Teachers in the “information age” are faced with challenges! So much to do…so little time. How can writing objectives, social studies objectives, and problem-solving objectives be taught along with reading, research, and language skills? There are not enough hours in the day.

But there is a way! Teachers can meet curricular and student performance requirements by clustering, telescoping, and/or combining objectives and outcomes between and across content areas.

For example, a teacher may be required to assess students on the following objectives:
      • locate supporting evidence in information sources
      • tell how one character attempts to persuade another character to do something
      • list the causes of the Civil War
      • write a friendly letter

An ideal activity combining these four “unconnected’ objects might be to:
      Write a letter to your brother in which you are trying to persuade him to join you
      in the Confederate Army.

      In your persuasion, try to make your side’s reasons for fighting seem more important
      and justifiable than the Union’s.

From this activity, a teacher can assess student mastery of the objectives given while offering each student the opportunity to be uniquely creative. Students master objectives in social studies, reading, research, language skills, and problem solving.

The demands of society will require students to integrate skills. This book is designed to give students experiences in dealing with factual information creatively at the higher levels of thinking—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These skills will transfer to other areas of learning and, most importantly, to real-life.