Showing posts with label integrated curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label integrated curriculum. Show all posts

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Understanding How Making Connections Is A Key Concept In Education...and Life.

Making connections.  As I enter the final school week of my 25th year in education, I am realizing how essential the ability to make connections is to not only the learning process but to a person's ability to be successful and flexible in the world beyond k-12 education.



Connecting Knowledge: 
The old joke is that teachers have eyes in the back of their heads.    One of the members of my Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter, @JeffCharbonneau , shared out that he has "teacher eyes" that allow him to see learning opportunities in everything he sees.  I love that image, because it really expresses how as a teacher, I have always seen the world around me.  Here is an example of how I use my teacher eyes.  A few weeks ago, I had a chance to work with one of our Kindergarten teachers on brainstorming for a week long science based unit I wanted co-teach with her.  I started by asking her what topics she will be working on in her class during that time- Insects, spring and weather. My teacher eyes see a number of possible connections here. Insect folklore related to weather, using insects as a predictor of spring, looking at how insects spend the winter, reading and writing a poem about insects and spring, doing insect math.... I think you get the idea.  Our students live in a world that is connected - not divided into math time, science time, English time.  We have to make sure that they learn in a connected classroom too.

My colleague Lauren-Monwar Jones and I spent time talking through how we see connections across content areas and developed some tools that we hope will be helpful to other teachers as they look at the world through their "teachers eyes".  Our "Seeing Connections" Resource Page
  • Apples To Apples Model: In the children's game Apple to Apples, a topic card is placed in the middle of the table and all game players must choose an object card in their hand and come up with an explanation for how it is like the topic.   In Apple To Apples Unit planning, start with a learning standard or skill and then use your teacher eyes to see different content areas might connect to it.
  • Finding Common Theme Model : The real world context for English and math skill application can often be found in science and social studies.
  • Planning around literature or info text: A piece of literature or informational text can be the starting point for seeing connections to other content areas.
  • Building Collaborative Connections: What is it that you or your students are passionate about? How can you help to make connections between that area of interest and what the focus of your unit might be?
  • ODE Eye of Integration: When using our teacher eyes, we need to see connections not only to our content, but to the "metacurriculum" - those skills that go across content like writing with evidence, the ability to compare and contrast, using technology to collaborate on ideas.
  • Blank Connections Placemat: This is a tool to help you organize your brainstorming as a team.

Connecting Professional Expertise:
One of the great things that has come from sharing common standards and building common assessments is the ability to share ideas across classrooms, buildings, districts and states. Building a Professional Learning Network by connecting to other educators has allowed me to build knowledge of best practices, share out ideas for feedback, and have discussions that have helped me to reflect on my own thinking.  Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) magnify the power of an individual educator by 5, 10 or 100 fold.  I have learned that the old model of "go into your classroom, shut the door and teach" can no longer be supported in our 21st century world.   Our creativity builds when we can share ideas with each other. The way we think about instructional supports for students changes as we share data on what works and what may need to be changed.  I am constantly reflecting on my own beliefs by holding up new ideas or points of view to my own and making changes that will help me to be a more effective leader and educator.  Here are some resources to help you become a more connected educator.  Although these are technology resources, it isn't really about using technology to become connected. Technology is just a tool to help make these connections. Start with making connections across the hallway, across grade levels and across buildings in your district.

Making Connections To The Larger Community:
One way to build a stronger learning environment for teachers and students is to make connections with community partners, not just as field trip destinations or sources of speakers for career day, but partners in real world learning.  I am most excited about partnerships I have worked to strengthen between Bay Schools and the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, and Tri - C Community College. Here are some guiding questions to get you started:

  •  Who in your community may be a source of real world data for students to work with in science, math or social studies? 
  • Informational text is an important part of supporting literacy across content areas. What community partners might be willing to serve as an "off site" location for reading opportunities - focusing on local history, science, the arts?
  •  How about real world writing and research tasks? How might your students be able to contribute to the work of your community partner by doing research, or helping to identify possible solutions to a real world problem? 
  •  Is it possible to begin to build a network of connections across your region?
 Places to look for community partners include:

I know that I am a better educator because of the connections I helped to build this year.  I am looking forward to having some time this summer to look at how to continue to build connections across content areas, connections to my peers, and strengthen the connections with my community partners.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Common Core Ingredients

My daughter and I like to watch Chopped every Sunday on the Food Channel.  Each week, chefs are given a basket of "mystery ingredients".  They have a short time to turn these ingredients into something that not only tastes good, but looks good too.   The real challenge, figuring out ways to combine ingredients that may not traditionally go together in a dish.   Often, the chefs are faced with ingredients they have never worked with before.   If there were an Education Channel, I think I would host Core each week.  On Core, teachers would be given a set of standards from each of the 4 core content areas and would have 50 minutes to put together a lesson that not only taught the standards, but kept the students engaged too.  The challenge, figuring out how to relate the standards to each other, to the real world experience of the students and make the whole lesson approachable to a wide range of student learning styles and abilities.   There is no Education Channel, but as Ohio moves toward implementing the Common Core and Model Curriculum for the 4 core content areas, teachers will need to look at new ways of integrating the core standards to create lessons that teach to a greater rigor or depth and allow students to make connections to real world problems.

