ITL512 v1

Fitzgerald, M. S. (2020). Overlapping Opportunities for Social-Emotional and Literacy Learning in Elementary-Grade Project-Based Instruction. American Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1086/709545
This case study explored how one third-grade teacher’s enactment of a PBL curriculum provided opportunities for students to learn and use social-emotional skills and literacy in the service of disciplinary learning.

Ye, P., & Xu, X. (2023). A case study of interdisciplinary thematic learning curriculum to cultivate “4C skills.” Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1080811
This study discovered that an interdisciplinary thematic learning environment centered on real-world challenges fosters students’ creative thinking in open practice while also encouraging group communication and collaboration. Students also gain critical thinking skills through questioning and critique.

Sodergren, C.D.C., Kettler, T., Sulak, T. N., & Payne, A. M. (2023). Teacher self-efficacy, innovativeness, and preparation to teach cross-curriculum skills. International Journal of Contemporary Educational Research, 10(1), 197-209
Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is related to teachers’ job satisfaction, retention, motivation to improve, and work-related stress. Using data from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), we investigated the impact of an innovative campus culture and preparation for teaching cross-curriculum skills on TSE.

José Miguel Merino-Armero, José Antonio González-Calero, Ramón Cózar-Gutiérrez, & Javier del Olmo-Muñoz. (2022). Unplugged Activities in Cross-Curricular Teaching: Effect on Sixth Graders’ Computational Thinking and Learning Outcomes. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 6(13), 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti6020013
This study analyzes an unplugged cross-curricular introduction of CT in the Social Sciences area among sixth grade students.

Lott, K., & Clark, S. (2020). Cross-curricular Connections: Science in the Literacy Block. Science and Children, 58(2), 80–86.
Early elementary teachers play an essential role in fostering students’ foundational knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In the early elementary grades, students develop fundamental understandings of the natural world that can set them on learning and attitudinal trajectories toward future engagement with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (Eshach and Fried 2005; Lind 1999; Osborne and Dillon 2008). Yet, despite this importance, “science time” in many early elementary classrooms is minimal compared to the time spent on literacy and math (Trygstad et al. 2013).

Ashbrook, P. (2019). Yes, and... Cross-Curricular Planning for Preschool. Science & Children, 57(1), 14–15.
Planning cross-curricular integration increases your flexibility so you can embrace the “Yes, and” improvisational approach—whatever direction children’s interests develop, you are ready to proceed.

Greiner, J. A., & Higgs-Coulthard, K. (2022). Toward an Integrated Approach: Social Studies Disciplinary Literacy in Elementary Methods Courses. Ohio Social Studies Review, 58(1), 7–14.
In this article we present an approach to familiarize teacher candidates with disciplinary literacy and social studies instruction in a way that reinforces both needs in elementary instruction and has potential to enrich the teaching of future elementary teachers. The approach also integrates a critical lens, by prioritizing integration of non-dominant narratives, centering student experience and perspective, as well as involving cross-curricular modeling of co-teaching.

Barton, K., & Smith, L. (2000). Themes or motifs? Aiming for coherence through interdisciplinary outlines. The Reading Teacher, 54(1), 54–63.
Amid the recent surge of reform initiatives, educators have consistently stressed one key recommendation for teachers in the early grades: Instruction should focus on integrated, interdisciplinary activities that revolve around a set of important ideas.

Boss, S. (2014, November 21). Make literacy a focus of PBL. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/make-literacy-focus-pbl-suzie-boss
PBL puts students in the role of active inquirers. Their literacy skills get a workout in the process of asking good questions and seeking answers through research, interviews, observation, and other forms of investigation that may involve critical reading and careful listening.

California Department of Education. (2017). History social science framework, appendix c. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/cf/documents/hssappendixc.pdf
The intellectual skills noted are to be learned through, and applied to, the content standards for kindergarten through grade five. They are to be assessed only in conjunction with the content standards in kindergarten through grade five.

California Department of Education. (n.d.). Social and emotional learning: Guidance and resources for supporting social and emotional learning. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/se/
These guidance tools, developed for voluntary use, aim to build on and respond to the call from California’s diverse stakeholders to embed equity-focused Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (T-SEL) in every learning and teaching context across the education system.

CASEL. (n.d.). SEL: What are the core competence areas and where are they promoted. https://casel.org/sel-framework/
Our SEL framework, known to many as the “CASEL wheel,” helps cultivate skills and environments that advance students’ learning and development.

Fulton, J. (2019, December 3). How to make cross-curricular teaching part of your plan. https://www.classcraft.com/blog/how-to-make-cross-curricular-teaching-part-of-your-plan/
Segmenting a school day into these isolated subjects can suggest that one area of study has little (if anything) to do with the rest, and that the material that students are learning in one class has no relevance to any other parts of their lives.

Funderstanding. (2011, April 14). Thematic instruction. https://www.funderstanding.com/educators/thematic-instruction/
Thematic instruction is the organization of a curriculum around macro “themes.” Thematic instruction integrates basic disciplines like reading, math, and science with the exploration of a broad subject, such as communities, rain forests, river basins, the use of energy, and so on.

Johnson, B. (2014, August 14). Deeper learning: Why cross-curricular teaching is essential. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/cross-curricular-teaching-deeper-learning-ben-johnson
It is time that teachers and administrators realize that public education has reached a dam in the river. We have gone about as far as we can go with isolated instruction and learning. While it may have served the purpose for the older generations, it does not meet the deeper learning needs of students today and tomorrow. Fortunately, deeper learning can be accelerated by consolidating teacher efforts and combining relevant contents, in effect, opening new spillways of knowledge.

Next Generation Science Standards. (2000). Next generation science standards. Nextgenscience.org. https://www.nextgenscience.org/
Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard—or performance expectation—and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time.

Randle, I. (1997). The measure of success: Integrated thematic instruction. The Clearing House, 71(2), 85–87.
ITI-based curricula stress the integration of all disciplines to present students with learning experiences that are based in real-world application and structured to encourage higher-order learning and the development of the critical habits students need to become lifelong learners.