An effective teacher not only uses technology and literature in their lessons, but they also integrate other content areas into those lessons. Students need to be able to make those connections that learning is a series of connections; everything is somehow all linked together in some way, shape, or form. There was an article from PBS Teachers that stated the importance of an integrated curriculum. Students are able to learn in a way that is more natural, where they are seeing the connections made from one content area to the next. In my clinical placement my partner and I taught a unit on magnets to kindergartners. While planning for the unit we thought of ways we could integrate other subjects into the science unit. We were able to tie in literacy through the use of a poem and children's books, along with math. It is important for students to be able to make and see those connections in the classroom, so that's where being creative really helps teachers.
If teachers integrate other subject areas into the teaching of science, it allows students to apply the knowledge they are learning to real life scenarios. They are able to see those connections and apply what they have learned outside of the classroom. It just makes the most sense to integrate subjects into a lesson whenever possible. The students benefit from it more and coming from a teacher standpoint you can cover multiple subject standards in one lesson.
The one benefit that stuck out most to me was that through the use of an integrated curriculum, the teacher is able to teach multiple skills and concepts all at once. I found this to be true during the week I taught science. At the center that my partner and I created we realized that we ended up teaching a mini lesson on counting and number recognition as part of our lesson to see how many paperclips different size magnets could pick up. So, next time you are planning a science lesson, think of the different ways you could integrate multiple subjects into that one lesson. It will benefit your students so much more if you can do that!
I like your thoughts and I agree completely! The real world is not just one subject at a time but instead almost everything linked together and there is no reason we should exclusively teach that way. And don't forget, we have quite a few standards to cover over the course of a year of teaching and to be able cover multiple standards from multiple subjects is always a bonus!
ReplyDeleteI agree as well with all of this. By integrating other subjects and content area into science, students can use those connections to help them better understand the science content. Some students may not enjoy science as much as others and being able to connect to them as well through other areas is a good way to keep them engaged. Using literacy is a great way to integrate another subject into science. Students can never have enough literacy and being able to use that with science kills two birds with one stone. Great article!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with this idea. Combining subjects into other lessons has many great benefits. This also really helps with students who have different learning styles. Some students may not not be great auditory leaners but by reading a story they may understand it better. So by tying in reading you are helping reach those learners as well! Great ideas!
ReplyDeleteI think integrating subjects is such a great idea! I believe that when students are able to make connections with the content around them they are more engaged and interested in the lesson. Integrating subjects is not very difficult and I think we all should try to do it more often. As we all know students learn very differently- I think it helps to integrate subjects, so students can form connections.
ReplyDelete