Integrating
Curriculum:
Links and Resources

Shelley Bacon, Presenter
NAD Teachers' Convention
August 6-9, 2006
Nashville, TN

General Integration Links

• Integrative Curriculum in a Standards-based World (http://teachers.net/gazette/OCT00/standards.html): Excellent article with references, practical information, and good quotes, including the following:

  "Almost without exception, students in any type of interdisciplinary or integrative curriculum do as well as, and often better than, students in a conventional departmentalized program. These results hold whether the combined curriculum is taught by one teacher in a self-contained or block-time class or by an interdisciplinary team.”

  “Teachers are ultimately responsible for what is taught, but they should not have to bear the entire standards burden. A much better approach is to invite students to join with them to make sure that mandated competencies are addressed. When students understand the standards that are to be met during any particular year, they can suggest many creative ways to address them within units focused on their personal and social concerns. As long as the number is not excessive, posting the major standards in the classroom is a good reminder for both teachers and students.”

• Toward an Integrated Curriculum (http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/ST2.1/TowardanIntegrated.html): Lists 10 "Views for Integrating Curriculum":
  • Fragmented
  • Connected
  • Nested
  • Sequenced
  • Shared
  • Webbed
  • Threaded
  • Integrated
  • Immersed
  • Networked
• "Ecologizing" Instruction through Integrated Units (http://inkido.indiana.edu/research/onlinemanu/papers/Xmiddleschool.pdf)
  Excellent site with both data and real-world experiences/vignettes of classrooms using integration

General Integration Links for Service-Learning:

• Creating leaders with an integrated service-learning curriculum: Effective Practices Collection (http://nationalserviceresources.org/epicenter/practices/index.php?ep_action=view&ep_id=918): This is probably one of the best sites you can visit for integrating content WITH service learning.
• 101 Ideas for Combining Service and Learning (http://www.fiu.edu/~time4chg/Library/ideas.html)
• Service Learning Washington: K-12 Teachers (http://servicelearning.wsu.edu/ktwelveteachers.html)
• Massachusetts Department of Education Community Lessons (http://www.doe.mass.edu/csl/comlesson.pdf) There are 200+ pages here! Select several pages/sections that apply to the grade level and/or subject(s) that you teach.
• Maryland Student Service Alliance: Model Service-Learning Project (http://www.mssa.sailorsite.net/mp.html)

Convention PowerPoint Presentation