During a recent meeting, our team was reviewing math data on all of our students. Our goal was to check how students had grown since the beginning of the year with math standards. During the meeting, we had a question about a particular standard and looked up a digital curriculum map online. The map showed the connections between different standards and different grade levels. The idea was to provide a visual map and timeline of how standards should be taught and how they were connected to previous content taught at different grade levels. It was supposed to make it easier to answer our question. But it did anything but that. Instead of a map, it seemed more like a maze. I felt more confused after looking at the map than when I started.
I think this is one of our biggest problems with curriculum. We focus on inch deep, mile wide curriculum that covers a range of topics but doesn’t allow students to build deep knowledge in any of those areas. Using the math example, we hit on a topic at every grade level without students being able to develop a deep mastery. It is just like a maze. Our students end up struggling to find their way out.
Instead, we should be guiding learners to where they need to be. One of the key areas of focus for our data team meetings this year, is on our Tier 1 interventions happening in the classroom. We have stressed across all grade levels the importance of building number sense. Of course, we want to teach developmentally appropriate content, but we should be focusing on basic fact mastery, and number sense. Yes, the curriculum needs to build on previous content taught but it needs to be built upon a solid foundation of mastery in that particular subject area. We can’t expect our students to turn at every corner expecting to find their way out of the maze only to be lost again.
Let’s try to simplify the path we give our students. Let’s make it a basic map instead of the maze that it currently is.
Rich
