What is the Integrated Curriculum Model?
The Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) is an approach to teaching gifted students in a way that is sensitive to their needs. This model places an emphasis on advance content knowledge, relies on higher order thinking skills, and focuses learning on major issues that cross several disciplines. The ICM features three components: Overarching Concepts, Advance Content, and Process-Product.
Overarching Concepts:
Reading, reflections, and discussions allow students the ability to develop ideas, themes, and determine related concepts and ideas among various fields of study.
Advanced Content:
This provides gifted students the opportunity to delve deeper into a content area, rather than "skim the top" as may occur in a regular education class. Advanced Content provides opportunities for students to use advanced skills, and move through the curriculum in a more rapid pace, or deeper.
Process-Product:
In true gifted fashion, this aspect of the ICM allows students to explore a topic and conduct research relevant to their topic, or engage in a problem based learning experience.
The Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) is an approach to teaching gifted students in a way that is sensitive to their needs. This model places an emphasis on advance content knowledge, relies on higher order thinking skills, and focuses learning on major issues that cross several disciplines. The ICM features three components: Overarching Concepts, Advance Content, and Process-Product.
Overarching Concepts:
Reading, reflections, and discussions allow students the ability to develop ideas, themes, and determine related concepts and ideas among various fields of study.
Advanced Content:
This provides gifted students the opportunity to delve deeper into a content area, rather than "skim the top" as may occur in a regular education class. Advanced Content provides opportunities for students to use advanced skills, and move through the curriculum in a more rapid pace, or deeper.
Process-Product:
In true gifted fashion, this aspect of the ICM allows students to explore a topic and conduct research relevant to their topic, or engage in a problem based learning experience.
An example of the Integrated Curriculum Model in action:
What makes ICM appropriate for gifted students?
- Developed as a means of further educating students who have the background knowledge, not to be used as a form of remediation
- Emphasizes teaching advanced content that further frame disciplines
- Provides higher order thinking and processing
- Students use terms inter-changeably from one field of study to another, ie. a student may write about a pioneer and their point of view, rather than simply use the term "point of view" in a language arts class
- The idea of ICM is to scaffold learning for students in a worldly manner, and allow the students the opportunity to explore deep understanding of content and concepts