1. Interdisciplinary Collaboration Units and Projects
Deepening Understanding for Middle School Students

2. 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”

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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