, color coding, etc.	The design is graphical in nature, and it makes an effort to graphically give a “feel” for how the curriculum is united.