Independent Together: Supporting the Multilevel Community

Learning Community for Administrators

Curriculum integration in the multilevel classroom is connecting the big ideas across curricula or subjects and grades to curriculum instruction.

Curriculum integration

  • makes student learning relevant and authentic
  • makes effective and efficient use of instructional time
  • supports a wide range of learners through best practices
  • shows learning and understanding with authentic performance tasks, processes, and/or products
  • All curricula are integrated, but not all the time.

    • Mathematics requires time for investigating and applying concepts during mathematics workshops.  Listen to Audio Clip (752 MB)
    • Physical education requires time to learn and practise new knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
    • Integration of English language arts, health education, science, social studies View Print Material, and information and communication technologies creates rich opportunities for student inquiry. View Picture

    Administrators facilitate curriculum integration in the multilevel learning community when they

    • provide teachers with time for planning, collaborating, and reflecting, including time for visiting other multilevel classrooms Watch Video Clip (831 KB) - Watch Video Clip (1.10 MB)
    • understand that new teachers may need to start from a mid-range grade set of Foundation for Implementation documents
    • implement developmental continua to facilitate classroom assessment View Picture
    • encourage teachers to participate in professional learning experiences that focus on curriculum integration and/or the multilevel classroom
    • engage the whole school in a plan to rotate or cycle curricula to avoid gaps and repetition Watch Video Clip (1.22 MB)
    • help parents understand the benefits of teaching most subjects in integrated themes/units rather than separately