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Being assigned as a chair of a committee tasked with integrating multidisciplinary units in the eighth grade comes several responsibilities. The goal presented for the committee is to discuss a plan of action and integrate these units at the eighth grade level by the end of the school year.

After meeting with the committee and discussing about how one of the most important keys to consider with the integration is engagement to ensure that students will be curious about new material and focused on learning the information, the committee discuss a plan of action. With the team members having specific responsibilities and an established process for decision making, the committee possess a needed attribute for effectiveness. (Manning & Bucher, 2012)

The plan for the committee is to design the multidisciplinary units in three quarters with using the last quarter to integrate the new units on the eighth grade level. The committee would be able to receive feedback from this integration in the last quarter of the school year. The committee will take this feedback and make any needed adjustments to the curriculum during the summer months. Committee meeting will be held every two weeks for two hours after school. The first four meetings will be held in the first quarter of school.

The first quarter meetings will focus on planning the integration. These first quarter meetings will require committee member to consult with industry to identify authentic connections needed, analyze the current curriculum with CTE classes, analyze performance measures then link connections between classes and topics of interest, and develop key questions to use as objectives for learning opportunities for students. The objectives for students should be developmentally responsive for each student. (Manning & Bucher, 2012)

The meetings being held during second quarter will focus on planning the integration just as the first quarter meetings were and end with beginning to design the implementation. The committee will identify and define the roles of each team member. The committee would review the concepts of the new multidisciplinary units and develop sequences of teaching concepts. Ways would be planned to introduce the units to students to spark engagement between students and real world settings that are relevant to their lives. The committee would determine samples of appropriate assessments that would demonstrate the multidisciplinary units’ content knowledge mastery.

The third quarter meetings will focus on designing and the fourth quarter as implementation. The committee would review the overall units planning. Sample lesson plans will be created. The committee would begin to involve other teachers in the school to review the sample lesson plans and present objectives for the multidisciplinary units. The committee will address concerns and make adjustments based on feedback from teachers. The school will integrate the multidisciplinary units to the eighth grade during the fourth quarter.

Reference:

Manning, M. L., & Bucher, K. T. (2012). Teaching in the middle school (4th ed). Boston: Pearson.