Originally published as a special issue of the Middle School Journal, this book presents integrative curriculum as a foundational element of the middle school. By addressing the current gap in literature on curriculum integration in the middle grades, this text explores how learning can be organized around authentic concepts or questions which cut across disciplines and speak to young adolescents. Providing a current, nuanced, and comprehensive review of what it means to embrace and implement an interdisciplinary and integrative curriculum, the volume considers how educators can create and deliver a high-quality integrative curriculum which is enjoyable, challenging, and inclusive. Examples of implementation in teacher preparation programs and middle grade classrooms showcase integrative approaches and illustrate how curricula have been key in tackling social inequities, increasing engagement with STEM, and supporting collaboration. This text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics and libraries in the field of Middle School Education, Curriculum Studies, Teacher Education, Theories of Learning, and STEM Education.

An examination of the issues surrounding the concept of change is fundamental to curriculum improvement for elementary and middle schools. New beliefs surround an integrative rather than a separate subject isolation approach to curriculum. This report examines past, current, and future curriculum practice and considerations, focusing on a new vision of the middle level curriculum as an integrated curriculum. Chapters are: (1) "The Process of Curriculum Development"; (2) "A Rationale for Curriculum Integration"; (3) "The Curriculum Continuum: Moving Where You Need To Be"; (4) "Integrated Studies for Multi-Age Classrooms: Solon Elementary School, Maine"; (5) "Hand-Crafting an Integrated Curriculum: Timothy Edwards Middle School: South Windsor, Connecticut"; (6) "One District's Perspective: Staff Development Stimulates Curriculum Integration: Blue Valley, Kansas"; (7) "First Steps toward Curriculum Integration: Using Student Questions: Ashland Middle School, Maine"; (8) "Twenty Years Later: Multidisciplinary to Integrated Units: McKelvie Middle School, Bedford, New Hampshire"; (9) "Interdisciplinary Study in a Technology Education Class: Garland Street Middle School, Bangor, Maine"; (10) "Pushing the Envelope: What Curriculum Integration Can Be: Brown Barge Middle School, Pensacola, Florida"; (11) "The Curriculum Planning Process: More than Interdisciplinary Units"; and (12) "Reflections--What We Have Learned from These Schools." Contains 133 references. (BGC)

Following the pioneering work of James Beane and Heidi Jacobs, there is growing interest in the area of integrative teaching. Contributors to this edited volume include K-12 principals and teachers, as well as university professors recently involved in the implementation of integrative teaching.

The quintessential resource on the important topic of curriculum integration! Going well beyond other books on this subject, James Beane details the history of curriculum integration and analyzes current critiques to provide a complete theory of curriculum integration. He defines curriculum integration as a comprehensive approach rather than simply “rearranging subjects.” Using many classroom examples, he explains the relationship between curriculum integration and the disciplines of knowledge. The approach set forth in this groundbreaking volume translates into a democratic vision of general education that transcends the current standards movement. “Offers clear and understandable examples of what curriculum integration means, how it can work, and how it fits a model of democratic education.” —Choice “In this time of conservative attacks on progressive education, it is crucial that we defend and extend democratic policies and practices. James Beane has been one of the most important figures in articulating democratic possibilities in schools. Curriculum Integration shows why he so deserves our respect. It provides a clear and insightful picture of the arguments and realities of democratic curriculum development and teaching.” —Michael W. Apple, University of Wisconsin–Madison “Jim Beane urges us to completely rethink how we pursue intellectual inquiry, as well as who makes the decisions in the classroom and what our ultimate goals are. Taken seriously, as it ought to be, [his] approach could revolutionize American education.” —Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards and Beyond Discipline “Beane writes directly with a passion that reflects long-in-the-making and deeply rooted convictions about education, youth, and democracy.... This book is a critically important resource . . . and it will remain so for years to come.” —John H. Lounsbury, National Middle School Association

While the concept of integration or an interdisciplinary curriculum has been around for decades, the purposeful practice of integration is a relatively new educational endeavor. Though classroom teachers often say they “integrate,” there generally seems to be a lack of understanding of what this thing called integration is (theory) and what it is supposed to look like in the classroom (practice). Arguably, no other discipline has felt the pressure to integrate more than social studies. Marginalized by federal initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and suffering from a general crisis of credibility, social studies has been pushed further and further to the proverbial back burner of educational importance. Yet regardless of perspective or position, social studies remains ripe for integration. The crux of this book is to provide educators insights and strategies into how to integrate social studies with other discipline areas. Calling upon national experts in their respective fields, each chapter chronicles the broad relationship between individual content areas and social studies. Multiple examples of integrative opportunities are included. At the end of each chapter is a series of grade-specific integrative lesson plans ready for implementation. This book was purposefully designed as a how-to, hands-on, ready-reference guide for educators at all stages and all levels of teaching.

Demystifies curriculum integration describing a variety of curriculum integration options ranging from concurrent teaching of related subjects to fusion of curriculum focus to residential study focusing on daily living, from two-week units to year-long courses.