Constructing Interdisciplinary Secondary Curriculum Dr' Paul Epstein Brookview School

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Constructing Interdisciplinary Secondary
Curriculum Dr. Paul EpsteinBrookview School
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Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Intercession Week Africa
Intercession Week Aztec
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Initial Questions

• What is the curriculum?
• Who decides? Who chooses the curriculum?
• What about local / state / national standards?
• Who are your learners? What are their needs?
• What do the parents expect?
• What is the purpose of the secondary program?

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Getting Started

• Developing interdisciplinary curriculum does not
  mean interrelating all subjects at all times.
• There is personal work.
• Begin with small steps. Consider your resources.
• Be patient!
• If it worked today, it may not work tomorrow.
• If it did not work today, it might work tomorrow.

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Key Factors

• Learners construct thinking and knowledge -
  concepts and skills.
• Learners use background knowledge to understand,
  accept, and/or reject new information.
• Development Is a factor!

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Learners Construct Knowledge
Concepts
Language
Experience
Experience
Concepts
Language
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Background Knowledge
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Background Knowledge
10 X 0 10
Background knowledge enables or disables!
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Development The 3rd Plane
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trust self-expression identity
formation analytical thought commitment
responsibility
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morality wonderment social involvement
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12
independence coordination concentration self-disci
pline
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b
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Developmental Perspective

• How will this study
• Enhance who I am?
• Enhance what I am capable of doing?
• Enable me to make new and interesting
  connections?
• Enable me to meet new people and visit new
  places?
• Empower myself and others?
• Make a difference?

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Thematic Instruction

• Instruction is centered on a large, meaningful
  idea or theme.
• Instruction includes but does not focus on facts.
• Learning activities engage all learners in
  hands-on and minds-on learning.
• There is constant reflection on and sharing about
  the activities and the learning.
• Learners make decisions.
• Kellough, R.D. Kellough, N.G. (1999). Middle
  school teaching. (3rd Ed.). Pg. 215.

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Themes

• The theme is the organizing central idea
  students should think about and assimilate it
  into their way of looking at the world.
• Themes connect disciplines.
• Not all themes are good themes!
• The Middle Ages.
• Themes connect issues, open inquiries and
  investigations.
• Examples
• Wellness, Freedom, Global Citizenship
• A Sustainable Future

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Questions

• Can you incorporate math and science?
• Would students learn the same concepts if they
  were taught separately?
• How will this study contribute to the development
  of the whole person?
• Is there sufficient time for everyone to work
  together?
• Is there time in the daily schedule for
  interdisciplinary work?
• What is the budget and are materials available?

Interdisciplinary Units. Retrieved from
http//www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cnt
areas/math/ma4inter.htm on March 5, 2006.
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Curriculum Planning Map
Define Essential Questions
Write Culminating Performance/Product
Write the Study Guide - The Daily Instructional
Assessment Activities
Assess Background Enabling Knowledge Skills
From, How to develop a standards-based unit of
study. The Kentucky Department of Education. 1998.
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Planning Steps

• Sort the objectives into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
  periods.
• Develop investigation and inquiry activities.
• Include activities for multiple learning
  approaches.
• Provide on-going assessments.
• Determine what students already know and can do.
• Write the study guide.
• Tell students the standards of evaluation.

• Identify the theme.
• Develop interdisciplinary connections
  incorporate standards.
• Respond to developmental needs.
• Include a quotation and definition.
• Write the essential, guiding questions.
• Develop the final assessment activity/activities.
• Define objectives - what students will know and
  do.

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Freedom

• When we allow freedom ring, when we let it
  ring from every village and every hamlet, from
  every state and every city, we will be able to
  speed up that day when all of God's children,
  black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
  Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
  hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
  spiritual Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
  Almighty, we are free at last! - Dr. Martin
  Luther King, 28 August 1963.

