Chase, Linda

English

Scholarworks@GVSU

Michigan Reading Journal Volume 31 Issue 1 Article 8 October 1998 Exploring Interdisciplinary Thematic Instruction That Promotes Literacy and Diversity Linda Chase Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj Recommended Citation Chase, Linda (1998) "Exploring Interdisciplinary Thematic Instruction That Promotes Literacy and Diversity," Michigan Reading Journal: Vol. 31 : Iss. 1 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj/vol31/iss1/8 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Reading Journal by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact scholarworks@gvsu.edu. LINDA CHASE Exploring Interdisciplinary Thematic Instruction That Promotes Literacy and Diversity Ms. Linda Chase is a tenured seventh-grade science teacher at Cheboygan Junior High School. T he purpose of the article is to share the effects of an integrated unit on the learning of students and their teachers. To achieve this purpose, I will introduce how the unit came about, the process of the teaching of the unit, and the implications based on the findings of the research. Having selected naturalistic inquiry as my research method, I used teacher observation and analysis of stu-dent comments and the results of a pre/ posttest. The study took place over a period of about 3 months and involved approxi-mately 100 students in the seventh grade at Cheboygan Junior High School. Four teach-ers from the core areas of mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts were involved in the teaching of the unit, two of whom were involved in developing the unit. Creating an Integrated Unit on Diversity The integrated unit was developed in a course at Central Michigan University dur-ing a six-week summer course under the guidance of Dr. Helen Gill. The four teach-ers involved in developing the unit come from different backgrounds-one teaches science, one teaches mathematics, one teaches physi-cal education, and on~ is a Chapter I reading consultant. The unit began with each of the teachers listing the content taught during the school year. Then the content was examined for possible connections around which to build a theme. Connections to the theme were brainstormed and developed using a seman-tic web, and guiding questions were developed. This process took a great deal of thought and time. Once the guiding ques-tions and web were completed, a major search for resources for the unit took place. The re-sult was a unit built around the theme of diversity. For example, science classes were to teach genetics, heredity, and evolution; mathematics classes the metric and U.S. cus-tomary system of measurement; social studies the diversity in other countries; and language arts to explore the diversity in our own student body. Physical education, al-though not a part of the teaching team, would help introduce the unit with a cultural dance. For more information about the unit on diver-sity, see Figures 1, 2, and 3 on pages 40 and 41. Participants Cheboygan Junior High School had a stu-dent body of approximately 400 seventh- and eighth-grade students. The student body was not very ethically diverse. Of the 400 stu-dents, only two were American Indian; two students were Asian/Pacific Islander; and one was African American (MEAP data, 1997). VoLUME 31, No. 1 • FALL 1998 37 CHEBOYGAN POJECT: PROMOTING LITERACY & DIVERSITY The diversity in Cheboygan Junior High School showed up in the number of at-risk students. Cheboygan County, located on an inland waterway in northeast lower Michi-gan, had a population of21,398 in 1990 (U.S. Atlas, 1992). Its major income came from retail sales based on the tourist trade, which meant seasonal employment and a high un-employment rate. Thirty-five percent of the student body received free or reduced lunch. Procedures After developing the integrated unit in the summer course, I was curious to see if teach-ing in an integrated fashion could take place successfully in a middle school setting and what effect an integrated unit would have on student learning. Cheboygan Junior High has had team teaching for about 5 years. Our team has been together for 3 years. This time together has allowed us to get to know each other and has been valuable in developing the integrated unit because we have all become familiar with the content of each other's courses. This knowledge of content al-lowed us to discuss with the students what was happening in their other classes and how that related to what we were doing in our classes. Prior to beginning the integrated unit, per-mission had to be obtained from the superintendent, school board, and, most im-portantly, parents because of the need to collect data on the students. The only prob-lem that we encountered in obtaining permission came from a few parents who did not understand the meaning of some of the "teacher language" in the letter. Also, be-cause the