EDUC 40810: Pedagogy and Practice Across the Curriculum
Fall 2014
Final Exam - Interdisciplinary Unit Plan
Part I: Overview of the Interdisciplinary Unit Plan
Teaching Team Members and their Content Areas:
Danielle DobitschMathematics
Gabby RuoccoSocial Studies
Sara GaechterArt
Hannah VigneriEnglish
Title of Unit:
New York City: Then and Now
Central Focus -- Interdisciplinary Theme, Topic, Problem, or Issue:
The central focus of this Interdisciplinary Unit deals with themes and issues surrounding the
area of New York City through comparing and contrasting historical, artistic, literary, and
mathematical concepts. The unit attempts to achieve a view of New York City through a
collaborative lens across the various disciplines. The unit will be looking at different topics
surrounding New York City such as current statistics about the city, social implications about
the Harlem Renaissance, and works of literature by authors from this city.
Rationale:
This unit will be taught in February to enhance student learning about Black History Month.
Through each of the courses, students will be guided to a better understanding of one of the
most important cities in the country, and arguably the world. Through this unit, students will
be taught to reflect on the past, understand the present, and analyze the implications of
their differences.
As students are currently in a statistics class, this unit will be a way to teach them about
some key concepts in statistics while also incorporating and interconnecting information
about New York City.
In art class, students will be practicing and exercising their prior knowledge of painting skills
and techniques, as well as planning and designing for a real-life mural. Students will be
developing ideas through a creative process that will be new to them, because the artwork
created is not individual, but a community effort for their community. Students will be given
the opportunity to explore the cultural assets they each bring through application of design
and muralism that is for and in their community. Through this unit, not only will students be
heavily relying on artistic planning and cultural research, but also working collaboratively
with their peers, and members of the community to accomplish their artistic goals.
For social studies, this unit is very important because it teaches students who are from the
NYC area about the history of Harlem, and the surrounding areas, of about how black
culture fits into the larger narrative of American history. This unit also shows students that
even though African Americans were marginalized, they were still able to resist the greater
white, patriarchal structure that was suppressing them, and actually make beautiful
contributions in art, music, and literature.
Context/Intended Learners:
The target group for this unit is 11 grade. Students being taught this unit are not
particularly strong in mathematics and so will be doing a slightly simplified unit on statistics
for 11th grade.
This social studies unit will be taught to students from diverse racial, religious, and
socioeconomic backgrounds so it will respect and validate the background of every
individual in the classroom so they feel that their learning environment is safe.
The class for whom we have planned this unit is diverse racially and socioeconomically
There are 24 students in the class; six of the students are White, six are African American,
six are Latino/a, five are Asian American, and one is Native American. Half of the students
are on free or reduced lunch. One third of these students are reading and writing below
grade level and therefore require scaffolding for literacy tasks. Three of the students in this
class have specific needs that must be met:
(1) Evan has auditory processing problems (which means he has difficulty processing and
learning from what he hears),
(2) Karen is easily distracted and has difficulty maintaining focus on a task, and
(3) Carmen speaks another Spanish at home and needs support for her continuing English
language development.
th
State/National Standards Addressed:
MATH:
CCSS HSS.ID.A.1: Represent data with plots on the real number line (dot plots,
histograms, and box plots).
ART:
New York State Standards:
4. Students will explore art and artifacts from various historical periods and
world cultures to discover the roles that art plays in the lives of people of a
given time and place and to understand how the time and place influence the
visual characteristics of the artwork. Students will explore art to understand
the social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of human society.
National Standards:
1. Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
2. Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
3. Refine and complete artistic work.
4. Analyze, interpret, and select artistic work for presentation.
5. Develop and refine artistic work for presentation.
8. Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
10. Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
11. Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context
to deepen understanding.
SOCIAL STUDIES:
New York State Common Core Grades 9 -12
11.7 Prosperity and Depression (1920 - 1939): The 1920s and 1930s were a time of
cultural and economic changes in the nation. During this period the nation faced
significant domestic challenges including the Great Depression.
(Standards: 1,4; Themes: ID, TCC, SOC, CIV)
11.7b African Americans continued to struggle for social and economic equality while
expanding their own thriving and unique culture. African American cultural
achievements were increasingly integrated into national culture.
-Students will examine literary and artistic contributions associated with the Harlem
Renaissance and its impact on national culture.
ENGLISH:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their
development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one
another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.6
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate.
Summative Unit Assessments:
*Interdisciplinary assessment(s), if any:
The final assessment for the English, Art, and Social Studies classes will be to create and
participate in an Exhibit based on NYC. The art students will be creating a mural and the
English students will be performing poems. The social studies students will be performing
their own creative version of a performance on a certain hero of the Harlem Renaissance.
