Vlasis, C. (2003). Librarian morphs into curriculum developer. In B.K. Stripling & S. Hughes-Hassel (Eds.) Curriculum Connections through the Library (pp. 107-117). Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.
Focus Quote:
"The curriculum map is also useful to librarians because it allows them to make connections across grade levels and help teachers avoid repetitions in the curriculum." (Vlasis, 2003, p.112-113)
This week the focus of our class readings was curriculum mapping. This educational practice has many benefits. One of these benefits is curricula alignment. For librarians, this ability to view what standards and topics are being taught and when, is especially useful since they are in the unique position to collaborate with teachers from multiple grade levels and content areas. As Charlotte Vlasis states in her chapter on the librarian's role as a curriculum developer, "The curriculum map is also useful to librarians because it allows them to make connections across grade levels and help teachers avoid repetitions in the curriculum." (2003, p.112-113)
Just recently, at my practicum school, I witnessed a situation in which a lack of curriculum map hampered the ability of the school librarian to provide instruction. Basically, the school librarian was trying to plan out a set of lessons for freshman English students on how to search the web effectively, utilize databases, and import their bibliographic information into a citation maker. However, upon teaching the lesson, she discovered that half of the students had already received some of this same type of information while others were completely unfamiliar with it. Had the school librarians within the school district created a curriculum map for research skills the librarian at my school wouldn't feel pressured to teach a lot of skills in a short amount of time and could perhaps have focused the lessons on different research strategies.
Despite the many benefits of curriculum maps, as a former teacher, I can attest to how difficult it can be to keep a map up to date. With regard for making time to create and maintain a map, Charlotte Vlasis, states, "Scheduling the time to work on maps needs to be addressed before the process is begun, and a commitment to spend time on the maps has to be made by each participant." (2003, p.115) I completely agree with this statement, however, I would like school administrators to support teachers in this pursuit by providing professional development time on a regular basis for teachers to work on their maps. In my own experience, the professional development time allotted for curriculum mapping was often spaced too far apart. We would work on maps one day, but then it would be several months before we picked them up again. At that point, it was almost like we had to start all over again.
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