Running head: INTERDISCIPLINARY 1

Interdisciplinary Curriculum

Kelsie Weyer

Regent University
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Introduction

Interdisciplinary curriculum “cuts across subject-matter lines to...bring together the

various segments of the curriculum into meaningful association” (Lake, 1994). Integrating

subjects strengthens the foundation upon which a lesson is built. In my fifth-grade student

teaching placement, I am responsible for teaching language arts and social studies on a switch

team. The language arts skill of making inferences and drawing conclusions were thoroughly

integrated into a lesson on the Civil War. This lesson was an effective way of guiding students to

realize that they are always making inferences and drawing conclusions based on the evidence at

hand and their prior knowledge. Many state and local objectives were covered by this lesson

including; ELA the student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts, narrative

nonfiction, and poetry (VA SOL LA5.5), ELA.5.5.6 draw conclusions and make inferences from

text, including inferences about character and theme, SS.5.6.1 describe how the issue of slavery

divided Virginians and the nation (VA SOL VS7a), and SS.5.0 The student uses the process of

inquiry in social studies.

Rationale for Selection of Artifacts

The Civil War picture book, Unspoken by Henry Cole, was recommended by my switch

teacher on the fifth-grade team. The book is about a young farmgirl in the South during the Civil

War. She discovers a person, assumed to be an escaped African-American slave, in her barn. She

leaves food for him and he leaves after their farm is visited by slave hunters. After I reviewed the

book in the library, it seemed to be a great opportunity to incorporate a lesson on inferences with

the Civil War unit I had recently started with my students.

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The day after finishing a lesson on Civil War abolitionists, such as Harriet Tubman and

the Underground Railroad, I introduced this lesson on Unspoken. At pre-determined points in the

book, I would ask a discussion question and have students share their ideas with a partner or with

their table. This allowed the discussion to be student-led and for students to share their different

theories and guide each other. Drawing on previous knowledge, as studied the day before,

students were able to create better-informed judgements about the events of the story.

Using a picture book required deeper level thinking because without words because

everything had to be interpreted. In order to justify their reasoning for their inferences and

conclusions, students were required to refer back to the evidence in the pictures of the book.

They were also engaged in higher level thinking as discussion questions were based on varying

levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

My second artifact is the Madeline Hunter lesson plan I created for this lesson. This

displays my thorough integration of language arts and social studies throughout the lesson. My

anticipatory set for this lesson was a feely bag. I put a Union Civil War replica flag in a brown

paper bag. The students then had to make inferences about the object in the bag by trying to

make assumptions about the unknown object. We discussed how this part of the conversation

was making inferences. Then the students were allowed to ask yes or no questions to gain clues

to discovery the identity of the object. After gaining more insight, they were allowed to guess

what the object was, or draw a conclusion. This helped peak student interest in the lesson, which

helped maintain their engagement.

This introduction to historic flags was not only fun, but it was essential to allowing

students to explore how the American flag has changed over the years to its current design. After
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the anticipatory set, I displayed unlabeled Confederate and Union flags on the board for students

to compare and contrast. Using their textbooks, they drew conclusions about what the flags

represented. Following this discussion, we began to read the picture book Unspoken, as

mentioned previously.

For independent practice, students were given a graphic organizer from the Virginia

Beach Curriculum. This chart has students identify evidence from the text or picture, describe

their related prior knowledge, and then create an inference or conclusion. This chart is useful for

having students identify what from the book initiated their thought, how their connection to prior

knowledge informed their thought, and then ultimately combined to draw a conclusion. This is

also a quick informal assessment to quickly review which students will need more

individualized, differentiated instruction.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

Integrated curriculum “naturally builds bridges between what can sometimes seem like

fragmented subject areas” (Rutherford, 2008, p. 48). It helps make education relevant to learner

by applying their recently acquired skills and knowledge to various situations. Interdisciplinary

curriculum, especially in regard to skills relevant to metacognition, should be “integrated into the

curriculum in a variety of subject areas” (Wiggins, 2005, p. 216). The higher levels of Bloom’s

taxonomy, such as justifying and comparing, can be applied to a variety of subject areas. Even

though they are specific to language arts objectives, these skills are necessary to integrate into

areas of social studies, such as comparing the North and South before the Civil War and to

justify the beliefs of each side in an oral debate. The ability to guide students to extend their

knowledge and apply their skills by integrating curriculum by engaging students in learning
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experiences “that promote thinking and understanding is the essence of good teaching.”

(Radford, 2013, p. 172).

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References

Lake, K. (1994). Integrated Curriculum. School Improvement Research Series, (16). Retrieved

February 22, 2018.

Radford, C. P. (2013). Strategies for successful student teaching: a guide to student teaching, the

job search, and your first classroom. Boston: Pearson.

Rutherford, P. (2008). Instruction for All Students. Alexandria, VA: Just ASK Publications &

Professional Development.

Wiggins, W. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for

Supervision of Curriculum Development.