Can making wind and rain machines improve the reading comprehension and writing scores of elementary students on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test?
Do students really learn math by learning to clog dance?
When students spend after-school time participating in a microsociety that reflects the roles of real life, will their test scores in math and reading improve?
Lee's students have shown more than 100 percent gains in comprehension and writing on the FCAT.
Its sad that we even have to ask these questions, what about increased levels of creative thought, or deeper understanding of social interactions etc etc etc
Lee claims that when she teaches science concepts she also teaches students to think and write in the structured, coherent ways required on standardized tests
What exactly is integrated curriculum? In its simplest conception, it is about making connections. What kind of connections? Across disciplines? To real life? Are the connections skill-based or knowledge-based?
we defined three approaches to integration—multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary
Multidisciplinary approaches focus primarily on the disciplines.
When teachers integrate the subdisciplines within a subject area, they are using an intradisciplinary approach
Through this integration, teachers expect students to understand the connections between the different subdisciplines and their relationship to the real world.
In this approach to integration, teachers organize the curriculum around common learnings across disciplines. T
ey chunk together the common learnings embedded in the disciplines to emphasize interdisciplinary skills and concepts.
They are learning the interdisciplinary skill of communication (thinking and writing in a structured and coherent way).
In the transdisciplinary approach to integration, teachers organize curriculum around student questions and concerns (see Figure 1.3). Students develop life skills as they apply interdisciplinary and disciplinary skills in a real-life context. Two routes lead to transdisciplinary integration: project-based learning and negotiating the curriculum
Project-Based Learning. In project-based learning, students tackle a local problem. Some schools call this problem-based learning or place-based learning. According to Chard (1998), planning project-based curriculum involves three steps:
Teachers and students select a topic of study based on student interests, curriculum standards, and local resources.
The teacher finds out what the students already know and helps them generate questions to explore. The teacher also provides resources for students and opportunities to work in the field.
Students share their work with others in a culminating activity. Students display the results of their exploration and review and evaluate the project.
Negotiating the Curriculum. In this version of the transdisciplinary approach, student questions form the basis for curriculum.
Studies of project-based programs show that students go far beyond the minimum effort, make connections among different subject areas to answer open-ended questions, retain what they have learned, apply learning to real-life problems, have fewer discipline problems, and have lower absenteeism
The boundaries of the disciplines seemed to dissolve abruptly.
The essential difference between the three approaches was the perceived degree of separation that existed between subject areas. Given our experiences at the time, both of us believed that the three approaches fit on an evolutionary continuum.
This looks like an amazing site with loads of activities for teachers and students. Amazing when do people find the time to put this together and who is paying for it?
Yep Andrew, total agree! Not quite sure how the stages relate to VELS. But loads of open ended problems and games. Seems to have activities for just about all of the different areas of the Maths cirriculum.
This is a fantastic web 2.0 tool. Upload images and annotate. You can other embed media inside the annotations. Annotations pop up as you click or hover over the objects you add. You can embed the annotated image into webpage or blog. This could be a useful tool for teachers and students. Lots of scope for creativity with layers etc. You can share to a group and set editing permissions for public or restricted people/groups for collaboration purposes.
This is a great wiki in general for maths students and teachers. I particularly like some of the practical application of maths to everyday situations. For students to link real world concepts to abstract concepts is important for students to engage in their learning. It also links creative thinking in maths. Which in my opinion is what maths is all about.
This is a great wiki in general for maths students and teachers. I particularly like some of the practical application of maths to everyday situations. For students to link real world concepts to abstract concepts is important for students to engage in their learning. It also links creative thinking in maths. Which in my opinion is what maths is all about.
Wow some of these dont apply to primary but are still worth a look. Remember that all our students who have activated their email have access to Google docs.
For Grade 2 teachers and Khamal, you might want to add somethings to this. Just email Tom Barret if you want to contribute. He has many of these 'interesting ways' presentations. Great source of classroom ideas