Their ten- fifteen minute performance will dignify the work of either an artist, musician, or
writer during this time. At the end of their performance, they will also need to talk about how
this artists work fits in with our culture today.
During this exhibit, the Math class will be presenting the group posters that they create with
graphs representing statistics that they have researched on New York City.
*Content-area-specific assessments:
MATH: In their math class, students will be taking a unit exam on the last day of the unit.
This summative assessment, students will be tested on their knowledge of the statistics
that was gone over in the unit. This assessment will include more statistics about New York
to bring the unit together at the end.
ART: In their art class, students will be assessed on their participation in the creation of the
Harlem Renaissance Community Mural
English: In addition to the performances that the students will be completing during the
Exhibit day, students must then turn in a written component analyzing the piece they
performed, but also the process of performing it for an audience.
Social Studies: Students will be assessed on their groups presentation of their Harlem
Renaissance Hero. Students will be graded on the groups effort to complete the research
questions on the hero,the creativity of the presentation, and the groups ability to address
how their specific hero has impacted National culture.
Technology:
MATH: For math, students will be using Illuminations on NCTMs website in order to create
box plots, pie charts, histograms, stem and leaf plots, and line plots. Using this technology,
students will better be able to see all of these different types of representations in a new
way. Students will also be using their graphing calculators to graph their data and I will be
using PowerPoint presentations to help guide through the lessons.
ART: In Studio Art class, I will be using the aid of a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the
art historical concepts of the Harlem Renaissance.
ENGLISH: For English, the teacher will make use of Powerpoint presentations to further
illustrate instruction.
SOCIAL STUDIES: For social studies students we will do research in the schools computer
lab on their respective hero from the Harlem Renaissance. Additionally, I have given
students the option to make powerpoints or other technological resources for their
performance during the Exhibit.
Instructional Models, Strategies, and Learning Tasks:
This unit is supported by Piagets Constructivist Learning Theory and Gardners Multiple
Intelligences Theory. Piagets theory would support this unit because students are actively
constructing their own understandings through art and performance. Gardners theory would
support this unit because both auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners are being catered to
through instruction in this unit.
Interdisciplinary Unit Calendar
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Math:
frequency
tables, stem
and leaf
plots, and
line plots on
population of
New York
City by age
and sex
(with
homework
assignment)
Art: Art
historical
lecture on
the Harlem
Renaissance
English:
Introduction
to NYC/the
Harlem
Renaissance
in terms of
literature
Social
Studies:
General
Introduction
on the
Harlem
Renaissance
. We will look
at Jim Crow
laws, the
NAACP, and
The Great
Migration
(For
homework
students
must
complete a
worksheet
Math: mean,
median, mode and
range of population
of the NYC
boroughs(with
homework
assignment)
**Math: 5
number
summary and
box plots of
visitors to
NYC in 20002013(with
homework
assignment)*
*
Math: bar
graphs,
histograms,
and pie
charts on
population of
New York by
age and
sex(with
homework
assignment)
Math: creating
group posters for
exhibit
Art: Mural
work day
Art: Mural
work day
****English:
Langston Hughes
(short story and
poem)
English:
Works by
Thurman and
Hurston
Primary sources
from the Harlem
Renaissance:
We will go over
homework than then
we will look at
songs, photographs,
letters, and graphs
that that expose the
struggles African
Americans endured
in the South as well
as their mass
migration to the
North
Social
Studies:
Langston
Hughes
(Focussing
on his
political
thoughts and
beliefs in his
poem I, too
and then look
how it affects
evolution of
Harlem)
English:
Nuyorican
Poets (Intro
and
examples)
**Social Studies:
Students will
reflect on
questions from the
Hurston article and
will start to work on
Harlem
Renaissance
Heroes Group
Project
**Art: Planning and
designing stages for
the Harlem
Renaissance
Community Mural
Social
Studies:
Zora Neale
Hurston
(For
homework
students
must read the
article, Party
for Neale
Hurston,
Obscure No
More)
Art: Mural work
day
English:
Introduction to
Performance/Publi
c Speaking
that aligns
with the
notes and
discussion
from today)
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Math: review
for unit exam
Math: unit exam
(END OF
UNIT NO
MORE
LESSONS)
(END OF
UNIT NO
MORE
LESSONS)
(END OF UNIT
NO MORE
LESSONS)
Art: Mural
work day
(finishing up)
and
preliminary
planning for
Exhibit
English:
Workshop
day for
Exhibit
Performance
Social
Studies:
Students will
be given a
work day to
work on their
presentation
s that focus
on their
specific hero
from the
Harlem
Renaissance
(For
homework
students
should
practice their
role within
their
presentation)
Art: Final planning
for Exhibit
English: Exhibit Day
(Poetry
Performances)
Social Studies:
Exhibit Day
(Performance on
respective hero:
Students can
choose the format of
their presentation)
