Artifacts and Activities Paper: Second Norm Developed Assignment

Artifacts and Activities Paper: Second Norm Developed Assignment Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Abstract This paper focuses on my exploration of how I have come to use interdisciplinary knowledge in the classroom as per Standard 4 of the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards. To develop this competency one has to acknowledge the requirement for thoughtful inclusion of other disciplines to enhance the concept of student understanding. To that effect, I had an opportunity to work with both academic and practical resources to address this challenge. One book I read was Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. The book contains a research-based approach to teaching in ways that make learning relevant and accessible to diverse learners. I also joined a webinar on inclusive curriculum design, which provided practical ways of bringing cross-disciplinary learning into lesson planning. The religious base that supports this response is discussed in how these resources have affected my instructional practices. Artifacts and Activities Paper: Application of Interdisciplinary Knowledge Introduction Interdisciplinary knowledge application is one of the critical areas I identified for improvement in my Content Competency Development Plan. This area of improvement is outlined in InTASC Standard 4, which encourages educators to “engage students in learning experiences that make connections across disciplines” to deepen student comprehension and analytical abilities. On that basis, good teaching requires more than a good understanding of one’s specialty; it requires the practice of balancing different areas of learning so that the resulting learning experiences will have meaning. I realized that I emphasized subject-focused learning in my teaching, which made it hard for students to see the real-world application from one subject to another. For example, during my interactions in the teaching of literature, I would mostly focus more on the analysis of text without making them look into historical, cultural, and scientific contexts that could be supplementary to their understanding. In social studies, I was no less neglectful of scientific and mathematical concepts that could have seen me delve deeper into historical and economic events. As such, to fill these gaps, I learned to review academic resources and look for professional development opportunities that I could use to better implement my perspectives on interdisciplinary teaching. Artifacts and Activities I used Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond to develop my application of interdisciplinary knowledge. Reading this book, I gained a better insight into how culture affects ...