Post your ideas for an interdisciplinary, project-based unit you might teach and why your ideas meet the two criteria of interdisciplinary and project-based learning.
I plan to focus my interdisciplinary unit on exploring multicultural literature in order to investigate each child’s cultural identity. Working in the public school system in Brookline has been a great experience because I have seen many different cultures, family dynamics, and traditions. Because of this, I want children to have a chance to explore their own cultural identity through enriched literature. I believe excellence children’s literature is a powerful tool to explore and investigate each child’s culture and traditions. By creating small group and project-based lessons, it is also a great way students can learn about each other. This integrated thematic unit will meet several ELA, social studies and math frameworks. More to come as I flush out the lesson plans!
I am starting my takeover week tomorrow!! I will be teaching an interdisciplinary mini unit on stars and constellations. We have a project centers-based, hour-long literacy block which encompasses the current theme. In our space unit, we have been studying space- the sun, moon and planets so far. The centers I have planned are: creating your own constellation, writing about your constellation, continuing to work on space dictionaries and continuing work with balls and ramps (we usually have three adults in the room to lead centers). Students will also begin researching a constellation in pairs or groups of three and will write about it next week. For writers' workshop, students will continue with persuasive writing (they have been writing reviews for a month). I wanted to integrate what they have learned about Earth and outer space into review writing, so I am asking students to write persuasive essays on topics related to this theme. In the upcoming weeks, I will be video-taping students reading their essays and then put together a video to show at the parent breakfast next month. I got the idea to have students write science-related reviews after hearing their very strong opinions about different types of energy while reading Molly Bang's "My Light" - a fantastic picture book about how the sun is involved in creating different forms of energy. Students expressed concern that water-generated energy is wasteful, and some had detailed, passionate reasons as to why coal energy harms the planet and solar and wind energy are best. Other ideas for topics include: why Pluto should be a planet, why we should/shouldn't explore living on Venus/ Mercury/ Jupiter/Mars... I am really curious and excited to hear other ideas the students have about this project... and really hoping it goes well!!! We will be reading many picture books and have discussions about content related to stars and constellations. This unit integrates science and ELA standards; students will learn develop reading and writing skills as they learn about stars and constellations in a creative and hopefully fun way! I am in a 1/2 combined classroom in Cambridge.
My supervising practitioner has been opened to my ideas since I began working with her in September. During my take over week, I was able to create a persuasive writing unit. This year is the first year the literacy department is launching a persuasive writing unit because of the upcoming changes to MCAS in the years to come. Because the persuasive writing unit took place in February, I had the students choose an African American figure. After doing research on the person they chose, the students had to write an essay persuading their audience that their figure deserved a postage stamp design for them. Not only did the students learn to persuade, they also received a multicultural experience.
Along with the writing mini lessons, I was able to incorporate reading mini lessons, art and technology into the unit. The reading lessons were based on the research and finding good information to use. For art, the students were able to design a stamp for their African American figure, and for technology the students "Blabberize" their figure. This unique topic kept the students interested and motivated to learn and work hard on something they enjoyed.
I'm starting my takeover week this Wednesday and will be working with the class on Biographies. We have already started exploring the genre, reading books about Harriet Tubman and George Washington, but this week we will really get into how to write biographies of our own. One thing that's being incorporated on the first three days of my takeover week is the use of technology-aided research. Each child will have access to a laptop during all three Writing Workshops so they can find information on the person they choose to write about. Prior to their Internet research, I will talk about sites that are appropriate (Brittanica online, mainly) and the kinds of information they will want to gather. Using a graphic organizer, the class will determine what is important information to include in a biography and that will help narrow their Internet research. The unit satisfies many ELA standards, as well as lessons about technology.
Additionally, I just wrapped up a science unit I designed on Liquids. Over the course of three weeks, we explored water, vegetable oil and corn syrup, and experimented with creating "boats" out of tinfoil and clay that sunk and/or floated. There were a couple of messy situations, but overall it was very successful! I taught those science lessons on my own as a segue into my takeover week.
Both sound wonderful. Try and do a good evaluation of the student learning as well as the unit in general. This would be great to talk about on an interview. Nancy
I too am doing a unit on The Sun, Moon, and Stars. So far we have made human sundial outside. Partners have gone outside and traced each others shadows at the same point at different times during the day. We have recorded how the sun "appears" to be moving across the sky during the day--even though we have discovered that the sun is stationary and it is the sun's rotation that makes it look like the sun is moving.
