Developing curriculum across the disciplines is something my school site would benefit from. While our API scores remain high and students demonstrate mastery learning, I believe we could be more effective through interdisciplinary studies. There are some teachers that make an attempt, but without very much PLC (professional learning communities) time it is hard to develop the curriculum. The video suggests that successful interdisciplinary curriculum design starts with backwards mapping, knowing what you want students to know by the end of the PBL, and figuring out what needs to be learned for students to successfully meet the end objectives. Throughout the process teachers need collaboration time to discuss and plan effectively how the content areas will be intertwined in instruction.
This past school year was my first year taking a stab at interdisciplinary curriculum design. A colleague and I have built a solid professional and personal friendship over the years. We decided to put in the extra time to develop a project tougher since we were placed in the same "house." This meant all of the students that took my class for English were also taking her health class. Realizing that meaningful learning calls for curriculum that blends subject matter, we decided to experiment. My main objective was teaching students effective research techniques and how to develop a formal, professional, MLA formatted research. Her objective was for students to understand the process of learning about a specific disease and the features that should be looked at when analyzing a diseases' cause and effects.
While it wasn't perfect, there were tremendous benefits to doing this project. Students felt more accountable because they knew the final paper would count in both classes. Moreover, students had not one but two teachers that they could ask questions and get feedback from. The major benefit for me was that when I gave instruction it was all focused on teaching the elements of research and writing a research paper. This left room for me to demonstrate how to use different technological tools as a result of not having to focus on teaching content, which was taught by the health teacher. It made it far more manageable to grade as my focus was honed in on proper citation, MLA alignment, and that the paper was free of plagiarism.
Moving forward, I am hoping to voice the effectiveness of interdisciplinary curriculum. I believe if we can come together and figure out a way to have more collaboration time at our school site we could be better serve our students.
This topic aligns with our Planning and Preparation additions to our PBL this week. Below are links to pages added to my PBL site.
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