CURRICULUM 5

You Will Know • What the integrative model looks like in both elementary and secondary classrooms • The basis in research and theory for using the integrative model in the classroom • The steps of the integrative model • How to organize data for use in integrative lessons • How to adapt the model to meet individual needs • Ways to assess integrative lessons • The benefits of the integrative model You Will Understand That • The amount of information presented in school is overwhelming and disjointed You Will Be Able To • Identify the integrative model in K–12 classrooms • Design, implement, and reflect on an integrative lesson Basis for the Integrative Model The integrative model is rooted in the inductive strategies of Hilda Taba (Taba, Durkin, Fraenkel, & McNaughton, 1971) and has been popularized by Eggen and Kauchak (2012). Basically, the model is a controlled discussion—a structured conversation that allows teachers to focus on helping students acquire academic information while practicing complex reasoning skills. In an integrative discussion, students have the opportunity to construct personal understandings of organized bodies of knowledge—information that includes intricate relationships between facts, concepts, and generalizations. The integrative model is designed to help students see relationships between the components of a complex topic (for example, migration, animal classification, or branches of government). As students try to make sense of complicated webs of association, they build or revise the schemata that they have previously constructed to make sense of similar information. Schema theory supports the integrative model in that the instruction helps participants arrange information so that it is easily assimilated and subsequently retrieved. A schema is a structure that organizes large amounts of information into a retrievable system (Schunk, 2004). People’s brains are active in storing information and making new connections as they are exposed to novel experiences and information. Schemata are the configurations that organize these experiences by connecting prior and new knowledge. The integrative model presents content to students in an organized way, allowing connections to be built smoothly and effectively. In addition, the integrative model allows for increased knowledge. Brain capac-ity benefits from experience, and experience that is well organized provides the best advantage. Through structured bodies of knowledge, students are able to prioritize information and link new data to existing schemata, increasing the opportunity for school success. Bransford and his colleagues (Bransford, Brow, & Cockling, 2000) acknowledge that not all instruction is equal, noting that: It is clear that there are qualitative differences among kinds of learning opportu-nities. In addition, the brain “creates” informational experiences through mental activities such as inferencing, category formation, and so forth. These are the types of learning opportunities that can be facilitated. (p. 127) The structure of the integrative model allows students to develop and prac-tice important critical thinking skills. The expectation underlying the model is that students will make logical inferences, identify similarities and differences, generate explanations and hypotheses, and synthesize information while they are learning academic content. These strategies are all associated with school achievement. When teachers identify similarities and differences or ask students independently to identify similarities and differences, students’ understandings are enhanced. These identifi-cations can be made through comparisons, classification, and the development of metaphors and analogies—the skills of saying one thing in terms of another or of drawing comparisons in order to clarify. Patterns are crucial components of the integrative model. Schemata are the means by which learners impose patterns on complex information, the tools with which students deal with content and procedures. Schools cannot cover all of the bits of information that are available for curriculum development and instruc-tional design. There is too much information to incorporate easily into long-term memory. The integrative model helps teachers and students organize discrete pieces of information into a more manageable whole so that deep understanding of topics and the relationships between topical elements can be developed. In fact, “the more complex and interconnected a schema is, the more places learners have to connect new knowledge and understanding” (Eggen & Kauchak, 2012, p. 212). Steps in the Integrative Model STEP 1: PLANNING FOR THE INTEGRATIVE MODEL Organized bodies of knowledge are just that—organized. Integrative lessons are developed around data sets—bits and pieces of information that are ordered in matrices, graphs, maps, pictures, or other displays. First, a topic must be identified. Content