Connections across Disciplines

While reading articles about disciplinary literacy, I was struck by the differences between how one reads for different disciplines. Because of this, my program separates the cohort into disciplinary groups for the literacy class. The language teachers are with the English Language Arts teachers, which makes a certain amount of sense in that we might use stories or poetry in our classes. However, one could just as easily argue that learning a language is more similar to learning math or science.

Learning a second language, especially in the primary stages, involves looking for patterns and applying them in different situations, much like mathematics and science. For all three disciplines, this spans all of what Anderson and Krathwohl would call "the cognitive dimensions" - from simply memorizing and repeating a pattern (remembering or recalling the pattern) to  discerning a pattern or algorithm from examples (inferring), to figuring out when to apply which pattern or algorithm (differentiating). Inspired by these similarities, I took a look at a group of math teacher's project on BYOD for my Connections Across Disciplines.

The group began with a summary on their opinions on the BYOD debate. They mentioned that, for their specific discipline, BYOD would simply complicate matters because most applications used in math classrooms wouldn't work for all devices. This made me realize how discipline-specific the BYOD debate can be, as well as the importance of knowing how accessible common applications are to students with different levels of access to technology. In my school placement, phones are often used to access online dictionaries; something that works on any smartphone. Yet a complex app for math or science might only work for smartphones with specific platforms. I see why it might be best for phones to stay in students' backpacks during their math class.

The lesson that the math group planned focused on ratios. They chose an interesting and somewhat controversial topic: the ratio of liquor stores per square mile, and of churches per square mile, in their students' area. One doesn't often think of math class as a place that such emotionally charged topics would come up, but I could see students having different reactions to the class. I think this could really bring home the idea that math is more than just numbers in a textbook. It could even lead to some real soul-searching in the class, and hopefully could help students feel empowered to change their community for the better. However, I could also see some students become distressed by the topic and disengage with the class, so I think it's important that the topic be handled thoughtfully. Given how thoughtful this group was about the BYOD debate, deciding against it in part to promote equity among the students, I am sure that these teachers in particular would introduce and explore the topic with thoughtfulness and with grace.