Feb
27
Beginning the Curriculum Mapping Journey
February 27, 2006 | |
One of the nice things about working at an Independent School is the weeklong “ski week” vacation each February! It always seems to arrive just in the nick of time and I’m ready for our first day back today.
This year I’m fortunate to serve on our school’s Curriculum Task Force, which is charged with the responsibility of spearheading a formal K-8 curriculum review. Our committee has made the decision to purchase Rubicon Atlas as our curriculum mapping tool and we will officially roll out the curriculum mapping process in September ‘06 with the intention of making this process our year-long professional development thread. This means that full faculty meetings, department meetings and individual grade level time will be devoted to the process of writing down what we teach, why we teach it and how it relates to what our colleagues are teaching.
In preparation for this process, our Head of School asked the members of our Art Department to act as our official curriculum mapping guinea pigs as we experiment with what a formal review process would look like. Just before vacation I attended a presentation given by members of the Art Department, who crafted an amazingly thoughtful, comprehensive and reflective portrayal of what occurs at each grade level at our school, how the art experience builds on recurring themes and motifs in kindergarten through eighth grade, and how art in general is assessed at our school.
The art teachers stressed that students at every grade level learn about the major elements and principles of art, and how to talk about art in general. They showed slides describing the specific curriculum at each grade level, showcased a sample project from that grade, described the project in detail, and demonstrated how the projects use 3 recurring categories of inspiration:
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- Inspiration by art from around the world
- Inspiration by art history past/present
- Inspiration by integrating with classroom curriculum
The presentation was very illuminating and gave a real sense of what an 8th grader will have had as an art experience upon graduation. I am so glad that this department went first! (I have posted some screen shots below.)
Projects ranged from
- 2nd Grade Mexican insect art
- 3rd grade projects closely tied to classroom themes, including Japanese arts & crafts, creating a Japanese zen rock garden with an outdoor installation and African arts & crafts
- 4th grade handmade/bound classroom portfolios
- 6th grade ceremonial vessels based on Chinese bronze vessels
- 8th grade focus on Service Learning Week with Keith Haring-inspired screen printing
Comments
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Did your team look at Curriculum Mapper software? I think it is easier to use and more flexible than the Atlas Rubicon program.
Hi Charla,
We looked at a bunch of tools and ultimately decided on Atlas because it seems to be really flexible as well. We polled all of our neighboring independent schools and the shared consensus was that Atlas was a wonderful, effective tool. The benefit of going with the consensus, of course, is that we can call our neighbors for help and advice if we need it!
Thanks, Barbara