How to Create Curriculum integration Lessons
There is no better way to enhance the curriculum and increase test scores than by using an integrated approach to lesson planning. This type of learning adds depth and provides the opportunity for teachers to bring to the student layers of content that can be used to differentiate the lessons for various levels of learning and provide an avenue for the pupil to apply their own slant to the work. It provides flexibility to the curriculum and gives teachers a chance to work with others outside their area of expertise and build teamwork.
In some ways creating integrated curriculum also includes turning your classroom into what is called a constructivist one. This method differs from the regular classroom in that the teacher acts more as a facilitator than a leader. I use this method as it encourages critical thinking and independence. The students are encouraged to develop skills such as reflective thinking and problem solving abilities while acquiring new knowledge. I call my methods, “I am not a Salt Lick” because it stresses the importance of learning by doing, correcting mistakes without being told, and promotes self-reliance. It also frees up time to work with students who have specific needs.
There are a tremendous number of websites that profess to tell teachers how to integrate curriculum, but the fact is you simply have to do three things to have a stellar lesson. Make sure you understand that good integrated lessons take much more time than the handout or read the chapter or lesson plan in the drum ones you can buy. Once a good integrated lesson is written and fine-tuned it is a showpiece and new wrinkles can be added to expand it to meet weaknesses on standardized tests or for specific student differences.
What is also not touched upon is the need for the teacher to have a vast body of knowledge to draw upon. This could take the form of formal education or life experience. A teacher who grew up on a farm or whose parent was an attorney can bring a variety of important and useful ideas to integrating learning. New teachers can supplement their body of knowledge by using quality websites such as the ones listed below with more specific ones listed in http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/index.html
Before stating decide what resources you have available and whether the lessons should be done by a group or individual. I prefer group work as it brings together different ideas and teaches students the lifelong skills of cooperation and compromise. By warned that the composition of the group must be controlled and assessment of the end product must reflect on more than the product, but also the effort that each individual made. I recommend a time sheet where each person writes each day what he or she did and places it in the group file.
If you are going to integrate art into a history lesson what materials do you have that would enable your lesson to have the needed depth? Secondly, take a look at what you want the student to learn. Too often integrated lessons become ends in themselves and not a means to an end. A good unit should provide access to future studies and relate to the standards. For example, a unit of horses can be used to integrate science, reading, literature, art, history, and music. But how will the student use that information in his or her next learning activity? Finally, the teacher needs to create a grading rubric that accepts a variety of innovative solutions to the problem. A unit of study on weather could be historical, scientific, incorporate technology, or even relate to the local climate. The rubric needs to cover these.
Huge lesson plan site
Here is a unit that uses transportation to integrate the curriculum
Physical Education lessons
Integrated lessons using technology
A great list with an abundance of ideas.
A good place to start with a nice table that shows the good and bad points of several types of lessons.
A basic example for elementary
Examples that stress technology, but offer some great ideas for most subject areas. The one on turning the classroom into an art gallery is splendid.
Several sample lessons. Uneven quality and some dead links, but the titles alone are enough to stimulate ideas for your own plan.
A vast lesson with terrific printable tables including a grading rubric
This site does an excellent job of explaining the Constructivism
With a good table that compares the teacher center classroom to the constructists one.
Basic how to write a lesson plan site
Large collection of lesson plans
Submit your own lesson plan
Lesson plan themes