standards, curriculum materials, and district scope and sequence charts are filled with topics rich in complexity and relationships. Second, teachers decide on the target generalizations toward which a lesson is built—the understand objec-tives and information that supports the big ideas. As objectives are being deter-mined, it is helpful to construct a concept map showing the relationships between the focal elements under study. A corresponding matrix may then be developed by the teacher, by students independently or in small groups, or as part of a class discussion. Teachers or curriculum materials will determine the relationships that are highlighted—the categories that will organize the information. In fact, cur-riculum materials, newspapers, and magazines, as well as electronic resources such as the Internet, can offer a range of data sources that can serve as the basis of an integrative lesson. Debbie Moss is planning a new geography unit on regions in the United States. Regions constitute a rich topic for information and connections. There are eco-nomic, cultural, and physical aspects of regions; these are connections that students need to understand. Checking the state standards, Debbie finds that students must be able to explain how regional landscapes reflect the cultural and economic char-acteristics of their inhabitants and how cultural characteristics can link or divide regions. By looking through the state’s curriculum framework, reflecting on the prior knowledge and needs of her students, and examining available resources, Debbie highlights the big ideas and essential knowledge and skills that will compose her unit. (Note that these planning behaviors are similar across all of the instructional models in this text.) The big idea of Debbie’s unit is that regions have unifying characteristics, both physical and cultural, and that the characteristics of regions may change as people interact with their physical, cultural, and economic environment. Debbie believes her students will need to know that the concept of regions is used to simplify a complex world and that physical and cultural regions can change over time. Students will also need to know that regional “landscapes” include specific cultural characteristics (architecture, language, history, and religion). Able to do goals of this integrative instruction include being able to locate regions on maps, interpret regional patterns, compare and contrast information, draw conclusions and make generalizations about data, and explain cause-and-effect relationships. Based on a unit described in the text Differentiation in Practice (Tomlinson & Edison, 2003), Debbie has decided that the culminating assessment will be an independent project that asks students to view the course material through the lens of a physical, cultural, or economic geographer (see Table 8.2). Feeling a sense of accomplishment as her planning continues, Debbie is now ready to think about the kinds of instruction that will help her students reach the unit objectives. Debbie considers lecturing, but she doesn’t believe that she can help students see the connections between the different aspects of regions by merely talk-ing about them. She also considers a cooperative learning jigsaw (see Chapter Ten) but determines that this too will not highlight the interconnections between the physical, cultural, and economic aspects of the regions. Finally, Debbie considers the benefits of the integrative model, an instructional model that uses rich, complexly organized bodies of knowledge or, in the words of the designers of the model, “topics that combine facts, concepts, generalizations, and the relationships among them” (Eggen & Kauchak, 2012, p. 213). Debbie determines that the model examined in this chapter is a good match for her objectives because regional differences and the historic, economic, and cultural consequences of those differences constitute an example of such a complex topic. Effective data displays help in the development of generalizations; they include facts that are not too narrow to make connections. Also, effective data displays have enough information so that students have the chance to provide explanations for the relationships that they identify. Data displays can be pre-pared prior to the lesson by the teacher or filled in with the class before the integrative model begins. These displays must be accurate and highlight the infor-mation reflected in the lesson’s objectives. There must be at least two comparisons and there should not be more than four or five. Make certain that there is align-ment between the objectives and the data display—use the correct tool (matrix, pie chart, photograph, etc.) Try to keep the display as simple as possible. As the following description of the steps of the model illustrates, the data in Table 8.2 meet the basic requirements—opportunity for generalization and opportunity for explanation of relationships.

