The Graveyard Book: After a paideia seminar in my Methods class on this book, I would really like to incorporate this novel into my classroom. The Graveyard Book is a coming-of-age story of a boy, Bod, whose family is murdered when he’s just a toddler. The boy was to be killed as well, but he managed to escape by crawling into a graveyard. In this graveyard, the story of Bod’s life unfolds as he guarded and taught by a cast of dead people.

“The Necklace”: A short story which illuminates the literary device irony. I am currently working on a mini literature lesson for this story which uses the song “Ironic” by Alanis Morrisette to enforce the concept of irony.

Because I want students to be able to see “the big picture” I would tend to create thematic units. By creating lessons based on substantial themes, students can see how literature relates to the world around them.

My 5 Steps to Integration

Purpose:
- Objectives, objectives, objectives!
- The main purpose in an interdisciplinary unit is modeling and teaching students how to learn (Wild, Mayeaux & Edmonds 95).
-Teach students to communicate effectively, to work productively, to treat others respectfully, to read critically, to persist through difficulty, and to lead democratically.

Substance:
- Do not hide behind fluffy activities with vague intentions.
- Curriculum mapping: descriptions of content, descriptions of processes/skills, assessment
- Understand standards

Connection:
-“Interdisciplinary designs are best when sensible, no strained, integration is planned and that not all disciplines need to be involved in the lesson design of a unit. If we had forced the connections, we would have created artificial lessons to justify a contrived theme” (qtd. in Wild, Mayeaux & Edmonds 88).
-Rely on deeply rooted connections not superficial “integration”

Collaboration:
-Team: Work on identifying and reflecting the connected, global concepts during team planning (Wild, Mayeaux & Edmonds 95).
-Students: encourage collaboration through active learning.

Differentiation:
-“The best education for the best, is the best education for all”
-Teach to the students, not to the test; students can achieve mastery of standards through choice, active learning, and challenge.


Works Cited:
Wild, Monique D., Amanda S. Mayeaux, and Kathryn P. Edmonds. TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades 5-9. Portland: Stenhouse, 2008.

"The Best Education for the Best is the Best Education for All"

While I was in my English Methods class the other day, I was introduced to the quote “the best education for the best is the best education for all.” After thinking for a moment, I was struck by the importance of this sentiment. When students grace the doors of my future middle school Language Arts classroom, they may already be wearing a title of “low proficiency reader” or “advanced reader”. As a teacher, it will be my job to see past these unjust labels and provide all of my students with the same tools for success. If you do not present a lower-level reader with thought provoking, complex texts, how can we expect them to be able to think and read critically? Simple texts produce simple thoughts. If teachers never attempt to provide lower-level readers with complex texts, simple thoughts will continue to cycle. In all fairness, all students must be given cognitively demanding, classic works. This quote really helped to drive home the importance of differentiation. Differentiation is for all students; the curriculum differs, but is not different. As we have discussed in class, literature circles would really help to support differentiation because students have a choice when it coming to their book selection.