Page 281 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 12 What Is the Role of Curricular Integration? 253
become familiar with your state’s content expectations and with the Common Core State Standards to ensure that the integrated curriculum you design is aligned with standards in the relevant subjects. (The Common Core State Standards have been developed for mathematics and English language arts, see www.corestandards.org/.)
Curricular integration at its best provides many benefits to the learners and to the teacher. Articles and in-service speakers extol its potential for enhancing the mean- ingfulness of what is taught, for saving teachers time by reducing the need to make so many preparations, for reducing the need to cover everything, and for making it possible to develop knowledge and skills simultaneously. For social studies and other subjects that suffer reduced time allocations as a result of the back-to-basics move- ment and high-stakes testing, integration is viewed as a way to restore needed content emphasis. In general, integration is seen as a viable response to problems of content balance, as a way to save time, and as a way to make for more natural and holistic learning.
These seemingly compelling arguments have predisposed most educators to view integration in social studies as a desirable curriculum feature. Indeed, the implicit maxim is “the more integration, the better.” A few years ago, we shared this view, and we still find it hard to resist the notion that integration is a good idea—in the abstract. However, we have become more cautious after examining the best-selling elementary social studies series, observing in classrooms, and talking to teachers about their integ- ration practices. We have found some desirable forms of integration, but also many undesirable ones.
Principle 3: Curricular Alignment: All components of the curriculum are aligned to create a cohesive program for accomplishing instructional purposes and goals. When integrating multiple subjects, it is imperative they are aligned. This can be easier said than done, but focusing on the powerful ideas you wish to teach can help. Principle 5: Coherent Content: To facilitate meaningful learning and retention, content is explained clearly and developed with emphasis on its structure and connections. Coherent content refers to content whose knowledge and skills are connected to each other, whereby the sequence of ideas or events makes sense and the relationships are apparent. Like good curricular alignment, coherent content is facilitated through the use of powerful ideas as an organizational tool. Please see Chapter 14 for a more in-depth description of each principle.
Curricular Alignment and Coherent Content
Desirable Integration
The key to successful integration is that it results in enhanced understanding and appre- ciation of subject-matter content and processes in ways that promote progress toward social education goals. Adding content drawn from another subject can enrich the content
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