STEP 2: DESCRIBE, COMPARE, AND SEARCH FOR PATTERNS IN A DATA SET The integrative model allows teachers to level the classroom playing field. All stu-dents have the opportunity to engage in the discussion because the data are organized and available to students as the conversation occurs. The teacher begins the lesson by providing background information on the data set and focuses the students’ atten-tion by asking them to describe what they notice. Debbie begins using Table 8.2 by asking her students to look at the rows and columns carefully. She calls on students by name to describe how many columns and rows there are and what the columns and rows present. She then asks students to consider the following questions: • What are the physical characteristics of the West region? How do these characteristics differ from the South or Northeast regions? • Which region has the greatest physical diversity? • Which region has the least-populated state and which has the most-populated state? What determines the population of a state? • What types of businesses support the economies of these four regions? How are these businesses similar to one another? Different? Why do these regions have different economic characteristics? • What similarities and differences do you notice on this matrix? Other questions can be generated. Many other similarities and differences could be noticed by either the teacher or the students. Instructional options include direct-ing attention to a particular attribute of the data display, directing students to look for and describe specific similarities and differences, and asking students to identify the comparisons they notice. During this phase of the model, teachers and students control the pace of the discussion, and clear and simple questions are used to facili-tate the construction of basic information about the topic

STEP 3: EXPLAIN THE IDENTIFIED SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES Once students have identified the rich similarities and differences displayed in the matrix, they should be asked to explain the identified comparisons. Explaining the reasons for similarities and differences engages students in deep analysis of the data set. For example, Debbie might follow up on some of the identified comparisons with the following questions: • How can you explain the differences in economic characteristics between the Northeast and West? • Why might you expect to see some similarities between major cities of all four regions of the United States? • What political similarities and differences did you notice among the regions? Do any of these differences have something to do with immigration patterns to the region? • What might account for differences in population across regions? Although some relationships cannot be explained, there will be many relation-ships in the data set that invite explanation. Because explanation is a higher level of reasoning than description, providing this opportunity helps to increase the complex-ity of the schemata that students develop about the topic. Explanations tie bits of information together, weaving a variety of threads into developing schemata that will become more intricate as the lesson progresses and more explanations are shared, much as a handwoven rug becomes more colorful and detailed as workers weave in individual threads. The role of the teacher in this phase of the model is to look at the list of identified comparisons and ask for elucidation, making certain that students document their explanations with information from the data source. STEP 4: HYPOTHESIZE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN UNDER DIFFERENT CONDITIONS During this stage of the model, students are asked to hypothesize an outcome if conditions change, allowing an opportunity to apply recently acquired knowledge and link it to prior knowledge and skills. Students should be asked to explain their hypotheses and conclusions. Marzano (2001) discusses the use of organized bodies of knowledge, or systems of knowledge, as a method for practicing hypothesis test-ing and increasing student understanding. Debbie might ask students to imagine what would have happened if the United States had not developed the atom bomb to drop on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which forced Japan to surrender, or to think about what would happen if there were a major revitalization of “Rust Belt” cities of the Midwest. Designing experiences that provide students with guidance in testing hypoth-eses is inherent to the integrative model. In addition, teachers can provide templates for explanations, provide sentence stems to help students articulate their reasoning, develop rubrics that identify and describe the quality of explanations, and set up numerous opportunities for students to share their explanations. STEP 5: MAKE BROAD GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT THE TOPIC AND THE DISCUSSION In this phase of the model, students summarize and synthesize the discussion and make broad generalizations about the topic under study. Summarization and syn-thesis allow students to process new information. Asking students to summarize frequently helps move new information into long-term memory. Summarization is a benefit in all of the instructional models in this text, but it is particularly appropriate for the integrative model because of the amount of academic content in play. Students can summarize in any medium (written, oral, visual), either individually or in groups. The primary-recency effect (students remember best what they first heard in a lesson and remember second best the last thing they experienced in a lesson) plays a role in this phase (Wormeli, 2004). Teachers can use the integrative model to develop a questioning plan that builds on this effect. In step 5, it is important that students share their synthesis of the lesson—the broad generalizations that help to describe the complexity of the topic. Generalizing is a sophisticated skill enhanced when good summaries of a dis-cussion are provided. Once they have captured the robust information that was shared, students can synthesize that information and create broad statements to represent the deep understandings that they have developed. Debbie might ask students to summarize the conversations that occurred in class. She might also ask students to make broad statements about some of the relationships discovered between the physical, cultural, and economic characteristics of the regions under study. SUMMARY OF STEPS IN THE INTEGRATIVE MODEL Table 8.3 shows examples of literature texts objected to in many communities. The steps of the integrative model are summarized for a lesson based on this table, with examples of specific questions a teacher might ask in each of the steps. 1. Planning for the integrative model. Identify the topic. Target generalizations. Prepare a data display such as the matrix on objections to books. 2. Describe, compare, and search for patterns in a data set. • Describe: What do you notice about the types of objections that were made about The Catcher in the Rye? • Describe: What types of concerns are expressed in these objections? • Compare: How would you characterize the objections to Huckleberry Finn? To 1984?

