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I personally know that
I remember new information
better when I make multiple types of connections to other new things I am learning as
well as things I already know. Students
need to be able to make connections like these in order to tap into the full
capacity of their learning and memory capabilities. However, students may or
may not be able to learn to do this on their own.
Teachers need to learn how to teach the students through
integration of subjects, or at least teaching students about the links between
subjects. How powerful
would it be to have an art teacher talk to an English class about William Holman Hunt’s painting of "The Lady of Shalott" or other similar paintings while they
are reading Lord Tennyson’s ballad? How many more connections could be added by a history teacher? Understanding of the poem could be much deeper and memory of the connections would
be much stronger.
What I am trying to say is that
teachers should be teaching in a more collaborative and integrated way in order
to teach students to make the connections between the subjects. When I was in
my middle school placement for student teaching, I saw teachers teaching in
exactly the same way they have always taught middle school, completely separate
from other subjects. Sure they met as teams, but that was only by subject. Math with math, social studies with social
studies. The thing that bothered me most about this way of teaching was the
school had been built to facilitate collaboration between subjects.
There were four classrooms and a
shared space that made up a pod, and each classroom in a pod was a different
subject. Furthermore, most of the students had most of their classes in one
pod; a student who had math in pod B usually also had history, language arts,
and science in pod B. So why weren’t these teachers collaborating and trying to
link their curriculums to find places where they could teach the student to
utilize multiple disciplines at once? Yes, it takes a lot of time, but isn’t a
school supposed to be about creating success for the students? I think if
schools would open their eyes to how beneficial integration of subjects is,
there would be more time allocated to collaboration between subjects as
professional development.
That all those subjects were generally being taught in the same pod, does beg the question of why they weren't meeting. That IS unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think about the depth of and comfort with content knowledge across disciplines that most folks would require in order to engage in meaningful cross-discipline, integrated teaching.
I *think* an article I read for the MS learner class gave the example of a team teach approach that had one super weak link because that teacher was the *math* person and all he wanted to do was his subject. He wasn't comfortable doing the work needed to integrate even though he signed up for a team teach experience. That was baffling.
How much extra training or education or just deep personal interest or curiosity in a subject matter other than the one a teacher mainly teaches would be necessary to bridge them into the benefits of an integrated approach?
Love this post. This week I've been teaching science and math. The information could merge in so many cool ways. Additionally, my CT has felt behind with the reading/writing groups but there are all kinds of readings with the science kits that could result in discussions about main ideas and summaries. Are you seeing the subjects integrated in your current placement? I wonder if the thought is that common core will push in that direction.
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