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Writing the Study Guide
Theme Title Time Disciplines Quote Definition
Essential Questions
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Study Guide Part One
Theme Freedom Title Freedom Time 3
Weeks Disciplines Drama, Geography, History,
Literature Quote When we allow freedom ring,
when we let it ring from every village and every
hamlet, from every state and every city, we will
be able to speed up that day when all of God's
children, black men and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able
to join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritual Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! - Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., 28 August 1963.
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Study Guide Part Two
Definition Freedom ability to act freely a
state in which somebody is able to act and
live as he or she chooses, without being
subject to any undue restraints or
restrictions live in freedom religious
freedom Essential What is freedom? Questions Ho
w is freedom obtained? Are there threats to our
freedom?
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Study Guide Part Three
Write the Final Assessment Activity First! (1)
Complete the following free writing What is
freedom? What freedoms do you expect to
have? Are you entitled to these freedoms? Are
there threats to your having these
freedoms? What will you do to ensure you have
these freedoms? (2) Write and present to the
school a one-act play on freedom.
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Study Guide 1st Period

• In Class What is freedom? How is freedom
  attained? Are there threats to our freedom? (Due
  Wednesday, January 18)
• Socratic Discussion I have a dream, 28 August
  1963. What, according to Dr. King, is freedom?
  (http//www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadr
  eam.htm)
• (Due Thursday, January 19)
• Complete the following free writing What is
  freedom? What freedoms do you expect to have? Are
  you entitled to these freedoms? (Due Friday,
  January 20th)
• Complete an expository essay on, What are our
  basic rights? Include in your essay the
  following An introduction defining your essay.
  Describe some of the rights promised in our
  Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
  Whos responsible for ensuring these rights
  happen? Is anyone excluded from these rights?
  Why? A conclusion about rights and freedoms.
  (Due Tuesday, January 21)
• In Class What forms of government promote
  freedom? Suppress freedom? Compare and contrast
  two different forms of government. (Due Monday,
  January 20)
• In Class Discussion Read the United Nations
  Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10
  December 1948) http//www.un.org/Overview/rights.h
  tml Write two or three questions for discussion
  in addition to the following Why was this
  declaration adopted and proclaimed? What freedoms
  are defined? How are these freedoms obtained?
  (Due Wednesday, January 22)

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Study Guide 2nd Period

• Choose one of the following projects to work on
  with one or two other students. Your project is
  due Monday, February 6th
• Apartheid, South Africa
• Civil Rights, 1960s America
• Iraq in Transition, 2001-2006
• Tiananmen Square, 1989 China
• Projects should describe the events that took
  place and focus on the three essential questions
  of this study guide. Project presentations are
  multimedia.

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Study Guide 3rd Period

• Complete both of the following projects
• (1) Complete the following free writing
• What is freedom?
• What freedoms do you expect to have?
• Are you entitled to these freedoms?
• Are there threats to your having these freedoms?
• What will you do to ensure you have these
  freedoms?
• (2) Write and present to the school a one-act
  play on freedom.

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Inquiry Involves Students

• Making noise and mess.
• Pursuing interests and curiosities.
• Asking questions and investigating ideas.
• Documenting discoveries.
• Presenting findings in oral and written reports.
• Developing new understandings and pursuits.

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Sources for Learning Activities

• The Internet
• Dimensions of Learning
• Blooms Taxonomy
• Colleagues
• Centers of Teacher Education

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Other Matters
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Blooms Taxonomy (1956)

• Knowledge recall information.
• Comprehension understand information interpret
  facts compare contrast predict consequences.
• Application use information solve problems.
• Analysis see patterns identify components.
• Synthesis use old ideas to create new ones.
• Evaluation assess value of ideas, theories,
  presentations.

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Blooms Taxonomy (1956)

• Knowledge arrange, define, duplicate, label,
  list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate,
  recall, repeat, reproduce state.
• Comprehension classify, describe, discuss,
  explain, express, identify, indicate, locate,
  recognize, report, restate, review, select,
  translate,
• Application apply, choose, demonstrate,
  dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret,
  operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use,
  write.
• Analysis analyze, appraise, calculate,
  categorize, compare, contrast, criticize,
  differentiate, discriminate, distinguish,
  examine, experiment, question, test.
• Synthesis arrange, assemble, collect, compose,
  construct, create, design, develop, formulate,
  manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up,
  write.
• Evaluation appraise, argue, assess, attach,
  choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict,
  rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.