Standards and Backwards Mapping

When looking at the standards and classroom curriculum, it can seem quite daunting to plan lessons. But, it is helpful to keep the end goal in mind. Teachers can ask themselves, "what do I want the students to do with this content? or "What can they do with this content?" Therefore, it is best to starting planning your lesson beginning with the end. The reversed approach, called backwards mapping, can help teachers stay focused on the important aspects of content and not get bogged down skipping from one lesson to another without proper cohesion. 

Next school year, one of the grades I will be teaching is Kindergarten at an international school in France. The class I will teach is in the American section, so I will be following the Common Core Standards. For this exercise in backwards mapping, I chose the Common Core Standard:

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

I chose this standard because I am passionate about books and about reading. Personally, I

love reading and I want my students to be as excited as I am when they pick up a book. I believe that understanding a story through its images then through its words and understanding the connection between the two can be the foundation for a lifetime love of reading. Also, making connections between illustrations and the story can help students understand the different ways to read and tell a story. It can help develop students' critical thinking skills by opening their minds to the possibility of recognizing connections in other contexts and in other places, too. I think that these points are crucial to students and will help them greatly in the future. 

The Big Question: 

How do the pictures connect to the story?

Three Proficiencies

When students finish this unit based on CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7,  they should have the following proficiencies:

• describe the relationship between illustrations and the story                   

• identify the illustration that describes a specific event in the story and  identify what person, place or thing the illustration depicts 

• explain how illustrations help them understand the story

Three Assessments

The assessments for this Standard can take the shape of different forms, whether oral through description or visual through drawing a picture or writing a sentence. Here are some ideas:

• Student explains in his or her own words the importance of the illustration on a specific page in relation to the event, character or setting of the story on the same page.

• Student is able to match pictures with sentences from the story when they are presented out of order.

• Students can create their own images to accompany the story. Or, the student can create and image to illustrate their own writing. For example, "I like to play soccer" illustrated with the student playing a game of soccer with his or her friends. 

Three Activities

Activity 1

This activity focuses on discussion. The teacher reads the book "I Love My New Toy!" by Mo Willems out loud to the class. The story is about two friends, Piggie and Gerald. Piggie got a new toy and loves it until she things Gerald broke it. Another friend comes along and tell them it is a "break and snap" toy. In the end, Piggie and Gerald are happier playing with each other than with a toy. The teacher discusses the illustrations on each page and asks questions, like "How do you know Piggie is happy with her new toy?" or "How do you think Gerald feels when he breaks Piggie's new toy?" or "How do you think Piggie is feeling here?" The students describe the images in detail as they read the story.

Activity 2

The second activity builds on the first activity. The students pick their favorite part of "I Love My New Toy!" that they read as a class. They write a sentence about their favorite part. Then, they draw a picture to go along with their sentence. Finally, each student shares their sentence and picture with the class.

Activity 3

In the third activity, students will create a mini-book of their own. Taking images from "I Love My New Toy!" the students will glue them in the correct order in their mini-book. Then, on the last page, each student will write a sentence describing something he or she likes to do with his or her friend and draw a picture illustrating it.

In The End

After the unit has ended, we have come full circle. Knowing our big question and the proficiencies we would like our students to obtain from the beginning helps us achieve them in the end. Our lessons become more centered because we know our goal. 

Sources

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/%7E/media/ArtsEdge/LessonPrintables/grade-k 2/reading_illustrations_worksheet_rubric.ashx

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/K/


http://www.edutopia.org/blog/common-core-map-backwards-jay-mctighe-grant-wiggins

http://www.readtennessee.org/teachers/common_core_standards/kindergarten/reading_literature/rlk7.aspx

http://rpdp.net/pdfs/NACS_ELA/Kindergarten/Reading%20Literature/RL.K.7.pdf

Sources for Images (in order of appearance)

http://learni.st/users/crystal.schmelzer/boards/3705-common-core-english-standards-reading-information-grades-9-10

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/can-reading-make-you-happier

http://www.amazon.com/Love-New-Elephant-Piggie-Book/dp/1423109619

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTK7435Wsmk

http://log3beganddevreadersemilyhelle.weebly.com/beginning-readerlimited-vocabulary-books.html

http://www.rmichelson.com/illustration/mo-willems/elephant-and-piggie/i-love-my-toy-p31/

http://www.poulton-le-sands.lancs.sch.uk/?page_id=139