ELLEN
BERG
Diary #10
Question-Answer
Strategies:
Making Cross-Curricular Connections
"What page number is this, Mrs. Berg? It doesn't say, and I need to put my page number by my quote."
My jaw drops to the floor in sheer astonishment. It seems that one of my students has not only actually listened to what I have said in class for the past month, but she has also begun to apply it in new situations. Hooray! I found out the sixth grade was required to take the 10-week assessments that before now were only administered to the seventh grade. Though I wish they had let me know earlier, I am not too upset. The assessments are set up like our state test, the MAP, my students will have to take next year. They read a story, answered several constructed response items, and then wrote an essay in response to a prompt. I have not graded them yet, but I suspect many students have done well simply from the comments I heard. "Do we have to write the actual words for our examples?" "Is it okay if I just tell what happened in the story as my proof instead of quoting the actual words?" "This is an author-and-me question, right? That means as long as I give proof for my opinion from the story, it's right. Right?" Music to my ears. It is not that I am overly concerned about testing; it is that I have been working very diligently to help my students understand what examples and details are, how to choose them, and how to put them into their answers. Furthermore, we have been spending a lot of time talking about the QAR reading strategy that helps kids understand what kind of information the question is asking for and where they should look for the answers.I have dealt with the groans when I have required students to include quoted proof along with their answers. I have worked one-on-one and held interactive discussions to try to unfurrow brows. I have presented the information in as many ways and as many different words as I could think of. I thought they understood, I thought I knew they knew, but you never really know until a moment like this one.
Team communication - it doesn't require interdisciplinary units
My team has been discussing our difficulty helping students see the applications and connections among our subject areas. We are trying to talk with each other about what we are doing so we can capitalize on what our teammates are doing in their own classes. I used to think that creating elaborate interdisciplinary units would bring us instant connections, but I think perhaps that is too hefty a starting place.
To date we have not been overly successful with interdisciplinary units, mostly because of changing staff members, an occasional lack of focus, and at least one team member who will sit and nod his head in agreement, but who will fail to even attempt to cooperate once the unit begins.
Lately we have been more successful, and I think it is because we are taking smaller, more meaningful steps towards full content integration. On paper interdisciplinary teaching is pretty easy, but in reality, in full practice, it is terribly difficult. Nothing ever seems to go on schedule, district tests and special projects interrupt, teachers get sick. The real world of teaching makes integrating content in a meaningful way a real challenge. It is something to aspire to, but I do not think we are ready. Baby steps. Looking for ways to drop a simple strategy, key word, or concept from our teammates' instruction seems to be a good place to start. Recently one of our students was writing an answer to a constructed response question in science, and he asked, "What does, 'give examples,' mean?" The science teacher looked at him and said, "Now, I know you are doing this in Mrs. Berg's room. You need the proof." "Oh!" he said. "I get it." Just last week students were working on questions from the chapter in social studies, and the teacher heard one of the kids say, "That's an On My Own question. That means it's asking our opinion." To be honest, I do not think my kids would have even thought of how QAR applies to other content areas, even though I have spent a great deal of time preaching to them about how it is a strategy they can use for any question they are ever asked. No, I think using a section of their social studies book to identify QAR question-types was the key. They could actually see how it applied. I am excited by the gains the team and I have made this year. When second quarter begins, we are going to try a short, thematic unit. We are going to continue to communicate about what we are doing in the classroom, but we are not going to set up formal connections. I know that may sound backwards, but I believe from past experience that taking these small steps will result in success down the road. We are all learning just how to do this, and simply holding ourselves to the regimen of a theme is something we need to learn at this time. I see us adding a piece of interdisciplinary teaching at a time, until all the pieces are put together permanently.
