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Posted by:
Dennis Szymkowiak
K-12 Classroom teacher
Mundelein, IL
Topic:
Positive Enhanced Learning Strategies
Message:
I believed, as I began teaching both a Senior Project class (and still do teach) and the integrated language arts/math class that I teach with my brother Dan (an English teacher and one of the other panelists) that students would experience enhanced learning. I also believe that there are many other success stories. However, because true integrated instruction is not yet that common at the secondary level, there is not a lot of empirical evidence to support or prove what I believe is happening.
One example I can cite as evidence of my views comes from the integrated language arts/math class Dan and I teach. One senior was interested in investigating a possible career in public relations. We had a potential partnership with our township library. The township library was in the process of construction a new, much larger building. They were also in the process of conducting a referendum campaign to convince voters to increase their taxes to support increased staffing and material and resource acquisition. The young lady from our class interviewed for the public relations position and was offered the internship. She proceeded to do a statistical analysis of the tax rates for township libraries in surrounding communities. She wrote several articles for the library's newsletter and made several presentations to various and diverse audiences. In addition, for the class she did a final paper and presentation on the advantages and disadvantages of a public relations career in both the public and private sectors. As a result of all her work, she was able to appreciate, and this was a major focus of her classroom presentation, the practical application of her previously unimportant academic work. She is now majoring in public relations in college.
Examples like this one are important. The bulk of our classroom work in Senior Leadership Academy class is the application of literacy strategies to content areas. The internships the students engage in provide the opportunity for them to see how those strategies are actually used in the "real world". Learning becomes more than just memorizing facts for the next exam. It becomes real.
By no means, however, am I satisfied. As I have mentioned, the structure of the class is integrated language arts and math. It should be much more. The bulk of work has been, to date, with a single math teacher. We have also done some work with a foreign language (Spanish) instructor. So there is a sense that still much needs to be done.
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