Interdisciplinary Unit Plan (7th Grade)

Instructional Context:

Most of the students at this middle school have very limited art proficiency and experience. For many of them, this is one of the first art classes that they have ever taken. They come from very diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This lesson is intended for 7th graders because they are developing their arithmetic skills and learning fundamental geometric concepts like calculating area. There are a few ELLs at the school.

The school is located in a small city but surrounded by more suburban areas where some students commute from. Some students are within walking distance of the school but most take public transportation or drive their own vehicles or with their parents.

Most of the students come from middle-class families but there are some economically disadvantaged students as well. The school offers various extracurricular activities but many students are not involved in these school-organized clubs/teams. Some students take part in extracurricular activities which they are privately enrolled in by their parents.

Differentiation:

The differentiated learning log is differentiated for each learner and is "an essential tool in developing both content knowledge and independence" -Lent

This lesson includes multiple methods of instruction (visual, auditory, and written) for different learning styles.

Similarly, the act of creating art could be considered a visual differentiated learning log. Art is inherently an individual, unique expression and requires each student to think and express themselves independently regardless of their abilities, mastery of the English language, or whether they have an IEP or not. Each student's unique learning journey is cultivated and supported as a fundamental quality of this entire unit, by design. The differentiated learning log is engaging  because it encourages students to "hold ongoing reflection, analysis, evaluation, and application of new information."

Unit Planning Reflection:

I think the Differentiated learning log is an extremely effective method to use for both formal and informal student evaluation. It also supports the unique learning styles of each individual student and encourages them to be independent and take accountability and control of their education through deciding what to record in their "journals" and making decisions on how to organize or decorate in a fashion that best assists in their understanding and expression of the content. The differentiated learning log also allows for a lot of creativity and personal voice of each student, which I really appreciate from the perspective of the visual arts discipline. The writing-intensive aspect to the differentiated learning log also allowed for a seamless bridging between various disciplines, in this case art, computer science, and mathematics.  The DLLs not only serve as an assessment tool for the teachers and students, but they allow for differentiation, and encourage each student to take ownership in their own learning process. A DLL is an effective tool for teaching students how writing within different disciplines can vary, so it's especially beneficial for this interdisciplinary unit.

Methods Mini Lesson