Increase in student achievement. Teachers who have a better understanding of the curriculum will be more flexible in their teaching methods. They will be able to ensure their students completely understand important concepts by structuring classes around the big picture.
Create a school’s identity or persona. Curriculum maps help to create a bridge between standards and lesson plans, by bringing new resources into the classroom. This has implications on every stakeholder within the school district community. New initiatives, such as STEM or design thinking, that districts take on can be referenced directly in the curricular units to provide evidence of the work.
Encourages collaboration. Curriculum maps encourage teachers to discuss best practices and share resources, improving the overall level of teaching across the school district. Parents benefit from structured curriculum maps in that they know the exact learning targets for their children. Students are given coherent curriculum throughout the class, with a constant flow of knowledge from term to term and year to year.
Build a common resource center. Being able to capture assessments, lesson plans, and best practices within one place can improve teachers instruction. Knowledge can be easily shared from a master teacher to a new teacher. Within a curriculum map, the outcome is a comprehensive resource pool that includes hyperlinks to resources in context.
Save money on textbooks. Schools can save money by creating their own curriculum maps rather than buying them from textbook publishers. This allows for more control over what is actually being taught at the school.
