Interdisciplinary Connections

My Interdisciplinary map

The interdisciplinary connection I selected is my students as, after all, they are my priority.

I think we need to remember what Daniel Pink states - we need to prepare our students for their future not our past. I believe most teachers will agree with that statement, but with the constraints of curriculum subjects and National Standards, we get bogged down with must cover rather than the creative flare that would allow children to blossom.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article Themes or motives? Aiming for coherence through interdisciplinary outlines by K. Barton and L. Smith. They state that "Instruction should focus on integrated, interdisciplinary activities that revolve around a set of important ideas." They go on to say that "in order to be effective, thematic units typically must be broad enough to provide authentic experiences in more than one content area, offer a range of learning experiences for students and give students choices in the projects they pursue and the ways they demonstrate their learning."  This is not new- we as a school have been battling with authentic inquiry learning. We have had PD, and have created two inquiry models, but yet we still miss the mark and most of us- including me have gone back to teaching the same old same old, concentrating on getting our children to "achieve the National Standard." Don't get me wrong that is important, but there has got to be a better way.
Barton and Smith talk about a teacher, Leslie, who was successful with this idea of interdisciplinary outlines. She does not force integration but looks for broad topics- "big ideas" that authentically tie materials together from different subject areas. 

I really liked her Roots unit and would love to start our new year off with a similar type of theme. This could include the students heritage and history, their lives, their school, the history of Mt. Roskill, what is important to them. Just think of how well we will know our students. Together the teachers within my syndicate will plan for authentic learning around our students life, refining Our Learning Community unit to include experiences across most if not all our curriculum subjects. We as a syndicate work very well together sharing our planning. 

Interdisciplinary units  should encompass reading, writing, topic, maths and the arts. I work with a fellow teacher who embraces this in her teaching. She is a teacher of one of our Samoan bilingual classes and this year she has totally immersed her students in the story of Easter. Her students read about Easter, wrote about Easter and had to solve maths problems about Easter celebrations. She has done the same with Samoan language week and White Sunday. Of course these are very important festivals in the Samoan culture so this was authentic learning. If one teacher at our school can do it, we have an expert and we can all give it a try. We must just remember what Leslie said- "units like bears and apples are very preplanned and they aren't related to the students or what they are doing. A thematic unit will be different every year with different students; it has to be broad enough to expand and contract with the students needs." I am ready to give this approach another go- armed with more information and understanding this time. True inquiry is about moving to where the children want to go with their learning.

References

Barton, K. and Smith, L. (2000) Themes or motives? Aiming for coherence through 
         interdisciplinary outlines, The Reading Teacher. Vol.5 No.1 Retrieved from
         https://app.themindlab.com/media/32978/view

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. (2011). Interdisciplinary and Innovation Education. [video file].
         Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA