• What is a curriculum map? As the name suggests, a curriculum map shows its reader, in a chronological and detailed way, what happens in a class throughout the year. They also highlight the various elements of a curriculum. Our maps are broken up into 5 main components.
• Essential Questions: Are the big ideas about our topic that we want students to be thinking about throughout the unit.
• Content: Is the information we want students to know and understand about our unit of study.
• Skills: Are what we want students to be able to do. Students build skills during investigations and activities that the teachers offer to help students understand the content.
• Assessments: These are opportunities we provide for our students to demonstrate their understanding of the content and the skills they have acquired. We use assessments to gauge student's progress. Two types of assessments are included in our maps.
  • Formative Assessments: These are assessments used throughout the unit to check student understanding. Examples of formative assessments are teacher observation, essays, and quizzes. Teachers use the information from these types of assessments to set the pace and guide instruction.
  • Summative Assessments: These assessments are given at the end of a unit of study. An example of a Summative Assessment is an end of unit test. New York State yearly assessments are also considered a summative assessment.
• Resources: All the materials we use to instruct our students. Our textbooks are a resource, they are not our curriculum.

Our curriculum maps are not lesson plans. They are broad outlines of what students need to know and be able to do each year. Therefore, please read the maps as an outline of curriculum. Curriculum mapping is an ongoing process that is revised based on student needs so as the year progresses they will be periodically updated.
Please browse through our curriculum. Feel free to forward any questions or comments to: mwrobel@gwl.ouboces.org