In the next couple of weeks we will be recording the phases of the moon in groups. I plan to have them do this on GoogleDocs. I will be sharing a recording sheet for each student to use in a group of 6. I will first model for them what an observation might look like and how one might read. Each group will report on the phases of the moon on a different Friday. I feel as though some students might be able to learn from each other on how to report observations and pick up different writing techniques. Everybody will be able to see what everyone else is writing.
After some discussion with my teacher, I am hoping this will end up as a power point presentation where groups of students will report on the sun, shadows, moon, and constellations.
Sounds excellent. As I suggested to Liz, try keeping good notes on the unit as well as an evaluation of student learning. You might consider interviewing the students separately or in small groups as part of the evaluation. Nancy
I recently finished my first take-over week where I taught an interdisciplinary and project-based unit on weather. I had a host of activities that keyed off of one another designed to reinforce or augment concepts and material learned.
After explaining the water cycle and inviting children to explain it back to me several times in their own words, I gave them each a cup of water covered in plastic wrap to place around the room for us to monitor and discuss as the week progressed. At each discussion, I asked the children a myriad of questions to prompt their thinking about what had or was happening in the cups. Students were able to take what they learned from the water cycle lesson and apply it to what was happening to the water in their cups.
We also studied clouds and learned about the three main types. I divided the students into groups of 3 to classify a group of 9 cloud photographs. By working collectively, students were able to learn from one another about different approaches to classifying. When we regrouped on the rug, students shared the different approaches they took and then I taught them the way scientists group them (by shape, color, and position in sky). To further enhance their learning, I offered them the chance to paint/draw clouds at choice time using a fun white crayon/water color technique.
For my math lesson, I gave a mini lesson on what a thermometer is, why we used one, and how to read one (using questions and thoughtful introductions to stimulate their interest and thinking). I then gave them packet with thermometer problems – from reading and comparing thermometers (counting by 2’s and 10’s) to short story problems dealing with high and low temperatures.
There were many other lessons, but overall, with this unit, I involved the students as much as I could and used questions to stimulate their thinking.
The two units I will be teaching for two weeks in April are on poetry and immigration for 4th grade. Immigration will involve me reading several books to introduce them to the topic during the first week whenever I can. During writing, they will have interviewed their family on their own immigration history over April break, and will come back to write their stories on a "brick." I will collect the bricks and put them on a bulletin board that says, "Our class was built on immigration." I also am considering (at the suggestion of my cooperating teacher), a field trip to a place in Lowell that offers a good immigration learning experience. I have to look into that more, but we could go on the last day of my takeover weeks I assume. I, too, love the Blabberize idea but am unsure how they would do this...maybe they could "blabberize" their stories during computer lab time?
For poetry, I have to first teach them what poetry is and how to go about writing it. I will use many examples of poetry they might like, and read Love That Dog to them. During writing, we will do a "Mining the Heart" activity that allows kids to write down everything on a piece of paper w a heart drawn on it all their feelings, thoughts, ideas that they could write poems on. I feel like the combination of Love That Dog (about a boy who hates poetry but ends up writing a poem about how much he actually DOES like it) and the more touchy-feely Mining the Heart worksheet will meet the needs of students who are reluctant to write poetry and those who are ready to jump right in.
As for integrating these ideas into math, I am unsure. The math curriculum is from a book and my cooperating teacher just goes by the book every day. I am good, I think, at integrating things whenever I can, though, so I hope I can do it during my takeover weeks. I probably need more guidance with this from my cooperating teacher.
Another thing I would like to do is show the kids a thing on the nytimes.com website that is an interactive map showing immigration data since 1880 in the U.S. You can move the timebar around and see how and when a foreign-born group moved into the U.S. Maybe I could collaborate with the librarian to show them this.
Oh! And then I found a cool worksheet (I know, not everything will be a worksheet, haha) that lists all the words from other countries we have adapted into our own vocabulary. Words that will resonate with the kids and surprise them, like "cookie" is Dutch and "ketchup" is Japanese. I need to figure out a way to do this that is more creative than just handing them a worksheet and having them read it.
I also want to read to them during snack time, Milo and the Phantom Tollbooth because I think it has a lot of great vocabulary and puns and ideas that my class will like. They are all very imaginative writers and I think they will like this book. I like reading to them during snack time because otherwise it is just absolute chaos.
