Using Differentiated Instruction in the Teaching Profession
INTERDISCIPLINARY UNITS
Interdisciplinary Unit - Chorus & English
Metamorposis
While reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicles of a Death Foretold (1981), students learn about several characters who all were at fault for the murder of one man. Each character’s lie, deceit, and/or knowledge of the crime caused Santiago Nasar’s death. During this time, the choir director was working on the musical, Into the Woods (Stephen Sondheim, 1987). Each character from the novel was compared to the characters in the musical. I met with the choir director before and after school to create a meaningful project to connect the curriculum to our academy focus.
Triangle Inequality Theorem
As my English 2 students read Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), during their freshman year, I utilized their prior knowledge with a different approach connecting the students to the play based on the book and the Triangle Inequality Theorem. However, as an English teacher, I needed some help understanding the theorem to ensure that the connections made sense. I collaborated with the math teachers on my floor where they all tried to explain the theorem to me. So, with their help, I was able to create an assignment connecting three important characters from a novel to a mathematical equation.
Raft Project
English 2 students were reading the novel, The River, by Gary Paulsen where they followed Brian's journey back to the river to educate others how to survive. Unfortunately, Brian's education survival turned into a real survival course where he has to get himself and an unconscious man back in order to save his life.
For this interdisciplinary raft project, students constructed a raft only using items that they might find in the wilderness. Brian had to construct a raft using logs to travel on and vines to bind the logs together. His raft was approximately 8 feet long x 5 ½ feet wide. In addition, he had to account for the water weight that he gained as he traveled down the river. He also had to figure out his weight along with Derek’s to determine if the logs would hold. The total weight was approximately 320 lbs. Students were to create a miniature raft based on Brian's calculations.