Curriculum Maps and Units of Study

Video Transcription

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Today we're going to go ahead and look at curriculum maps and various units of study, really identifying all that there is to know about those two elements. And for today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Carl Rogers, which states, "the only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change."

So by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to examine the structure and elements of curriculum maps and units of study, as well as acquire the skills to develop a curriculum map and unit of study.

So first, let's go ahead and talk about what curriculum maps are. Curriculum maps are designed to really provide that overview of the various goals, the content standards, and the assessments that you are going to use in any given course or class, over the span of that entire course. So whether you teach for a trimester, a semester, a year, a quarter, however long that course is, the curriculum map identifies all of those major elements over the course of that time.

Also, these maps should include a number of different components, which also can be seen in that Understanding by Design curriculum template. So here are the various elements. First, you're going to want to make sure you have the course name on there, so it's easily identifiable. Next, you want the unit of study. So what are the major units or topics that are going to be covered throughout the course of your class? Then the time frame that you're going to use for each unit, so that you can see how it fits into the course as a whole.

You're going to want to make sure that you have the different information that you have aligned, the standards for that course. So what are the standards that you are reaching through that course? Are you identifying them? Have you shown how they're going to be instructed, and then, of course, how they're measured throughout the course?

You're also going to want to include some of those essential questions. These are big, overarching questions that don't necessarily have a right or wrong answer, but big elements that students work to study from. So for example, a language arts essential question might be, how do we define our family and our friends, or, what are the major elements that define my culture? So there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer, but it's something that students can grapple with and come back to.

You also want to make sure that you include the content overview. That's really a summary of what you're going to be covering in the course. So for example, it might be Shakespeare's tragedies. So you're going to list that out. It could be vocabulary and short stories and Romeo and Juliet, the major elements.

Then you're going to want to make sure you include the skills and competencies. So what is that student able to show mastery and/or to perform by the end of each lesson, or the unit, or for the whole course? So maybe they are able to deliver a two minute speech in front of the class, or they are able to perform a scene from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in front of the class.

You're going to want to make sure you include the assessments, both formative and summative assessments. So some of those smaller, more informal assignments would be those formative ones. The ones that you see throughout the course of a particular unit how the students are working to achieve mastery. And the summit of assessments, which are larger much more formal, generally those are the tests that you give towards the end of a particular unit or the entire course.

You're going to want to make sure you include the performance tasks. This is really the assessments that require students to produce a product. So perhaps they're going to create a video, or they're going to do a model or something of the sort. And generally, you evaluate those with a rubrics. So you want to make sure you include those. And then finally, the resources, making sure that you are including those tools that are going to be essential for you to carry out that curriculum.

Now, it's important that you know that one of the biggest benefits of curriculum mapping is that you get to review those gaps in the standards or the content that you might not see if you're creating this stuff as you teach it. And it also really helps you to revise that curriculum to help ensure that students are able to get those opportunities to practice the various competencies and standards that they need in order to progress onto the next grade level.

Now when we look at a particular unit of study, a unit of study is really a comprehensive plan or an instructional plan defined by a period of time. So a unit of study is a tiny little element within a larger class that takes place over a specific period of time. When we look at units of study, it's really important to go back to the way in which we do Understanding by Design, so really those three stages of Understanding by Design.

So stage one is really where the teacher identifies the desired results, looking at all of those things that help make meaning and understanding of those knowledge and skills that students will acquire. Stage two is where you help determine what the acceptable evidence will be. So how am I going to assess the students to know that they're on their way to reaching that?

And then in stage three when planning a unit is where you actually develop the learning plan. So plan out the activities, make sure you're including student engagement. Once you have completed all three of these stages, and each stage really includes those important components, then you will have all that you need for a unit of study.

What I'd like to do now is take a look at a sample curriculum map. So I want you to take a look at what it looks like. This is an overarching sample curriculum map for a language arts class. So you'll notice, I've cut out the specific information for the class. But you would put that right at the top where we would need that particular information. And you can see it has the title of the units broken down on the side, the timeline, the performance tasks, the suggested big ideas and essential questions, and then that core text.

This is a very large, overarching curriculum map, and then we're going to break it down just a little bit more to highlight some of the areas that are addressed within each unit of study on the curriculum map. So this is looking at unit 1, "Narratives", where we're looking at parts of plot and character types. So as you can see, it's adequately titled, and it really breaks down a lot of those areas.

You'll notice that the standards are listed right over there. We not only of the common core standards, but there are also other standards that are included specific to this school. As well as, this is where you would want to find assessments. Now we don't really see very specific assessments on here. You can see the unit and performance tasks, but I would probably go ahead and add in two specific assessments that I would be using. And you could make that as big or small as you want. These are two formative assessments as we're looking at those various texts that we would use.

Next, let's go ahead and hone in on some of those competencies and the knowledge and how that's expressed. So competencies in here, you can see they're really at the end of unit performance tasks. What students are expected to be able to do by the end of the unit, as well as knowledge, really focusing in on those core texts, on what a student should know in terms of the content by the end of the unit. You would also find additional information on knowledge through those various standards and writing focuses that you can see along the bottom there.

Now as we look back at that overarching curriculum map, it's important that we note that, although, we're going to introduce you to the idea of Understanding by Design, that different authors may use different language for the frameworks as they go about creating curriculum maps. So know that the overarching ideas are all the same, but the language might vary.

But most importantly, it's really good for you to take a look at the components, rather than simply the same elements. That you're really focusing in and seeing what all is included. What all can I make sure that I include, so that I know that I'm creating a strong essential curriculum map.

Now that we've reached the end of the lesson, you are able to examine the structure and elements of curriculum maps and units of study. And you've been able to acquire the skills to develop a curriculum map and a unit of study.

What do you think, as you reflect, would be the first step you would take to really look back and create that curriculum map for an area that you teach? As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to really help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill sets.