I was discussing interdisciplinary curriculum planning with one of my professors. A couple of things I came away with are: * teachers whose curricula will be "connected" need to be committed, in sync, and in agreement to the different units/ideas in the curricula; * it's better to start with areas which are "naturally" compatible (e.g. social studies/English, math/science, art/music, etc.). This doesn't mean that other disciplines cannot be incorporated when designing the different units, just that they may be incorporated in key parts of the curriculum instead of throughout. I remember an interdisciplinary curriculum map my group designed for one of my classes and in which we had the math teacher doing lessons in geometric designs when the social studies teacher was discussing the Civil War and the use of quilts which were full of geometric designs. * some content areas need to be more stringent in following state guidelines (e.g. social studies) whereas other ones may be more flexible (e.g. English). In this case it may be wiser to plan the English input into the curriculum to match the social studies requirements rather than vice versa. -----------------------------------
I agree with all three of your points. The starting point has to be communication between the subjects that are going to be related. Do you have any ideas about how we might account for IEP students in our planning?
I was under the impression that students with IEP's are required to do the same work as the other students in an intergrated class. Special education classes are a different story... Am I correct?
Linda is right Alex. Students with IEPs in integrated classrooms follow the same curriculum as everyone else. This does not mean that there should be no differentiation in order to better accommodate for their learning styles. Although instructional differentiation is beneficial for all students, those with an IEP, whether in self-contained classes or not, need for us to take a closer look at how they learn best and try to address their learning modalities. We may also differentiate how we assess them. Curriculum-wise though, I believe they should follow the same path as the rest of the class. What do you think Moli?
Linda, Tony, thanks for clarifying. I understand the distinction between differentiation (which should be happening in all classes) and different curricula.
6 comments:
I was discussing interdisciplinary curriculum planning with one of my professors. A couple of things I came away with are:
* teachers whose curricula will be "connected" need to be committed, in sync, and in agreement to the different units/ideas in the curricula;
* it's better to start with areas which are "naturally" compatible (e.g. social studies/English, math/science, art/music, etc.). This doesn't mean that other disciplines cannot be incorporated when designing the different units, just that they may be incorporated in key parts of the curriculum instead of throughout. I remember an interdisciplinary curriculum map my group designed for one of my classes and in which we had the math teacher doing lessons in geometric designs when the social studies teacher was discussing the Civil War and the use of quilts which were full of geometric designs.
* some content areas need to be more stringent in following state guidelines (e.g. social studies) whereas other ones may be more flexible (e.g. English). In this case it may be wiser to plan the English input into the curriculum to match the social studies requirements rather than vice versa.
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Tony,
I agree with all three of your points. The starting point has to be communication between the subjects that are going to be related. Do you have any ideas about how we might account for IEP students in our planning?
I was under the impression that students with IEP's are required to do the same work as the other students in an intergrated class. Special education classes are a different story...
Am I correct?
Linda is right Alex. Students with IEPs in integrated classrooms follow the same curriculum as everyone else. This does not mean that there should be no differentiation in order to better accommodate for their learning styles. Although instructional differentiation is beneficial for all students, those with an IEP, whether in self-contained classes or not, need for us to take a closer look at how they learn best and try to address their learning modalities. We may also differentiate how we assess them. Curriculum-wise though, I believe they should follow the same path as the rest of the class. What do you think Moli?
Linda, Tony, thanks for clarifying. I understand the distinction between differentiation (which should be happening in all classes) and different curricula.
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