Informational Letter

Education (teaching): I need to write an informational letter to the parents of your students. In it you will explain what an integrated curriculum entails for your classroom and how students will benefit from this instructional approach. As you write this letter, remember that your students’ parents are not familiar with the pedagogy of education (including the professional language associated with teaching).

See Attached document for particulars that need to be covered for this assignment

Letter to Parents

For this week’s assignment, you will write an informational letter to the parents of your students. In it you will explain what an integrated curriculum entails for your classroom and how their children will benefit from this instructional approach. As you write this letter, remember that your students’ parents are not familiar with the pedagogy of education (including the professional language associated with teaching). With this in mind, you’ll want to consider the following as you craft your letter:

• If you were a parent, what would be most important for you to know about an integrated curriculum?
• How will this new approach affect day-to-day things such as schedules, homework, etc.?
• Why does this approach better serve students’ needs compared to other approaches?

Also remember the following:

• This is a letter. It should include appropriate headings, introduction, body, and closing.
• Parents are not familiar with the “lingo” in education. Use layman’s terms.

Your response should be in the form of a 400-500 word letter.

Required Readings

The Reading Workshop: Helping Students Become Strategic, Engaged Learners and Critical Thinkers

(If the link takes you to Reading Recovery home page> Search “Taberski Keynote”)

The six slides in this presentation provide a broad overview of five (5) ways to help students grow into strategic, engaged learners and critical thinkers. Think of this as a backdrop to what we will study throughout this course.

Meeting Standards Through Integrated Curriculum: Chapter 1: What Is Integrated Curriculum?
As you read, think about what an integrated curriculum is. Have you had experience with one before?

Integrating Curriculum for Meaningful Learning
This article shows one team’s journey to integrate curriculum and magnify connections by working together across the curriculum and around the school.

Required Videos

Talking About Practice: Intentional Teaching
As you view this video, think about if (and how) you teach with intention. Although focused on early childhood, the video gives an excellent overview of what it means to teach with intention. (If the video does not begin playing, click on the video a second time to watch the video on YouTube.)

Supplemental Readings for Special Education Teachers

The following resources are provided to give supplemental support for special education teachers. As well, the information may be helpful for all teachers who teach students who struggle with reading. Although the articles are not tested on the session quiz, the information will provide additional insight for the assignments within the session.

Evidence-Based Strategies
Read pages 11-34 of “Evidence-Based Practices for Students with Severe Disabilities,” which talk about what to teach and how to teach.

Literacy for Students with Severe Disabilities
This article provides many ideas for teaching literacy to severely disabled students.

Answer preview

Dear parent,

I am humbly writing this letter to you in good faith and more so to inform you about the welfare of student curriculum changes in their respective grades. To begin with, I would like to make you aware of the changes that the school has made in the curriculum. There have been alterations where the school has changed from the old traditional teaching approach to the new integrated curriculum which I will give you a brief overview about…

(450 words)