SUMMARY OF STEPS IN THE INTEGRATIVE MODEL Table 8.3 shows examples of literature texts objected to in many communities. The steps of the integrative model are summarized for a lesson based on this table, with examples of specific questions a teacher might ask in each of the steps. 1. Planning for the integrative model. Identify the topic. Target generalizations. Prepare a data display such as the matrix on objections to books. 2. Describe, compare, and search for patterns in a data set. • Describe: What do you notice about the types of objections that were made about The Catcher in the Rye? • Describe: What types of concerns are expressed in these objections? • Compare: How would you characterize the objections to Huckleberry Finn? To 1984

Compare: What are the similarities between the objections to The Grapes of Wrath and 1984? • Search for patterns: What differences do you notice between the objections to The Scarlet Letter and the other books? 3. Explain the identified similarities and differences. • What information is provided on this chart to help explain why these books were the most objected to at the end of the 20th century? • Can you explain why the attempts of groups to have these books taken out of public schools have been successful in some situations and unsuccessful in others? • What types of books might not receive any objections by parents, teachers, school boards, or community members? 4. Hypothesize what would happen under different conditions. • Suppose a school curriculum included Homer’s The Odyssey. Do you think any objections would be made regarding this book? Support your answer from the matrix. • What would you do if a parent came to your class asking that you not teach a particular book to your class? What would you say? • You are assigned to teach one of these books. Would you make any special preparations? 5. Make broad generalizations about the topic and the discussion. Think about the target generalizations you want students to reach about this topic, such as the following: • Many community members object to sexual references in adolescent novels. • Community members do not believe children in school should be exposed to adult themes. In this video, a ninth grade classroom is studying the relationship between geography and the economy across regions of the United States. Which parts of the lesson follow the steps of the integrative model presented in this chapter? How did you make this determination? Are students meeting the goals of the integrative model? What else did you notice about this lesson? • Teachers need to be sensitive to these beliefs and should be prepared for objections. The preceding list of steps describes the process of using the integrative model, but there are many nuanced student and teacher behaviors that are embedded in the steps. The integrative model has a high cognitive demand on teachers (who must identify or construct a data set that represents a rich organized body of knowledge) and on the students (who must try to make sense of this display). By examining the potential behaviors of teachers and students working within the integrative framework, you can consider what is needed to master the instructional moves of the model and include the model in your professional toolbox. Table 8.4 will help you consider what student behaviors are needed for successful understanding of the process of looking for relationships in a data set, providing you with a roadmap for molding your teaching behaviors to students. Evaluating Learning in the Integrative Model Like most of the models presented in this text, each step of the integrative model can serve as an assessment—process as well as content can be evaluated in this way. After some experience with the integrative approach, an assessment could provide students with a similar data set such as a matrix, map, picture, or other visual organizer. The students would then be asked to follow each or some of the steps of the model: (1) identifying similarities and differences, (2) explaining the reasons for these similarities and differences, (3) hypothesizing as to different outcomes if the data set changes, and (4) making generalizations about the relationships represented in the data set. Evaluation criteria may include the number and quality of the com-parison identifications and the logic, knowledge, and quality of explanations. For example, the family picture lesson described earlier in this chapter may have been part of an immigration unit. The integrative process may have been the basis for the quiz in Figure 8.2. More traditional assessments can also be used with the integrative model. The rich data sets that are the foundation of the model (see Table 8.2) are a source for selected response items. When developing multiple-choice questions, matching items, and essay questions from data sets remember to use best practice guidelines. Multiple-choice questions should be clear, have only one correct or best answer, have similar option lengths, and so forth. A number of assessment texts and websites discuss writing test items (Stiggins, 2008).

