1) Executive Summary

Introduction and Background:

In classrooms across the nation, teachers frequently complain that they feel overwhelmed by the considerable needs of their students and the massive amount of content embodied in the state standards and curriculum for academic subjects. "Covering the content of curriculum" is especially daunting in areas of science, as technology has led to major breakthroughs in knowledge and understanding from globally coordinated scientific research and communication. At the same time, federal and state mandates for performance levels in English Language Arts have been strengthened in response to large numbers of students who are not developing adequate reading and writing skills. Great concern has been lodged, specifically regarding the writing ability of students entering even the most selective universities, and a major overhaul and change to the Scholastic Aptitude Test by the College Board was undertaken in 2004 - 2005 to address this concern. In this demanding environmental atmosphere, which emphasizes an expanding number of standards and field of content, teachers are challenged to devise more effective, engaging curricula.

According to H. Lynn Erickson, author of Concept- Based Curriculum and Instruction, schools must be responsive to the needs posed by our rapidly changing, complex and globally-interdependent society in the twenty first century. (Erickson p. 3) To meet these challenges, teachers must provide opportunities and communicate expectations that students develop deep understandings of higher level concepts, which go beyond a mere accumulation of a bank of facts, and then transfer this knowledge across the curriculum. This level of deep conceptual understanding of "big ideas" can be fostered through interdisciplinary instruction as students are challenged to transfer knowledge, deepen thinking and connect the learning of new ideas across content areas, time periods and cultures. When students are pushed to really "get it", the conceptual lenses that emerge are essential tools for dealing with an expanding knowledge base, communicate through multiple sources of information, within our increasingly complex society.

As a vehicle for designing a unit that will allow students to experience a more durable and authentic learning experience, rather than a mere "coverage" approach, we have chosen to use the general planning framework offered by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe in their well-known book, Understanding by Design. While this approach necessarily sacrifices some breadth of content coverage, this apparent cost is negated as students develop deeper mastery, resulting in greater lifelong scientific literacy and love of learning. Wiggins and McTighe offer a planning template that is philosophically compatible with Erickson's call for conceptual understanding. Designing curriculum through using a "backward design" approach makes teachers first identify the essentail understandings and desired results, then determine acceptable evidence that can be generated by students to exhibit understanding, and finally plan a learning experience that will lead students to the desired endpoint.

Of course there are also more pragmatic benefits to designing an interdisciplinary unit that fosters transferable understandings. Depending on one's perspective, foremost among the advantages may be the potential for higher performance on the both the New York State Living Environment and English language Arts Regents Examinations, as the unit integrates content from the science curriculum with skills from the English curriculum. Also, the project-based nature of this unit enables the Science department to credit students with equivalent "lab minutes" for time spent performing background research, modeling ecosystems, and presenting to a public audience. The final product can also be used to build a writing portfolio in the English Language Arts currciulum as well. Clearly one advantage to this type of interdisciplinary planning is that it alleviates the demands on different subject areas through ifdentifying areas where the different curricula overlap.

A final aspect of this instructional plan is that it helps schools and teachers address the challenges presented by a growing percentage of students with emotional and learning disabilites or differences. Under mandate of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, as it was re-authorized in 2004 (Publicv Law 108-446, US Dept. of Education, 08/03/06), all students with a disability must be provided with "equal access to education" in the "least restrictive environment". Cooperative team teaching, specifically through utilizing an inclusion model within the regular education classroom, has become a viable and effective model for meeting the needs of many students. However, the regular education curriculum is often challenging, as the fast-paced instruction is often at a break-neck speed for students entering the learning situation with signficant delays and inadequate or disordered skills. Collaborative team teaching and the inclusion model within the regular education classroom is a viable and effective means of meeting the needs for many of these students. Techniques such as pre-teaching and use of redundancy particularly in the introduction of core vocabulary and concepts, provision of numerous examples within key concepts and requiring students to reiterate their understanding of key points, are essential to assure acquisition of knowledge in students with a disability, but also provide benefit to English Language Learners and indeed, all students

The instructional vision of the members of this team is that students gain deeper understandings and develop stronger literacy skills as a result of well-designed curriculum that incorpoartes research-based methodology. The instructional plan presented in this unit is interdisciplinary, as it links the NY State Living Environment curriculum with English Langage Arts standards; it aims to help students develop deep understandings on a specific concept; and it acknowledges the diverse skill level present in predominately heterogenous classrooms across New York City. Specifically, this unit been developed for use over a one month period of time, with ninth grade students for interdisciplinary instruction in Science / the Living Environment and Engish in an inclusion class with a speech - language pathologist. This Instructional Plan provides an exemplar for sound curriculum that prepares students for success in an increasingly demaniding educational environment and world.

The ultimate success of this dynamic and ambitious instructional plan as well as interdisciplinary instruction in general, is dependent upon the commitment, confidence and competence of the teachers implementing it. Implementation of this instructional plan will require that: 1. teachers understand the theory and practice of Understanding by Design; 2. teachers in the English and Science departments have common planning time to prepare, gather resources and collaborate prior to initiating, during implementaton and following completion of the plan; and 3. evaluation of and relection on the ocntent, process and effectiveness of implementation should be carried out among the teachers who participate.

In order to establish expertise, the teaching staff in both departments should be surveyed, and at least one teacher in each department identified to participate in Professional Develpment to establish and support skills in Understanding by Design. They in turn will become peer leaders and mentors in UbD in a formal PD forum in house, as well as through participation in common planning time. Consideration should be given to providing this staff training through online courses offered by the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Online UbD workshops are offered in three parts including an Intorduction, Six Facets of Understanding and The Backward Design Process at www.ascd.org.

In addition, consideration should be given to utilizing a web based common planning site which offers capabilities for establishing a dedicated location for collaboration on this project inclding viewing, editing and revising by each participant and real time chat among participants. This is felt to be an efficient and productive way to "build" and memorialize communication around the interdisciplinary initiative on an ongoing basis. An example of such an established site is www.openplanner.org.