This may be a good use of a blog for those questions that do not necessarily require a discussion, but more an opinion.
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How might interdisciplinary units be implemented in personal classrooms?
How would students in personal classrooms benefit from an interdisciplinary unit?
What challenges might be encountered?
9 comments:
None come to mind immediately from my formal educational experience; however, I do know that in our classroom when teaching concepts such as cycles or parts/whole, we draw from a variety of sources. Such as the concept of cycles-water cycles, seasonal cycles, cirrculation. Discussions of fractional relationship to whole involve money, time, measurement...all things that can be represented in fractionally... In our school, the art teacher, music teacher, gym teacher, works hard to create interdisciplinary unit by relating their particular discipline to the more traditional academic format.
In my classroom, I could imagine integrating science and social studies topics into my literacy and math blocks more than I do, instead of teaching them seperately in the afternoons. I think students would be more engaged and would take more ownership in their learning. To be successful, I think everyone in the school or on a team would have to be on board. We are preoccupied with raising test scores and with the shift toward standards based assessment,it is hard for teachers to abandon their programs and add more creativity and freedom to their planning, even though many of us would love to.
-Students would benefit because they would get a chance to apply their knowledge, just like in real life.
-There are less transitions, so more work and learning would be able to take place.
-A challenge that I could see happening is when students lose track of their essential questions. They may get distracted/excited by something they find in their research, but it may lead them away from what they are really trying to figure out. A teacher just needs to keep an eye on whether or not students are moving in the right direction.
-mjf
Using a pre-existing gade level theme, an essential question needs to be developed. From there, it seems a matter of linking different disciplines, making sure to answer the essential question independently. I probably am wrong.
Students will benefit from interdisiplinary lessons because they will be able to make more meaningful connections with the real world. Relating better to the real world will contribute to students being able to think at a higher level.
Teaching in isolation leaves little room for creativity.
Planning is an important part of implementation. The teacher needs to have everything ready to begin. As the unit evolves, things may pop up that have not been considered in the original planning, but this leads to problem solving and collaboration between the students and the teacher. The students gain independence and problem solving skills as well as any curriculum related information the teacher planned.
The benefits of integrating lessons are: 1. You are able to expose your students' learning abilities in a more heightened manner by helping the child make better connections between classroom lessons and real world events. 2. It can increase students' retention of knowledge over time.
Some struggles may be finding time for longer un-interrupted collaborative learning periods. Also, finding quality materials that intergrate all academic areas.
The Potpourri effect seems like it would fit best into an Elementary classroom. Taking one overlying theme and working it into each subject area.
Children will benefit from an interdisciplinary unit because it pushes students into using higher order thinking skill. It increases their retention and allows for a deeper understanding.
Problems--- if the child doesn't like the overlying theme, then you've lost them through the whole unit, not just the particular subject that it would regularly be addressed in.
The student goal is to become a better problem solver, to be able to see more than one solution. And, by that , becoming a more critical thinker. Students need to feel that what they are studying is significantly related to their own personal lives.
The most challenging issue I see is identifying good questions/problems for the interdisciplinary units.
Implementation in the classroom can only take place after topic identification, allocation of resources and materials, and some idea of the process of completion.
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