Interdisciplinary High School Teams for 21st Century Academic Skills

Building effective instructional teams includes tapping into curricular areas that focus on skill building. Student involvement with global connections sets expectations of multiple perspectives in lesson preparation and delivery, as well. Multi-faceted projects developed and presented as team efforts live up to and can exceed such expectations. This article presents examples of such collaborative efforts among teachers of English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Technology, Foreign Languages and School Librarians, describing the processes and benefits for students within the high school learning community. Introduction While preparing for 21st Century Learning, the concept of teaching with a teammate provides multi-disciplinary perceptions in the teaching of discrete subjects. Having a partner to expand the parameters of instruction beyond a particular subject has many beneficial results. The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) (2007) recommends that “in this increasingly global world of information, students must be taught to seek diverse perspectives” (p.2). Yet, in many educational environments, such an idea is perceived as counterproductive. In secondary educational institutions, in particular, the atmosphere or culture is often divisive rather than collaborative. In a typical secondary model in the United States, a specialist covers each subject, with expertise in one particular area. Although high school teachers may work hard to create a learning community, each teacher is charged with focusing on his or her discrete subject area. Thus, although high school teachers do not prefer isolation, the demands of the profession encourage it. Secondary Instructional Climate High school teachers face students with varying abilities, resources and backgrounds with a mandate to teach all of them specific content about a particular subject, a common model for which is 40-minute sessions for 180 days. Within that 40-minute session, the teacher must also take attendance, assign, collect or distribute homework, gather students’ attention and make learning meaningful with a review of past knowledge, convey real world applications of the material, and, in the current American climate, concentrate heavily on the elements that may appear on standardized tests. These constraints imply all students have clear focus, similar abilities, a yearning for knowledge, and an appreciation of education. Realistically, however, in any mixed ability class, some portion of students read far below grade level. Another portion have social or psychological problems and another portion have disengaged themselves from the educational process. Additionally, the need for test-taking skills has pushed educators away from teaching logic and thinking skills. In this contradictory environment, the case for team teaching carries more positive outcomes than it ever has. Collaborative Strategies The need for increasing student test performance has resulted in the reappearance of a collaborative effort to reinforce key components across the curriculum. At our mid-sized, rural high school, for instance, the Math and English departments have highlighted a ‘concept of the month’ to be included in other instructional areas. Teachers of all subjects are discussing math reviews, including tables and graphs in assignments on topics ranging from international culture to government. Music and art teachers are including English writing techniques. Teams are being built that enhance learning for varying styles and levels. Embedded in this approach to learning is the ideal that all subject areas are integrated, with knowledge from one discipline applied in another. Specific examples include social studies assignments that incorporate multiple subject perspectives into student presentations, technology classes that include research applications, and science classes that reference specific writing techniques. Social Studies One particular example, from Social Studies, is built to expand math, reading and writing applications within the social studies assignments.