The integrated curriculum guides can be used to design units that span a day, week, month or an entire school year. Subjects covered include geography, social studies, history, art and architecture, letter writing, research projects, excursions and creative writing. Mary Zurn, Ph.D., reading and language arts content specialist for IBM Global Education, discovered the Talking Walls books while attending a reading conference. Dr. Zurn saw that Talking Walls would be a perfect extension of IBM's Stories and More elementary reading series. Dr. Zurn explains that she was as taken with the wonderful illustrations of Talking Walls as she was with the book's well written text and multicultural explorations.
Pictures have great power and impact, which help students understand and remember what they read.
Dr. John Richards, vice president and general manager of Turner Learning, had approached IBM to discuss collaboration between the two companies on future programs. Both Dr. Richards and Dr. Zurn recognized the potential of a multimedia program based on Talking Walls. Dr. Richards said that the project presented a unique opportunity to present children with valuable multicultural material. Through the universality of Talking Walls we see both the commonalties and the differences across cultures. It's been a delight to work with the IBM team and to share their multicultural vision.