View Content #21363

By Stephanie Knight, CASLS Language Technology Specialist

Project Based Learning (PBL) is carefully integrated into Smaller Learning Communities (SLCs) throughout the country due to the standards of practice set forth by the National Career Academy Coalition. These standards (http://www.ncacinc.com/sites/default/files/media/documents/nsop_with_cover.pdf) advocate for all subjects to consider the overarching theme of an academy, engendering the development of cross-curricular units. While the overall impact of this approach to education is debatable within some contexts (consider this piece regarding inequality in schools http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/04/do-career-academies-work/478863/), the idea that certain concepts are cross-curricular in nature and can positively influence student learning is not (Erikson, 2012). A cross-curricular approach to PBL has the potential to meaningfully engage even the most disassociated students in the classroom.

In order for cross-curricular PBL to be effective, each subject area involved has to contribute a meaningful component to the project. Arriving at this meaningful component can be tricky, particularly for world language teachers (my own experience is littered with recommendations that my students’ contribution to a project be the translation of work created in a history or English class. While this recommendation could be fine in some contexts, like creating a health services pamphlet for immigrants speaking the target language within the local community, it was typically a suggestion that fell outside of what Wiggins (1989) would refer to as “authentic” (p. 704).

In order to avoid the superficial integration of the world language class in the development of a cross-curricular unit, teachers from all disciplines should work together to discuss what concepts they teach (e.g., balance, change, power, or community) and how they teach them. This conversation will likely yield meaningful connections that practitioners can develop so that they plan the project in question with intention. Take the unit outline below for example.

Concepts: Change, power

Unit question: How does change impact power dynamics?

Subjects involved: French, Spanish, History, and Mathematics

Overarching topic: Colonization of the New World

Subtopics: Cultural diaspora (French and Spanish), Land ownership and whitening equations (History), Exponential growth and decay (Mathematics)

Final Project:

Step 1: History students are given a list of historical figures in the New World with some African ancestry and are tasked with figuring out when members of each figure’s family could hold property according to the laws that existed. They will use this information to create a series of maps to document the possible integration of races coexisting on Hispaniola overtime.

Step 2: French and Spanish students conduct research of the primary resources available from the Berkeley Library at the University of California (http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/history/latinamerica/ps-caribbean) to find out any of the information that they can about the historical figures (including the “purity” of their blood) and/or the laws regarding property ownership in their communities. They create a report of these findings.

Step 3: The math students then use equations of exponential growth and decay to determine the “purity” of the blood of the potential property owners and their families to estimate when someone from a given lineage might be able to own property.

Step 4: The history students then take the information from the other students to make their maps and conduct further research to see if the mathematical predictions were correct and to discern the cause of any discrepancies (such as the passage of new laws).

In this example unit, every student in every class has the potential to contribute meaningful work, a meaningfulness that is not undermined for students who are not enrolled in all three courses. Furthermore, each learner is able to be an amateur practitioner of the subject that he or she is studying. The learning that goes on in this project is the type of learning that has endurance

References:

Anderson, M. (2016). How effective are ‘Career Academies’? The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/04/do-career-academies-work/478863/.

Berkeley Library at the University of California. History: Latin America. Primary Sources: Caribbean. Retrieved from http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/history/latinamerica/ps-caribbean.

Erikson, H.L. (2012). Concept-based teaching and learning. IB position paper. Retrieved from  http://www.ibmidatlantic.org/Concept_Based_Teaching_Learning.

National Career Academy Coalition (2013). National standards of practice for career academies. Retrieved from http://www.ncacinc.com/sites/default/files/media/documents/nsop_with_cover.pdf.

Wiggins, G. (1989). A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment. The Phi Delta Kappan. 70 (9). 703-713.