Running head: CONTENT KNOWLEDGE IN INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM 1

Content Knowledge in Interdisciplinary Curriculum

Elizabeth Churchill

Regent University

In partial fulfilment of requirements for UED 495/496, Spring 2018

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In order to teach, teachers are tested on their content knowledge of the material that they

may be covering in the classroom. Teachers also need to be aware of the standards that district of

the school uses, because it will determine the framework of what a teacher teaches. Therefore,

when creating lesson plans, teachers need to be aware of what they need to teach and what their

students will be assessed so that they can teach their students for success. It is also important to

have the ability to combine two or more content areas to support the students’ learning

achievements. In the artifacts that I have showcased below, I show that I try to incorporate two

content areas into the same lesson so that students are able to receive more practice and are able

to learn more about a specific content area. My first artifact shows my lesson plan that

incorporates language arts and math while my second artifact is another lesson that incorporates

language arts, math and the theme for that week.

In both of my lesson plans, I state the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) or the

Virginia Foundations Blocks (FB) so that I know that my lesson will align with those particular

SOLs and FBs. Also by stating the SOLs and FBs, I know what the students will need to know

for their assessment. By knowing what standards I need to cover, I am helping my students to

understand the content that they need to learn and I am also able to know what activities my

students will need to understand that standard (Wiggins, 2005, p. 17). In my first lesson I will be

showing, I wanted to introduce my third-grade students to the topic of plane shapes with a book

to grab their interests. With this book, The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns, it accomplished

that and after reading it my students made connections about plane shapes to their second-grade

experiences. It hooked them into learning more about plane shapes and it set the tone for the rest

of the geometry lesson.

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When I implemented this lesson, my students were genuinely interested in the material

because they could make the connection between geometry in the second-grade to the present.

My students also enjoyed reading the story at the beginning of the lesson because they could also

see examples of where different shapes may appear in the real world. When the students were

able to read about plane shapes from another content area (i.e. language arts) they were able to

use it “in their everyday lives or careers,” (Elliot, 2011, p. 4). This helped my students see that

math or geometry can occur in any place in the real world, besides the classroom and that they

can make connections to previous math concepts that they already may know.

In my second lesson that I made for preschoolers, I connected language arts and math

again, but this time I also supported the theme that they had for that week which was How Do

Plants Grow? By combining their standards, I was able to expand their vocabulary on describing

things and I was able to continue supporting them in learning addition concepts through the

book, Counting in the Garden by Kim Parker. Also, I am supporting my students on learning

vocabulary by having my students describe the characteristics of the seeds I give them. I will

also be supporting their print awareness so that they see that written words do have meaning.

When children “participate in these activities (i.e. writing classroom charts), they develop a

concept of a ‘word,’ learn to read environmental print, and use literacy in meaningful ways,”

(Tompkins, 2016, p.62). By incorporating math, language arts, and their theme, the students are

able to see that concepts can overlap and support one another in certain circumstances.

It is important that all students see or are exposed to different content areas in the same

lesson because it shows them that all subjects can be connected and that student interests can

overlap with other student interests. Overall, having multiple content areas in a lesson has been

difficult for me to make for my students. Usually, if I have incorporated multiple content areas it
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is an afterthought or it’s a lesson made on accident. While I am finishing out my student

teaching, I have been trying to really think about incorporating two content areas into a lesson. I

can see that it is going to take practice for me to really make an effort to join two or more content

areas into a lesson.

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References

Elliott, L. (2011). Teach Like a Techie: 20 Tools for Reaching the Digital Generation.

Peterborough, NH: Crystal Springs Books.

Tompkins, G. E. (2016). Language Arts: Patterns of Practice (Ninth ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (Second ed.). Boston, MA:

Pearson.