Interdisciplinary Elementary Physical Education Essay -- Education

Trampolines in math class, soccer in Spanish class, and capture the flag in history class? Sounds like a fun way to learn right? It is! The fun of correlating physical activity and movement with all ranges of classes is one of the reasons why interdisciplinary teaching is one of the successful forms of teaching. What is interdisciplinary teaching? Interdisciplinary teaching is a style of teaching that integrates two or more subjects into a lesson plan. For instance, correlating math within science, language arts within physical education, history within music, no matter what subjects correlate with other subjects of a students curriculum, this puzzle piece teaching method goal is to enhance the learning experience, ability, and knowledge in each study areas (Cone). According to the authors of Interdisciplinary Elementary Physical Education, you cannot just relate a subject with another subject without planning it out, one needs to find a central theme, issue, problem, process, topic or experience to connect two or more subjects together (Jacobs, 1989). Now, primarily focusing on elementary physical education, it is substantially beneficial for elementary students to walk into gym class and learn about math, science, history, language arts, or any other classes that fall into their young curriculum. The reason why is because the average elementary student is always waiting for that time of the day to go run around and play games with their friends. Lets face it, what kid doesn’t want to go outside to play catch or go to the gym to shoot a basketball? Knowing that physical education teachers will hopefully receive the upmost attention and support from these young students, he now has the power to use that attention to potentially... ...in to increase numbers of success with all subject areas. The three models that teachers use, connected, shared, and partnership, to teach in a interdisciplinary form determines how simple or complex the skill, topic, or concept the teacher or teachers teach to their students. In my eyes, I believe all subjects of all levels of schooling should blend this style of teaching within their curriculums to receive full success and potential of each student. Works Cited Cone, Theresa Purcell, Peter H. Werner, and Stephen Leonard. Cone. Interdisciplinary Elementary Physical Education. 2nd ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2009. Print. Jacobs, Heidi H. "Interdisciplinary Learning in Your Classroom: Explanation." THIRTEEN. Educating Broadcasting Corporation, 2004. Web. 04 Apr. 2012. .