Interdisciplinary Unit Built on a Student's Household Knowledge¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

A teacher uses knowledge of a student's household experience to create "a series of interdisciplinary lessons centered around the theme" drawn from that experience. In the digest's example, a student's experience selling candy from Mexico became a week-long candy production unit spanning math, science, health, consumer education, cross-cultural practices, marketing, and food production, with a parent teaching the class to make Mexican candy.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teacher awareness of a student's household experience, gained through household research.
• Weave knowledge exchanged between teachers and families into academic content and lessons.
• Invite a parent with relevant knowledge into the class to explain a process and help students.

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• Language minority students in the Tucson project's classrooms

Target Learning Goals¶

• Math concepts such as comparing average numbers of ingredients
• Science, health, consumer education, and marketing concepts connected to a household theme

Affordances¶

• Funds Of Knowledge

Related Strategies¶

• Leveraging_Family_Knowledge
• Incorporate_Students_Cultural_Practices
• Funds Of Knowledge Teacher Research Model
• Organize instruction thematically with a thematic organizer rather than presenting knowledge piecemeal

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Funds of Knowledge: Learning from Language Minority Households. ERIC Digest. (1994). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED367146