In most middle schools, learning is segregated by discipline. Yet interdisciplinary approaches have been shown to cultivate creative thinking, support problem solving, and develop interest while supporting knowledge gains (NAE & NRC in STEM Integration in K-12 Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research. National Academies Press,…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many youth felt disconnected from on-the-ground engagement with their peers, their communities, and the wider society. School closures also impeded progress in some students' abilities to write, speak, and express themselves through various media. A team of interdisciplinary and intergenerational faculty and…

Although education is framed as a future-oriented enterprise, we often fail to serve the diverse futurities of youth, particularly in formal learning environments. The cultural norms of formal learning environments are rooted in dominant ways of being and knowing and this shapes how learning environments and learning technologies can be designed.…

"This We Believe" advocates the use of a curriculum that maximizes early adolescent learning by integrating multiple disciplines rather than teaching them in isolation. The development of an interdisciplinary curricular unit is a common assignment in middle grades teacher education programs that seek to prepare teacher candidates to…

When middle school teachers and leaders commit themselves to being responsive to the personal concerns of adolescents and the social concerns of their community, it results in opportunities to build capacity in students to be agents of change. This article captures the story of one school's process in designing and implementing a yearlong…

The Green Ninja Film Academy (GENIE) is an interdisciplinary curriculum development project that examines the efficacy of combining climate science concepts and practices with digital storytelling for middle school youth. We present findings from iterative enactments of this design-based research project in 2017 (N = 296) and 2018 (N = 539). On…

This article shares aspects to consider when designing and implementing content area instruction through the study of people. It begins with a description of an inquiry that investigated students' learning with the use of authentic literature and meaningful writing in social studies, and then extends to a discussion of how to apply these same…

This study investigates teachers' perceptions and practices of designing and teaching transdisciplinary STEAM curriculum using online authentic assessment. Aligning the transdisciplinary STEAM curriculum to authentic assessment is a conceptual framework that guided this study to focus on the three learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, and…

This article describes the design of a social studies unit about the Johnstown Flood of 1889 with a particular emphasis on how specific unit resources engaged middle school students in learning about the geographical and historical context of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. We also report on how the resources supported the teaching and learning of the…

As many K-6 students enrolled in dual language and bilingual programs enter middle and subsequently high schools that implement similar programs, content area teachers in Spanish face a twofold challenge: to remain aligned with the classroom discourse utilized in Spanish Language Arts (SLAs) and to implement effective strategies while teaching…

This study was designed to understand how a school can transform its instructional practices and collaborative structures to bring about rigorous, relevant, and engaging learning for all students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to determine how a school can create a culture of innovation in teaching practices. This case study…

In our knowledge-based society, K-8 students need to develop increasingly sophisticated skills to read, write, and speak for a wide variety of purposes and audiences. Including an extended case example from a linguistically diverse school, this book guides school leaders to design and implement advanced literacy instruction through four key…

For decades, educators have hoped to integrate geospatial tools into K-12 classrooms but struggled with barriers of time, technology, and curriculum alignment. The authors formed a design partnership with ninth-grade science and social studies teachers in an urban high school in order to conduct teacher professional development while also…

In this article, we summarize research on Prince Edward Island where a Prince Edward Island teacher, identifying as an a/r/tographer, designed a digital and multiliteracies unit, as part of a directed studies course in her Master of Education program. Small in scope, this single participant case study was designed to give a fuller picture to three…

In this article, Leslie Duhaylongsod, Catherine E. Snow, Robert L. Selman, and M. Suzanne Donovan describe the principles behind the design of curricular units that offer disciplinary literacy support in the subject of history for middle school students who represent a wide range of reading levels, and for their teachers, whose own subject matter…