Curriculum+Mapping+and+ePortfolios

Return to Project Overviews


 * Curriculum Planning for the 21st Century (CP21C)** is a project designed to address the “Enhancing Education Through Technology” theme of Data-driven Differentiated Instruction and Learning. This project supports Districts 1 and 2 in developing high-quality teaching and learning by using data to assess student performance, map curriculum, and align instruction accordingly, in that sequence. Typically teachers plan and write a curriculum, teach it, and assess whether students have mastered the curricular material at the end of the unit, semester, or year. Following this approach, teachers tend to be focused more on covering the curriculum than responding to students’ learning needs, and may find little time to make data-informed decisions regarding instructional supports or changes to content or pedagogy. This approach honors a static curriculum over dynamically changing student needs, and, while it may address the needs of some students, its one-size-fits-all design rarely meets the needs of all.

The **CP21C** program will help teachers take a more differentiated approach to curriculum design and delivery by developing their ability to collaboratively analyze student data, identify students’ learning challenges, align curriculum and instruction to address those challenges, monitor and assess the impact of the strategies, and revise strategies as needed to achieve greatest impact. In addition, the CP21C grant will incorporate data analysis technology tools to both inform instructional strategies and facilitate the development of a range of common assessments that focus and align curriculum modifications around student learning outcomes and priorities. These tools will facilitate the diagnosis of student learning patterns, which in turn provides teachers the opportunity to incorporate new strategies into daily classroom practice, design effective assessments, and collaborate with colleagues to improve teaching and learning.

To facilitate the alignment of curriculum to assessment outcomes and targeted learning objectives, the **CP21C** program will use a powerful Web based curriculum mapping and instructional content management solution, CurricuPlan, that allows teachers to prioritize curriculum goals, align standards with classroom-based assessments, and customize lesson designs based on analysis of student performance data. This tool provides secure, “live” access for educators to participate in online communities focused on the development of targeted instruction driven by data with the common goal of increasing student achievement. CP21C participants will use CurricuPlan to support the procedures for curriculum mapping as outlined in “Mapping the Big Picture” by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs. Educators at the **CP21C** schools will use Jacobson’s data-informed process to create web-based curriculum maps. This work will facilitate the monitoring and adjustment of curriculum maps throughout the year by studying student work and surfacing effective teaching practices that increase student understanding and achievement. They will learn the importance of organizing instruction around “essential questions” and of designing assessments that provide useful formative information to scaffold student growth toward clear learning outcomes. Program facilitators will foster the development of online and onsite professional learning communities where participants create and share their work. By the end of the year, each school will have artifacts to share within the DOE’s online collaboration environment, ARIS Connect.

As educators become more proficient with curriculum mapping, they will incorporate the use of ePortfolios into their curriculum and instruction to support students in collecting, selecting, and reflecting on their work. Students will learn to develop standards-based ePo rtfolios that both outline their personal learning goals and demonstrate their acquisition of 21st Century literacy skills. By combining curriculum mapping with ePortfolios, CP21C teachers will have powerful tools and skills for aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to students’ learning needs through analysis of student achievement data and intentional curriculum planning.