1. Integrating Content for More Authentic Student Learning Suzy Myers Language Arts and Literacy Consultant Kansas State Department of Education soertel@ksde.org 785-296-5060 Kris Shaw Language Arts and Literacy Consultant Kansas State Department of Education kshaw@ksde.org 785-296-4926 KSDE Summer Academies 2014 Career, Standards, and Assessment Services Team

2. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Goal for This Session 1)To help school and district leaders better understand approaches to content integration based on research and practice. 2)To help school and district leaders understand how to better facilitate collaboration and integration within and between content areas. 3)To give school and district leaders a sense of the goals for Day 3 of this academy and the role(s) they may take in order to make the most of that day for themselves and their staff.

3. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Content Integration: Why This? Why Now? Students

4. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Why This? Why Now? Standards The Kansas College and Career Ready Standards (KCCRS) are based, in part, on the concept of curricular integration. (ELP standards, HGSS standards, Math practices, literacy standards for content area instruction, Science practices) KSBOE The Kansas State Board of Education promotes “comprehensive redesign” and an integration of career/ technical and academic standards. This integration is also part of the accreditation rubrics created for the 5 R’s – relationships, relevance, responsive culture, rigor, and results.

5. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org

6. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Explore Content Review or Read: “Ten Ways to Integrate Curriculum”

7. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org ONE tool for helping your staff think toward integrating instruction

8. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Experts support content integration  Schmoker, 2011 – Focus  “[…]three elements that we should approach with ‘simplicity and diligence” until they are understood and implemented in every subject area”: What we teach (coherent curriculum) How we teach (sound lessons) Authentic literacy (Reading, writing and thinking are “key to learning both content and thinking skills”.)

9. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Experts support content integration  Danielson, 2007 – Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching  Effective teachers demonstrate knowledge of resources: “[…] as teachers gain skill and experience, they realize that they can enrich their students’ experience by locating supplemental materials that can help them achieve their instructional purposes better than if they restricted themselves to only the materials provided.”

10. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Experts support content integration  Reeves, 2004 – Accountability for Learning: How Teachers and School Leaders Can Take Charge  “After elementary educators reported that significant improvements in comprehension with the implementation of word walls, the secondary science and social studies teachers decided to adopt the idea.”  “In other examples of effective action research, teachers replicated one another’s writing rubrics, interdisciplinary assessments, and student motivation practices.”

11. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Experts support content integration  Vermont Writing Collaborative, 2008 – Writing for Understanding  “Writing is taught in the context of reading and discussing complex text; literacy instruction overall is shared by everyone within the school. With the depth of the Common Core State Standards, and the emphasis on authentically complex text of all types, this integration cannot be lip service. It must be actual, it must be significant, and it must be sustained.”

12. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Experts support content integration  Schmoker, 2006 – Results Now  “The lifelong consequences of good – or poor – literacy skills are monumental. Whether we acquire them in science, social studies, or English, they affect not only school success, but intelligence itself – our ability to think. […]These intellectual abilities pervade every subject area. For these reasons, we need to have the deepest and most complete understanding of what literacy is and how students can best acquire it.”

13. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org Explore Content  Review/Read: “Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem-centring” (pp. 251-253 and 266-269)

14. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org “Critical Attributes” of Effective Content Integration Critical Attributes: the characteristics, elements or qualities of a thing Based on your past experience, and your reading & discussion today, develop a list of 4-5 critical attributes of content integration and write them on big chart paper with 1 or 2 elbow partners.

15. Kansas State Department of Education www.ksde.org “Critical Attributes” Discussion “Aha” moments? Thoughts on how our practice could or should change? What can you do NOW? (Now, this month, this next school year, etc.)

16. Thank you. Suzy Myers Language Arts and Literacy Consultant Kansas State Department of Education soertel@ksde.org 785-296-5060 Kris Shaw Language Arts and Literacy Consultant Kansas State Department of Education kshaw@ksde.org 785-296-4926