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Effective lesson and unit planning is a key skill needed to be harnessed for all educators. Well-run lessons, resulted from a cohesive lesson plan assures that all students receive the best quality education and increases the possibility that the lesson will run smoothly (Cunningham, 2009). Integrated lessons however can become challenging for even the most experienced of teachers.

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Effective lesson and unit planning is a key skill needed to be harnessed for all educators. Well-run lessons, resulted from a cohesive lesson plan assures that all students receive the best quality education and increases the possibility that the lesson will run smoothly (Cunningham, 2009). Integrated lessons however can become challenging for even the most experienced of teachers.

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Integrated learning revolves around the concept of teaching a number of academic disciplines within one unit. An integrated school curriculum looks more to how different subjects’ themes and issues can be interwoven throughout a unit or learning plan, rather than focuses on the strict academic disciplines such as traditional school subjects (Brady, 2014)

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It can be confusing and overwhelming to think of where to start when creating an integrated unit or lesson plan. As a teacher, you must first understand what you want from your students. This can be done by using a backward design model such as the Understanding by Design curriculum model which aims to initially identify the overall goals you wish to achieve in your integrated lesson/ unit (State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Communities, 2014).

To help plan an integrated unit or lesson, you can begin by discussing which model of integration would work best.These include the connected model; which focuses on integration through the connection of shared subjects, the nested model; which uses natural combinations between subjects, the sequenced model; which places integration in a broader framework and the webbed model; which uses integration as an overlay to different subjects (Fogerty, 1991).

These models can be used as a basis for an inquiry based approach to integrated learning which help educators to plan lessons and units that utilise the relationships between the subjects that focus on our everyday environments such as science and health with the subjects that help students to understand and comprehend the world around them, such as mathematics, art and technology, all of which allow students to gain a stronger and more sophisticated knowledge of the going ons in their everyday lives (Murdoch, 1998).

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How can an integrated unit not be overcrowded?

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How can an integrated unit not be overcrowded?

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It is important that the integration of lessons doesn’t hinder the lesson with an overcrowding of learning outcomes.

An overcrowded curriculum can be one that disadvantages both students and teachers. Whilst the suggestions of integrated learning of different social subjects is commonly put forward by environmentalists, first aid respondents and even celebrity chefs, overcrowding a school’s curriculum can make teachers feel they are disadvantaged in teaching the basics, discussing how there’s only so many hours in the school day to teach the necessary academic disciplines (Medlen, 2010).

A project-based approach is a great way to not overcrowd a lesson or unit. Project-based learning allows for students to become engaged and interested in what they are learning with a project being able to touch on individual subjects discreetly as more of a total package; placing project-based learning as a teaching approach covered by the nested model (Vonow, 2015). A curriculum that is overcrowded can contribute to the lack of student engagement in their studies, so productive integrated lessons need to acknowledge how students can be re-engaged, much like project-based learning aims to do (Hanlon, 2004).