Transforming the Student Learning Map into Instructional Practice

Cindy Riedl
Mar 09, 2009

The time has come for us to check for understanding and eliminate misconceptions concerning how Student Learning Maps are effectively implemented in the classroom. Student Learning Maps are an advance organizer that guides instruction and helps students organize what they are learning. They also are a communication tool for students, their parents and support teachers. Each Student Learning Map organizes the content and expectations of the state's standards for a specific subject and grade level. The Student Learning Map eliminates 'mystery learning', because the content and learning expectations are there for all to see. The question plaguing many educators is whether there is 'RIGHT' OR 'WRONG' way of displaying the Student Learning Map in the classroom. The Student Learning Map gives the 'Big Picture' of where we are going, connecting the lessons into a whole, and it can serve as a Word Wall for the unit. The point of the map is to facilitate learning. Each teacher should display it so it does!

There are no parameters or "rules" for displaying the components of the Student Learning Map, as long as the modifications meet the intended purpose - guiding instruction and organizing learning. Yet, during conferencing with teachers, we encounter many teachers who are concerned about whether there is a prescribed expectation about how the components of the Student Learning Map are displayed. The collective response is that teachers must make decisions based on the needs of their students and the availability of space. The goal is NOT to paper the walls with maps.

Our goal is to help you discover what works best for your situation and students. Doing this often involves making recommendations. For instance, in a classroom with limited wall space, you are often encouraged to focus on displaying only one Lesson Essential Question at a time and keeping it in view under the topic and/or Unit Essential Question, until students have met the criteria of response for the question. Meanwhile, students are maintaining a journal or Learning Log.

In Pennsylvania one of our Instructional Specialists had a conversation with a middle school teacher, and they talked about different ways to display the Student Learning Map. After their conversation, the teacher decided to have her students build the Student Learning Map in their Log Books as they go. At the beginning of each lesson, students would write the Lesson Essential Question and then complete assignments and vocabulary work in their Log Books. At the end of the lesson, they would respond to the essential question. "I thought that this was a very effective way to handle the Student Learning Map, as students had a reference in their own words with their work samples to support the learning on specific topics and bodies of information," our Instructional Specialist explained. She continued, "Teachers need to understand that there is definitely not a right or wrong way to display maps! Our goal is that the expectations designated by the map are addressed during their lessons. We DO NOT dictate how they do this. Those decisions are part of their craft as professionals!"

While some teachers gradually display the components of the Student Learning Map as they are addressed during the Acquisition Lesson, others present the entire map at the beginning of a unit, because doing so does not intimidate their students. Often, high school students want to see the complete journey that they will be taking during the unit of study. For other students, this undertaking would be overwhelming and, in some cases, would actually "blow their fuses" before even beginning the unit. Again, the choice of how the Student Learning Map is displayed is dependent upon knowing your students, how they learn, and what the best approach is, whether part to whole or whole to part.  Primary teachers who discover that building the complete map on the wall, from the beginning to the end of the unit, is too much for their students' young minds to handle should not do it. The Lesson Essential Questions represent "chunks" of learning. Display the chunks individually, and remove them as you move on to the next instructional chunk.

As a firm believer in vocabulary instruction, I highly recommend that all teachers find ways to highlight key vocabulary of the Student Learning Map by making it visibly connected to the concepts of the unit. Adding visuals and graphics to the displayed vocabulary creates the "mental Velcro" students require to retain knowledge of words at all grade levels. Requiring that those words are used and spelled correctly in writing assignments will increase student achievement.  Another possibility for 'map management' is to provide students with a manila folder where they can add the components of the Student Learning Map and keep their work in it during the unit as an advance organizer. Writing rubrics can be attached to the folder and used as a guide during writing to inform or to respond to assignments. This management strategy is especially effective for grades three through high school. Students are held responsible for their learning, and structure is provided for those students who have difficulty with organizational skills. Other successful Student Learning Map organizers include Post-it-Notes for adding new vocabulary, with visuals and pocket files for students to add their assignments and responses to Lesson Essential Questions. All it requires is a little practical imagination with a focus on how students learn best at your grade level.

Another Instructional Specialist responded to a client, "I have asked the middle school teachers in a district to not put up all of the Lesson Essential Questions for a unit at once, since it has become distracting for many of their students. Instead, I encouraged them to cover the components that have not been addressed and uncover them during specific instruction."

Other teachers, who are using sentence strips for their Lesson Essential Questions, concepts and vocabulary, put them all up but turn over the ones they have not addressed yet. Also, these teachers have created arrows or hands with a finger pointing to the Lesson Essential Question they are addressing on the map.

A third grade teacher in Florida explained how she previewed the components and uses of a Student Learning Map at the beginning of the year before using it for instruction.  She insisted that previewing the format made a difference as to how her students interacted with the map during instruction. She also had a clever idea about how to store maps on pants hangers when they were not in use. When it was time to use the information on the Student Learning Map and add the new Lesson Essential Question and vocabulary, the map was removed from the hanger and displayed during the lesson. Students also had access to the maps that were arranged for easy access during assignments.
 
We had a trainer once ask what she should recommend to teachers using the technology of interactive white boards. In the same way as the third grade teacher who used a storage system for maps, the teachers using the interactive white board can build their maps gradually, recording new Lesson Essential Questions, concepts and vocabulary words during instruction. The map stays in view during the lesson. Vocabulary can still be arranged in an area of the classroom designated for that topic, making connections to concepts and recorded by students in their journals or notebooks. The intention is that the teacher and students are consistently using the topic related vocabulary in their writing and during discussions.

So what is the issue? Is everyone operating with the same understanding about how Student Learning Maps can be transformed effectively into student learning without plastering the walls of classrooms with their components? No doubt that there are supervisory members of the educational community that are looking for evidence of learning. The best evidence is student work, but how Student Learning Maps are used will provide clues to your supervisors about how you are using Student Learning Maps with students. Think about how student work might be displayed with a Lesson Essential Question in the hall, on a door, or in a designated area of the room for 'Celebrating Learning'. Have student notebooks and folders ready to showcase how your students are learning from the Student Learning Maps. Think Smart! But, most of all, make what appears on the walls of your classroom 'student friendly' and useful interactive tools of learning.

Find out more about Student Learning Maps in Transforming Standards into Learning.