Integrating the Curriculum

As I work towards creating a grade 11 integrated curriculum, I catch myself asking, why isn't this something that was employed when I was in high school? The more research and planning I undertake towards this project, the more inspired I feel to implement an integrated curriculum in my future classroom.

pebblepad.com.au

When I was in high school, I found myself connecting similar ideas amongst subject areas and creating the same types of projects and evaluative measures across different domaines. What I was learning in Social Studies trickled down into themes that I was learning in History; the presentation that I had to complete in Business was really no different, fundamentally, from the presentation that I had to give in my English course. If all these subjects are interrelated, why wouldn't you integrate them?

theinspiredclassroom.com

In an integrated curriculum, the overlapping objectives from multiple subjects are combined into one large evaluative objective: for a broad example, consider that having students create a time-capsule from the 1950's, in which each artifact must be made by hand, could integrate History (choosing a historically correct artifact), Art (creating the artifacts) and English (providing written rationale for why each artifact was chosen).

An important facet of student engagement and motivation in the classroom is creating a lesson that is both interesting and real-life applicable and I believe that an integrated curriculum facilitates just that. By intertwining subjects into projects and discussions, I believe, that they naturally become more fruitful, creative. And by creating cross-curricular units and projects, each teachable subject, I believe, becomes more relevant and applicable. 

There have also been studies completed that prove the educational merit of an integrated curriculum. A study from Anne Lowe (1998) entitled L'enseignement de la musique et de la langue seconde: pistes d'integration et consequences sur les apprentissages, evidenced that integrating Music and French education bolsters educational achievement. By incorporating French lessons that were facilitated through musical instruction, students were found to have scored higher on French competency tests as well as those in Music. Thus, it seems that an integrated curriculum not only livens, but betters, the classroom. 

peer.tamu.edu

Moreover, in a video by Hess Academy, middle school teacher Caleb Collier discusses how an integrated curriculum also helps students who struggle with individual subjects to excel. A student may have difficulty in one specific area, but by integrating it with a topic that they excel in, or find interest in, the student has greater motivation and inclination to succeed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoSdGzyVlBs

In today's society, we are encouraged to think across boarders. Businesses, for example, must make use of Mathematics to calculate quotas and costs, English to create documents and presentations, Psychology to estimate customer behaviour, French to translate campaigns. So if schools are meant to ready students for society, shouldn't integrated learning and integrated thinking be an active part of the curriculum?

As a prospective French and English teacher, simple ways that I plan to integrate the two topics, is by using French vocabulary to enrich English vocabulary and vice-versa or, talking about how French and English literary movements affect and inform one another. Even using simple segways to incorporate the two subjects, I believe, can enrich the students' understanding and appreciation for each subject respectively.


Hess Academy, 2014. Integrated Curriculum at Hess Academy, retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoSdGzyVlBs. 

Lowe, S., A.  (1998). L'enseignement de la musique et de la langue seconde : pistes d'intégration et conséquences sur les apprentissages. Canadian Modern Language Review, 54(2), 223- 238.