2. Subjects for Integration
English Language Arts II will be integrated with Science and History.
In my district, tenth grade students usually take Chemistry and World History so those will be the
focus of the integration.
3. Target Audience
•Tenth grade ELA II students
•Economically disadvantaged school
•Demographic Make-Up:
African American 30.9%
Hispanic 51.9%
White 7.8%
Native American 0.5%
Asian 6.1%
Pacific Islander 0.2%
Two or more races 2.5%
4. Learning Environment
•Traditional Face – to – Face learning environment
•Schoology is used as the online learning platform
•Online textbook platform is used instead of traditional printed textbooks.
5. Standards Addressed
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) will be the standards that are addressed.
The main focus will be on the ELA II TEKS, but both World History and Chemistry require students to
“analyze,” “identify,” “describe,” and “explain.”
6. Intradisciplinary Integration
- making connections within disciplines
ELA II
World
History
Chemistry
Summary
Skills
Students will write a summary of a short
story read in class.
Students will write a summary of an
important event in world history.
Students will write a summary of an experiment.
7. Multidisciplinary Integration
- designed around a theme
ELA II
World
History
Chemistry
Adversit
y
Identify the adversity Piggy is faced with in Lord
of the Flies and explain how that adversity
changes him as a person.
Identify the adversity the Mayan culture faced
and explain the impacts of that adversity on both
the Mayan culture and future civilizations.
Identify an adversity human civilization has been faced
with and explain how chemistry helped humans
overcome that adversity.
8. Interdisciplinary Integration
- between disciplines, problem based learning
Global Warming
ELA II
Students will research global
warming and write a persuasive
letter to the appropriate
audience encouraging a
solution for global warming.
World History
Students will research the
approaches taken in the
past by different countries
towards global warming.
Chemistry
Students will research the
approaches to global
warming through the lens of
chemistry.
9. Transdisciplinary Integration
- skill sets chosen to address problems
Students identify a
problem to be solved
that relates to their lives
Students decide how to
approach the problem
solution
Students present a
solution to the problem
in a way they have
chosen to be
appropriate
10. Best Practice
Current Best Practice:
A multidisciplinary approach is the current
best practice because teachers have not been
fully trained and not provided with the time
and resources needed to integrate the
curriculum on a deeper level.
Ideal Best Practice:
A transdisciplinary integration is the ideal in
that it allows students to integrate all learning
in order to connect the disciplines for real
world solutions.
Teachers will become facilitators and students
will be self guided.
11. References
Renaud, D. (2015a). Design of integrated curriculum module 3: Choosing the design part 1: An intradisciplinary path
[PDF]. American College of Education.
Renaud, D. (2015a). Design of integrated curriculum module 3: Choosing the design part 2: A multidisciplinary path
[PDF]. American College of Education.
Renaud, D. (2015b). Design of integrated curriculum module 3: Choosing the design part 3: An interdisciplinary path
[PDF]. American College of Education.
Renaud, D. (2015b). Design of integrated curriculum module 3: Choosing the design part 4: A transdisciplinary path
[PDF]. American College of Education.
The Latest TEA News. Welcome to Texas Education Agency | Texas Education Agency.
https://tea.texas.gov/.
Home :: Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. (n.d.). https://www.cfisd.net/en.
Editor's Notes
While Chemistry and World History are the focus, all science and history classes would work well for integration. There may be some overlap of other science and history classes integrated into the ELA curriculum as well.
Our school has a goal of closing the achievement gaps in special populations. The integrated curriculum should provide support for those gaps.
Our school district recently adopted new textbooks, curriculum, and online platforms. The integration of the technology that we now have will also be a focus.
Since ELA II TEKS require students to analyze, identify, describe, and explain many thoughts and ideas through different genres, it will be easy to apply these same skills to other subjects since they all require the same critical thinking skills.
The subjects are kept distinct in Intradisciplinary integration, but the skills learned in ELA can be applied to other subjects.
Using a theme or essential question, multidisciplinary integration keeps the separateness of the disciplines, but helps the students make connections through the themes studied.
Transdisciplinary integration will require training, time, and resources to implement. Our school does not currently provide those resources, so we cannot begin with transdisciplary. Multidisciplinary integration is the simplest and often the easiest to implement. It will be a good first step for integration.