Creating Integrated Curriculum

This book brings integrated curriculum into sharp focus and helps you find a curriculum model that can work for your school.

If you've ever thought that standards-based teaching and required content prevent you from integrating subject areas, then here's a book that will change the way you think and alert you to exciting new possibilities in your approach to teaching. Learn how to identify the connections in your standards that provide the basis for interdisciplinary units. Explore all types of integrated curriculum and how they bridge content standards to authentic, relevant learning experiences. And understand how to create interdisciplinary units that provide data-based evidence of student learning. A planning template and detailed examples of successful integrated curriculums are included to help you implement integrated curriculum in practice. Discover how you can make learning more exciting for students--and rewarding for you.

This updated edition serves as a road map through the CCSS, with clear guidance on multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to creating your own integrated curriculum.

"The content is powerful. Seeing examples from all grade levels is important so that each reader, regardless of teaching level, can see that it can be done in his or her situation." a?Sue DeLay, Curriculum Resource Teacher, Oak Creek Franklin School District, WI "Contains real-life examples of integration, including examples of the author's own experience in the classroom, making the work much more appealing and credible for teachers." a?Mary Ann Kahl, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, National-Louis University "This is the first book I have read that lays out a big picture that I can buy into and explains how to look at accountability in a positive way." a?Jane Adair, Resource Specialist, Long Beach Polytechnic High School, CA Help your learners connect big questions to big understandings! In today's accountability-driven environment, educators strive to develop an integrated, relevant, and measurable curriculum while also presenting engaging subject matter that inspires student learning. In this completely revised edition of the classic text, Susan M. Drake provides a new approach to standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment that helps educators identify what students must know, do, and be. This invaluable resource also offers: A framework allowing for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to curriculum integration Sample models of integrated curriculum in action Practical suggestions to simplify curriculum alignment and integration Insights based on real classroom experience to connect the framework to the real world End-of-chapter discussion questions and suggested activities Discover how you can create an integrated, standards-based curriculum that inspires your students, and then watch them thrive.

Translate the new standards into meaningful curriculum! The Common Core State Standards offer a shared language that ensures consistency and accountability, while also giving you the flexibility to design a curriculum that′s right for your students. Of course, knowing what you need to teach doesn′t tell you how to teach it—and that′s where curriculum integration expert Susan M. Drake comes in. In this new edition of her classic text, Drake applies the essential principles of standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment to today′s unique challenges. Focusing on multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches, she provides guidance on Unpacking the Common Core State Standards Planning assessment tasks Designing instructional strategies Developing daily activities Helping students connect essential questions to enduring understandings Included are new examples of exemplary programs, discussion questions, a sample completed interdisciplinary curriculum, and activity suggestions for building your own standards-based integrated curriculum. This proven resource is the road map teachers and curriculum developers need to navigate the unfamiliar territory of the CCSS and to develop a curriculum that helps their students thrive.

"This book should make educators stop and consider exactly what they mean when they discuss curriculum integration." —Julie Prescott, Assessment Coordinator Vallivue High School, Caldwell, ID "The biggest strength of Fogarty′s work is its clear, concise organization centered on the guiding questions of each chapter." —John C. Baker, Eighth-Grade Social Studies Teacher Salem Middle School, Apex, NC Strategies for moving students towards more holistic and authentic types of learning! For both students and teachers, the mission is essential: to connect ideas, discern themes, and thread skills of various content areas into a cohesive whole. Yet, the question remains: "What does integrating the curricula really mean?" The answers are provided in this updated resource that helps teachers create brain-compatible, learner-centered classrooms and better prepare students for lifelong learning. Based on a four-pronged rationale for using an integrated curriculum—including findings from brain-based research, parental concerns, practitioner challenges, and student perspectives—Robin Fogarty offers ten models that allow teams of teachers to work together to group elements from various content areas into a coherent curriculum that effectively meets standards. The discussion of each model includes: A description of the model How the model can be applied in the classroom Benefits and challenges of the model for teaching and learning Guidelines for when and how to implement the model in the classroom A wealth of reproducibles to aid implementation How to Integrate the Curricula offers the support educators need to integrate concepts, skills, and attitudes and immerse students in content through self-selected, personally relevant learning experiences.

This completely revised edition of the classic text presents multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to curriculum integration, covering instructional strategies, assessment tasks, and daily learning activities.