Anyway, that's it for now. I have a lot more planning to do! -Lauren
I'll be introducing a long unit on Community when I do my takeover. While I can see ways in which it can become more interdisciplinary, it will primarily be a unit covered in the writer's workshop time. I'm in a first grade class, so the topic of community directly relates to the social science and history frameworks. My students will be learning about their home and school communities, we'll go on short walks around the school neighborhood (which is a prime time to gather observations about the natural world and relate it to science, but science is a Special in this school, so it's something I suggested to the science teacher instead), and we'll have opportunities to interview local community helpers (the plan is to meet a librarian, a construction worker, a banker, and a 'pet expert'). We'll also be reading books about communities, and I've been wanting to start reading chapter books with them after one of the larger transitions during the day. I have a few books picked out that relate in some way to community. My biggest contribution to the unit has been thinking of ways to integrate art into the unit. So far, this is what I have: * Using tracing paper, students trace their neighborhood outline from one of the maps. Students may also trace the street they live on in that neighborhood. Students then paste the tracing paper onto construction paper. They label their neighborhood correctly (as well as their street). A possibility would be to have the student find their neighborhood on the large-scale map and place a pin. * Currently, students are only supposed to take photos of landmarks in their community and bring that in. My thinking is that each student should bring in one or two items from their community, and then from these items, the teacher will select a few to be carefully drawn. Teacher will need to model how to draw with thoughtfulness and reflection before allowing students to tackle it. * Have the students write short stories that have their neighborhoods (or the school neighborhood) as a setting. Do it as sticker-stories. Students are allowed to pick out three stickers (animals, community items like police badges or firefighter helmets, people, plants), paste them into the illustration box and illustrate around them. Then write a story with a beginning, middle, and end. My supervising teacher has said that we have to stick to the math units that are already in place, but these are some math related ideas that I might be able to squeeze into the unit during Morning Meeting or if I lead the unit as Centers: measure distances--from home to school, from home to store, from school to store--on maps and record. Do money transaction story problems (or have the students create store transaction story problems), or supplies story problems (ex: Josie had planted 5 tulips in her neighborhood garden, but wanted to have 16 tulips in the garden. How many tulips does Josie need to buy?).
I love making interdisciplinary units. When I was a preschool teacher, we followed themes in much the same way, and it was very effective. It also made the school day feel less hectic and full, because there was not so much jumping from one thing to the next.
In the fourth grade class that I'm a student teacher in, science seems to be the subject that I'm able to create the most lessons for. I'm finishing a unit up now on weather (when we have spare time from mcas). Next week we will be wrapping up weather by having students take a written assessment. To start off my unit I will be giving a pre-test to decide what the students already know/want to know about plants. The students will then do a teacher directed internet activity to explore the topic and learn more about it. Next Friday I'm being observed and I'm going to have the students look at lima beans to see the different parts of a seed. They will have a hands on model of a seed that they can put together and draw. Eventually we will be planting seeds and observing them grow. The students will write about the seeds in journals. I have found brain pop videos to go with the topic and plan on doing some lessons on honeybees. I hope to make this unit a fun, engaging and interesting one for the students. It is especially important to me because this is the first time I will be able to teach a unit from start to finish.
I have just wrapped up my first take over week where I had the students study the work of Kevin Henkes throughout their academic subjects. I used his books to inspire or base the activities for math, ELA, science, and social studies. For math I used the characters that come up a lot in his books as the basis for word problems and used Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse to introduce the concept of money. For writing, we looked at All Alone to look at a small private moment and how that can influence their writing. For science, we used So Happy to introduce seed planting and My Garden to do observations in our community garden. For social studies we used Henkes' mouse books to pull out the themes of friendship and what the rules are between friends. We were also able to do many other activities centered around the work of Henkes like a word wall and letter to the author. I found that the interdisciplinary approach offered students a chance to make connections across subjects and increased engagement and interest.
For my next take over week, my cooperating teacher and I are thinking of integrating the theme of India since one student just came back from a 5 week trip and another student is from there. We are still in the brainstorming stage, but I am really looking forward to bringing India to life in the classroom.
I have found that while these units or themes take so much effort and time, there are numerous benefits and the lessons and activities will stay with the students for much longer than traditional non-interdisciplinary instruction.
