Keith 1

Annotated Bibliography on Integrated and Cross-Disciplinary Curriculum

Ebbers, S. M. (2015). Linking the Language: A Cross-Disciplinary Vocabulary Approach.
Retrieved November 03, 2016, from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/linkinglanguage-cross-disciplinary-vocabulary-approach
In the article, Ebbers says that theoretically, learning roots, prefixes, and suffixes
through repetitive exposure should be easy and come naturally for young people.
However, for many of them, they sometimes do not understand how these word
parts function in the way that they do and how to make sense of them. When that
seemingly simple approach fails, Ebbers advocates, teachers should take a crossdisciplinary approach to teaching that facet of language arts. Ebbers recommends
a cross-disciplinary approach that incorporates core areas together, such as
science and math with English. The article promotes examining words in a
scientific approach to thinking about them, as in using logic to understand how
they are similar. A teacher might also incorporate mathematical thinking into
discerning the meaning of words by adding together roots, prefixes, and suffixes,
and making inferences based off those calculations. Ebbers argues that this is a
good cross-disciplinary approach for English language learners in particular, but
this approach is also beneficial for all students. Like full-block integrated
approaches to teaching, this links subjects and types of thinking that are common
in them together so that students will see how learning these words in English
clearly relates to knowing them in science, math, social studies, and more. It is a
less time consuming approach to cross-curricular instruction if a school does not
have the time, money, resources, or support to have a wholly integrated

Keith 2
curriculum. Ebbers warns that not all words in the English language have a clear
root, prefix, and suffix, but this approach still overwhelmingly works because the
goal of this kind of curriculum is not to have students learn all words but rather
several commonalities between ones they encounter so that they can continue to
make connections in their language and therefore make those connections in all
their learning.
Jones, C. (2009). Interdisciplinary Approach - Advantages, Disadvantages, and the Future
Benefits of Interdisciplinary Studies. Retrieved November 3, 2016, from
http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=essai
Jones explores in the article what some educators and research imagine as just a
type of integrated curriculum: an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, or one
that uses methods and knowledge from multiple disciplines, using a synthesized
approach to solving problems. Jones claims that since the 1930s, integrating
curriculum has become a popular approach to educating students, starting with
joint teacher planning and block scheduling. The article examines several
advantages that interdisciplinary teaching that are similar to many other research
articles on the approach. For example, Jones says that interdisciplinary
approaches to education strengthen thinking skills and teach students to
conceptualize main ideas and major foci rather than learning information in a
vacuum. When they can think holistically about their learning, they begin to
develop their skills in connecting ideas and solving problems accordingly. With
that in mind, though, Jones argues that in some settings, like institutions of higher
education, interdisciplinary curriculum may be at least somewhat detrimental to

Keith 3
students because by having the instructor learn several different methodologies
from several different fields, the instructor becomes disconnected from truly being
an expert in his or her field. Despite this limitation and others, however, Jones
continues to support integrating curriculum because of its clear benefits to
students.
Lake, K. (1994, May). Integrated Curriculum - Education Northwest. Retrieved November 3,
2016, from http://educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/integrated-curriculum.pdf
Lake advocates in her article that a transition into and implementation of
integrated curriculum allow educators to have a fresh approach to thinking about
teaching. When they have that fresh approach, they can better serve their students,
therefore enabling them to be more successful not only in school but also after
graduation. Lake argues that integrated curriculum takes much time and work for
teachers but that that collaboration can greatly impact the future of their students.
Finally, she acknowledges that a fully integrated curriculum design and
implementation may take several professional days and may require resources not
available to some schools. However, Lake ultimately advocates for an integrated
approach to teaching students, a concept she claims has been popular for many
decades because of its great successes.