Developing Curriculum

Primary grade teacher Lynn Rhone of Arrowhead Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, studied the Curriculum and Evaulation Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989) with a special interest in mathematics as communication. She engaged her students in activities built around integrated curriculum units. As she designed lessons for this integrated curriculum, Rhone (1995) noticed a pattern emerging that followed a similar six-step plan:

1. "Identify the mathematics and language arts concepts or objectives.

2. Plan the performance tasks linking the instruction and activity with the performance assessment.

3. Choose and read a story or poem related to the integrated curriculum theme or to the mathematics objective.

4. Allow children time to work on the mathematics objective using appropriate manipulatives.

5. Allow children time to record their reasoning in pictorial and written form.

6. Allow children time to share their reasoning at the 'math author's chair,' a special chair for students to explain to their classmates their own solution to a problem." (p. 124-125)

Additional examples and "artifacts" appear in Rhone's article. On page 126 of her article, she provides a great example of an integrated math and language arts rubric linked to a task.

References