letter was written on university letterhead and the title of the unit being Di-versity, Celebrating Our Differences, one parent thought we were up to some new-fangled way of teaching acceptance of still unaccepted ways of living, such as male-male marriages, etc. Once we had a chance to talk with the concerned parents, all of the parents agreed to have their children participate in the study. With permission obtained, our team kicked off the unit with a fun day. The students learned a new cultural dance, found out about different learning styles, and sampled food from different cultures. The students really enjoyed the activities, and the unit was un-der way. Each of the teachers in the team went about teaching the content that they were required to teach within curriculum guidelines, but each teacher worked at tying what they were doing each day to diversity in some way. For example, in science the students were studying genetics. Each day students were asked to reflect on the variety in themselves and throughout nature due to the genetic makeup of each individual. In social studies, each student picked a country that they would like to study and were asked to put together a presentation. The metric measurement system and the U.S. Custom-ary system of measurement were taught in mathematics, and in English the students wrote journals and personal essays. During team time, when the whole group came to-gether, the students discovered their learning modalities and multiple intelligence areas. Discussions and surveys also took place sur-rounding issues such as gender equity and discrimination. In science, I tried each day to tie what I was doing with genetics to the theme of di-versity. One of the ways I did make the connection for the students was when we were studying how a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule forms and replicates. The students found it interesting that all the vari-ety of plants and animals of the world are made from only four different nucleic acids. Arrangement of those nucleic acids in a DNA molecule and the number of pairs makes all the difference in what type of creature forms. In other words, from sameness came differ-ences. Another way I tried to make connections was through how genetic traits are passed down through the generations. The students learned that half of who they are came from their mother and the other half from their fa-38 MICHIGAN READING JOURNAL ther. In this way, diversity is preserved natu-rally as each generation passes on its traits to the next generation. On days when it was not possible to tie what we were doing in class to the theme of diversity, I would either not address the theme or I would ask the students to respond to a question about diversity in their journals at the beginning of class. Towards the end of the unit I asked the students to respond to this question: "How does diversity relate to what you did in genetics?" Following are a few sample responses from the students: "In genetics we learned that we are all different, inside and out. In the diversity unit, we learned that there are other di-verse things besides us." *** "I think it relates by the differences in general. Our race, sex, color of hair and eyes, your genetic make-up and the way you present yourself It relates to genetics because our parents gave us the genes to get that genetic make-up. It could also be your religion." *** "Genetics is related to diversity because our genes are what make us different. No two people have the exact combination of gene strands. Our genes affect how we look, our characteristics, and some of the diseases we may or may not get. All of those things combine to make us all differ-ent and special. " *** "We learned how we got our hair color with the pattern of our genes. We took a number of ear wigglers, tongue rollers, widow's peak, or chin cleft. This told us how we were different." Discussion of Results It became obvious as the unit progressed that the students were' making connections in science to the theme. I asked students to re-spond in their journals to connections be-tween the other subject areas and diversity. Most of the students were able to see the con-nection between what they were studying and diversity. I am still not sure how much stu-dent learning was affected by being able to see the connections, but the posttest scores showed enough growth to warrant further study. One of the concerns in doing the integrated unit was the fact that not all the teachers took the exact same amount of time in teaching their part of the integrated unit. We found that it did not really matter that much that we ended the unit at the same time. The only problem came in deciding when to do the posttest. It ended up being as much as 4 to 6 weeks after the teaching of certain parts of the unit before the posttest could be given. Other factors such as the number of snow days this year did