Meeting Individual Needs with the Integrative Model The key to an aligned integrative lesson is the data set. Whatever is used to help students learn the target content and thinking skills must be appropriate to the inter-ests, readiness levels, and learning approaches of students. Data sets can come from textbooks, trade books, newspapers, Internet sources, reference books, or from the teacher’s or students’ thinking. They can be a collection of real-life objects, a piece of art, a map, a table of relevant information, a photograph, or any other item or col-lection that shows a relationship in information. Thus, data sets can be manipulated to meet the needs of students by varying the type of media for levels of complexity and abstraction and by highlighting specific bits of information to play to student interests. Teachers can prepare the data set specifically for the objectives of the lesson and the specific students in the class, or adaptations can be made from published materi-als. Students can be part of developing the data set in small or large groups by putting together matrices or graphs of information that will be explored with the integrative process. The integrative model is useful for the whole class, flexible small groups, and individuals at interest centers—another way to meet specific student needs. The cubing strategy, discussed in the Strategy Alert, can add energy and excitement to a task and engage a wide variety of students. Questions are also a powerful differentiation tool and become even more powerful with the integrative model. Building on what is known about classrooms and students, questions can be personalized. Although the model has a suggested order of questions, the teacher can make connections for specific students by providing more, or less, back-ground information. For example, in Debbie’s geography class, she could highlight the travels of individual students or students’ background knowledge or interests. She may provide cues to finding patterns for students having less experience with the model or use other visual clues on the data set to help some students distinguish patterns. Benefits of the Integrative Model All of the instructional models in this text help to develop students’ critical thinking skills. The integrative model, however, also helps students navigate through organized bodies of information—webs of information that have rich and varied connections about which students must make sense. The integrative model is efficient and congru-ent with the way we learn. Because a great deal of curriculum content is detailed and layered, having a method by which students can access this information is important. The integrative model also allows students to make connections between what they know and what is being presented by helping them to build personal schemata. These personal schemata also become increasingly intricate because of the steps of the model itself. By participating in the model, students develop generalizations that explore relationships within a specific organized body of knowledge. The questioning helps students move from conclusions to inferences—and beyond the presented information. In addition, the integrative model extends the power of textbooks and curricu-lum materials. Many textbooks are not friendly to the needs of students. They are written in unfamiliar language, the organization can be confusing, and the amount of information is astounding. The integrative model provides a structure for making sense of the contents of textbooks. Teachers can use visual materials from texts and provide scaffolding for divergent and higher-level thinking. The integrative model is also congruent with new classroom technologies. Data sets can be projected from computers, brought up on a SmartBoard, or found on a laptop. Most important, the integrative model permits the teacher to control the amount of information presented to students because data sets can be borrowed, constructed by teachers, or developed by students. The complexity of the information and the sophistication of the ques-tions can flex readily to the teacher’s instructional decisions. ELEMENTARY GRADES LESSON INTEGRATIVE MODEL: Fractions OBJECTIVES Common Core State Standards—Mathematics 4NF.A.1 Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering. Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n * a)/(n * b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two frac-tions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions. Common Core State Standards—Mathematics 4NF.A.2 Compare two fractions with different numerators and different denominators. Recognize that comparisons are valid only when the two fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of the comparisons with symbols and justify the conclusions. The purpose of the integrative model is to help students make sense of complex and rich relationships found in most disciplinary knowledge. The integrative model supports critical thinking strategies while helping students learn specific content concepts, facts, and generalizations. Students do not always have the opportunity to examine relationships between the components of disciplinary knowledge. The model allows examination of these relationships by providing guidelines for the types of questions teachers ask, the social structure of the classroom, and the data source of the discussion. The model begins with careful planning by the teacher to choose a topic and se-lect the essential understandings to be attained by students during the lesson. It is im-portant that these understandings guide both the questioning and construction of the data set. Once the planning is completed, students will describe, compare, and search for patterns in the provided information. They will then explain identified similarities and differences and hypothesize as to what would happen under different conditions. The lesson ends with students making broad generalizations about the topic.

