INTEGRATING CURRICULUM Editors: Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago, Mlinois, USA Bonita Robinson Chicago Public Schools, Illinois, USA Mary Schneider Oak Park Elementary Schools, Illinois, USA Integration of curriculum or interaction of people? “Howdy. Weleome to RT's new better, or on the similarities of reading immediate release from lonetiness— Integrating Curticulum’ column and writing. A column like this would you felt when you recognized a famil- to have you here Since this is your fist normally be chock-a-block full of sug- iar return address in the daily mail Visit (of many, we hope), we wanted 10 gestions about how to teach vocabu- after you left home in Mexico (or Stow you sround a bit and et you lok Jary from the science book or how stu- Alabama or Detroit)....Remember cover te place, Could we get you some ents can use writing to learn to do when Miss Gleason, the fifth-grade thing to drink? Cup o'coffee, maybe? Fae earn sae plesseatin'ths ig math story problems. Good things. As teacher at your school, read The Parente don't go far enough. The inegration fourth-grade teacher, who gave ito at beginning might strike you as ‘And you got it next, but Ms. Johnson a bit quaint, or off track, or (let's face are tion- bought her own copy so she could talk it) even downigh dnb, But it s'. ships embed whhin hem seth. about it with everyone else inthe realy, Besides being a friendly way to fed by common skills, teacher's lounge without waitin.. get started, we wanted to illustrate rateges If you doubt. Remember a a child, tying o write & some of our beliefs about reading and for a ‘read- letter to your grandma (in cursive, no writing and curiculum integration and ing, think back. Jess) beeause you'd seen your mother that introduction helps us to do so. For" Think back to your teacher, Mr. do so. Despite the fact that you were the next 2 years we'll be editing this Heimbuch, reading Toby Tyler tothe only 3 and didn't know how to read or column, and we thought it would be a class on suffocatingly hot spring ater-write...Remember writing an angry {good idea to let you see where we plan noons. The room quiet and sill except letter to your school principal about to go with it, We'll write some of for his refreshing voice and the ocea- the new lunchroom supervision policy, these ourselves, and we'll invite others sional tuning ofa page. (The stell of and then revising it—or not sending to contribute their thoughts too. But wooden desktops and pencil shavings it—because you thought it might be whoever does the writing, all entries in still faintly lingers.)....Remember misinterpreted....Remember the this space will contribute to some reading Charlote's Web to your litle “voice” of your favorite author. general themes that we want to daughter, snuggled close, all brown Well, you get the point. Thinking emphasize. eyes and flannel night dress. about literacy separately from social "Traditionally, treatments of the inte- Especially the last chapter, when she connections is sort of like thinking gration of curriculum have focused on broke dovn in tears because it was so about roses separately from the flow- ‘Ways to help children read their social real, and how you held her reassuring ers. You can doit but the essence and Studies, math, and science textbooks ly....Remember the joy—and the beauty are lost somewhere in the 158 The Reading Teacher Vol. 47, No.2 October 1993 tment Aneto 344561 500551254.20transaction. Reading and writing are fundamentally social activities. We use them to communicate and to get close to each other, to maintain rela- tionships, to emulate others, and so on, Of course, you might be thinking, “That's true of reading and writing generally, but I'm really interested in content area reading. None of your ‘examples is from math, social studies, sciences, or the arts.” That's a fair response, but maybe we should think about content texts less narrowly. Science reading is not just about applying general study skills to sci- ence texts. Instead, it should be about communicating like scientists and understanding how they use reading and writing to think, work, and inter- act. Scientists have particular goals that they strive for and ways of work- ing towards those goals. Reading and writing make up a big part of doing science, and we believe that literacy teaching should help kids to under- stand that. If you read or write science thoughtfully, you can start to get a pic ture of how scientists think and com- municate. The same can be said about history, math, or any other subject matter. When you understand what the authors are trying to do with a text, reading comprehension gets easier and more powerful. Recently, one of us cotaught a sev~ enth-/eighth-grade history unit about the Vietnam War. The classes were using a popular world history book (a seven-pound wonder: one part history, fone part textbook, one part doorstop), ‘The classroom teachers recognized that most students could read this weighty tome, but that they seemed to have trouble remembering anything from it—and that they didn’t enjoy it. (It's bo-0-o-o-ring.”) Teaching dete- riorated to being little more than a retelling of key points from the book. How to change this? We decided to ‘make history reading more social ‘The teachers scrounged around and found as many different history texts as they could. Some were leftovers from the previous series being used. Others were samples from programs considered during the adoption process. Still others were found in the teachers’ own collections or in local libraries. Enough books were assem- bled so that groups of students could work with four or five different histo- Ty texts. Quite a collection. Students were placed in groups of six or seven. Each group received a pile of history books. along with 2 sin- ale list of questions about the war They were asked to agree upon answers fo each question and to record these on the sheet. How they used the books and worked together was up to them. There was nothing particularly notable about the