Standard 3: Middle Grades Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

Middle level teacher candidates plan interdisciplinary curriculum based on core and elective curricula that are relevant, integrative, challenging, and exploratory. They understand and apply the major concepts, principles, theories, and research unique to effective middle level instruction and assessment, and they employ a variety of developmentally responsive strategies to meet the varying abilities and learning styles of all young adolescents.

            By creating an integrated unit and incorporating social studies and science into language arts lessons I have met standard 3. These lessons and unit taught me how to combine different subject areas in the same lesson. Through these lessons and unit I also learned a variety of ways of teaching this content to students that made the material relevant, challenging and exploratory.

            Through the integrated unit I learned the importance of having integrated units in the middle grades curriculum. Integrated units are relevant, integrative, challenging, and exploratory. They bring all of the four core content areas together and creates a memorable experience for students. The content covered in my integrated unit is given in a way that is fun and engaging to students as well as informative. Through the unit students will learn content as well as life skills that can use outside of the classroom. The unit also allows for creativity and team bonding. Integrated units allow content to be developmentally responsive as well as informative.

            One of the lessons I created combined language arts with social studies. During this lesson I taught students about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl and connected those two events to the novel “Out of the Dust.” The lesson on the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl understand the novel better and made students have deeper connections to the book. This made the curriculum relevant, integrative, challenging and exploratory. All of these aspects are apart of standard 3. By connecting these two content areas the students were able to make more outside the classroom connections and understand the world they live in better. This helps make students responsible citizens.

            Another lesson I taught connected science to language arts. The students were reading a book called “Locomotion” and one of the characters in the book had Sickle Cell Disease. Students in my class did not know what Sickle Cell Disease was and so to help them understand the book better I decided to teach them about the disease. By doing this, the students became more sympatric to the character in the book suffering from the disease and taught them how to have compassion for people. This shows that the lesson was not only informative but also developmentally responsive. Without combining these two subjects students would not have had as great of an understanding of the book “Locomotion,” not learned what Sickle Cell Disease is, or obtained valuable life skills that will impact them long after they leave the classroom.

            Through my integrated unit and two lesson plans I was able to meet standard 3. I now know how to make instruction the best it can be for students. I know how to use research when creating my lessons and I know the importance of integrating subjects. These skills will help me be developmentally responsive to my students.