No matter what grade or content you teach, when faced with new content standards, you can build engaging, integrated lessons if you follow some basic unit "recipe" rules.

Char's Integrated Lesson Recipe
To build a successful integrated unit or lesson using the new Common Core Standards and the Ohio Model Curriculum, think outside the boundaries of a single content area to find the "common denominator" for the unit or lesson - what real world context could each of the content standards you are working with fit into?

Ingredients

  • Reading Activity - often times, the reading activity can be the "base" for the lesson - it might be an article, a novel, a picture book, a primary source document, or data base materials. This is a good place to differentiate - picking reading that is approachable by the range of students in your classroom.  Usually the social studies standard or the science standard can be used as the "frame" for the integrated lesson. Don't forget to include opportunities for CLOSE READING.
  • Math Activity - math is the international language for a reason - math can be taught within the context of almost any real world scenario. Once you have identified the science or social studies standards you will include in the lesson or the reading materials you will use - write the math lesson components within that "framework" 
  • Writing Activity - remember, writing can be about solving a math problem, it can be a journal entry, it can be research, it can be an argument or persuasive piece, it can be more creative. This can be a final assessment or it can be more formative instruction.
  • Collaborative Activity - students work together to create a product - this can be the "real world' piece where they create a product as part of a service learning activity, it might be a presentation, a model, a video or poster project - something that requires them to APPLY the skills/knowledge learned in the lessons. This is a good place to put the Performance Task in a larger unit or in a single lesson, this is a good reinforcing activity.
  • Inquiry Activity - Inquiry can be included by encouraging students to ask questions and pose possible answers, letting students try out possible solutions, giving students data or information to analyze or giving students opportunities to decide how where to go next with their learning.
  • Connection Activity - doing mind mapping, using living word walls, think pair shares, entrance and exit cards, cartoons, journaling - any activity that helps students connect the new knowledge they have been building to their existing knowledge base. This is a good beginning activity in a set of lessons but it can also take place as the lessons progress to help students stay focused on their own learning. This is also a good place to do specific instruction on vocabulary students need to access the unit or lesson materials.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Monday, March 19, 2012

Fiction vs Non-Fiction How Do You Find A Balance In Your Classroom?

Once upon a time, there was a teacher who had a magic clock.  Everyday, she would carefully take the polished brass clock down from the classroom wall and whisper the secret words (they are secret...so no, I am not telling them to you)  Gently, she would hang the clock back on the wall before her students arrived for the day.  This clock adjusted time during the school day...giving her exactly the right amount of time she needed to complete all of her activities, and still send the students home promptly at the end of the day.   Don't we all wish that we had a magic clock?  But, we don't, so the struggle begins to figure out how to include time in our teaching day for extended reading of fiction and non-fiction content materials while still meeting all the other content standards we are responsible for.

Here is my secret for "time stretching".
First, begin to plan your units on a web rather than a linear unit plan.  Put your main theme in the middle. Around it add specific content area standards you will address in the unit. From there, look at ways to integrate rich reading experiences. This may include finding a fiction book that has a theme, setting, plot line or character that connects to your content standards.  Then, look beyond your textbooks for content based textual reading for your students.  Sources include websites, e-zines, traditional magazines, and Infohio Gale Data bases.   Use a combination of reading strategies to expose students to the broadest range of materials.  I used jigsaw reading, providing a selection of 4-5 articles on a similar topic.  Students worked out of a "home group" with each student choosing a different article.  They then grouped with students who had read the same article to talk about key points and discuss questions or ideas they had while reading. They get back together with their" home group" to each share again.  This encourages Close Reading.  What other reading strategies can you think of to use with your class?  You can even extend the web planning idea to include related standards for other content areas.  I worked with the English teacher on my team to plan an integrated science unit on genetics around the novel Ghost Boy by Ian Lawrence.  The lead character has Albanism. The supporting characters, members of a circus freak show, exhibit a variety of other genetic disorders. The novel was a good starting point for lessons on genetic mutation. In addition, we looked at biodiversity and ethics.  The ELA teacher focused on the strong character development, identifying plot conflict and descriptive language.  The unit also included a research project that covered standards for ELA and science. Students were given credit in both of our classes.

Here is a sample of a unit web using a 4th grade Social Studies Topic - Heritage.  The book and article resources surround the colored standards.


