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One purpose for integrating the curriculum is to help students see that knowledge has connections. The author describes a continuum of curriculum models toward this goal, with 10 models ranging from a fragmented curriculum to a fully networked curriculum. She first explores the fragmented, connected, and nested models in which subjects or disciplines are taught separately. The next four models--sequenced, shared, webbed, threaded, and integrated--incorporate several disciplines into the curriculum. The immersed model describes the point when the learner begins to internalize the subject matter and pursue it on his or her own, creating a natural integration. Finally, the pursuit of learning becomes more external and is shared across networks of learners--the networked model.
This article presents a four-phase action plan for creating and successfully implementing multidisciplinary units. The first phase involves teachers taking a close look across the school at what units and subjects are currently being taught and bringing these units into alignment. During this phase, teachers also begin to look at other work outside of the school that may be sources of ideas for integrating the curriculum. In Phase II, teachers develop a proposal for creating a multidisciplinary unit, most often by upgrading an existing unit. Phase III occurs during the second year of the plan. Here, the interdisciplinary unit is piloted, implemented, and monitored. Finally, in Phase IV, the new unit is adopted and becomes a permanent part of the school's curriculum.
With a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) undertook an inquiry into state educational agencies and their role in educating limited English proficient (LEP) children. This report presents their findings and lays out tasks to be accomplished to provide quality education for LEP students. A lot of statistical data is provided. Policies and efforts to meet the needs of LEP students are highlighted, often specified by state. The report concludes that much remains to be done to improve educational services to LEP students, and some recommendations are made in light of these findings.
For those interested in designing a preservice program to enable teachers to be effective with students from different cultures, the description of the Teachers for Alaska (TFA) program in Alaska will be helpful. This approach to multicultural education does more than rely solely on adding one or two courses to the traditional teacher education sequence. Rather, practical experiences are integrated with research and theory. Student teachers learn experientially about students and their families by visiting schools (apart from their practicum), "shadowing" students, engaging in activities that require them to seek assistance from students and the community, and taking roles outside of the classroom. Student teachers also present case studies of their practicum experiences, highlighting the central cultural and contextual issues confronted and lessons learned.
This text describes a staff development project with 30 teachers that included observations of teachers in their classrooms and interviews over a period of 2 years. The schedule of topics and activities for each year is listed and described in detail, as well as teachers' experiences. Those wishing to design a multicultural staff development program or to conduct classroom research on multicultural education will glean understanding of some of the issues and dilemmas teachers and others face in the attempt to equalize both access and outcomes for students who are members of oppressed groups.
This is a good introductory text as well as a resource book for teachers who want to understand the cultures of their students. This text is written for teachers and provides historical information as well as updated research and beliefs about what is appropriate and inappropriate in various cultures. References for further understanding and activities for use in the classroom are also provided.
This is a book for teachers about the writing process and children's development as writers. The author portrays both writing and teaching as "craft processes" that are intertwined in the classroom. Based on research conducted on the composing processes of public school children ages 6 through 10, the book consists of many classroom anecdotes and conversations with teachers and children as they engaged in learning to write and learning to teach writing.
Billed as a "conceptual starter kit," this book presents a curricular framework for classroom reading and writing experiences and how they relate to reasoning and learning. The book opens with a theoretical framework, followed by guidelines on how to start an authoring circle and strategy lessons with full lesson plans. Teachers have written a series of feature articles presenting their insights and experiences in how to develop classroom activities and how to use "kidwatching" guides to assess students. The book is linked to a videotape series with viewing guides based on three Indiana classrooms.
This book describes methods for creating classroom environments and developing activities. Chapters present techniques for student journals, poetry, writing about literature, and expository writing. Also included are chapters on students' tuning their voices and sense of audience, students as editors, publishing, and evaluation and grading.
This book contains chapters on oral language development, family storybook reading, literature for young children, emergent writing, and the assessment of emergent literacy for seven aspects of literacy development. A core experience curriculum is proposed, including inquiry, reading aloud and responding to literature, shared reading and writing, and independent reading and writing.
The document criticizes current courses where there is insufficient time for the introduction of concepts, moving from an experiential base and leading to abstraction and formalization. The project recommends that biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science be taught each year from grades 6 to 12.
This report includes chapters on the nature of science, mathematics, and technology, basic knowledge in six content areas, common themes, habits of mind, and recommendations for effective learning and teaching. The six content areas are: the physical setting, the living environment, human organisms, human society, the designed world, and the mathematical world.
