Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Beth Polito teaches a sixth-grade core class at Redwood Middle School that integrates social studies,
language arts and literature.

Redwood teachers integrate subjects with collaboration

By Tim Persyn

How many adults remember being 12 years old and trudging daily to English, history, math and science, completing assignments yet wondering how it was all relevant to the real world?

Some staffers at Redwood Middle School are addressing such age-old student questions as "What has Mesopotamia to do with me?" through collaborative teaching, designed to show students relevance and meaning in their lessons while giving teachers new ways of working together.

Some teachers have focused on collaborative teaching in an attempt to build connections across traditional academic subjects.

Redwood instructor Beth Polito teaches Core, a course which aims to integrate social studies, language arts and literature in an extended two-and-a-half-hour period. In a typical day in class, this extended session can allow Polito to teach subjects like drama, art and spelling, all revolving around a specific theme.

"We don't want to stretch it, but we can find natural connections," Polito said.

Polito hopes the search for connections will lead to the creation of innovative interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, if she's teaching a section on early humans, she hopes to be able to work with science instructors to organize events like a mock archaeological dig.

"There are endless opportunities to find connections between things," Polito said. "Collaboration makes teaching exciting."

The movement towards collaboration across disciplines is done with a focus on improving student learning, Polito said. Students get an opportunity to increase their understanding and develop meaning in regards to their course work by seeing connections between disciplines.

"Students get more of a chance for hands-on experience, there is a repetitive nature that allows curriculum to be backed up, and it allows students to see an increased relevancy in what they learn," Polito said.

Collaborative teaching also aims to have instructors better understand the needs of individual students by promoting more discussion among staff. One focus of collaboration is for teachers to think of themselves as part of a team. If a particular student starts to have bad days or is falling behind in school, teachers might more easily get together to talk.

"I'll speak to a math and science teacher constantly about a student--we can help each other," Polito said.

Principal Dick Derby sees the movement towards more collaboration as a intrinsic part of forward-thinking teaching, but he isn't sure he likes the word. "I'm worried about these terms like collaboration becoming overused. This should happen automatically," he said.

However, not everyone is sold on the benefits. "The idea of change can present an obstacle," said Derby. "Members of the staff might feel satisfied with what they are doing. Our test scores are high."

In addition, some parents fear that teachers who spend increased time collaborating with colleagues might spend less time teaching students in the classroom.

Board of Trustees member Cynthia Chang said, "Some parents are concerned about whether collaboration will reduce children's learning time." Chang added, "When we are doing experiments on kids, we need to be careful."

Vice Principal Dale Borgeson said sometimes there is resistance to change. "People think, 'If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it."