The two papers for this week discussed interdisciplinary work. From Tourist to Storyteller: Reading and Writing in Science (Abt-Perkins & Pagnucci, 1993) is a case study about a reading class that was part of a six-week Summer Science Institute. In this class, students were reading scientific articles and analyzing each other’s reading strategies through journal entries they had made. One student had noticed that another had read the article as if it was a story being told by a narrator, and the class discussed his strategy. In their next set of journal entries, many more students had taken this approach to reading the article. Some even put themselves into the story. The instructors decided to have the students write about their own scientific discoveries in either a traditional report, story, or any style they wanted. The students became very engaged in their work, and were exchanging stories to get feedback for improvements. This practice forced the students to become storytellers rather than tourists, which helped them to learn through their experience and the experiences of their classmates. I found this paper very interesting since I did a lot of scientific writing in my undergrad, including a thesis on research I conducted. I had never thought of writing a scientific report as a personal narrative before. Maybe this was because I am not confident with my creative writing skills, or maybe it’s all because I was trained this way. My thesis paper told a story through the introduction, but it was an impersonal account of the previous research. I don’t feel like I would be comfortable writing a report as a story, but I believe that this could help to encourage more interest in the sciences among students.
The second article, Re-Placing the Arts in Elementary School Curricula: An Intersdisciplinary, Collaborative Action Research Project (Trent & Riley, 2009), describes a collaborative effort to create and implement an art-integrated unit. The unit chosen was “Privacy: Foundations of Democracy” (published by the Center for Civic Education, 1997), and included integrated lessons aligned with Social Studies, Language Art, and Visual Arts standards. Students were able to demonstrate their understanding of the content in a variety of ways (drawings, cut-paper artwork, poems, etc.). The study displayed many positive findings, including: increased student enjoyment, engagement, and student learning across all areas of content. I like that this study proved something that I have felt strongly about. I have a very difficult time demonstrating understanding and putting my thoughts in words (which is the most commonly used style in my experience), so I really like the use of a variety of response styles. I believe more of an effort should be made to integrate disciplines, especially when it provides various methods and opportunities for demonstrating understanding.
These two articles provide good insight into the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching. The following Venn diagram shows some of the main similarities/differences:
The second article, Re-Placing the Arts in Elementary School Curricula: An Intersdisciplinary, Collaborative Action Research Project (Trent & Riley, 2009), describes a collaborative effort to create and implement an art-integrated unit. The unit chosen was “Privacy: Foundations of Democracy” (published by the Center for Civic Education, 1997), and included integrated lessons aligned with Social Studies, Language Art, and Visual Arts standards. Students were able to demonstrate their understanding of the content in a variety of ways (drawings, cut-paper artwork, poems, etc.). The study displayed many positive findings, including: increased student enjoyment, engagement, and student learning across all areas of content. I like that this study proved something that I have felt strongly about. I have a very difficult time demonstrating understanding and putting my thoughts in words (which is the most commonly used style in my experience), so I really like the use of a variety of response styles. I believe more of an effort should be made to integrate disciplines, especially when it provides various methods and opportunities for demonstrating understanding.
These two articles provide good insight into the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching. The following Venn diagram shows some of the main similarities/differences: