Chapter 7Integrating Literature into the Curriculum Growing Up With Literature, 6e

By: Walter E. Sawyer

Introduction •A wide range of topics and activities can be used to address the total development of each child.

•Age-appropriate academics, art, music, free play, nutrition, and other parts of the program must be addressed as well.

•This chapter discusses a webbing strategy for planning activities for young children for each of the important aspects of the program.

Webs as Organizational Tools •People understand new ideas by relating the new to the known.

•The process is likened to fitting new information into a web of information already possessed.

•This chapter focuses on the use of webbing as an organizational tool due to it’s ease of expansion and contraction, its flexibility, and its adaptability.

•Can also use a table, chart, or card files

•Each technique has advantages and disadvantages. It is simply a matter of finding the organizational tool one is most comfortable using.

A Web for Understanding

Planning with a Web •Useful tool in a variety of planning situations.

•First, begin with a central theme.

•Next, select relevant items from the list and organize them under subheadings.

•Last, create a web that visually represents the total pictures.

•This same process can be used to plan a unit. •C

entral idea: art, music, literature, science, social studies, nutrition, or math

•Then generate activities or books to use with the theme.

Literature Web•Pick a topic related to literature

•Subheadings might include: •p

oems, •f

ingerplays, and •s

tories related to a particular literature theme.

•Under each subheading list examples that might be used in the unit.

Subject Area Themes Science

Study of themselves

Body

Teeth

Food we eat

Illness

Good health

Accident prevention

Magnetism

Bubbles

Weather

How things grow

Electricity

Solar System

Simple Machines

Subject Area Themes (cont.)

Social Studies P

ersonal safety E

motions F

amilies F

arm C

ity L

and forms L

ifestyles C

limates H

istory H

istorical figures S

imilarities and differences of people C

ultural heritage H

olidays G

eography

Subject Area Themes (cont.)

Mathematics S

hapes B

locks E

stimating C

ounting A

dding S

ubtracting M

easuring G

raphing C

harting P

atterns

Subject Area Themes (cont.)

The Arts M

usic D

rama S

ongs F

ingerplays I

nstruments C

horal singing P

lays P

uppetry S

kits V

isual arts (color, design, collage, painting, markers, clay, 3-D art, etc.)

Listen to the WindListen to the Wind

Subject Area Themes (cont.)

Basic Concepts I

ncludes all of the taken-for-granted aspects of life that explain such things as size, proximity, action, spatial concepts, size, weight, color, sound, taste, feel, sweet, soft, bright, etc.

Language C

an be integrated with any of the other themes A

BCs, color, words, word patterns, sequencing, solving puzzles, labeling, literature, picture dictionaries, listening, etc.

Movement G

rowth and development, muscle control, coordination, group cooperation, etc.

Nontraditional Celebrations T

imes other than holidays or the changing seasons (“Pets in Our World,” “Teddy Bear Celebration”)

Projects •A project approach involves strategies that help to guide children through a study of real-world topics that interest them.

•The early childhood programs of Reggio Emilia provide exemplary models of the project approach. The six themes that underpin the program are:

•Teacher respect for the child

•Using relationships to support higher-level thinking

•Art as a medium to represent the children’s thinking

•Communicating the children’s learning to others

•Children and adults are not hurried

•Teachers have a variety of roles

Facilitating Integration •Provide opportunities to re-create the learning enhances their understanding of the lesson.

•Use the motivation of the children to lead into another activity, even if it isn’t the next activity originally planned.

•A high interest level should be a deciding factor in shifting the order of the day’s activities.

•It is important to keep a sense of flexibility.

•Stop for “teachable moments.”

Cross-Cultural Units •Most cultures identify special days or seasons as times for celebration of life, traditions, or important values.

•Each of these special days has the potential to increase understanding of our mutual humanity.

•Our country is increasingly multiethnic and multireligious.

•Careful thought and planning is warranted.

•Focus on learning, respecting, and the meaning and purpose of any holiday in our lives and in the lives of children.

•Can combine holidays for a themed celebration.

•Involve parents and the community.

•Early in the year ask what holidays and traditions families your class celebrate. This will help plan.