Ensure that teachers have a clear, common understanding of the demands of the standards so students in every classroom are held to high expectations. Mapping provides a practical backward planning process for developing rigorous standards-driven learning goals and assignments that match the complexity of thinking and literacy demands of new standards.

Teachers learn to sequence lessons to move students through a ladder of complexity that prepares them for the next stages of their learning. Visual Student Learning Maps that organize concepts and vocabulary are developed to communicate learning expectations to students and support them in learning the academic vocabulary required by the standards.