Planning with Subjects Integration

Introduction

Plans with integration are similar to lesson plans or other planning units. However, integration increases learning with the inclusion of additional ideas to be experienced and learned, which also increases the complexity of planning. Subjects integration includes learning related to multiple subjects integrated into a plan for a topic or theme. Including more subjects increases the complexity for planning and if the dimensions of each subject are considered, this also increases the degree of complexity. For example, if a planning framework for mathematics has 10 dimensions, and one for science has 16 dimensions and a reading framework has 20, then integrating them could include 46 categories. Therefore, as more subjects are added the number of categories becomes larger and planning becomes more complex.

Let's illustrate this for the topic sound:

Integration of Subjects for the topic Sound --

This chart is a framework for subjects integration. The only subject area with dimensions or subtopics defined is science. A crude beginning that mixes focus questions, concepts, and activities, but a start.

Music

Listen to songs, identify different pitches, length of sounds, volume of sounds, instruments, create instruments.
Watch videos with and without music.
Put music to play or story.

Art

Draw and illustrate sounds, diagram vibrations, pitch, illustrate people enjoying music,

Creative movement

Listen to different pieces of music and interpret each with body movement

Health

Loud sounds are harmful to hearing.
How loud is loud?
How do ears work and how do we hear?
How do we care for our ears?

Language arts

Read stories related to music, sound, science of sound, inventors of sound related technology
Poems and how they incorporate different sounds of words, hard, soft, onomatopoeia
Group discussion skills
Writing informational pieces

Mathematics

Chart instruments by type,
Make a date line showing historical development of different instruments
Explore equations for pitch, frequency, speed of sound,
Use computer programs to collect data for different sounds and speech, then describe their properties

Problem solving: critical thinking, and reasoning

May incorporate these by using the properties of sound to recognize, compare, and classify sounds.
Create a musical instrument and demonstrate how the properties of sound are changed when playing the instrument.

Science

Physical, Life, Earth Science Concepts	Properties of sound (vibrations, volume, tone/pitch/frequency) Identify sounds in the world and space?
Inquiry Processes	Observation sound vibrations can be observed. Sounds can be identified and classified by their properties. A model can be used to represent volume and frequency. Experiments can answer questions and lead to more questions.
Attitudes	Thinking of questions and investigating answers to the questions can be fun and challenging
Personal and social	Scientists work as individuals and groups
Technology	Creating technology is similar to experimentation
History and nature of science	The understanding of sound changed with time Sound can be understood with science, but not appreciated.

This table includes general subject ideas for the first seven subject areas. The last subject liste, science, is present with six dimensions for it. This illustrates how the inclusion of dimensions increases the complexity of the framework, planning, and teaching.

However, there are limits to the complexity that is appropriate to introduce to students, but the benefits for some integration will increase student learning, allowing them to make more connections in what they are learning, resulting in greater understanding, longer remembering, and ideas that are more applicable to their life experiences.

Outline for Subjects Integration

1. Create a framework with subjects and any related dimensions for the subjects. This is time consuming. Preplanning time is essential to identify what is important for students to know, how it should be organized, what they might learn, and how to assess their achievement. However, once you have a comprehensive framework it can be used again to plan subjects integration units for other themes and topic.

2. Brainstorm possible topics or themes. Students or teachers together or individually or in groups may do this. Areas for ideas to consider:

Topic
Theme
Process
Value, attitude
Perspective
Subject area topic
Event
Problem
Period of time
Person or groups of people
Questions
Activity

3. Select a theme or topic or a combination that makes a big idea. When it is identified think about how it can be focused yet broad based enough to capture big ideas. To make it more realistic and applicable to students it is helpful to review the Real Life themes to include in big ideas and activities.

4. When related ideas, topics, and activities are thought of, it is time to start to fill out a framework. Begin by adding the topic, theme, focus question or big idea and categorize the ideas on the in subjects integration framework. The planning outline above has been expanded to include planning categories in the table or matrix.

A sample:

Topic Sound -What is music and how is it made?

Music
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
			Listen to songs, identify different pitches, length of sounds, volume of sounds, instruments, create instruments. Watch videos with and without music. Put music to play or story.
Art
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
			Draw and illustrate sounds, diagram vibrations, pitch, illustrate people enjoying music,
Creative movement
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
			Listen to different pieces of music and interpret each with body movement
Health
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
	Loud sounds are harmful to hearing.		Research ear health to answer student generated questions.	Decide as a class how to answer the following questions: How loud is loud? How do ears work and how do we hear? How do we care for our ears?
Language arts
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
		When students work in groups they are more efficient when they set goals, design a plan, and work towards achieving the goals.	Read stories related to music, sound, science of sound, inventors of sound related technology Study poems to explore how they incorporate different sounds of words: hard, soft, rhyme, beat, onomatopoeia Writing informational pieces	Work in groups and introduce an agenda to use to focus a discussion and improve the skills of students group work.
Mathematics
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
		String instruments have strings that vibrate. Woodwinds have reeds or metal mouthpiece that vibrate the air in the instrument Brass have metal mouthpieces that vibrate the air and brass instrument Percussion have solid parts that vibrate when struck.	Chart musical instruments by type: brass, woodwind, percussion, & string. Make a date line showing historical development of different instruments Explore equations for pitch, frequency, speed of sound, Use computer programs to collect data for different sounds and speech, then describe their properties
Problem solving: critical thinking, and reasoning
Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
			Use critical thinking and problem solving to describe how to recognize, compare, and classify sounds. Create a musical instrument and demonstrate how the properties of sound are changed when playing the instrument.

Science Planning categories
Dimensions	Inference or naive ideas	Facts, observations	Concepts, relationships	Activities	Instructional procedures and Transformations	Assessment levels
Science content		Properties of sound Vibrations cause sound, Volume is the amount of energy causing the vibration Tone/pitch/frequency is the rate at which the object or matter vibrates when making sound.		Identify sounds in the world and space?
Inquiry Processes		Observation can be used as evidence to answer questions. Sound vibrations can be observed.	Sounds can be identified and classified by their properties. A model can be used to represent volume and frequency. Experiments can answer questions and lead to more questions.		Demonstrate sound by drawing and labeling a drum head. Draw and label sound coming from vibrations of the drum head, traveling through the air, going into an ear, vibrating the eardrum, and sending nerve impulses to the brain.
Attitudes			Thinking of questions and investigating answers to the questions can be fun and challenging
Personal and social			Scientists work as individuals and groups I can work as a scientist to answer my questions using observations as evidence and reasoning to suggest explanations.
Engineering & Technology			Creating technology is similar to experimentation
History and nature of science			The understanding of sound changed with time Sound can be understood with science, but not appreciated.

More information for a sound unit or sequence of study

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
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