Curriculum
Integratation
Making connections
At Howard Street, we want students to understand that the world is not separated into separate subjects or disciplines. Often this takes the form of alignment where grade level classes study similar subject matter in each separate class. Thus, sixth graders study cave art in 6th grade Art while studying about Early Man in 6th grade Humanities. The 8th grade Lincoln projects is another example of alignment.
In addition to alignment, students also experience a number of integrated projects. These are projects that are scored in multiple disciplines. Artist in a Bottle - a combined project between Spanish and Art - is one example of this project. Students study a Hispanic artist in Spanish and use their knowledge to create a bottle painted in the artist's style that is graded as part of the Spanish project and an art assignment.
Lastly, sometimes we take time out of the traditional schedule to have integrated days. This year's theme was A Thousand Cranes. Guest speakers Henry and Alice Yoshikai began our study of the two sides of World War II. We looked at the experience of Sadako as well as the Yoshikais in the Japanese Internment Camps.