Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Connections between Subject Areas

I love when I am able to address other subject areas when I am teaching. Not only does comparing and contrasting material from different subjects enhance student understanding, but I feel that it also pulls kids who don't normally connect to English into the subject. Today in class we were watching a movie on Cesar Chavez. In the movie it talks about non-violent protestors like Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. As they will be talking about Nelson Mandela and aparteid in social studies, we also addressed that topic during the movie. Now I have helped build background for that subject area, which makes me very excited.

In Honors English we are reading a novel on Japanese Internment during WWII, which fits perfectly with Social Studies as they just read a book about concentration camps. Students use their knowledge of WWII to make deeper connections to the novel, which is obviously what I want.

Social Studies feels like it naturally connects to English, but I am surprised as to how often I am able to connect Science as well. We study morphemes, which always lends itself to science terms, as many Science terms can be broken down into morphemes. For example, biology (bio-life; ology - study of). As we read biographies about adventurers and expeditions, I find it easy to relate concepts addressed in science in English.

The reason I write all this is that our focus this year at the middle school is incorporating Math into our curriculum. This is more challenging for me as a teacher. I am so used to incorporating Social Studies because it fits well and Science because it is a passion of mine outside of class. When I incorporate math into English it feels very forced right now. But I am hopeful that this feeling will subside as I try to incorporate math or math concepts more directly in my lessons.

What types of activities do you do that crosses subject areas? Do you like incorporating other subjects or does it feel overwhelming with all of the standards you have to accomplish for your own subject area? How is incorporating math going for you?

3 comments:

  1. There were many educational experiments to incorporate interdisciplinary learning that is planned in Utopian educational environments--I'm thinking of open school experiments in the 1970s, for example.
    The U of MN was trying to be more interdisciplinary in their curriculum planning--but I say--I completely agree that teaching that is connected to other disciplines is really exciting. Teaching EL gives me the opportunity to connect much of what I teach to the sciences, social studies, and language arts. I am trying to more consciously connect math to what I teach--like with timelines, and ratios, etc. But it would help if there was a a more planned interdisciplinary structure to what all of us teach. Great idea!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great challenge you have here Connie! I think it is a great idea and a good way to model to students how to incorporate multiple intelligences. When I taught history, I worked iwth the english teacher to develop cross-discipline assignments, which I think teh students really enjoyed. They were able to do research a historical event, but also complete a research paper for english. It was great as a teacher, as they learned from both of us. Great idea!! Excited to hear how it goes for you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with many points in your post, Connie. I think interdisciplinary teaching can be very rewarding for both students and teachers. The part I want to personally get better at is working with teachers across disciplines to plan meaningful lessons that spand the two subjects. For example, having the English class read a historical novel (just like your example) and then we expand on the history details in social studies class. It has happened a few times where I hear from kids "oh we are reading about that in English!" And then I think, "I wish I would have known that!" Definitely challenging, but worthwhile!

    ReplyDelete