CURRICULUM MAPPING

WHEN IS IT BEST DONE

However well a teacher plans his lesson, there will always be a time that a good plan may not be carried out successfully in the classroom. There is a number of reasons why such preparation goes awry. A good teacher, however, does not just stop at a lesson that has gone wrong. He should ask himself questions-what went wrong that such a good intention went bad. A teacher should reflect on what happens to his teaching everyday.

In reflecting what has transpired inside the classroom, it is a good practice to mark the lesson plan for the day with comments on what really transpired, what did not happen, the reasons why it did not happen, what are the good things that have happened and what are the things done or taught which have not been included in the plan. This is curriculum mapping.

Inasmuch as the map will be used for planning the curriculum for the next school year, when is curriculum mapping best done? To my opinion, it is best done weekly. The subject teacher must do the mapping every week for all the subjects he is teaching. Furthermore, a quarterly curriculum mapping by discipline should also be done. Such will give a twofold effect: (1) Teachers are able to share best practices that they may use in their future lessons, and (2) Intensive curriculum map will be done and curriculum re-engineering for the next school year will be a lot easier.