Different students learn best in different ways. This message was driven home by T. Roger Taylor, a teacher and consultant who is a zealous advocate of curriculum integration.
"Some kids learn best by reading great fiction and nonfiction about a topic," Taylor said. Therefore, a teacher designing a 4th grade unit on weather, for example, should include literature such as the book Rainy Rainy Saturday by Jack Prelutsky, Carl Sandburg's poem "Fog," or even the opening passage of The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. "Literature has got to be integrated" across the curriculum, Taylor said. "It's nonnegotiable."
Taylor used the same reasoning to defend the traditional practices of lecturing and using a textbook. "Some kids learn best if they are verbally told what they need to know," he said. Therefore, teachers should lecture to their students every day—but in moderation. "To not lecture is as bad as lecturing all the time," Taylor asserted.
"Some kids learn best when they read dry textbooks, make an outline, and then answer study questions," he continued. Therefore, teachers should use textbooks—but again, in moderation. "To not use a textbook is as bad as using a textbook all the time."
Other students respond best to less conventional approaches. "Some kids learn best through the rhythmic patterns of music, metered poetry, or rap," Taylor said. He recommended The Green Book of Songs by Subject by Jeff Green as a resource that teachers can use to identify songs to integrate into their lessons. For the weather unit, for example, The Green Book lists multiple songs about rain, from "Stormy Weather" to "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider."
Still other children learn best in bodily-kinesthetic ways: through dances and games, Taylor said. As resources for teachers, he recommended the books Country Dances of Colonial America by John Fitzhugh Millar and Games from Long Ago by Bobbie Kalman.
For visual learners, teachers should not be afraid to integrate films into their instruction, Taylor said. The five freedoms of the First Amendment, for example, can be illustrated through films such as Witness (freedom of religion) and Absence of Malice (freedom of the press). However, "don't waste precious class time by showing the whole video," Taylor emphasized. "At most, show a 12-minute clip."
Integrating the curriculum is vital if teachers are to reach today's students, Taylor said. At the turn of the century, only 10 percent of students went on to high school, he noted. These students were "born to be mild; they could sit still while the teacher droned on and on." Today's students are not so quiescent. "Many teachers are still teaching with a hundred-year-old model, where the kids wanted to be there," Taylor said. "We've got to reach out and have a curriculum that will motivate a sofa."