I plan to focus my interdisciplinary unit on exploring multicultural literature in order to investigate each child’s cultural identity. Working in the public school system in Brookline has been a great experience because I have seen many different cultures, family dynamics, and traditions. Because of this, I want children to have a chance to explore their own cultural identity through enriched literature. I believe excellence children’s literature is a powerful tool to explore and investigate each child’s culture and traditions. By creating small group and project-based lessons, it is also a great way students can learn about each other. This integrated thematic unit will meet several ELA, social studies and math frameworks. More to come as I flush out the lesson plans!
ReplyDeleteSounds wonderful - and something to show during your job interviews!
ReplyDeleteNancy
I am starting my takeover week tomorrow!! I will be teaching an interdisciplinary mini unit on stars and constellations. We have a project centers-based, hour-long literacy block which encompasses the current theme. In our space unit, we have been studying space- the sun, moon and planets so far. The centers I have planned are: creating your own constellation, writing about your constellation, continuing to work on space dictionaries and continuing work with balls and ramps (we usually have three adults in the room to lead centers). Students will also begin researching a constellation in pairs or groups of three and will write about it next week. For writers' workshop, students will continue with persuasive writing (they have been writing reviews for a month). I wanted to integrate what they have learned about Earth and outer space into review writing, so I am asking students to write persuasive essays on topics related to this theme. In the upcoming weeks, I will be video-taping students reading their essays and then put together a video to show at the parent breakfast next month. I got the idea to have students write science-related reviews after hearing their very strong opinions about different types of energy while reading Molly Bang's "My Light" - a fantastic picture book about how the sun is involved in creating different forms of energy. Students expressed concern that water-generated energy is wasteful, and some had detailed, passionate reasons as to why coal energy harms the planet and solar and wind energy are best. Other ideas for topics include: why Pluto should be a planet, why we should/shouldn't explore living on Venus/ Mercury/ Jupiter/Mars... I am really curious and excited to hear other ideas the students have about this project... and really hoping it goes well!!!
ReplyDeleteWe will be reading many picture books and have discussions about content related to stars and constellations. This unit integrates science and ELA standards; students will learn develop reading and writing skills as they learn about stars and constellations in a creative and hopefully fun way!
I am in a 1/2 combined classroom in Cambridge.
This sounds perfect. What an interesting class. Will you share your videotape with us?
ReplyDeleteNancy
My supervising practitioner has been opened to my ideas since I began working with her in September. During my take over week, I was able to create a persuasive writing unit. This year is the first year the literacy department is launching a persuasive writing unit because of the upcoming changes to MCAS in the years to come. Because the persuasive writing unit took place in February, I had the students choose an African American figure. After doing research on the person they chose, the students had to write an essay persuading their audience that their figure deserved a postage stamp design for them. Not only did the students learn to persuade, they also received a multicultural experience.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the writing mini lessons, I was able to incorporate reading mini lessons, art and technology into the unit. The reading lessons were based on the research and finding good information to use. For art, the students were able to design a stamp for their African American figure, and for technology the students "Blabberize" their figure. This unique topic kept the students interested and motivated to learn and work hard on something they enjoyed.
An excellent unit! Could you please explain "Blabberize"?
ReplyDeleteNancy
I'm starting my takeover week this Wednesday and will be working with the class on Biographies. We have already started exploring the genre, reading books about Harriet Tubman and George Washington, but this week we will really get into how to write biographies of our own. One thing that's being incorporated on the first three days of my takeover week is the use of technology-aided research. Each child will have access to a laptop during all three Writing Workshops so they can find information on the person they choose to write about. Prior to their Internet research, I will talk about sites that are appropriate (Brittanica online, mainly) and the kinds of information they will want to gather. Using a graphic organizer, the class will determine what is important information to include in a biography and that will help narrow their Internet research. The unit satisfies many ELA standards, as well as lessons about technology.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I just wrapped up a science unit I designed on Liquids. Over the course of three weeks, we explored water, vegetable oil and corn syrup, and experimented with creating "boats" out of tinfoil and clay that sunk and/or floated. There were a couple of messy situations, but overall it was very successful! I taught those science lessons on my own as a segue into my takeover week.
Both sound wonderful. Try and do a good evaluation of the student learning as well as the unit in general. This would be great to talk about on an interview.
DeleteNancy
I too am doing a unit on The Sun, Moon, and Stars. So far we have made human sundial outside. Partners have gone outside and traced each others shadows at the same point at different times during the day. We have recorded how the sun "appears" to be moving across the sky during the day--even though we have discovered that the sun is stationary and it is the sun's rotation that makes it look like the sun is moving.
