Put It Into Practice: Activity B

Activity B: Extending Content-Based Units

1. Begin by selecting a unit that you currently teach. What is the content or disciplinary connection in this unit?

2. Select one or more additional discipline areas that you would like to incorporate into the unit. How will you integrate this new information with the existing content?

3. Describe how you will change the way you teach the unit to incorporate the new content. What additional instructional materials will you need? What additional skills and knowledge will students gain? What additional skills and knowledge will they take with them to other disciplines?

4. Here is an example of how a textbook unit on vacation time might be expanded with content from other disciplines:

Content: Vacation Time New Content: Popular Vacation Destinations of Chilean, German, or Italian Teens
Disciplinary Connection	Instructional Materials/Approach	Standards
Social studies	From a teen magazine Web site, students read a survey on popular destinations. Follow with groups doing more research on the most popular places.	3.1 Making connections: Students learn vocabulary for new places and geographical features, and focus on events that have passed.
Mathematics	Students graph the results of the survey questions. They then conduct the same survey among themselves, graph the results, and compare them with the results of the Web survey.	3.1 Making connections: Students practice statistical analysis skills. Also: 2.1 Practices of culture 4.2 Cultural comparisons
Physical education	A subset of students work with materials from sports camps popular with teens in the target country.	3.2 Acquiring information: Students learn about unfamiliar places. They also learn about the kinds of vacations young people take, the kinds of special-interest camps that are common in some cultures, and the socioeconomic factors related to vacations.