James Beane

Bradley Steele

Naomi Zagol

Aurora Torres

James Beane

Is a professor at National-Louis University.

School reform coach at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin

Has spoken at numerous national and international conferences.

James Beane Has written many books on the subject of Integrated

Curriculum: Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of a

Democratic Education Affect in the Curriculum: Toward Democracy, Dignity and

Diversity A Middle School Curriculum: From Rhetoric to Reality

Is co-author of: Self-Concept, Self-Esteem and the Curriculum Curriculum Planning and Development, The Middle School and Beyond , and When the Kids Come First: Enhancing Self-Esteem at the

Middle Level Is co-editor of:

Democratic Schools Is editor of:

Toward A Coherent Curriculum, the 1995 ASCD Yearbook

James Beane

Wife is a middle school eighth grade teacher.

His wife helped him out with his research on the Integrated Curriculum.

Has taught both high school and middle school.

The Theory of “Integrated Curriculum”

His way of realizing the goals of social learning in the “Middle School Movement.”

Purpose is to join coherence and permeability in education for developing a “holistic” picture and providing an environment in which a student can voice his or her opinion

The Theory of “Integrated Curriculum”

Encourages students to ask questions about themselves and their surroundings.

Encourages interaction and cooperation in order to learn.

Developed 10 Different stages

Stage One: Generating a list of questions about themselves:

Where will I go to school? What are my interests? What kind of jobs will they have in the

future? What do I want to be when I get older?

Teachers have also found it helpful to alert students of this task before assigning it to them so that they have time to think about their questions.

Stage Two

Stage Two: Arranging children into small groups and letting them share their questions.

Students are encouraged to find the “common question(s),” the question or questions they all have in common

This allows children to see that they may not be the only one with that question or interest. Child opens up his or hers eyes to the ideas of others.

Stage Three: World Concerns

Stage Three: Children are asked to write down questions they have about the world:

Why is the sky blue? What is global warming? Can endangered species be saved? What makes a volcano erupt?

Stage Four: Finding Common World Themes

In stage four, students are put into small groups, and within those small groups they share their question about the world and decide which questions are common questions.

Stage Five: Finding Themes

In this stage children find ways in which their common questions connect with each other and from there they build a theme.

Stage Six: Sharing Themes

In Stage six the small groups come together and share their themes and they try to connect it with the themes from the other small groups.

The themes are examined and the teacher makes sure none of the themes overlap another.

Stage Seven: Selecting Themes

The classroom as a whole now votes on one or two themes.

The semester/trimester is going to built upon from the selected themes.

Themes are chosen according to how strongly the students feel about that theme.

Stage Eight: Connecting Questions to Themes.

The teacher selects a small group of students to go over the common questions of all the other groups. That small group then decides which questions belong to which theme.

Stage Nine: Selecting Activities

The themes are posted around the room, along with the questions that pertain to the themes.

The kids walk around the room in groups of two or three, examine the themes and questions, and then write down activities they think will help them with their theme.

Stage Ten: Unit Planning

With the help of the teacher, the students plan a unit on their themes.

Critique

Middle schools are often too focused in the social development of children and not enough on the academic development.

Too idealistic.

References

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl http://coe.winthrop.edu/blackburnb/EDCI%20600/Beane.pdf http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tate.org.uk http://www.educ.uidaho.edu/middlegradesconnection/summer_institut

e/james_a_beane.htm

http://www.learningnetwork.ac.nz/shared/products/facilitator.aspx?id=BEANE

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Reason-to-Teach/James-A-Beane/e/9780325008349/

http://books.heinemann.com/authors/4049.aspx http://www.amazon.com/Toward-Coherent-Curriculum-1995-Yearbook/

dp/0871203111 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/What-Every-Middle-School-Teacher-

Should-Know/Dave-F-Brown/e/9780325009537/?itm=2 http://imet.csus.edu/imet2/stanfillj/workshops/pbl/

james_beane.htm#Questioning%20Stategy