In my first position as a high school English teacher, there was no curriculum map, and the only "curriculum" I was given was an old text book, the novels I was supposed to teach, and told I should do at least one big research project and one big literary analysis paper. As a first year teacher, I definitely felt lost, but the second year the school began curriculum mapping. We would post all we had taught along with the state standards and any handouts at the end of each unit. We could all access each others units and figure out where we had overlap and gaps. I loved this! I left that school after mapping one full year, so I could not reap the full benefit of having a map laid out already for the next school year. Yet, I could see how much better we could teach the students with such a tool.
After doing the reading, I love the idea of taking those curriculum maps and creating a collection map to determine the exact resources needed and when. I am an especially big fan of the WEB boxes mentioned on page 126. I think of how great it would be for both student and teacher to bring in the box full of fun books, dvds, etc. at the beginning of a new unit. It would add to the excitement of learning and truly enrich the curriculum in all subject areas. If I am able to, I would love to implement this one day.
I also like the idea that the collection maps show "how the collection was in the past, how it is in the present, and what the hopes and dreams are for the future" (Stripling & Hughes-Hassel, 2003, p. 124). This is an excellent tool to show administration why funding is needed. Having the collection map in conjunction with the curriculum maps will prove exactly where money needs to be spent as well as the effectiveness and necessity of a school library.
I also have a question for those of you already in school libraries. Can Titlewise already do something similar to this? I was observing at a school and their Titlewise representative came over with graphs that he said showed them where they were, where they needed to be, and what the ideal would be. It was something similar to this idea of the collection map. Can anyone clarify that further for me? Regardless if it can, I still think it is a great idea to create a collection map based on the school's unique curriculum in order to best serve the students.
Source:
Stripling, B. K. & Hughes-Hassell, S. (2003). Curriculum connections through the library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
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Amber - I think that Titlewise can help with some of this. I went on Titlewise last week to find out their recommendations for weeding reference materials. It does have a lot of graphs and helpful information. I don't know, however, that it would be connected with curriculum maps directly. I think the librarian would have to sit down with the CMs and Titlewise information and compare them.
ReplyDeleteI also found the idea of using the curriculum map to make a collection map very exciting. After all, that is what the school library does....it supports the curriculum. This would be useful for a new librarian in the building to assess the strength of the collection, provide a guideline for a weeding procedure, and also serve as a supporting document for challenged materials.
ReplyDeleteAs I've mentioned, I'm not in a school library yet, but I also really liked the idea (and that's all it is for me right now - an idea) of matching up the collection 'map' with a curriculum 'map'. As someone who loves categorizing and organizing things in life, I'm hoping that when the time comes, I'll find this portion of the work worthwhile and plow through it. I think it would be very important to be able to not only know what is in the collection, but also be able to confidently note whether the collection supports the curricular needs or whether it is out of date and if it is out of date, be able to determine which areas require attention.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience with curriculum mapping in your former district.
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