Chpt 9

The Basis for the Socratic Seminar Model The idea of a Socratic seminar stems from one of the dialogues of Plato entitled Meno. (See socraticmethod.net for a thorough explication of this time-honored instructional technique.) In this most famous Socratic dialogue, the character Meno asks whether virtue can be taught, and that leads Socrates to suggest that no idea can be taught directly. On the contrary, he suggests, all that we know must be extracted from us through a series of questions and a process of inquiry. This is the foundation of the Socratic seminar. The job of the teacher, according to Socrates, is to help the learner collect his or her thoughts from which to build new understandings from prior knowledge. This may well be the source of the etymology of the verb educate, meaning “to lead out.” As it has evolved to the present time, the Socratic seminar tends to focus on open-ended or controversial questions (for example, was U.S. isolationism justified in the 1930s?) that have no unequivocal resolution. That is not to say the topic of a seminar could never be a math problem, but, if it were, the problem would have multiple solutions.

The purpose of this chapter is to expound on the instructional value of dialogue and inquiry in classrooms, focusing particularly on Socratic seminars. Discussions play an important role in student learning because students are able to converse with knowledgeable peers and adults. Discussion allows for the acquisition and construc-tion of information, along with the linking of new information to personal prior experiences. Not all classroom talk is discussion oriented, however. There is a great deal of talk in the classroom that is not discussion. For instance, there are fast-paced teacher-to-student recitations that have a teacher question–student response–teacher feedback pattern. Discussions, on the other hand, provide the opportunity for sus-tained critical inquiry and student-to-student conversation and are an alternative to recitation-style teaching. In the case of the Socratic seminar, the conversation is a specialized discussion—a dialogue. There are several differences between a general discussion and a dialogue. During a discussion, points are argued and rebutted, and there is generally an attempt to make strong arguments for a single position. In a dialogue, participants move beyond a single point and search for larger connections between ideas. Participants use listening skills to gain perspectives and empathy for different ideas. Planned dialogues support student growth toward sophisticated cognitive, social, and emotional objectives. Socratic seminars boost students’ content learning, develop students’ cooperative social skills, and help students discover their competence as members of a productive learning community. In addition, the Socratic seminar pro-vides a safe place for the discussion of values associated with the problems under deliberation. The Socratic seminar model is designed to use the Socratic dialectic—the examination of ideas through a logical progression of questioning to help stu-dents reach a deep understanding of a controversial topic after considering a number of perspectives (Fischer, 2008). Socratic seminars are applicable in all content areas and at all grade levels. Every discipline has conflicting viewpoints that can be examined by identifying assumptions and various interpretations and by studying the construction of conclusions. Because Socratic seminars allow stu-dents to construct new knowledge by interacting with the ideas and understand-ings of others, they are congruent with what we know about how students learn and how they “own” and construct their understandings. Students are active learners during a Socratic seminar; they are not simply provided information by either the teacher or the text as in didactic instruction. Dialogical instruction requires that students consider a variety of perspectives. In a Socratic seminar, students are involved in discussions in which contradictory ideas are weighed logically, with a view to the resolution of the inherent contradictions by finding the connections between the ideas. The seminar is student centered rather than teacher centered, with the teacher playing the role of “guide on the side” instead of “sage on the stage.” In fact, a visitor to a class where a Socratic seminar was in progress might need to look twice to find the teacher. VERSIONS OF THE SOCRATIC SEMINAR There are several current iterations of seminars structured around Socratic question-ing. Each relies on a dialogue among students centered on a specific text (written, visual, or auditory) or question. The Socratic seminar model is one that has evolved over time and has been implemented in several ways. Socratic questioning within a conversation that examines complex, rich questions stimulates student thinking. The premise of the Socratic seminar model is that student awareness of important ques-tions plays a large role in intellectual development and that the exploration of a text allows for disciplined conversation—a way to examine ideas logically. The Socratic seminar model asks students to think critically about a text through a coopera-tive and respectful conversation based on personal reactions to the material. These