Content integration deals with using examples from diverse cultures and groups to illustrate curriculum concepts. Teachers commonly use two approaches: the Contributions Approach, which inserts isolated facts about ethnic groups without changing lesson plans, and the Additive Approach, which adds special units about ethnic groups without changing the curriculum structure. Both approaches are problematic as they reinforce the notion that ethnic minorities are separate from mainstream society rather than integral parts of it.

1. CONTENT
INTEGRATION

2.  State the content integration to students.
 Identify the two approaches.
Intended Learning Outcomes:

3. What is Content Integration?
Content integration deals with the
extent to which teachers use examples
and content from a variety of cultures and
groups to illustrate key concepts,
generalizations, and issues within their
subject areas or disciplines.

4. Examples in the Classroom
A real-life example for content integration
is an inclusion of books based on
nationalities that include specialized dates
and holidays that countries celebration.

5. Teachers use several different
approaches to integrate content about
racial, ethnic, and cultural groups into
the curriculum. One of the most
popular is the Contributions Approach.

6. Contribution Approach
When this approach is used, teachers insert isolated
facts about ethnic and cultural group heroes and
heroines into the curriculum without changing the
structure of their lesson plans and units. Often when
this approach is used, lessons about ethnic
minorities are limited primarily to ethnic holidays and
celebrations, such as Martin Luther King's Birthday
and Cinco de Mayo.

7. Contribution Approach
The major problem with this approach is that it reinforces
the notion, already held by many students, that ethnic
minorities are not integral parts of mainstream U.S.
society and that African American history and Mexican
American history are separate and apart from U.S.
history.

8. Additive Approach
The Additive Approach is also frequently used by teachers
to integrate content about ethnic and cultural groups into the
school curriculum. In this approach, the organization and
structure of the curriculum remains unchanged. Special units
on ethnic and cultural groups are added to the curriculum,
such as units on African Americans in the West, Indian
Removal, and the internment of the Japanese Americans.
While an improvement over the Contributions Approach, the
Additive Approach is problematic because ethnic and cultural
groups remain on the margin of the mainstream curriculum.