questions. All of them asked about simple factual infor- mation. We didn’t even try to pose high level questions at this point. One ‘question, for example, queried, “What year did the Vietnam War begin?” The Students figured the assignment 0 be a cinch. Most groups distributed the var- ious books among their members and began searching all at the same time forthe same information This is where the real fun began! Students stated to find the informa- tion. “I've got it, the war started in 1964." Team leaders would dutifully begin to print this response on the answer sheet, Just then, someone else ‘would chime in, “No, that's not right. My book says 1954.” The students ‘would start to show their finds to each other, when another would pipe up, “You're both wrong. This one says that it really got started in 1945." And still another: “Gee, this stupid book doesn't even tell when it started. Why not?” How (o resolve the disagreements? Groups tried different strategies. One child, after much fruitless debate in his group, said, “Tl solve it. look it up in the World Book.” Or others ques- tioned the teachers about it: “You're old enough to know the right answer. ‘You were there at the time.” Some groups just got frustrated: “How are ‘we supposed to know when it stated if the books don’t even know? What ddoes it matter anyway?” This cooperative activity was obvi- ‘ously social in that it involved groups of children working together, some- times harmoniously, sometimes not. ‘They certainly were discussing history among themselves and with their teachers in meaningful ways—becom- ing a discourse community. They were talking about textual information, and so on, But more important, they were starting to understand the intellectual and social dimensions of what history is. In her insightful book Literacy as Involvement: The Acts of Writers, Readers, and Texts, Deborah Brandt (1990) writes, “Seeing texts more fully in relationship to the processes that produce them allows for a more socially sensitive interpretation of their basic features” (p. 9). These stu- dents were starting to confront the Processes that produce history books. ‘They were awakening to the realiza- tion that fallible human beings wrote these texts and that this act of writing involved choices. The student who indicated that it didn’t matter when the ‘war started was partially right. But he ‘was partially wrong too. Different years were selected by textbook writ- ers because they possessed different beliefs about what caused the war; they were simply assembling a pur- Poseful, factual story that would all fit together. If history is seen as just a bunch of ‘objective facts, then it is “bo-0-0-0- ring.” Such facts could tell us very lit- tle about human beings and what makes them tick. But if it is seen as an interpretive attempt by a historian to make sense of his or her world or to justify or defend particular actions, then it starts to get interesting. Is this & fact? Does everybody agree? What evidence supports this? Why did they select this fact and not that one? Why did these authors pick 1945, 1954, and 1964 as starting dates? The questions ate endless, but they all lead back to how historians think and do their work, how they interact, and what their motivations might be. The stu- dents were starting to think about the processes that create history in the first place, and they were discovering the central role that literaey plays in that creation, Integrating curriculum’ is not only about putting together parts of afor accessing information from con- tent texts, but they are also fundamen- tal features of the subjects under study. History, for example, couldn't exist without writing, given the weak nesses and changeability of memory, What is the role of literacy within math, science, technology, art, and social sciences? ur hope is that the columns that appear here will expose the facets of these ideas in practical ways for class- room teachers so that children can bet- ter appreciate the meaning of literacy across the curriculum, and so that lit. eracy can help them to understand FRAME SHAaOM Frameworks Core: (J Develops independent learners utilizing holistic learning through language. each other better. Literacy and cur- “So long, until aext time. Take it easy riculum integration should be about and take care.” interacting with others, and the ideas of others, in thoughtful ways. If you have ideas that you would like us to interact with, or suggestions for columas, please write to us at the address in the box. Reterence Brandt, 0. (1990). Lteracy as involverent The acts of writers, readers, and tots. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois, University Press. Integrating Curiculum profiles how reading and writing, through their intercon: eetions with other subject areas, are ways for children to lear and communicate in society. Send questions, comments, or suggestions to Timothy Shanahan, University of Ilinols at Chicago, College of Education (M/C 147), Box 4348, ‘Chicago, TL, 60680, USA. Frameworks: A Whole Language Staff Development Program for Grades K-8 Meeting Your Whole Language Needs Authored by Jan Turbill, Andrea Butler and Brian Cambourne with Gail Langton | 1993-1994 ere 17 Provides practical classroom + Callornidi « Chciue!s “ inois + Minnesota applications. 7 Uses latest research in language, learning, and staff development. 1 Promotes a better understanding of the principles that underlie holistic teaching and learning. Trains faci to their district. {tors to bring program back Frameworks was piloted and evaluated in dis- tricts of all sizes and multicultural settings. To receive a brochure, schedule training or spon- As follow-up to the Core training, sor a training site contact: specialized classroom-oriented Modules Carol Filey or Barbara Strait may be purchased. Otfice of Staff Development, Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES '3501 County Road 20, Stanley, NY 14561 No further training is required. So pen star prs eae 160 The Reading Teacher Vol. 47, No.2 October 1993,