not help either. The results of the posttest were significant in spite of the fact that the test was done many weeks after the completion of the unit. The students averaged 14 points on the pretest and averaged 4 7 points on the posttest. This is an average gain of 33 points. I am not totally convinced that the integrated way of teach-ing was the total reason for the gain in posttest. There are other factors such as teaching style, student ability, etc., but I do feel that the results warrant further study of the use of integrated units in the middle school setting. Conclusions It will be necessary to provide team teach-ers with adequate time and training to develop integrated units. The canned integrated units on the market are nice, but teachers want units that fit their curriculum and allow them to meet the objectives that they are required to teach. There is too much required work with-out adding extra things that are not part of the curriculum. In order to develop these custom-made units, teachers will need to have planning time. Each time the teachers meet, some work on the unit can be done until the unit is complete. It is reasonable to expect VOLUME 31, No. 1 • FALL 1998 39 CHEBOYGAN POJECT: PROMOTING LITERACY & DIVERSITY 40 Figure 1 the teachers to develop one or possibly two units per year if planning time is allowed during the teachers' work day. Guiding Questions for Diversity Unit It is also essential that teachers receive the training necessary to develop the unit. De-veloping an integrated unit takes planning, compromise, and creative thinking. The teachers must learn the art of webbing and develop guiding questions, but most impor-tantly, they must learn how to work together and listen to each other's ideas. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that the results of the testing show that teaching in an integrated style does help to improve student learning. Therefore, further research under better controlled situations is recom-mended. References Michigan Department of Education. ( 1997). Michigan Education Assessment Program. Lansing, MI: Michigan Department of Education. 1. What is culture? 2. What is diversity? 3. In what ways is Cheboygan cultur-ally diverse? 4. How many differences can be found at Cheboygan Junior High? 5. How are teenagers around the world similar and different? 6. What is conflict? How can it be avoided? 7. How does lack of understanding of cultural diversity lead to stereotyp-ing and discrimination? Figure 2 Objectives for Diversity Unit Upon completion of the unit, students will be able to: 1. Define the following terms: culture, diversity, conflict, discrimination, stereotyping. 2. Assess their learning styles and multiple intelligences. 3. Assess their level of fitness. 4. Compare and contrast the characteristics of teenagers. 5. Identify and recognize cultural differences and similarities in Cheboygan County. 6. Write a letter to a teenager from another state or country to obtain information about their school. 7. Demonstrate a personal understanding of conflict resolution by role playing. 8. Analyze the similarities and differences of cultures around the world. 9. Participate in a Project Adventure ropes course. 10. Participate in science labs related to genetics and diversity. MICHIGAN READING JOURNAL Figure 3 Mathematics Concepts 1. Rounding 2. Mental Math 3. Problem Solving 4. Interpreting data 5. Probablitiy 6. Nutrition 7. Measurement Activities 1 . Math from other cultures 2. Graphing 3 Diet 4. Mental Olympics Language Arts Concepts 1 . Story Elements 2. Expository Writing 3. Narrative Writing 4. Communications 5. Compositions 6. Critical Thinking Activities 1. Journal Writing 2. Story Charts 3. Venn Diagrams 4. Compare/Contrast 5. Interview 6. Friendly Letter 7. Critiquing 8. Opinion Proof Team Time Concepts 1. Multiple Intelligences 2. Learning Styles 3. Responsibility 4. Conflict Resolution Activities 1. Spanish 2. Assessments 3. Conflict Journals 4. Team Building DIVERSITY ME AND MY WORLD Science Concepts 1. Genetics DIVERSITY 2. Heredity Activities 1. KWL 2. Mendel Experiment 3. Dealing With Data SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL 4. Unique U 5. Dominant/Recessive 6. Punnett Squares 7. Pedigree Charts 8. Labs 9. Projects MENTAL Physical Education Concepts PHYSICAL 1. Fitness 2. Critical Thinking 3. Decision Making 4. Problem Solving 5. Cooperation 6. Communication CULTURE Activities 1. Presidential Fitness 2. Project Adventure 3. Dance 4. Cultural Games STEREOTYPE/BIAS Social Studies DISCRIMINATION CONFLICT VOLUME 31, No. 1 • FALL 1998 41 

Exploring Interdisciplinary Thematic Instruction That Promotes Literacy and Diversity

https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1851&context=mrj

Exploring Interdisciplinary Thematic Instruction That Promotes Literacy and Diversity

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Scholarworks@GVSU