Integrated Curriculum

One of the biggest problems in the American public education system is the lack of a common standard for what students should be learning, and when they should learn it. In other words, the inequality of curriculums across the nation is affecting the preparedness of students when they venture out beyond the public school system, for the worst. The way to fix this problem, according to many teachers, administrators, and politicians, is by implementing a common curriculum across the nation that will ensure that the quality of a student’s education is not determined by where they happen to live.

Being able to develop a culture of collaboration and high student achievement requires rigorous curriculum development at the school and district levels. Curriculum and instruction work together to enhance student learning. Curriculum revolves around what is taught in school and instruction centers around how something is taught. (Sorenson, 2011, p. 32-35) To be more specific instruction can be defined as, “the strategies, techniques, materials, media, and place where the curriculum is implemented in schools.” If instruction, or the how, of a teacher does not match up to the curriculum, or the what, then student achievement will suffer. Vertically and horizontally aligning curriculum with the instruction that is happening within the classroom and school will in the end lead to greater student achievement which will be reflected on student assessments. (Sorenson, 2011, p.

After a few months of searching and deliberating, the sixth grade English Language Arts teachers in the Little Lake City School District (LLCSD), decided to implement the EngageNY curriculum. EngageNY was created in 2011 and is currently maintained by the New York State Education Department after the state adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS). EngageNY encompasses both English language arts and math curriculum for pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. The curriculum design is based on research that addresses the six language arts instructional shifts: Balance Informational/ literary text, build knowledge in the disciplines, staircase of complexity, text-based answers, writing from sources, and academic vocabulary; by aligning content,

Also, throughout curriculum development the goals and aims of the curriculum need to be taken into account. Without specific goals and aims for the curriculum, the curriculum could be unfocused with no purpose identified. Within the social studies curriculum that I analyzed, I noticed societal goals for the curriculum (Posner, 2004). Societal goals are emphasized because the curriculum supports the development of knowledgeable and engaged citizens within our country. By understanding the goal of my curriculum I am better able to understand the purpose of what I am teaching, which in turn helps me to differentiate for my students while still keeping the ultimate goal in mind. I also was able to identify the further learning aims within the curriculum (Posner, 2004). By identifying this aim I was able to see how the curriculum I was teaching tied into the curriculum that the students would experience in subsequent grades. By reflecting on the further learning aims I was able to see how my teaching was a valuable piece of a bigger puzzle

There are many approaches that can be taken in order to develop a school’s curriculum, or the material that the students will learn. If there were no federal regulation of curriculum, then it would not be possible to compare student achievement across districts or even states. The federal program, Common Core State Standards, assists in equaling education across the nation. The Common Core has reinvented the perception of student learning which, in turn, has caused American education to become a corporate institution. As a result, there has been a threat to states’ rights for education as more rigorous content has been implemented into classrooms by the government, which ultimately changes the role of the teacher.

The Leadership Team will then need to meet with all literacy, math, and CTE teachers to develop skills for lesson planning that is aligned to the curriculum. If the curriculum is not aligned the integration will not be successful. Teachers must be willing to collaborate with one another to stay on track with the lesson plans. Curriculum maps serve as an effective tool to ensure teachers are incorporating academic standards in the lesson plans and how often they are used (Grams, Hebert-Giffin, 2011).

Schools must decide how to teach the standardized curriculum. Schools must figure out how to mesh a standardized and non-standardized curriculum. Can students guide their own curriculum and perform well on tests?

West Point Public School, adapted the online alignment tool, Curriculum Mapper to help teachers develop their curriculums. Through the use of the program teachers are able to develop or improve their own or a schoolwide curriculum, instruction, and verities of assessments. With the use of Curriculum Mapper, teachers are able to align state standards and the school improvement goals into the curriculum. This helps teachers and administrators identify holes within the curriculum. As well as, teachers can create reports that help analyze the curriculum that identifies what is working and what is not working within the curriculum that the teachers had created. However, teachers need to first determine what they feel needs to be taught. After the teachers can determine what concepts and lessons needs to be taught to the current students based off the scope and sequence and aligning the information from the state standards and the district chosen textbooks. The teacher will then

The Common Core Standards engage a standards-based education. The standards guide teachers to prepare students for what they are expected to learn to succeed in life. It is essential that teachers understand the expectations and implications of the standards, so teachers can help students achieve educational goals by designing specific educational plans that align with the core standards. Furthermore, tailoring the curriculum will help to build relevant skills students are argued to integrate in college and their future careers.

Wiggins & McTighe (2005) said it best “teachers are designers” and we need the right to craft our curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes (Pg. 13. Ch. 1). We are all teaching different students, in different cities, in different states; all of whom that have individual strengths and weaknesses, come from various homes, a multitude of diversified backgrounds, who speak different languages and all of whom who have experienced their lives in different manners. I have been teaching for well over 11 years, and I have never once modified my teaching to meet the needs of a curriculum, I always have and will continue to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of my students.

Walking into English classrooms throughout the district, students may notice something that wasn’t there before. Six questions on the wall. Six questions that are now implemented throughout the district. Six questions that will align curriculum because, after two years of meeting, the Vertical Alignment Team came to a consensus and introduced Essential Questions throughout the district.

In order to create validity teachers must make sure that we align our curriculum to the standards we teach. So how do we align the curriculum? To start off, alignment means the interrelationship between the standards, assessment, and instruction we teach. To achieve this, we need to follow the goal of alignment. The goal is student understanding. As teachers, we need to make sure we make meaning of life’s big ideas and transfer those big ideas. To accomplish the alignment goal, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe had designed an alignment tool that creates validity in the classroom. The alignment tool is called Understanding by Design (UbD). UbD looks at the teacher’s role as a coach for making meaning of life’s big ideas and transferring them. It

Currently, instructors are pressured by state education department to adjust school curricula to meet the expectations of the standardized test. Educators alter the curriculum to “match the [standardized] test” (“How Standardized”). Therefore, instructors are limited and classroom instruction is focused around test preparation for the annual standardized test. Teachers are forced to abandon their creative lessons and “teach the test,” or concentrating only on the material that will be evaluated (“How Standardized”). This frequently involves taking multiple choice tests that are formatted identically to the standardized test and only memorizing facts, formulas, and items included only on the standardized tests (“How Standardized”). Even though test scores may improve, students are not learning how to think critically and perform better in other subjects that are not on the test (“How Standardized”). Instructional time is limited in the other subject areas such as science, social studies, music, and art. Instructors feel “handicapped” and plead to state officials abandon these standardized tests for the sake of the “quality of the instruction in American schools” (Zimmerman 206). School curricula are being modified only to prepare students for a single test, not for education the students need in the future.

“If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed” – Paulo Freire

According to Blaise and Nuttall (2011), to understand curriculum, we must first understand what is meant by the term curriculum. Within curriculum there are five key concepts, they are the intended curriculum The Intended curriculum is the curriculum that the teachers want the children to experience in order to develop particular knowledge, skills, and attitudes. (Blaise & Nuttall, 2011, p. 82). The enacted curriculum is what teachers want students to experience. important reason why the intended curriculum is enacted differently from teacher to teacher, from classroom to classroom, is that a key part of a teachers work is to interpret the official curriculum, taking into account a wide range of variables that are specific to their classroom and school setting.