This Philosophy and Framework focuses on important issues that must be clarified wherever curriculum reform is to take place and is intended as a complement to Everybody Counts and the NCTM Standards. Several changes currently push the reshaping or reconceptualization of mathematics. These changes include a greater need for mathematics in an information-age world, changes in how mathematics is used, changes in the role of technology, demographic shifts in the U.S., new understandings from cognitive science about how students learn, and international competitiveness. The document itself lists several principles that should guide the reshaping of mathematics. Examples of such principles include: (1) Mathematics education must focus on the development of mathematical power. (2) Calculators and computers should be used throughout the mathematics curriculum. (3) Mathematics instruction at all levels should foster active student involvement. (4) Curricular choices should be consistent with contemporary standards for school mathematics. Finally, the Philosophy and Framework sets forth goals that are consistent with constructivist, active learning in mathematics.
This text compares the mathematical achievement of students in the U.S. with that of students in about 20 other countries. On the basis of the data, the authors believe that now is the time to renew school mathematics in the U.S. A chief finding is that while teachers in the U.S. take the same number of courses in mathematics content and pedagogy, their attitudes about teaching and the status accorded to teachers are below those of teachers in other countries. Three areas are identified as targets for reform: the mathematics curriculum, the preparation of teachers, and the status and working conditions of U.S. teachers.
This document presents consensus standards for high-quality mathematics education for K-12 students. The document urges the development of mathematical power for all students, including the ability to explore, conjecture, and reason logically; to solve nonroutine problems; to communicate about and through mathematics; and to connect ideas within mathematics and between mathematics and other intellectual activity. Mathematical power is also defined by students' self-confidence and dispositions to seek, evaluate, and use mathematics.
This document spells out what teachers need to know to teach toward new goals for mathematics and how teaching should be evaluated for the purpose of improvement. The image of mathematics teaching requires curriculum and a learning environment very different from much of current practice. Teaching proficiencies include: selecting mathematical tasks to engage students; providing opportunities to deepen understanding; orchestrating classroom discourse to promote investigation; using, and helping students use, technology and other tools; seeking, and helping students seek, connections to previous and developing knowledge; and guiding individual, small-group, and whole class work.
This document charts a course for the future of mathematics education. Mathematics is described as a process of searching for patterns. Chapters contrast myths with reality to underscore how the mathematics curriculum must change to develop mathematical power, how the teaching of mathematics must change, and how the field must mobilize for curriculum reform.
This book begins with the rationale for changing mathematics and reasons why "new math" did not work. Four steps are recommended for improving mathematics education: (1) derive mathematics from the learner's reality; (2) use the power of abstract thought; (3) practice; and (4) apply mathematics to interesting material. Chapters provide advice on implementing recommendations, problem solving, technological development, making connections, and fostering change.
In this report, the Commission's Curriculum Task Force presents goals for social studies education for the early primary grades (K-3), the later elementary grades (4-6), and junior high (7-8) and high school (9-12). Part II of this report focuses on findings from developmental and cognitive research that have application for the teaching of social studies. For example, the notion that students cannot deal with social studies abstractions until grade four is discredited. Social studies teachers must understand and deal with students' faulty and private misconceptions about social phenomena. They also must understand that cooperative learning is an essential medium of study and learning in the social studies classroom. In the final section of this report, social science associations representing various disciplines--anthropology, economics, geography, politics, psychology, and sociology--present the key concepts, skills, and basic themes that any social studies curriculum should contain.
Children do not know social studies--history, geography, civics--for the simple reason that these subjects are not taught. The author presents five essential learnings in social studies: the democratic ideal, cultural diversity, economic development, global perspective, and participatory citizenship. Three commitments pervade this text: (1) Social studies should be genuinely thought-provoking for all students. (2) Social studies should concentrate on the essential learnings treated in depth. (3) Democratic education requires students to learn how to deliberate, to carefully consider issues in order to make informed decisions. The author also seeks to renew the curriculum through local or "home-grown" curriculum planning among those who actually must implement social studies in the classroom. Finally, there is a discussion of authentic assessment in social studies where tests require students to think and to demonstrate that they are capable of sound analysis and judgment.
This book presents goals and characteristics of a social studies curriculum. Sections describe curricula for grades K-3, 4-6, 7-8, and 9-12. The author presents the research base for curriculum choice and separate chapters for the perspectives of the social science associations: anthropology, economics, geography, American and world history, political science, psychology, and sociology.
[Assessment Reform]