Poster Number
107
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Interdisciplinary Studies
Faculty Mentor
Margaret Gillikin, Ph.D.
Abstract
This study examines interdisciplinary teaching, which provides students the opportunity to work with and apply knowledge from multiple disciplines organized around an overall theme or problem. The purpose of this research is to explore ways to integrate two subjects effectively for an interdisciplinary lesson. Teaching interdisciplinary lessons helps encourage students to go beyond the typical restrictions of just one content area, and it helps them to become more creative, focus on critical thinking, and work on communication skills. My research will include teacher-written blogs, scholarly articles, and interviews with several middle school educators about the impact of interdisciplinary teaching in their classrooms. In addition, my project will include a unit plan integrating the subjects of social studies and language arts to teach the novel Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper, which takes place during the 1930s. The student-oriented lessons will emphasize reading comprehension and allow the students to apply the book’s concepts to their daily lives. For social studies, the students will explore topics such as voter disenfranchisement, the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Depression, and segregation, by using primary and secondary sources. The skills the students will gain from language arts will be interpreting and analyzing the author’s use of words, phrases and conventions; articulating ideas and perspectives in a logical sequence; using evidence to build arguments; and transacting with texts to formulate questions and explanations and to consider alternative/multiple perspectives.
Start Date
20-4-2018 2:15 PM
End Date
20-4-2018 4:45 PM
Included in
Voting Rights, the Klan, and Race in Stella by Starlight
West 214
This study examines interdisciplinary teaching, which provides students the opportunity to work with and apply knowledge from multiple disciplines organized around an overall theme or problem. The purpose of this research is to explore ways to integrate two subjects effectively for an interdisciplinary lesson. Teaching interdisciplinary lessons helps encourage students to go beyond the typical restrictions of just one content area, and it helps them to become more creative, focus on critical thinking, and work on communication skills. My research will include teacher-written blogs, scholarly articles, and interviews with several middle school educators about the impact of interdisciplinary teaching in their classrooms. In addition, my project will include a unit plan integrating the subjects of social studies and language arts to teach the novel Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper, which takes place during the 1930s. The student-oriented lessons will emphasize reading comprehension and allow the students to apply the book’s concepts to their daily lives. For social studies, the students will explore topics such as voter disenfranchisement, the Ku Klux Klan, the Great Depression, and segregation, by using primary and secondary sources. The skills the students will gain from language arts will be interpreting and analyzing the author’s use of words, phrases and conventions; articulating ideas and perspectives in a logical sequence; using evidence to build arguments; and transacting with texts to formulate questions and explanations and to consider alternative/multiple perspectives.