Resources:
Article Resources
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Monday, December 19, 2011

How To Be An Education Innovator - Education Outside of the Box

Stan Heffner, Superintendent of Schools for the State of Ohio, is challenging districts to think outside the box and begin to change the way education looks in Ohio's schools. (article link)   Educators like to talk about change, but the focus usually is on how students, budget, parents or curriculum needs to change in order for learning to change.  Teachers who are innovators in their classrooms move past the limitations they face and look for ways to use their resources in new ways. Over the next few weeks I will focus on strategies innovators are using to change the way education looks moving into 2012.

Part 1 Using Time Resources In A New Way
Traditional schools have standard class periods or segments of the day devoted to one specific content area.  Students in traditional classrooms spend class time focusing on learning new information, then go home to practice or apply the new information. 


Flipping the classroom - In this innovative approach to class, the teacher uses video and audio technology to record the "lecture" component of the lesson.  This is posted on a class or school website.  Students watch the video at home.  Actual classroom time is then spent on applying the lesson material to real world problems, guided practice, collaborative group work and formative assessment to measure student mastery.
Article Links



Integrated Instructional Units - This approach has been around for a long time, but still has a lot of potential for innovation.  The classroom teacher uses a content web to map connections between science, math, social studies, language arts and fine arts standards.  From this content map, the teacher than develops a teaching unit that helps students see connections across contents and to real world applications.  This kind of unit planning allows teachers to focus key standards without having to "short change" a content area. This type of unit planning also works well with Performance Assessments and Service Learning.
Article Links



Flexible Scheduling - Teams of teachers are given a block of time to divide up as they feel is necessary to accomplish the learning targets established by the team.  This means that one day, more time might be allotted for a science lab to be completed, with less time for other content areas, the next day more time might be spent on a social studies presentation etc.  A related concept is Block Scheduling, where students can complete the curriculum for a year long course in a semester, allowing them to take a wider variety of courses each year. The blocked class is usually 80-90 minutes long. Teaching in the block allows teachers to spend some time on direct instruction, time on guided practice or cooperative learning and time on individual learning and enrichment or support.
Article Links



Virtual Classroom - this concept can take many formats, from using web based collaborative tools like Google Docs that allow students and teachers to work together outside of the boundaries of the standard school day, to a true web-based classroom.  By offering students opportunities to participate in an online course, schools can go outside of the 7:30-3:00 school day and meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. Florida is now requiring that students participate in an online course as a way to prepare them for the types of learning they will be doing as college students or professionals.  Students and teachers participating in an online course may meet at a regular time during the day for live chat, but then also have the flexibility to post comments and assignment responses during a defined time window.  Districts can use tools like Moodle to help teachers create an online course component in their traditional classes.  Some districts are working in partnership with their teachers and outside agencies to develop hybrid courses where students spend some time in an actual classroom and some time in the virtual classroom.
Article Resources





Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Sunday, October 16, 2011

How Does Math Help Us To Understand the World Around Us?

It is a rainy Sunday in the fall and football is on two televisions and a radio in my house.  Football is a game of probabilities, averages and percentages.  Just spend a few minutes listening to the announcers talking about quarterback ratings, first down successes, field goal distances and the wisdom of kicking to Devin Hester who holds an NFL record for punt returns and you will hear all kinds of statistics.  I spent time this past week at the OCTM State Math Conference.  I learned that my brain can only view 5, maybe six objects in a group and know how many are present without actually counting them or breaking them into smaller groups.  I tried that out while watching the football game and it is true!  I could not just know how many men were on the field, there were more than 6 and I had to count them.  Brain researchers have studied how our brains learn math and this research has been used to help write the new Common Core Math Standards.

Students learn math best when they can make a connection to the world around them.  As teachers, we need to find new ways to help students experience mathematics.  Our focus has been that we are all teachers of reading and writing - but what if we also were all teachers of math?  Social Studies lessons can include population statistics, financial literacy, using maps to teach scale, calculating area, interpreting graphs  and reading about mathematical ideas within the context of history.  There are many children's books that focus on math concepts. English classes focusing on writing supporting details can include lessons in how to write a specific proof, lessons on how to find key details in a word problem, and how patterns can become poetry. Persuasive writing can include the use of averages, percentages and other statistics to help prove a point.  Science and math are traditionally paired. Lessons designed to  help students to  really understand how to measure distances in space, how to analyze real data they collect as a group, how to find math in the natural world and how to use math to make decisions on energy usage are all ways to help make meaningful connections to mathematics.  Music and Art are the creative extension of math.  Pitch, note length, rhythms, angles, color value, perspective all are dependent on mathematical concepts.  Our society has encouraged the idea that it is ok to not be good in math.  We have allowed students to opt out of more challenging math simply because we as adults may not have felt we were good at math.  My challenge to you this week is to see how you can incorporate mathematical ideas appropriate for your grade level into your other lessons.  Can you find real world examples...better yet, can your students think of real world examples of math around them?

Resources

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)