<p>Oh and I’d forgotten all about the team teaching done by my older son’s 8th grade bio and English teachers. This is the description of what they did:</p>
<p>Students explore the historical aspects of disease and discuss both fiction and non-fiction accounts of disease, including The Microbe Hunters, The Hot Zone, The Andromeda Strain, Tuesdays with Morrie, and A Parcel of Patterns. They write a series of children’s books about microbes and other disease-causing organisms, the immune system, antibiotics, and scientists (such as Louis Pasteur and Jonas Salk) who have made important contributions to the struggle against disease. They also profile a specific disease and diseases in plants. The students publish a newspaper, The Immune Tribune, that includes: feature articles about disease, a “Dear Abby” column, a microbe “centerfold”, obituaries for scientists involved in disease research, “classified” ads, a crossword puzzle, book reviews, cartoons, and Interviews with scientists. They started the year reading Beowolf as an example of a “non-scientific” view of the world.</p>
<p>at my high school there was a program that you could do senior year which basically consisted of taking AP European History, AP Art History, and AP Literature, and the teachers coordinated the materials so that you could see the patterns/overlaps between the subjects</p>
<p>As a Historian, I’ve taught similar Literature/history courses on the college level. I love teaching them (I love the opportunity to team with another professor in a related field) and the students love it as well. </p>
<p>Most importantly, it’s better learning.</p>
<p>I remember it took a long time when I was a college student for me to understand that each of my courses did not stand in isolation. Students taking interdisciplanary courses cannot avoid the fact that what they are learning in history relates to what they are learning in literature. And they quickly catch on to the fact that what they are learning in their other classes - poli sci, economics, philosophy, sociology, etc. - relates to their history/lit class as well. They have a better understanding that despite the siloed nature of universities, each discipline does not stand on its own . . . the world is a far messier place . . . and each discipline informs the others.</p>
<p>This has actually been kind of a knock at our hs. Juniors who want to take AP US History <em>have</em> to take the linked Honors English class. Great for some, not so great for those who’d prefer to take a lower level history or English.</p>