Skip to main content

Model Wagons and Integrated Curriculum - ST Week 6.2

One of my favorite things about my student teaching internship is the opportunity to see how well the quality integration of social studies and the English Language Arts can work in a single humanities classroom. Growing up in a public school district that taught social studies, ELA, most STEAM subjects, and the social sciences as separate curriculums, I was inexperienced with the implementation of an integrated humanities curriculum from both the student and teacher perspectives. Even more, I was skeptical of how successful a humanities curriculum could be without sacrificing essential social studies or ELA concepts and standards. My time at EMS thus far has proven to me that with purposeful planning, expert content knowledge, generous time management, sincere dedication, and crafty unit activities and assessments, teaching the humanities is entirely possible at the secondary education level. However biased my opinion may be based on my student teaching experience this semester, I have also discovered that as a future educator, I prefer a humanities approach to teaching social studies and ELA. For me, I’d even go as far as saying that combining the humanities subjects into a single humanities course is ideal for schools embracing the middle school philosophy.

Already exposed to the successful curriculum integration within EMS humanities classrooms, I was delighted to learn that this week, Mr. J and I would further integrate our course of study by guiding students through a major Western Expansion project: wagon building. Using one of two sets of life size wagon descriptions, students will be creating miniature wagon replicas that must successfully trek across an obstacle course meant to mimic the real challenges of the Oregon Trail: deep rivers, high mountain ranges, grainy deserts, and rough terrain all around. The project not only requires students to apply their social studies knowledge of the Oregon Trail experience to anticipate possible obstacles for their wagon, but it also demands the accurate practice of math and science concepts for students to reach grading proficiency. Students must draw blueprints that correctly scale down a life size wagon to their desired replica dimensions, and many students have already discovered that they will need to make sure their wagon is either tall enough to stay above water or buoyant enough to float in our mock river. Nova’s eighth graders will not see the obstacle course until our wagon competition day, so any test runs they complete for damage control will be on their own accord. On Friday (weather permitting), Mr. J and I will use fishing rods to reel the wagons across the course at a steady pace, leaving stirring and overall wagon survival up to student design. In cahoots with Mr. J, I am also building a model wagon, and I am very excited to see which student (or teacher!) groups will end up victorious on our own Oregon Trail.


Source: http://www.guillaumeguy.com/images/slide0005_image124_000.jpg


Typically, I struggle with seeing an obvious connection between the STEM subjects and the concepts taught in a humanities classroom, and this is coming from someone who absolutely loves calculus-based physics. However, the model wagon project is an engaging way for Team Nova to integrate all core subjects within our humanities curriculum, and students are capitalizing on their math, science, and social studies skills without passive guesswork as to why each component is relevant to their learning. I look forward to observing students as they work through the challenges of our Oregon Trail wagon project in the coming days, and I intend to pay close attention to how students tackle the multi-subject tasks when I'm noting their learning progress. In the future, I hope to design lessons and projects for my humanities courses that employ the STEAM concepts students have mastered or are presently mastering in their other classes. Clearly, the model wagon project proves that curriculum integration can and should go beyond the humanities/STEM lines, and I am eager to test out my own integrated unit designs that will hopefully endure all of the challenges of a real classroom.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Five Cs of Learning That Inspires

Throughout my undergraduate career, almost all of the courses in my education major started the semester with some type of reflection on philosophies in education. Since my courses on child and adolescent development (running in my second and fourth semesters respectively), I have identified most strongly with John Dewey’s Theory of Progressive Education. Progressivism has therefore been a common theme in my blog posts, and today’s reflection will continue my growth and strengthen the philosophical foundation I have built for myself as a progressivist teacher. Of course, other theories in education are worth consideration: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism all offer insight on how we learn from various perspectives of study. However, I find that progressivism (if adopted fully) takes the best points of these theories and blends them together, creating a student-centered learning environment where student needs and interests are at the forefront of their educationa...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Temporary Take-Over - ST Week 5.2

As this cold Vermont January comes to a close and I’m welcoming February with a prayer for Punxsutawney Phil to grant us an early spring, I am excited to take a few moments to reflect on the past three days of my student teaching experience. From January 29th through January 31st, the Team Nova general and special education teachers attended a conference led by Ross Greene, an American child psychologist and the author of several books about supporting students with specific needs in the classroom. Having read Greene’s book Lost & Found together , Nova’s driving purpose for participating in the conference was the goal to better support the students on our team with EBD. The last few weeks have proven difficult for students coping with EBD at EMS, and the stress felt by all community members as we try to navigate academics and emotional support together is visibly overwhelming for many. While I have not heard much about the conference and Nova’s takeaways yet, I am eager to hear ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Multimedia and Westward Expansion - ST Week 2.3

Happy Thursday! As the first week of my student teaching semester comes to a close, I thought I would take some time to reflect on the introductory lessons to our Westward Expansion unit. Although most of today’s class time was absorbed by Vermont’s STAR reading exam (I will post my thoughts on the STAR as I learn more about it in the coming days), students had an opportunity to continue their westward expansion work during whatever class time remained after they turned in their exams. By tomorrow (Friday, 1/10), students are expected to have completed the work for the three introductory lessons reviewed earlier this week. From my observations, most students appear to be on track for tomorrow’s due date, but only time will tell! For now, I’d like to focus on the multiple forms of media employed in these opening lessons, and I will note some major points of consideration that I am still pondering after four days of learning. The introductory lessons for the Westward Expansion unit a...
Post a Comment
Read more