Because students are frequently divided into subject-related classes at the secondary level (e.g., math, science, physical education, music, art, social studies, etc.), it’s easy for them to see subjects as silos of content rather than interconnected and overlapping. It’s our job as educators to facilitate opportunities for students to see the overlap and connection and to help them experience and understand the interconnectedness through our instructional strategies, differentiated learning, and assessment practices. TPE 4.3 prompts teachers to “[d]esign and implement instruction and assessment that reflects the interconnectedness of academic content areas and related student skills development in literacy, mathematics, science, and other disciplines the curriculum, as applicable to the subject area of instruction.” One discipline, in particular, is also useful and powerful to integrate with our own content instruction: The Visual and Performing Arts (VPA). TPE 1.7 states that teachers will “[p]rovide students with opportunities to access the curriculum by incorporating the visual and performing arts, as appropriate to the content and context of learning.”
Interdisciplinary approaches, including the use of VPA, engage and connect with kids in many different ways. For example, it can support special populations of students like ELLs and Special Education students by lowering affective filters and boosting their confidence. A student who is highly engaged in the interdisciplinary subject but less on your own may be drawn into your content instruction by way of the overlap. We can use overlap with other disciplines as part of our effort to represent our subject areas in various ways.
You’ll also notice how we effectively ask students to create using the visual or performing arts when we develop questions, activities, assessments, etc., that push students to the “create” part of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In short, arts integration intuitively overlaps with UDL principles and supports all learners. Because of all of this, it is clear why the integration of VPA is a part of the Universal Teacher Performance Expectations. This means that not only do we need to facilitate the overlap with VPA, but we also need to use it to enhance our own content area instruction.
This week’s learning objective “Integrate a variety of instructional activities (including visual and performing arts), digital tools, strategies, and interdisciplinary skills into a week-long plan that will support all students’ progression towards mastery of specific content standard(s), while also reflecting the interconnectedness of the content area with one or more other content areas” is aligned with TPE 1.7 and 4.3 and asks you to integrate a variety of instructional activities (including visual and performing arts), digital tools, strategies, and interdisciplinary skills into a week-long plan that will support all students progression towards mastery of specific content standard(s), while also reflecting the interconnectedness of the content area with one or more other content areas.
The week-long lessons created in this course are expected to overlap with a VPA standard and an additional content standard. This doesn’t necessarily mean we must teach these other standards per se, but we must overlap with them somehow.
This discussion is focused on identifying the content standard(s) from our own content area we wish to teach and explore and the additional standards we wish to align with. We should approach these additional standards as ways to enhance student engagement, differentiate our instruction, create collaborative group assignments, or assess mastery of our learning objectives. Perhaps we should focus on the VPA standards that involve creating.
Instructions
- We were to identify and list the content standard(s) from our content area that we plan to teach in our week-long series of lessons. We must have at least one.
- We were to identify and list the Visual and Performing Arts standards we plan to overlap with. If your content area is in VPA, our task will be to integrate with the alternative art form. For example, if we are a visual arts teacher, we must overlap with the performing arts. We still needed to integrate with another content area.
- We were to identify and list the additional content standard(s) we plan to overlap with.
- We were to explain why we chose these standards and how we see them overlapping naturally or intuitively, which will deepen or facilitate our students’ learning of the content standard.
- We were to elaborate on how we plan to integrate these through UDL principles of multiple means of representation, engagement, and/or expression. In other words, do we plan to use them as part of our instruction, learning activities, and/or assessment?
In my week-long series on solving systems of equations algebraically and graphically, I plan to teach content that aligns with specific standards from my content area, mathematics, as well as standards from visual and performing arts and an additional content area, science. For mathematics, I will focus on the standard CCSS.MATH.HSA-REI.C.6, which involves solving systems of linear equations exactly and approximately, with a focus on pairs of linear equations in two variables. This standard directly relates to the content of my lessons.
To overlap with visual and performing arts, I have chosen the standard VA.Cr2.1.HSI from visual arts to encourage engagement in making a work of art or design without having a preconceived plan (National Coalition for Arts Standards, 2014). I see this standard naturally integrating with my mathematics lessons by allowing students to create visual representations of systems of equations and their solutions, thus deepening their understanding of mathematical concepts through artistic expression.
Additionally, I plan to overlap with the science content standard HS-PS2-4, which uses mathematical representations of Newton’s Law of Motion and Gravitational Law to describe and predict the motion of objects (National Research Council, 2013). This integration will help students see the real-world applications of solving systems of equations in the context of physics, further facilitating their learning of the mathematics standard.
I will employ multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression to integrate these standards through Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. I will use visual aids, such as graphs and diagrams, to represent systems of equations and their solutions, catering to students who benefit from visual learning. Real-world examples and applications will be provided to connect the content to students’ experiences and interests, enhancing engagement. Group work and discussions will be encouraged to foster collaboration and curiosity. Additionally, I will incorporate art projects, such as creating visual representations of systems of equations, to engage students creatively.
I will offer a variety of assessment formats, including traditional quizzes, projects, and presentations. Students can create visual or physical models representing systems of equations and their solutions, allowing them to express their understanding meaningfully. By integrating these standards and UDL principles, I aim to create a comprehensive and inclusive learning experience that connects mathematics to other disciplines and real-world contexts.
References
National Coalition for Arts Standards. (2014). National Core Arts Standards. https://www.nationalartsstandards.org/
National Research Council. (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States (p. 18290). National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/18290
