Can educators integrate curriculum in a high stakes testing world?  Apparently, they can.   Mark Springer, of Radnor, Pennsylvania, describes his success at facilitating a completely student-centered classroom with his Watershed and Soundings integrative curriculums on a NMSA podcast featuring Democratic Classrooms.  These sound like amazing programs, and I would love to read his books which would hopefully give other educators insight on how these learning experiences may be created and facilitated.  Mark's guidelines during the podcast are philosophies in which I agree: empower the students to make choices about the curriculum, allow the teacher to be the guide and companion rather than the dispenser of facts, and make an effort to model the fourteen tenets of middle level philosophy.

The students interviewed on the podcast were enthusiastic learners and especially loved Soundings because the students had the opportunity to select their units of study.  But, what if their selections are completely different than what the science standards say the grade level should be studying?  I would love to have a student-centered, inquiry-based classroom in which my students are learning how to critically think and retain information rather than simply memorizing for a test.  However, it makes me somewhat nervous to give complete control of the curriculum to the students.  I would prefer to have a blend of interdisciplinary and integrative approaches. 

Powell says that interdisciplinary learning is "when teachers work together to explore a concept such as change by connecting multiple subjects, subject area boundaries are often blurred" (p. 167).  Integrative study is when the themes that are chosen for study "result from the intersection of problem-based student concerns and large social issues.  Students and teachers determine themes jointly and plan the direction of study together" (p. 168).  I feel like the best way for students to learn in a high stakes testing world and still receive the benefit of a student-centered environment is to provide suggested choices to the students.  Perhaps we might need to study life systems within the science content area.  Students' input will be needed to determine what we might investigate under an essential question.  In this way, the students are given the freedom to learn what they want to learn about within the scope of the standards.  Hopefully this will be a win-win learning environment for everyone involved!

References.

Powell, S. (2005). Introduction to Middle School. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.