Running Head: CURRICULUM

Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Jenny Leary
Regent University

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Introduction

Cross-curricula teaching provides a meaningful way in which students can use

knowledge learned in one context as a knowledge base in other content areas. For example,
many of the skills, strategies, and concepts learned in language arts are transferable to other
content areas, such as science. In the science unit I taught, I used the language arts skills of
summarizing and identifying the main idea to help students further explore the characteristics
and behaviors of light.
Rationale
The first artifact that I chose to show evidence of interdisciplinary curriculum is a lesson
plan I designed for language arts. The objective for this lesson was for students to learn how to
summarize important details and find the main idea of nonfiction text. The nonfiction text that
students would be summarizing aligned with our science unit for that week on light. The two
different nonfiction texts that were selected for students to summarize both complimented what
students were learning in the science unit, and also provided information to help deepen students
understanding of light and its importance to our lives.
The key element that made me select this artifact was the fact that this lesson integrates
two content areas, language arts and science. It was also important to me that students learning
wasnt isolated, and that the skills they were learning in language arts could easily help them
summarize their learning in science. My second artifact is a piece of student work that was
completed during reading group. Students in reading groups learned how to summarize and how
to identify the main idea when reading a nonfiction book all about light and its importance to the
earths survival.

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Students ability to summarize details and identify the main ideas from nonfiction text is
a skill that crosses all content areas. For example, students not only learned about reflection and
refraction, but also by reading further into the content area, found out how these two concepts
relate to our daily lives, such as driving, seeing colors, looking in a mirror, formation of
rainbows, shadows, and object appearing bent in the water. Overall, I believe both of these
artifacts show evidence of integration of two or more content areas into one high-quality lesson
that helped support student learning and their academic achievement.
Reflection
I chose these two artifacts because they demonstrated how students applied the
knowledge they acquired during the science unit and combined it with the skills taught in
language arts, and vice versa. I believe this helped engage students in what they were reading,
because they could see the value and purpose in their learning. Students got the chance to
become experts on the subject they were reading about light, and then were responsible for
sharing the main idea of that section with their classmates and teacher.
The lesson on light also came before students met in reading groups, so students had a
little more background knowledge to help them comprehend the nonfiction text. In
Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005) say, The ability to transfer
our knowledge and skill effectively involves the capacity to take what we know and use it
creatively, flexibly, fluently, in different settings or problems, on our own (p. 40). I feel that this
is what I accomplished with students with combining language arts and science.
As I mentioned before, I didnt want to compartmentalize students learning. I wanted
students to be able to use the knowledge they gained and apply it to a new skill set. To
understand a topic or subject is to be able to use (or apply in Blooms sense) knowledge and

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skill wisely and effectively (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p.43). During my time at Regent I have
become aware of the importance of students being active participants in their learning. However,
students also need a strong framework in which to build their understanding of new concepts.
Although I have still have a lot to learn about interdisciplinary curriculum and how to effectively
implement it in the classroom, I believe that this experience has helped me see how students can
benefit from making meaningful connections among different disciplines.

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References

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (Expanded 2nd ed.). Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.