TED 356 CURRICULUM IN SECONDARY EDUCATION
MODULE 7
(Serves as module, independent project, and group project.)
Date:
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Points:
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Comments:
OBJECTIVE:
Explain how curriculum from various content areas can be integrated for use in secondary
education.
READING:
In the Duplass textbook, refer to the following as needed: topic 19 and Unit 8 (topics 41-45).
ACTIVITIES:
1. Consider the following example of project-based learning/integrated curriculum:
Students were in two classes together, first period English and third period Biology. Most
were also in Music and Art and some were in Social Studies. The four teachers planned
the project with the English teacher as the pivot; they also alerted the Social Studies
teacher as to the details of the project.
Two weeks before the project, the English teacher assigned the reading of Lord of the
Flies, and assigned students (via hat pull) to roles (along with understudies). They were to
prepare guises to represent their characters (e.g., masks, hats, etc.): Ralph, Piggy, Jack,
Roger, Simon, Sam, Eric, Percival, The Beast, May Flies.
Prior to the project, the Biology teacher started a unit on insects, the Music teacher began
to help some students build background music and the Art teacher created a supply of
materials (pipe cleaners, etc.) to make bugs. The Social Studies teacher was doing a unit
on WWII and whenever possible integrated the message of the novel in her presentations
on the Nazis.
For homework the weekend before the project (after most had read the novel), the teacher
invited the members of the class to create artwork (using trash and no bigger than a
toaster) linked to the novel’s message about inherent good or evil in man and how when
civility fails and man turns to savagery, and to provide (under their artwork) a brief
artist’s statement explaining their work.
The first day of the project, based on already-offered directions, the students (with a
budget supplied by the school) turned their classroom into a tropical island, plastering
palm tree/frond decorations (from The Party Store and AC Moore or Michael’s)
everywhere and suspending models of flies/bugs created in Biology class with the help of
the Art teacher. While they decorated, they listed to the background music. The signal
fire (fake) and Castle Rock were demarcated.
The week of the project the students came guised as their characters, ready to help
interpret parts of the novel.
The English teacher led the students chronologically through the major scenes of the
book (not actually reading it, more just touring, albeit using SCENE: The Visual Imagery
Strategy) and asking students to contribute and interact along the way.
When appropriate, the characters acted out scenes or parts thereof, and the teacher
stopped them mid-scene to discuss what made the characters behave the way they did,
and invited personal reactions.
As their assessment in English, the students had to write an essay (using SCRIBE: The
Paragraph Writing Strategy and WRITER: The Proofreading Strategy) relating the plot of
the novel to Nazi Germany. The day the papers were due, she invited the Social Studies
teacher to visit and to hear some of the essays read aloud.
2. As a group, brainstorm an integrated unit. You can involve other content areas that may
not be represented in our class (e.g., involve a science teacher although we may have no
science major in our course). Submit the project as a Word document OR as a
PowerPoint presentation.
a. Determine what the project will cover (i.e., the topic).
b. Determine which teachers will be involved, and what each will contribute.
c. Plan what work students have to do to prepare to participate in the learning
activities. Determine what homework students will be given.
d. Determine how assessment will be addressed. (Make it creative, practical, and
authentic, and not just a paper-based traditional exam.)
e. Determine what the benefits and drawbacks are from doing this type of approach,
both from the teachers’ and the students’ points of view.