Creating Standards-Based Integrated Curriculum: The Common Core State Standards Edition

Translate the new standards into meaningful curriculum! The Common Core State Standards offer a shared language that ensures consistency and accountability, while also giving you the flexibility to design a curriculum that′s right for your students. Of course, knowing what you need to teach doesn′t tell you how to teach it—and that′s where curriculum integration expert Susan M. Drake comes in. In this new edition of her classic text, Drake applies the essential principles of standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment to today′s unique challenges. Focusing on multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches, she provides guidance on Unpacking the Common Core State Standards Planning assessment tasks Designing instructional strategies Developing daily activities Helping students connect essential questions to enduring understandings Included are new examples of exemplary programs, discussion questions, a sample completed interdisciplinary curriculum, and activity suggestions for building your own standards-based integrated curriculum. This proven resource is the road map teachers and curriculum developers need to navigate the unfamiliar territory of the CCSS and to develop a curriculum that helps their students thrive. 

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Preface Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction: Personally Seeking Rigor and Relevance 1. What Is Interdisciplinary Curriculum? Why Integrate the Curriculum? Approaches to Integration Degrees of Integration A Summary of the Different Approaches to Integration Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities 2. Accountability and Two-Dimensional Thinking What Is Accountability? What Is a Standards-Based Approach? Two-Dimensional Thinking The Know/Do/Be Umbrella Designing Down Designing Down and Interdisciplinary Work Unpacking the Standards Curriculum Mapping Benefits of Curriculum Mapping Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities 3. Snapshots of Exemplary Integrated Programs Scofield Magnet Middle School, Stamford, Connecticut: The Stamford HP Catalyst Project Shelburne Community School, Shelburne, Vermont: The Alpha Program Miami Country Day School, Miami, Florida: Abess Center for Environmental Studies iEARN (International Education and Resource Network High Tech High, San Diego, California Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Detroit, Michigan Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities 4. Doing the Groundwork for Interdisciplinary Curriculum What Is Worth Knowing? What Is Worth Doing? How Do We Want Our Students to Be? The Scan and Cluster: Using the Zoom Lens to Identify the KDB Creating the KDB Umbrella Finding the Know Finding the Do Discovering the Be Creating an Exploratory Web Creating Essential Questions to Guide Curriculum Planning Creating Essential Questions Across the Curriculum Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities 5. How Do Teachers Know When Students Have Met Expectations? Interdisciplinary Assessment A Sample of a Rich Culminating Assessment Task Planning Rich Culminating Assessment Tasks Assessing the Development of Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings: An Example From a Fifth-Grade Unit Planning for the Rich Culminating Assessment Task: An Example From a Fourth-Grade Unit Discussion Question and Suggested Activities 6. Putting the Pieces Together Designing Daily Activities and Assessments Creating the Daily Activities/Assessments The Seamless Integration of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Discussion Questions and Suggested Activities Epilogue: Curriculum Integration in the 21st Century Appendix A. A Completed Unit: Conservation Clubhouse by Cathy Griffin Appendix B. A Standards-Based Grade 10 Curriculum Unit: Saga of Survival Appendix C. A Rubric and Reflection Tool to Use as a Guide for Creating Your Own Standards-Based Interdisciplinary Curriculum References Index

About the Author :
Susan M. Drake is a professor in the Graduate and Undergraduate Department of Brock University, St. Catharines, ON. She earned a PhD in curriculum from the University of Toronto. She has taught at all levels of education. She taught physical education and Health and English for 18 years at the high school level. She worked on school improvement teams at the elementary level and spent one year as an elementary teacher. As well, she was a partner in a private adult education company that provided organizational development, consulting and adult learning courses. Today, Susan teaches curriculum/assessment courses for Masters of Education and doctoral students and for undergraduate students who will soon be entering the teaching field. As a researcher, she seeks out educators who are involved in exemplary practices, as she believes that a good practice makes good theory. This is Susan’s seventh book on the topic of curriculum integration and she has published over 48 articles and 9 book chapters. She coauthored Meeting Standards Through Integrated Curriculum (2004) for ASCD with Rebecca Burns. As well, she authored Creating Integrated Curriculum (1998) for Corwin Press (1998) and Planning for Integrated Curriculum: The Call to Adventure (1993) for ASCD. She has lead interdisciplinary curriculum design teams from the school to the provincial level. Susan travels extensively and has done workshops/presentations across North America and in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Review :
"This book offers a fine text that applies the basics of standards-based curriculum and instruction to different approaches to implementation." -- Midwest Book Review, October 2012