Holly Korbey has published a highly useful article on Edutopia. Please use the link at the end to read full article.
Korbey says, “Early in the school year at John Ruhrah Elementary and Middle School, co-teachers Darene Parry and Megan Healy were already diving deep into a lesson about the human heart, showing their fourth graders detailed anatomical diagrams and introducing vocabulary like cardio and circulatory.
Surprisingly, the unit on “having a good heart”—rich in scientific dialogue and writing practice—is not part of science class, but English language arts (ELA).
“Students see the connections between what we are learning in ELA and other subjects,” said Parry of the interdisciplinary curriculum at their school in Baltimore, Maryland, where classes often cover similar topics through different lenses and where the majority of students are English language learners. “They frequently bring up background knowledge that they’ve learned in other classes, and I don’t think they question why we are also learning these topics in ELA.”
Parry, Healy, and their fellow Baltimore City Public Schools teachers are part of a growing group of educators who have shifted away from the traditional ELA reading curriculum”.
Is it Time to Drop ‘Finding the Main Idea’ and Teach Reading in a New Way?