ReplyDeleteIn the next couple of weeks we will be recording the phases of the moon in groups. I plan to have them do this on GoogleDocs. I will be sharing a recording sheet for each student to use in a group of 6. I will first model for them what an observation might look like and how one might read. Each group will report on the phases of the moon on a different Friday. I feel as though some students might be able to learn from each other on how to report observations and pick up different writing techniques. Everybody will be able to see what everyone else is writing.
After some discussion with my teacher, I am hoping this will end up as a power point presentation where groups of students will report on the sun, shadows, moon, and constellations.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSounds excellent. As I suggested to Liz, try keeping good notes on the unit as well as an evaluation of student learning. You might consider interviewing the students separately or in small groups as part of the evaluation.
DeleteNancy
I recently finished my first take-over week where I taught an interdisciplinary and project-based unit on weather. I had a host of activities that keyed off of one another designed to reinforce or augment concepts and material learned.
ReplyDeleteAfter explaining the water cycle and inviting children to explain it back to me several times in their own words, I gave them each a cup of water covered in plastic wrap to place around the room for us to monitor and discuss as the week progressed. At each discussion, I asked the children a myriad of questions to prompt their thinking about what had or was happening in the cups. Students were able to take what they learned from the water cycle lesson and apply it to what was happening to the water in their cups.
We also studied clouds and learned about the three main types. I divided the students into groups of 3 to classify a group of 9 cloud photographs. By working collectively, students were able to learn from one another about different approaches to classifying. When we regrouped on the rug, students shared the different approaches they took and then I taught them the way scientists group them (by shape, color, and position in sky). To further enhance their learning, I offered them the chance to paint/draw clouds at choice time using a fun white crayon/water color technique.
For my math lesson, I gave a mini lesson on what a thermometer is, why we used one, and how to read one (using questions and thoughtful introductions to stimulate their interest and thinking). I then gave them packet with thermometer problems – from reading and comparing thermometers (counting by 2’s and 10’s) to short story problems dealing with high and low temperatures.
There were many other lessons, but overall, with this unit, I involved the students as much as I could and used questions to stimulate their thinking.
The two units I will be teaching for two weeks in April are on poetry and immigration for 4th grade. Immigration will involve me reading several books to introduce them to the topic during the first week whenever I can. During writing, they will have interviewed their family on their own immigration history over April break, and will come back to write their stories on a "brick." I will collect the bricks and put them on a bulletin board that says, "Our class was built on immigration." I also am considering (at the suggestion of my cooperating teacher), a field trip to a place in Lowell that offers a good immigration learning experience. I have to look into that more, but we could go on the last day of my takeover weeks I assume. I, too, love the Blabberize idea but am unsure how they would do this...maybe they could "blabberize" their stories during computer lab time?
ReplyDeleteFor poetry, I have to first teach them what poetry is and how to go about writing it. I will use many examples of poetry they might like, and read Love That Dog to them. During writing, we will do a "Mining the Heart" activity that allows kids to write down everything on a piece of paper w a heart drawn on it all their feelings, thoughts, ideas that they could write poems on. I feel like the combination of Love That Dog (about a boy who hates poetry but ends up writing a poem about how much he actually DOES like it) and the more touchy-feely Mining the Heart worksheet will meet the needs of students who are reluctant to write poetry and those who are ready to jump right in.
As for integrating these ideas into math, I am unsure. The math curriculum is from a book and my cooperating teacher just goes by the book every day. I am good, I think, at integrating things whenever I can, though, so I hope I can do it during my takeover weeks. I probably need more guidance with this from my cooperating teacher.
Another thing I would like to do is show the kids a thing on the nytimes.com website that is an interactive map showing immigration data since 1880 in the U.S. You can move the timebar around and see how and when a foreign-born group moved into the U.S. Maybe I could collaborate with the librarian to show them this.
Oh! And then I found a cool worksheet (I know, not everything will be a worksheet, haha) that lists all the words from other countries we have adapted into our own vocabulary. Words that will resonate with the kids and surprise them, like "cookie" is Dutch and "ketchup" is Japanese. I need to figure out a way to do this that is more creative than just handing them a worksheet and having them read it.
I also want to read to them during snack time, Milo and the Phantom Tollbooth because I think it has a lot of great vocabulary and puns and ideas that my class will like. They are all very imaginative writers and I think they will like this book. I like reading to them during snack time because otherwise it is just absolute chaos.
