The integrative model is an instructional model designed to help students develop a deep understanding of organized bodies of knowledge while simultaneously practicing their critical thinking skills.
reflection of in-class model
The Elementary group who presented the Integrative model for Kindergarten did a lesson on shapes and three dimensional figures. I thought the props they brought in to show the students were very helpful and useful for the students to conduct a theory as to why shapes with sides do not roll and why round shapes do. However, a weakness in this lesson was that the students were not all allowed to touch the figures and were fighting over them. If I was teaching this lesson, I would have just passed around all the figures so everyone got a turn.
Lesson PLans and Reflections
The first integrative lesson I found was a 3-5 grade level lesson focusing on writing about slavery. This lesson differs a little from the traditional model because it uses the teacher reading a book and wants the students to make comparisons to the story. The teacher first reads the first part of the book and then allows students to share their ideas and thoughts. The students then pair up and make predictions about the story. In the next step, ( Casual Phase) the students make connections and comparisons to the story based on the predictions they made previously. I think this lesson differs a lot from the actual model in the text book, but it also still covers the main four phases of this model. I would have asked more Hypothetical questions at the end of the lesson to promote higher order thinking skills.
The second integrative lesson I found was an Elementary social studies lesson on Ancient Egypt and China. This lesson plan follows the four steps laid out in the matrix above very efficiently. The Open- Ended Phase occurs when the teacher asks the student to describe and compare Egypt and China and the answers are recorded. The next phase, the casual phase, the students are asked to explain the reasoning for the similarities between the two topics. The students are then asked Hypothetical questions and are taught to generalize the outcome to form broader relationships. I love how clearly and well laid out this lesson plan was and thought the instructions and directions were very easy to follow. I would have shown a short video of both Ancient Egypt and China just to give them a starting point for their research.
The second integrative lesson I found was an Elementary social studies lesson on Ancient Egypt and China. This lesson plan follows the four steps laid out in the matrix above very efficiently. The Open- Ended Phase occurs when the teacher asks the student to describe and compare Egypt and China and the answers are recorded. The next phase, the casual phase, the students are asked to explain the reasoning for the similarities between the two topics. The students are then asked Hypothetical questions and are taught to generalize the outcome to form broader relationships. I love how clearly and well laid out this lesson plan was and thought the instructions and directions were very easy to follow. I would have shown a short video of both Ancient Egypt and China just to give them a starting point for their research.