English/Language Arts

Leader-Inspired Lesson Plan

Presented by

Brenda Walsh and Steve Sanders

Objectives:

1. Students will become familiar with educator Philip Panaritisí philosophy on effective interdisciplinary programs and instruction.
2. Playing the roles of eleventh-grade educators, students will create an interdisciplinary unit based upon a proposed class activity.
3. Students will defend the educational value of teaching an interdisciplinary unit versus a traditional unit, which isolates different subject areas, to two skeptical "school board members."
4. Out of role and at the conclusion of the class activity, students will evaluate the effectiveness of the unit they design by considering Panaritisí guidelines for successful interdisciplinary programs.

Rationale:

We chose a deductive approach to teaching our lesson because we wanted to have our classmates understand Panaritisí basic philosophy on and guidelines for an effective interdisciplinary program before we instructed them to design their own program. We felt that our classmates would not be able to create a sample program without a basic understanding of interdisciplinary studies and the guidelines that our educator has proposed for effective studies of that nature. By having our classmates cooperatively create a unit based on the guidelines our educator set forth, we believe that they will be able to best evaluate the effectiveness, ineffectiveness, and feasibility of interdisciplinary education.

Procedure:

1. Steve will present a small introduction, in the context of our own educational experiences, regarding the weaknesses of traditional education. Topics he will touch upon will include isolation of subject areas (math, science, English, history, etc.), problems with mental transitions from class to class, and inability of students to make connections between the subject areas.
2. Brenda will introduce Philip Panaritisí philosophy and guidelines concerning successful interdisciplinary programs, as set forth in his article "Beyond Brainstorming: Planning a Successful Interdisciplinary Program." She will hand out a fact sheet which will sum up the information she presents about Panaritis.
3. We will briefly elaborate on the specific guidelines in Panaritisí article. The guidelines include time, resources, incentive, flexibility and patience, and talented teachers.
4. Brenda will provide a conclusion to this part of our lesson. She will reiterate the main points of our discussion and will point out that Panaritis does not suggest that schools should make a complete transformation to interdisciplinary education or that every lesson a teacher creates should be based upon interdisciplinary theory.
5. Brenda will explain the group activity. She will explain the hypothetical scenario in which our classmates will be placed and how the activity should proceed. We want the class to imagine that they are eleventh-grade math, science, English, and social studies teachers (we will divide the class into groups) who wish to take their class on a trip to a local amusement park. There are two administrators on the school board who do not feel that this trip contains any educational value and will simply be time for the students to goof off. The teachers must work together to design activities for before, during, and after the trip that will use the trip to perpetuate further understanding of the concepts they are teaching in their classrooms. As they plan their activities, they must communicate openly with members of all departments and keep in mind their individual department goals, as well as Panaritisí guidelines for successful interdisciplinary study. Upon planning completion, they must defend their trip and activities to the skeptical administrators. They will be asked to defend also the reasons for and benefits of adopting an interdisciplinary style of education.
6. We will now break the class into groups, or "departments." Each group will receive a list of two or three department goals for education within their specific subject area (Appendix A).
7. Steve will provide prompts to begin the activities, such as questions about or suggestions for beginning to plan their activities.
8. We will allow planning, discussion/collaboration, etc. continue for about 10-15 minutes. We will monitor and interact with the group/groups as they create their activities.
9. We will simulate a school board meeting where Steve and Brenda will assume the roles as the skeptical board members and the teachers will defend their planned activities.
10. Discussion, out of roles, about the effectiveness, ineffectiveness, and feasibility of the interdisciplinary activity they created.

Materials:

1. Fact sheet outlining Panaritisí philosophy on and guidelines for effective interdisciplinary programs
2. Hand-outs listing the goals for individual departments

Evaluation:

Each "department" must present their proposed activities and show how they will work in conjunction with those activities designed by the other departments. Through post-activity discussion, out of roles as teachers and administrators, we will determine the validity of interdisciplinary education in regards to our own educational philosophies. We will also determine the success of our in-class activity in following Panaritisí philosophy and guidelines.

Appendix A: Department Guidelines

The following are a list of the department guidelines that we handed out to each group for the class activity.

English Department: 3 of the departmentís goals in teaching their subject material

Science Department (Physics): 2 of the departmentís goals in teaching their subject material

Social Studies Department (American History): 2 of the departmentís goals in teaching their subject material

Mathematics Department (Trigonometry): 2 of the departmentís goals in teaching their subject material

Go to Philip Panaritis Fact Sheet

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