1. Curriculum mapping is focused on "big ideas" and having students wrestle with "essential questions.\" | love this way of teaching but rarely see many teachers embrace it. Why do you think that it can be hard to get teachers to move away from simply "following the textbook" to having students wrestle with big ideas and essential questions when it comes to teaching in America? 2. Curriculum mapping requires you to have an "end goal" in mind for your students. Often this is an assessment that you believe will give you the best information about whether or not your students have actually learned what you have taught them. What are some types of assessments that you would like to design that you feel would best tell you if your students have learned what you taught? How will you ensure that these assessments are valid and reliable measurements of your students' learning? 3. Step 1in curriculum mapping is all about knowing why you are teaching some concept. What is a concept that you think you might want to curriculum map for this course and why do you think it is necessary for students to learn about this concept? NOTE: There is a major difference between why you think a concept might be Interesting and why your students need to learn it. 4. Step 2 is all about time- for this course, | recommend making a curriculum map that is 4-9 weeks in length. | tend to go for 4-5 weeks when making curriculum maps as that allows 1/2 a quarter of instruction in a typical public school. The big question about time though is if you are giving too little or too much time for the standards you are trying to teach and have students master (i.e., Step 3). Looking at the state standards you plan to use for your curriculum map, how much time do you think is adequate? Justify your answer by explaining how you made your decision on how long your unit should be. 5. Step 4 is all about essential questions, content guestions, and big ideas. Looking at your unit, what would be 1 essential question that you could use that would be broad enough to use with other units? What are 2-4 content qguestions you expect students to be able to answer at the end of your unit? What are the 3-5 big ideas that they should learn when they complete your unit? 6. Do you think your unit of study is one that a student who is learning English as a Second Language and is reading 2 years below grade level could still successfully complete- in terms of showing you that they learned the concepts? Here's the big thing: | don't care about the student completing the "tasks." | do care about the student being able to be assessed by you and 6. Do you think your unit of study is one that a student who is learning English as a Second Language and is reading 2 years below grade level could still successfully complete- in terms of showing you that they learned the concepts? Here's the big thing: | don't care about the student completing the "tasks." | do care about the student being able to be assessed by you and you knowing if he has learned the material- explain your thinking on what you can do to make sure your student can show they learned the key concepts you are teaching and that he can demonstrate the key skills you are expecting students to also be able to do