Interdisciplinary Planning

To implement interdisciplinary planning requires teaming and cooperation from all who are involved in the process. It affords teachers the opportunity to interact with each other, to plan lessons that help students see connections and make sense of their learning experiences. It fosters the idea that teachers are, and can be, "generalists." This approach is exciting and is consistent with theories that advocate humanizing the institutional school setting.

Development of an interdisciplinary unit:

• Define a Good Essential Question
• Use the Process of Planning Backwards
• Demonstrate How to Involve the Students
  • select goals
  • develop a theme
  • brainstorm the theme
  • generate questions
  • select the essential question
  • try it out
  • use all other questions generated as entry points
• Plan with a Team
  • develop unit(s)/lesson(s)
  • decide on activities
  • promote the outcomes
  • decide where each subject fits into the overall unit
• Test the Unit/lesson
  • try small lessons with students
  • observe results
• Finalize the Essential Question
  

Have input from the teachers who are using the unit/lesson. Discuss where things went wrong and where they went right. Ask such questions as:

• "Does the unit need to be changed?"
• "What went well and what didn't?"
• "Will it work better the next time?"
• "How did you do it?"
• "Where were you successful?"
  

Patricia J. McArdle / Mather High School / 5835 N. Lincoln Ave. / Chicago, IL 60659/ CES Fall Forum 1997/ page 3

Return to Contents

Go to the CD-ROM Table of Contents

© 1998 Mather High School