Lewis County Schools shared their High School writing and reading curriculum map and the description below.
Lewis County Schools
High School Writing and Reading
Lewis County High School began working with curriculum maps the fall semester of 2000. In order for all students to be successful, all students need equal access to standards-based curriculum and effective instructional practices. By developing common curriculum maps, we have clearly articulated the "what," "how," and "when." This helps to alleviate not "getting to" required content, lecture-based instruction as a primary instructional tool (maps will ultimately include variety of instructional strategies), and overuse of the textbook as the sole curricular material. From our maps, it is clear what units need to be developed over time. One of our instructional goals is to be completely unit-driven by 2005. Curriculum maps are an invaluable resource for teachers new to the classroom or the district - we don't have the time or resources to keep starting over. Maps are posted on classroom walls and progress is monitored. These serve as a good communication tool that let's stakeholders know that we know before the year starts where we're going and how we're going to get there. As instructional leader, I can see from looking at a map, where teachers may need training or additional resources.
During a summer KLA retreat, one of my breakout sessions focused on curriculum mapping. I thought the idea had merit and made a lot of sense. That fall, I introduced the idea to the faculty as a whole. We began tinkering with maps that year and have not looked back. Our curricula had been aligned and assigned, so our first step was to put core content/POS into time frames. (This phase took about 2 years to flesh out to our satisfaction). The second phase was to add instructional activities - we tried to incorporate strategies we had chosen for our CSIP in the maps for the following year. The final phase for our school, was looking at our maps through a critical lens to see if each instructional unit had a variety of identified instructional practices, centered around standards, using a variety of materials and a variety of assessments. We are ready to try to add essential questions - while these are very important, I found that often teachers used questions based upon minutiae rather than those big ideas required of the essential question. Because after data analysis we see that transfer of content across context is a huge problem for us, essential questions are a timely element to work on - not just another requirement from the "office."
Our maps will continue to be refined and reviewed as we continue to uncover problems as identified by the data. As an organization, we are not all at the same level. Some maps are publishable; some still need a lot of work. We also read the research - as good resources that fit with our philosophy and mission become available, maps and units will have to be adjusted. Maps are here to stay at LCHS.
Next steps include peer revision/critique of maps, units, activities, assessments, etc. We are attempting to build good courses. Once maps and units are configured which include plans, resources, assessments, we should be able to consistently offer curriculum, instruction and assessment that is produced collaboratively and is of high quality.
For more information about this map, please contact Jennie Enix at Lewis County Schools.