Curriculum Mapping

Beginning with the end in mind &
charting a course for the year

Curriculum maps are valuable planning tools for teachers, helping them to begin with the end in mind and chart a course for the year.  Typically, annual curriculum maps are organized by month or marking period and provide an overview of:

• the enduring understandings and overarching goals

• the standards-based essential skills and concepts

• the methods of assessment that the teacher and students will be working on throughout the year (e.g., major writing assignments, projects, performances)

• the major content resources

Unit curriculum maps include all of the above with the following additions:

• the unit’s theme, essential question(s), and enduring understandings

• more detailed notes on the formative and summative assessments to be used throughout the unit

• the strategies and best practices used to explicitly teach the standards-based essential skills and concepts

• a list of the multi-genre resources that will be used throughout the unit.

The curriculum map templates provided to the left are a product of a combination of two concepts: Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ concept of curriculum mapping from her book, Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum & Assessment (1997) and Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s backward design model from Understanding by Design (1998).  

Reading

Outcomes

Writing
Outcomes

Tools for

Reading,
Writing,

& Thinking

Language
Resource
Guide

Rubrics

Themes &
Essential
Questions

ELA
Best Practices

ELA
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