Curriculum Mapping, a Management Tool

As a driver, I have progressed from using an atlas, to a paper printout from an online source, to a Garmin, and finally to using an app on my smart phone. Each of these methods has helped me arrive at the appointed place at the appointed time. And this is the purpose of these mapping devices: to arrive at a destination. In education, we often talk about mapping with a much different meaning. “Mapping” still means looking for steps to follow to arrive at a destination, but in education this translates to looking at how students travel along the right path to increase learning. Curriculum mapping collects data describing the curriculum being taught at the grade, school, and district levels. It is the process of determining the curriculum content presented in each classroom in an educational institution (Jacobs 1997).

As librarians in the K-12 arena, creating a collection of resources to stimulate student learning by supporting the district curriculum can be a challenge. As librarians decide what materials to purchase in this day of dwindling resources, it is imperative that each purchase is at the appropriate grade and reading level and supports the established curriculum. So how should a school librarian determine what resources should be added to the collection? This is where the process of curriculum mapping can help.

Curriculum mapping “maps out” the units and the chronological order teachers use to present the curriculum. Heidi Jacobs explains that curriculum mapping provides the whole picture of exactly what is occurring in each classroom (1997). It is a way of collecting data from each teacher and rendering a visual representation of the curriculum. Librarians can use this information as they manage their budgets and purchase resources for their libraries.

How does the librarian create these curriculum maps? The easiest and quickest way is to have the teachers complete a form that indicates the units they are teaching during the year, when they are teaching the material, and the time spent on the unit. In very little time, the librarian will have an overview of what units are being taught and when. This curriculum map will help the school librarian know when materials are needed and will help manage the purchases for the school library. Curriculum mapping thus becomes a resources management tool.

This quick process may not always work for a variety of reasons. The teacher may be too busy to fill out the form, may not see the need to share the information with the librarian, or may not have done the planning for the entire year or even the semester. If the teachers do not complete the curriculum form, there are other ways to obtain this information. The librarian should begin by developing a spreadsheet based on the school calendar with each of the teachers listed. Then the detective work begins. As the librarian has conversations with the teachers, information gleaned can be added to the spreadsheet. The librarian should also listen to students’ conversations to determine what the students are studying. For example, through these conversations the librarian may find that Ms. Alba has the sixth graders studying the novel The Giver during the first two weeks of the semester. Then they divide into groups and research various topics generated from the discussion of the book and present their information to the class. This takes an additional two weeks. After studying the novel, Ms. Alba’s class begins working on biographies of early American heroes for two weeks with a final project presentation. The first nine weeks concludes with a short poetry unit on heroes.

The librarian adds this information to the spreadsheet and gains a visual overview of what curriculum is being presented in Ms. Alba’s room during the first nine weeks. This is a successful curriculum map.

Although this is a cursory overview of Ms. Alba’s classroom content, it does provide a map of what resources the teacher may need and when she might need to use the library facility. This information assists the librarian with purchasing materials, managing the facility, and allocating resources. The map provides the information needed to begin conversations with the teacher.

However, this method of obtaining information is a slow process. The librarian would then need to follow the same procedure for each teacher, classroom, and content area. In some cases, this could take an entire year to retrieve enough information to make this a viable planning tool to manage the resources and ordering process.

The timing here is crucial. Many schools begin planning for the following school year in the spring of the current school year. During this time, classroom teachers hold meetings to discuss the next year’s schedule. The librarian will have a much better chance of gathering the curriculum information if they approach teachers during these meetings. Another advantage of approaching teachers in a planning meeting is that it can allow teachers and librarians to determine if the specific curriculum identified for their content or their grade level is being implemented (Howard 2017, p. 32). As the teachers complete their individual curriculum maps, they should compare their maps with their colleagues to determine if all students at that grade level are experiencing the same curriculum. This process of comparing the curriculum maps from all teachers at the same grade level or content area is called horizontal mapping and is the first step in curriculum mapping (Jacobs 2004).

After the horizontal mapping from each grade level is completed, this data should be analyzed across all grade levels to determine any repetition of content. This process is called vertical curriculum mapping (Jacobs 2004). Frequently at the beginning of the school year, classroom teachers hear, “We studied that last year.” Using the process of vertical mapping will eliminate these types of problems. The district curriculum outlines the content for each grade level and each classroom should be aligned with this curriculum.

The process of curriculum mapping described here provides the school librarian with another tool to manage purchasing resources for the library. This tool can be expanded, and in addition to gathering information about the content and the time period, the maps could include: state standards, essential questions, identified skills, and unit assessments (Jacobs and Johnson 2009). When the school district expands curriculum mapping to include both horizontal and vertical mapping across schools, the librarian can take a leadership role in the curriculum mapping process.

Works Cited

Howard, Jody K. The School Librarian as Curriculum Leader. Libraries Unlimited, 2017.

Jacobs, Heidi Hayes. Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2004.

Jacobs, Heidi Hayes. Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment K-12. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997.

Jacobs, Heidi Hayes, and Ann Johnson. Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Resources for Effective Professional Development. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2009.