Anyway, that's it for now. I have a lot more planning to do!
-Lauren
I'll be introducing a long unit on Community when I do my takeover. While I can see ways in which it can become more interdisciplinary, it will primarily be a unit covered in the writer's workshop time. I'm in a first grade class, so the topic of community directly relates to the social science and history frameworks. My students will be learning about their home and school communities, we'll go on short walks around the school neighborhood (which is a prime time to gather observations about the natural world and relate it to science, but science is a Special in this school, so it's something I suggested to the science teacher instead), and we'll have opportunities to interview local community helpers (the plan is to meet a librarian, a construction worker, a banker, and a 'pet expert'). We'll also be reading books about communities, and I've been wanting to start reading chapter books with them after one of the larger transitions during the day. I have a few books picked out that relate in some way to community.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest contribution to the unit has been thinking of ways to integrate art into the unit. So far, this is what I have:
* Using tracing paper, students trace their neighborhood outline from one of the maps. Students may also trace the street they live on in that neighborhood. Students then paste the tracing paper onto construction paper. They label their neighborhood correctly (as well as their street). A possibility would be to have the student find their neighborhood on the large-scale map and place a pin.
* Currently, students are only supposed to take photos of landmarks in their community and bring that in. My thinking is that each student should bring in one or two items from their community, and then from these items, the teacher will select a few to be carefully drawn. Teacher will need to model how to draw with thoughtfulness and reflection before allowing students to tackle it.
* Have the students write short stories that have their neighborhoods (or the school neighborhood) as a setting. Do it as sticker-stories. Students are allowed to pick out three stickers (animals, community items like police badges or firefighter helmets, people, plants), paste them into the illustration box and illustrate around them. Then write a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
My supervising teacher has said that we have to stick to the math units that are already in place, but these are some math related ideas that I might be able to squeeze into the unit during Morning Meeting or if I lead the unit as Centers: measure distances--from home to school, from home to store, from school to store--on maps and record. Do money transaction story problems (or have the students create store transaction story problems), or supplies story problems (ex: Josie had planted 5 tulips in her neighborhood garden, but wanted to have 16 tulips in the garden. How many tulips does Josie need to buy?).
I love making interdisciplinary units. When I was a preschool teacher, we followed themes in much the same way, and it was very effective. It also made the school day feel less hectic and full, because there was not so much jumping from one thing to the next.
In the fourth grade class that I'm a student teacher in, science seems to be the subject that I'm able to create the most lessons for. I'm finishing a unit up now on weather (when we have spare time from mcas). Next week we will be wrapping up weather by having students take a written assessment.
ReplyDeleteTo start off my unit I will be giving a pre-test to decide what the students already know/want to know about plants. The students will then do a teacher directed internet activity to explore the topic and learn more about it. Next Friday I'm being observed and I'm going to have the students look at lima beans to see the different parts of a seed. They will have a hands on model of a seed that they can put together and draw. Eventually we will be planting seeds and observing them grow. The students will write about the seeds in journals. I have found brain pop videos to go with the topic and plan on doing some lessons on honeybees.
I hope to make this unit a fun, engaging and interesting one for the students. It is especially important to me because this is the first time I will be able to teach a unit from start to finish.
I have just wrapped up my first take over week where I had the students study the work of Kevin Henkes throughout their academic subjects. I used his books to inspire or base the activities for math, ELA, science, and social studies. For math I used the characters that come up a lot in his books as the basis for word problems and used Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse to introduce the concept of money. For writing, we looked at All Alone to look at a small private moment and how that can influence their writing. For science, we used So Happy to introduce seed planting and My Garden to do observations in our community garden. For social studies we used Henkes' mouse books to pull out the themes of friendship and what the rules are between friends. We were also able to do many other activities centered around the work of Henkes like a word wall and letter to the author. I found that the interdisciplinary approach offered students a chance to make connections across subjects and increased engagement and interest.
ReplyDeleteFor my next take over week, my cooperating teacher and I are thinking of integrating the theme of India since one student just came back from a 5 week trip and another student is from there. We are still in the brainstorming stage, but I am really looking forward to bringing India to life in the classroom.
I have found that while these units or themes take so much effort and time, there are numerous benefits and the lessons and activities will stay with the students for much longer than traditional non-interdisciplinary instruction.