Integrated Curriculum: A Commentary

If you had asked me yesterday whether I thought an inter-disciplinary system was a good idea I would’ve agreed with you, but now I see why it’s such a good idea. The comment “comprehension is comprehension whether it’s in science or literacy” really resonated with me, and made me think back to how I struggled finding meaningful content for my grade 7s when I was teaching language arts during my placement. I had the Nelson Literacy set which is a wonderful resource, but all the articles were examined in isolation. There was no connection between the articles and the student’s own life. I think if I’d approached it through the lens of integrating multiple curriculums it might have been more engaging for students. I also think the idea of having a large project that is worked on in multiple classes is a great idea since here’d be no gaps between stages of learning and students would learn more explicitly how to carry skills across various subject areas. Currently, when students take a ‘complete it and forget it’ approach to school work, they aren’t learning as well how the skills are applicable to other subject areas. This idea is discussed in more detail in the following clip. 

I found the 21CLD article quite enlightening since I didn’t understand the extent of 21st century skills. However, I was hoping there would be more practical insight on how to facilitate that type of learning and collaboration. The students I've worked with were at such wide ranging ability levels and the personalities often clashed, so I don’t know how I would incorporate these types of activities. The whole discussion around good collaboration involves making ‘substantive decisions together’ particularly sounded like a lofty goal. I can’t get students to collaborate on figuring out the capitals of Canadian provinces, let alone deciding the fate of their project.  I think I need more information on how to scaffold students to get them to that place of collaboration because I would love for my students to be able to work together like that, but clearly I’m missing something.