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Integrated Courses Offer Enriched Learning Opportunities
By Christine Marson

Integrated courses are one unique element of the New Technology High School model. Each Indiana NTHS offers distinctive combinations of integrated courses as part of their curriculum. The courses employ collaborative teaching and project-based learning to support 21st-century skills, life-long learning and workplace readiness. Staff and students from New Tech High @ Arsenal Tech and North Daviess 21st Century Junior/Senior High School shared thoughts and insights into their course offerings as part one in a series of articles highlighting integrated courses from Indiana’s New Tech High Schools.

New Tech High @ Arsenal Tech
New Tech High @ Arsenal Tech, part of Indianapolis Public Schools’ district-wide magnet program, currently offers several integrated classes to ninth- and 10th-grade students:

• Bio/Tech (Biology I and Digital Technology)

• World Studies (World History and English)

• American Studies (U.S. History and English)

• Applied Math (Algebra II and Physics)

• Societal Analysis (Sociology and Psychology)

“Taking integrated classes gives you work environment experiences,” said Dominique Ghurman, a sophomore at New Tech High @ Arsenal Tech. “Right now I’m taking two integrated classes—American Studies and Applied Math. In my classes, we work on projects but aren’t told exactly what to do. Teachers give us the task to be accomplished and, through group work, we have to figure it out. I think of it like a real business project where the boss gives you a work assignment and you and other employees get around the table and discuss what you need to do to finish the project and then work together to do it. Our projects are based on real-world applications.”

Like the students, teachers at New Tech High @ Arsenal Tech also have positive remarks on the integrated approach. Andrew Jaynes said, “As an Applied Math and Physics teacher, I appreciate the creative team-teaching environment. Teachers work well together and enjoy it. We collaborate a lot, which is one of the reasons behind the New Tech model’s success. The Applied Math and Physics class I teach presents a difficult combination for students, considering it’s their sophomore year but this class’s success comes in part from the energy provided by the dual-teaching model.”

North Daviess 21st Century Junior/Senior High School
In its first year of offering integrated courses, North Daviess 21st Century Junior/Senior High School offers World Studies to ninth-grade students, which integrates World History, English and Success Skills. In addition, other non-integrated classes using the New Tech curriculum are offered at other grade levels.
 
“The three subject areas integrated in this course contain standards that go hand-in-hand with one another. When our areas are combined, students are more easily able to see how these subjects overlap with one another in real-world projects,” said Deborah Thomas, English/Language Arts 9 teacher for the World Studies class. The course brings together four teachers from World History, Success Skills, special needs, and English/Language Arts who collaboratively create lesson plans and deliberately incorporate all subject areas into each assigned project.

Thomas added, “In the past when I would teach stories, I didn’t feel as if I did the pre-reading historical part of it any justice. But now that we have a history teacher in the room, we are able to enrich those stories better than ever. Also, when I did a project in the past using technology, I often had to ask for assistance from either a technology trainer or a student. However, with Mrs. Graber’s Success Skills portion added in the mix, we don’t have that problem anymore. Mrs. Strange is able to support students with special needs without singling them out. Additionally, the team teaching approach helps support the whole teaching process; from grading to curriculum to asking what I’ve forgotten in my daily teaching agenda, my team is there to help.”