How
To Collaboratively Design Year Long Curriculum Maps
Sarah Picard
At the end of each school year many schools provide
planning days for teachers to map out their curriculum for the following
school year. Teachers gather to talk about what went well in the
current school year and areas for improvement. Often these conversations
lead to changes in a school's curriculum, but sometimes they can
turn into a complaint session with no real solutions proposed. This
"how-to" will help teachers understand what it means to have a collaborative
discussion about a curriculum map.
First, teachers need to agree on a place and time
for their meeting; this information needs to be posted in a central
location so all teachers who wish to come to the meeting can arrange
their schedules accordingly. Once everyone gathers for the meeting,
it is important that all who attend understand the focus. Whether
your team is meeting to plan the 11th grade social studies map or
the second grade writing map, all those sitting around the table
need to understand the importance of sticking with the conversation
focus.
Although everyone may agree on a common focus, communication
at these kinds of meetings can sometimes break down. A tuning protocol
will help insure that each teacher's voice is heard and that conversation
sticks to the topic. For example, my colleagues and I on the second
grade team at P.S. 126 recently met to talk about our grade level
reading map. We made a triple journal chart that listed the following:
Each teacher at the meeting had a chance to speak,
adding lessons to the unit, giving a reflection on the unit and
providing possible solutions. It is especially important to add
that during the 'possible solutions' conversation, no idea is immediately
dismissed. It is seen as a brainstorm phase. The process of using
this tuning protocol helped our conversation grow, and each teacher
felt represented when we looked at the chart we had created.
Please feel free to e-mail
with any additional questions!
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