Mapping the teacher's path

The point of a curriculum map is to ensure that the subject to be taught is addressed in a systematic way that stresses critical thinking, authentic assessment and use of best practices in order to stimulate learning.  I believe my curriculum map accomplished this goal.  Each subject to be covered in my map is explored in terms of essential questions students need to be able to answer in order to build full knowledge of the topic at hand.  By their nature, essential questions address higher order thinking skills, since information must be first evaluated and synthesized by the teacher in order to create meaningful lessons for students.  Authentic assessments, such as writing, artwork, etc. serve as demonstrations of students’ understanding of the content.

                This map also makes use of the following tools to stimulate critical thinking and authentic assessment:

           Spoke chart –to activate prior knowledge

KWL chart—to activate prior knowledge and to provide framework for evaluating what students want to know to and if they feel their questions have been answered by instruction.  The KWL chart is an effective means of reflection on lessons for both students and teachers.

Writing journals—provide a daily view into what students are thinking about what they have learned.  Even in kindergarten, students can express what they know or are wondering about in a journal through words, pictures or both.

Class Mural— helps students express what they know about their favorite dinosaurs through artwork. 

                Each subject covered by the curriculum map is also aligned to the standards in my state in a variety of subject areas.  In NYC where I teach, it is near impossible to set aside time for science lessons, unless they are also considered either math or ELA intensive, since blocks are set aside for those two subjects but not others.  Besides, teaching across the content areas is one way to help students build connections among subjects being covered. 

                If I were redoing this map, I would focus more on individual lesson plans, as I feel the map was somewhat broad in what it addressed.  I focused more on units of instruction as opposed to detailing each step along the way.  I don’t necessarily believe that this nonspecificity hampered the map, but the map could have definitely been enhanced with more details.  For example, there was little differentiation of learning for either gifted or slower learners and little differentiation between different types of learning, such as visual, aural, kinesthetic, etc.  By focusing more on individual lessons, this type of information could have been included.

Overall, though, I was pleased with my work on this map.  It has certainly helped me with my current job, which is not teaching kindergarten, but tutoring students one-on-one.  In this capacity, I am given a manual from which to teach and a set of assessments that are inauthentic to say the least.  Needless to say, this has forced me to enhance the materials provided with my own lessons, materials and structure in order to help these learners advance.  This tutoring program is mandated by a provision of No Child Left Behind to address learners in failing schools.  Not all of my students are failing, but most need remediation to bring them in line with the levels they should be achieving in their grades.  It is fulfilling work, but quite frankly it was a lot more frustrating last year when I felt confined to stay rooted in the materials provided.  I feel much freer now to create new lessons and new materials for my students, in accordance with the state and city standards provided.  Isn’t the point of learning to be able to apply what is learned to new situations?  If that is true, this teacher has gotten the most out of being a student. 

Learning the Lessons of Proper Planning

 As I look back on all the readings, discussions and projects completed for this course, the one I value the most is the Curriculum Mapping assignment.  The reasons for this are multifold.  First, I am foremost a kinesthetic learner—I learn by doing.  Even though this assignment did not require a level of physicality, I believe any learning style which requires activity (even if it is mental) is kinesthetic learning.  Concepts often don’t make sense to me until I can put them to some concrete use.  In the case of the curriculum map, the assignment required putting to practical use all the theory and best practices techniques learned to form a cohesive plan of study for a kindergarten class. 

 

In addition, this project above the others, in my opinion, helped to reinforce the core course competencies for this class.  For example, the first competency requires an understanding of “diverse learners” and a heightened commitment to students and their learning as evidenced by our ability to “formulate sound pedagogical decisions based on individual and social learning theory and on child and adolescent development theory.”  This is what curriculum mapping is all about—taking what you know about your community of learners—and the content you wish to cover—and formulating a plan of action for teaching.  Different types of learners require different approaches.  For example, learners like me need action to concretize theoretical concepts.  However learners of other types require different approaches to function at their best (see the first blog entry on learning modalities).  Current learning theory also mandates an understanding of how children construct meaning (constructivist theory).  

 To my mind, this is what should be meant by having more teacher accountability in the classroom.  Each teacher needs to formulate lessons  or units of lessons based on the needs of her students formulated within a construct of the standards required by her state or national educational body.  Ideally, the teacher would not be in this alone; her school or district would be active in creating curriculum that would trickle down into each classroom.  However, if that is not the case, an individual teacher can do his best to examine their own lesson plans to better align them with the needs of the students and the state standards where they live.  In completing the curriculum mapping assignment, I had the opportunity to revisit lessons I had taught to strengthen them in terms of structure and content and to ensure they were aligned with my state’s standards, since the last time I was in the classroom this was not required.  

 The curriculum mapping assignment also addresses the second competency—to strengthen knowledge of the content area.  In completing the map, it was essential to review each of the subjects covered in the map to uncover the essential questions of what students should know in order to master the content area.  How can you know what is essential to teach (or form essential questions) if you do not have a complete understanding of the material yourself?  These days, this means going beyond the confines of whatever textbook is provided to search out additional resources in the content area. 

When you look at the four performance goals listed under this competency, you can see that each is met by the act of curriculum mapping.  For example, in composing my science units for Kindergarten, I had to know standards for a variety of disciplines.  I had to be aware of how students construct knowledge in order to plan for activating prior knowledge, building on that with the most effective materials and learning techniques.   Another of the competencies is designing plans across the content area, which is obvious here.

One deficiency I noticed was a lack of planning for gifted children in the classroom.  I have addressed learners of different modalities and even learners who may need a bit more help.  However the last unit of study in this course made me aware this was one group I was not planning for.  In future I will take ALL learners into account in my classrooms.

Ancient Classroom Secrets?

When I was a classroom teacher I kept a secret from my parents, my administration and even my students--we practiced meditation every day.  Right after lunch I would turn out the lights for a minute, ask my students to close their eyes or put their heads on the table, then I would lead them through a few minutes of guided meditation where we imagined ourselves to be calm, emotionally and mentally ready for the afternoon of learning to come.  My other secret was that we practiced deep breathing and movement in the morning to get our day going.  People wondered why I had such a well-behaved, productive classroom.

Apparently I am not the only one who feels that energy flow, meditation, emotional and mental grounding are important in the classroom.  I caught a glimpse of a news program featuring Goldie Hawn and the work her Hawn Foundation is doing to promote these skills in the classroom.  I knew I had to find out more.  Mind UP, Hawn's program focuses on the social, emotional and academic learning for all students.  According to their literature,

Our program provides children with emotional and cognitive tools to help them manage emotions and behaviors, reduce stress, sharpen concentration, and increase empathy and optimism.

Isn't that what we want for all of our children? If this sounds interesting to you, you can check out the website at Mind UP.  Scroll down to watch the video featuring Hawn and one of the scientists who worked with her on formulating this program.  It's a (ahem) mind-opener.

Welcome, welcome!

Hi,  I am Deirdre Savoy, wearing her educator hat.  I hope you will enjoy the posts here whether you are one of my classmates or another viewer who stumbles across this site.  I like to post interesting things (then again, who doesn't?) but I will start with a little piece from Best-Career-Match.com. 

I find this article interesting, not only because it gives homage to the theory of multiple intelligences, but it encourages job seekers to consider their own weaknesses and strengths in terms of the multiple intelligences, as well.

Obviously, multiple intelligence theory has implications beyond the classroom and it's good to see that those uses are being explored out in the world.