Interdisciplinary learning is a passion of mine, as I hold the belief that nothing exists in isolation and that everything is interconnected, thus one can not learn about something wholly within the boxes of a subject area, and our curriculum and instruction should reflect that.
In my final practicum I designed an interdisciplinary unit centered around the topics of eagles. The students created eagle books in English, learned to measure our own ‘wingspan’ in math, studied the characteristics, habits and habitats of eagles in science, danced an eagle dance in PE, and learned about the significance of the eagle to the First Nations in socials.
Having a theme to base our learning around helped the lesson flow into each other, and helped activate the students base levels of knowledge providing an access point. It also created the opportunity for the students to create their own connections, linking past lessons of other subject areas to a current lesson or activity.
The students were also given multiple ways to demonstrate their learning and understanding of eagles, because of the wide array of subject areas incorporated. This allowed every student to shine in their own areas of strength around a similar topic, making assessment of the topic a more level playing field than any test would have provided.