Laura+Howson

http://pantheracadwiki.wikispaces.com Welcome to the PANTHER Academy of Earth and Space Science Interdisciplinary Wiki.

Our mission/vision statement includes exposing our students to subjects of Science Technology Engineering and Math courses with a "NASA-inspired space and environmental earth science theme" in which "teacher-mentors" are supportive of a small school environment.

The problem statement is to strengthen teacher curricular collaborations to implement more interdisciplinary teaching in order to improve the student learning outcomes of all PANTHER Academy students.

Interdisciplinary instruction is a method used to teach units across different curricular disciplines. In keeping with our vision, this wiki will introduce you to the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching and as you embrace this strategy, will prove valuable to teacher and student.

As you navigate the wiki, you will see website links (NASA Connect, PBS NOVA) which provide excellent extensive lesson plan ideas, and the NJCCCS link provides easy access to the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for the disciplines to be included in your innovative cross-curricular lesson plans.

A School Improvement Plan with accompanying Needs Assessment and Data Inventories for PANTHER are included for your information along with a PANTHER Scheduling Profile (PSP) which is the Academy's recommended course sequence for grades 9-12.

Annotated reference sources relevant to Interdisciplinary Teaching are found in the Works Cited section.

Remember, this is a collaborative effort, so join the wiki experience, learn how to implement the strategies of interdisciplinary teaching, and see how PANTHER students develop their skills and understanding to achieve higher test scores and ultimate academic success.

** Annotated Works Cited ** Beane, James. **// Curriculum Integration, Designing the Core of Democratic Education.// **Teachers College Press, New York, 1997.. The author proposes that “curriculum integration” entails rearranging content from several subjects around a central theme. He states that it is actually more involved than that, and teachers should be seeking something new, fresh and different as they approach curriculum integration. He speaks of a “national” curriculum, environmental issues, and politics in the classroom. He discusses the “not my child” syndrome which concerns students from under-privileged homes not bringing to school with them the cultural codes and skills that are involved in that success; then teachers and administrators also coming from underprivileged backgrounds bringing their lack of experience with the benefits of curriculum integration with them. He quotes __Reinventing America’s Schools__ that “thematic-based curriculum can be used to further ‘politically correct’ set of values.” He shows a figure of a theme, living in the future which encompasses a “concept web” – technology, moral issues, inventions, transportation, population, personal, community, lifestyle. Berghoff, Beth, Borgmann, Cindy, and Parr, Carlotta. **//Arts Together, Steps Toward Transformative Teacher Education.// **National Art Education Association, 2005. This book is co-authored by three professors of different disciplines infused with visual art, music, and literature in collaborative teaching. Using semiotic theory, they use words to convey a mental image from one learner to another which delivers nothing of itself; however, they find that a person sorts and selects feelings and experiences to create their own image and consolidate it, i.e. the ball is round (visualizing any ball). Therefore, multiple intelligences are observed in this arts infused curriculum. The authors determine by their experience and research that interdisciplinary teaching combines parallel teaching processes with multiple aesthetic experiences to making teaching transformational. The research shows that a person makes a metaphor in a complex way of applying properties to an object, so in interdisciplinary learning, the metaphor is how a person comes to know by experience one thing as it were another. Gross, Patricia. **// Joint Curriculum Design, Facilitating Learner Ownership and Active Participation in Secondary Classrooms.// **Lawrence Ehrlbaum Assoc. Publ., Mahway, NJ, 1997. The author uses the theater as a metaphor for what happens when teachers and students come together in the learning experience. Like a play production, learning segways from the writing of a script to the acting of the parts, the setting up of props to the culmination of rehearsals, the actual telling of the story to future tours. The writer combines philosophies of education, learning environments, goals, methods of learning, resources, inquiry and research, performance and future applications into elements of Joint Curricular Design in a creative way. She summarizes each chapter and discusses strategies for future experimentation. Haynes, Carolyn, Ed. **// Innovations in Interdisciplinary Teaching.// **American Council on Education, Oryx Press, 2002. “Interdisciplinary work gets done by moving across the vertical plane of depth and the horizontal plane of breadth. Breadth connotes a comprehensive approach based on multi-variables and perspectives. Depth connotes competence in pertinent disciplinary, professional and Interdisciplinary approaches. Synthesis connotes creation of an Interdisciplinary outcome through a series of integrative actions.” (p. 212) This quote explains the purpose of the editor to reach “the active triangulation of depth, breadth, and synthesis” of Interdisciplinary teaching involving multiple skills, methods and techniques. The contributors of this anthology discuss pertinent subjects such as technology, women’s studies, studies abroad, assessment, and learning communities, with the sense that Interdisciplinary studies help students make a connection with knowledge with a sense of self-authorship to deal with complex questions, issues and problems in life. These studies help the teacher deal with shortcomings and assist with new ideas to approach their own Interdisciplinary settings. Moody, William J., Ed. **//Artistic Intelligences, Implications for Education.// **Teachers College Press, New York, 1997.. This book discusses multiple intelligences across disciplines and offers the reader articles about arts in a democracy, about creativity, the effects of standardized testing on the arts, and politics in art, music and creative writing. The compiler maintains that the articles help teachers to form networking alliances on behalf of students whose basic education will be enriched if they learn to project their spirit into works of art. Cross discipline studies will be useful to the English teachers to integrate literature and the arts, as well as Social Studies and American History teachers to work with political themes. Wineberg, Sam and Grossman, Pam, Eds. **// Interdisciplinary Curriculum, Challenges to Implementation.// **Teachers College Press, New York, 2000. This collection of articles discusses ways of looking at interdisciplinary curriculum development. One article is a case study on interdisciplinary instruction and another discusses theory and practical applications of an interdisciplinary high school setting. One study details restructuring knowledge mapping (inter)disciplinary change which shows an interesting figure of mapping school subjects. Another relevant article talks about challenges with whole school reform and how the British build multi-disciplinarity into their national curriculum. Neff, Joyce and Whithaus, Carl.**// Writing Across Distances and Disciplines, Research and Pedagogy in Distributed Learning.//** Taylor and Francis Group, Lawrence Erlbaum, New York, 2008. Zamel, Vivian and Spack, Ruth (Eds.) **//Negotiating Academic Literacies, Teaching and Learning Across Languages and Cultures//**. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Publ., Mahwah, NJ, 1998.