Sequenced Integration

Using the sequenced model, topics and units are taught independently, but they are arranged and sequenced to provide a framework for related concepts. This model views the curriculum through eyeglasses; the lenses are separate but connected by a common frame.

Teachers arrange topics so that similar units coincide or articulate. For example, in a self-contained classroom, Charlotte’s Web can/may accompany the unit on spiders. While the Revolutionary War may/can parallel the study of Johnny Tremain. And a graphing unit can coincide with data collection in a weather unit.

In higher education, let’s say a secondary school, the teacher could plan units so that students can study the stock market in a math class at the same time that these same students are studying the Depression in their history class.

For this type of integration to take place, it is often necessary that the teachers in both classes plan the sequence of their units so that they will be synchronized. This may mean that the teachers will need to change the sequence of topics contained in the course textbooks.

“The textbook is not a moral contract that teachers are obliged to teach…teachers are obliged to teach [students].”

                                            —John Adams

Following the sequences of textbooks may not work well in all cases. It may and can work in some cases but rearranging the sequence of units might make more sense in other cases. The new sequence may be more logical if it parallels the presentation of other content across disciplines.