Interdisciplinary Collaboration Units and Projects Deepening Understanding for Middle School Students

Research Shows Article published by Ben Johnson: Cross-curricular teaching is essential to deeper learning and vital to meeting the needs of current and future learners Johnson states, “unless teachers stop departmentalizing their teaching and start teaching knowledge in context of other knowledge, student learning will continue to be stuck…it is time for teachers to collaborate” http://www.edutopia.org/blog/cross-curricular-teaching-deeper-learning-ben-johnson

Cross-Curricular Units and Projects As educators, our goal needs to be: reaching the deeper learning needs of middle school students How do we accomplish this goal? teacher collaboration making content relatable and combining relevant content across multiple disciplines Process: creating effective cross-curricular units and projects

Teacher Collaboration- combining relevant content Johnson suggests in order to create a culture where deeper learning takes place, teachers need to bring together their resources, talents, and efforts to maximize relevance and connections among content areas. Collaboration between grade levels in middle school is essential- find out what, when, and how Information becomes clearer, activities become more fluid, students gain a deeper understanding of content

Teachers’ role in gaining student interest Recognize students have different academic strengths Ensure students hear the same content through different vantage points Meet students in their strengths to deepen understanding of content Inspire students to gain interest in other subject areas If students who love science are learning math in the context of science- this sparks an interest in that subject

Example #1: CDS 6th Grade Virus Project History and Science- learning about disease throughout history & creating their own virus History- Research virus/disease- use primary source documents Science- Work with partner- develop/design their own virus- create poster and present

Example #2: CDS 7th Grade Left for Dead Language Arts, History, and Science Language Arts- students read the book, develop response essays, participate in group discussions and debate History- unit covers events from WW2 in Pacific including event from Left for Dead. Students create movie trailers to tell the story of Left for Dead from WW2 Science- unit covers oceanography (oceans currents and salt water). Students perform oil spill activity

WHAT’S NEXT? How to get started on MS Interdisciplinary Collaboration Units Collaboration among educators requires constant communication Grade levels meet regularly Review syllabi within grade levels- interdisciplinary units can occur organically but they take work Constant reflection and revision