Sailing into Student Success: A 10-Step Curriculum Mapping Process

What ship have you built for your curriculum-based instruction journey? Curriculum mapping provides a standard of excellence in student learning while empowering teachers to collaboratively plan impactful lessons and support personalization for students in a transparent environment. Like the steps in building a strong ship, the curriculum mapping process creates the vessel to guide instructional practice. The design and framework of your ship lay the path for students to sail towards success.  

Use these 10 steps to analyze and revise your curriculum to ensure your district’s ship is strong enough to weather future conditions.

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#1: Start with the standards.

There is a plethora of standards recommended by each state and at the national level. Knowing the “what” is important to starting your mapping journey. Begin evaluating the standards with these questions in mind:

• What is the expectation for your district?  
• Do you focus on just your state requirements or use the College Board or other national standards as well?  
• Are there local workforce standards needed?  

#2: Develop the scope and sequence.

Once your standards are identified, setting up the ports and stops along the way with the scope and sequence for the year comes next. By asking the following questions, you can create the best map for your course:  

• Do you need to be at a certain point by a given date, such as middle or end of the year testing?
• How much content needs to be covered in a semester?
• Which standards are a priority as designated by state or local guidelines?
• Which ones need to be repeated and how often?

A thorough review of data and student performance will play a key role in this step and will help with the construction of content.

#3: Identify the content based upon the standards.

With your prioritized standards and scope and sequence for the course, it is time to unpack the standards to determine the learning targets and success criteria for mastery of the content. Much work has been done on the effects of using learning targets (or learning intentions) and success criteria with an effect size of .54 which is higher than the .40 labeled by John Hattie as “desired effect.” Many standards are broad in nature and include multiple learning targets that can be identified. The success criteria help guide the teacher and the student to the right depth of level needed for mastery. This step is also a great professional development session to help teachers understand the standards and the rigor of instruction needed to lead students to achievement.  

#4: Determine the evidence of learning with examples of mastery.

Following the unpacking of the standards and identifying the mastery level needed, assessments should be developed. These assessments can take many forms from project-based learning, oral presentations, anecdotal explanations, or traditional written assessments using open ended responses and/or multiple choice. Best practice suggests beginning with the success criteria and working backwards to create an assessment to which students can prove their understanding of the content. Questions to evaluate the depth of this step include:  

• What do students need to show to demonstrate mastery?
• What examples of mastery level achievement can be used in calibrating with other teachers and students?

#5: Create the units of instruction.

This step in the building process is fun for teachers and curriculum leaders, as the content is bundled together within the subject. Curriculum authors and teachers can create interdisciplinary units embedded in campus or district initiatives like Thinking Maps or aspects of blended learning. The use of literature and integration of literacy skills and language development is included in many high-performing districts. The learning targets are linked to the units, providing both educators and students with expectations for learning. Units can range from 5-25 days and incorporate several topics to be covered in 1- to 3-day chunks.

#6: Write the essential understanding and key questions for students.

What are the enduring understandings for this unit that will carry the student into the next content area or into learning for life? These understandings and key questions guide student learning and supply the foundation for the unit expectations. It is powerful for students to take part in this step if possible, to create their own understanding and ask key questions during their studies.  

#7: Plan for the skills students need to acquire.

In the past, this step in the ship building process has been called task analysis, outlining specific skills students need to know and be able to perform to be successful in mastering the content. Many of the learning targets developed imply the skills needed, so some of the work is already done. At this step, it is also beneficial to look at past skills that need to be reinforced and record any common misunderstandings students have about the content.  

#8: Schedule the timeline and pacing guide.

With the scope and sequence and units of instruction in place, the next phase is refinement. In this step, review the pacing for each of the units created. The timeline and pacing guide are typically reviewed each year and adjusted based upon the needs of the current class of students.  

#9: Design the customized learning experience activities.

Once the units, assessments, questions, and pacing are completed, designing the learning activities can begin. This is when curriculum authors look at the rigor needed, research best practice, and gather ideas on how to best teach the topics for the units. Collaboration is critical during this step so teachers can share what works best and learn from each other. A bank of activities can be expanded over time and adapted by teachers during their lesson planning. The key questions in development to ask include:  

• Does this activity meet the depth of learning required by the learning target and/or standard?  
• What published high leverage practices and strategies fit?  
• Is the activity student-centered and does it allow for student agency?  
• What technology could be included in the activity that would enhance learning?

As Larry Ainsworth states, “With all focus up to this point on redesigning the curriculum to include all the different components the adults in the system determine as being necessary, let us not forget the people for whom it is constructed – the students.” (Ainsworth, 2010, p.8)

#10: Gather the resources.

Notice the placement of this step – at the end of the journey! Many districts and teachers start with the textbook or resources first which can cause issues with the rigor and content of the standards needed. Careful analysis of the resources used and discussion about whether they help students achieve mastery can ensure high quality resources are embedded.

Intentional focus and attention to high quality curriculum mapping leads to a well-built, sea-worthy ship to guide student learning in your classrooms. Empowering teachers and students to help in the design and construction of this ship not only ensures buy-in, but provides smooth waters to sail towards student achievement.

References:

• Ainsworth, Larry (2010).  Rigorous curriculum design: How to create curricular units of student that align standards, instruction, and assessment. Leadership and Learning Center. Englewood, CO.
• Bloomberg, P. & Pritchard, B. (2017).  Leading impact teams: Building a culture of efficacy.  Corwin, Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Hattie, John (2012).  Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge, New York NY:
• Jacobs, Heidi Hayes (2004). Getting results with curriculum mapping. ASCD, Alexandria, VA.
• Marzano, R. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action. ASCD, Alexandria, VA.
• Schmoker, Mike. (2006). Results now: How we can achieve unprecedented improvements in teaching and learning. ASCD, Alexandria, VA.