History of the MAP:
It's NOT rocket science, just a desperate attempt for sanity!

Do you want your students to be independent for 45 minutes-an hour????
Many years ago, when I moved to kindergarten I tried the 15/20 minute rotation idea.  What a debacle!!  
I tried this for a few weeks and decided it was not a good fit for my population of learners (or me). 
When do our children have the most difficult time....during TRANSITIONS!  So why would we put them (and ourselves) through it? 
​It disrupts instruction and wastes about 12 minutes of learning time (at least).
So I thought through how to keep them accountable, yet independent for a long period of time.  In the older grades, the teachers used checklists.  Previously I had used an F&P rotation board.  I decided to amalgamate the two ideas and make it appropriate for kindergartners.   
This is an example of one of the first MAPs that I created...in 2009! 
It's purpose was to create independent practice.  
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Please understand, that there was MUCH front-loading that happened before independence occurred.  The children needed to be explicitly taught the expectations at each center.  We practiced and modeled each requirement within each center.  We practiced what each center looked like, felt like and sounded like.  The most "stinkery" students were used to model excellence so that no student could claim that he/she did not know what to do. 

We used to sing Dora the Explorer's song, "If there's a place you want to go, I'm the one you need to know, I'm the map...."

This MAP was utilized when I was deeply routed in the Daily 5.   

This is an example of the MAP as time went on in Kindergarten.


 At this point, I was working closely with a colleague, Ms. Ward, on how to help kindergartners understand the writing process and acquire active reading skills.  
Below is a Smartboard page that I used to help children know where they were to work for the day.  I duplicated the page four times and then just changed the "center" icon to match the group's work expectations.  Four pages---four days---just change the date at the top.
Fridays were called 'Finish-up Fridays' because in reality, NO ONE could finish all of the Map work in one day!

First & Second Combined Map

     At the end of 2013, a colleague (Ms. Ward) and I proposed team teaching first/second in one classroom.  We would teach ELA and Social Studies together, 43-ish students per class.  To the right you can see a snippet video of what "centers" looked like with 20 first graders and 23 second graders working together.

     Ms. Ward and I created most of the content for centers or pulled resources that ensured we covered the standards and expectations for our grade levels.  Morning work always related to  content being taught consisted of passages that pushed both first and second to build pre-reading skills, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.  Morning work was collaborative between first and second graders.   
See it in Action
Second Grade
     The 2nd grade independent work reinforced the reading skills and strategies with embedded social studies content.  The writing process is the same for all students, but differentiated only in the production according to student need.
The writing process and active reading engagement are addressed further on other pages and with links to Ms. Ward's site.
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Below is a "Thanksgiving Edition" of the Map for Second grade.  
Ms. Ward's classroom colors are purple, green and blue, hence the two color separation on the Reading Rockshop board to the right.  Most second graders are on the purple side, however there are some first graders there!  
First Grade
​     The first grade work was very similar to the second grade work, however, first grade fulfilled social studies expectations that differed from second grade (community helpers...).  When this occurred, we would create independent work accordingly.  Often it was easiest to address social studies differentiation through writing.  Ms. Ward and I differentiated the writing process from K-5, but utilized simple visual cues to support organization.  This is addressed further on the writing page and in links to Ms. Ward's site.  
My room was black and tan, hence most of the students on the right of the Reading Rockshop board are first graders, but a few are second.  

Third Grade Map

     When Ms. Ward and I were split up, she went to third grade, and I to fifth.  She continued the Map in much the same manner, but adjusted the content and complexity of tasks.  She continued writing "Hoerralds" or Got Schema Newspapers to weave all of the content together.   

Fifth Grade Map

In fifth grade, I used the same management techniques for the Map, but after a while I realized that my grading could be made quite easy! 
My "center" accountability pieces were usually: 
  • AOW:   Article of the Week (information); something from NewsELA, ReadWords, etc. that correlated with something from the novel we were reading.
  • Poetry:  my least favorite, but we had to cover it!
  • Novelty:  Some extension of reading, writing, or questions about the the novel we were reading at the time.  
  • StoryTimes/Writing:   My mother did virtual storytelling through FactTime, telling a story that correlated with our content.  We tried to do this each week and then the students would have a "Hoerrald" (newspaper) that retold the story to analyze, expand vocabulary, answer questions, etc.  If we did not meet, or if I needed intensive writing time, we would forgo StoryTimes for a week or two.  This usually occurred Feb-April during the frantic prep for state testing.  Ugh! ​
As you can see, some of the students liked to get fancy with their 'check-off' system.  I told them that they could check-off their work however they wished as long as the work was done to the best of their ability and I could read the scores.  
SCORING/Grades:  I simply collected each Map on Finish Up Fridays and plugged the scores into my grade book by reading the scores directly from each student's Map!