Interdisciplinary Activity 
 
Names​: Ellie Gavin, Emma Ware, Kathleen Willett, and Shannon Thorne 
 
1. What “big idea” or CONCEPT could frame all of your content areas?  
 
Mathematics, Science, and English: studies in relationships. 
​ (Content 1) (Content 2) (Content 3) (Concept) 
 
 
2. What UNITS, in particular, would revolve around this concept? 
 
Content 1:​ Functions 
 
Content 2:​ Predator and Prey 
 
Content 3​: Characters 
 
3. Give a brief description of each of the units described above. Focus on 
​ tudents ​would be doing (examining, exploring, solving, 
what the s
producing). 
 
Content 1: Functions 

 
 
 
A function is a relation between a set of inputs to a set of outputs; pairs of 
students will be given two decks of cards (one deck will be of input tables, 
the other will be of output tables- see above for an example). The students 
will need to match input tables to output tables and describe how they 
know they match by determining the function/relationship between the 
two tables (the function used to calculate the output values based on the 
input values). After doing this the students will be asked to answer “how are 
mathematical functions comparable to relationships?” on an exit ticket. 
This activity allows students to use the information from the input/output 
tables to determine the function they create. The exit ticket gives students 
the opportunity to make connections between functions and relationships. 
 
  

Content 2: Predator/Prey Relationships 

Students will be given images 
of various animals to 
categorize as predator or 
prey. Then, they will be given 
the worksheet to the left that 
shows the graphs of fox and 
rabbit populations over a 
given time. It asks students to 
make sense of population 
and predator/prey 
relationships and the 
dependency they have on 
one another to survive. When 
students complete this 
worksheet, I will ask them to 
flip it over and respond to, 
“Why it is important to 
consider different kinds of 
relationships?”  
 
 
Content 3: Relationships of characters  
 
VA SOL: ​6.5 g) Explain how character and plot development are used in a 
selection to support a central conflict or story line.  
 
In the middle grades, students are reading in first and third person. The 
novels have a narrator that the students are either viewing from the 
outside (third person) or reading from their perspective (first person). 
Students can best understand relationships by using a novel they are 
reading in/out of class. For example, the students can identify the 
characters, examine the relationships between the characters, and 
analyze how the relationships relate the to plot of the story. Many of the 
novels students are going to read in middle school are going to focus on 
the theme of bildungsroman (coming of age). Novels with is theme are the 
best when discussing relationships because the other characters have a 
big impact on the protagonist’s outcomes. With these types of novels, 
students can analyze each major character through a STEAL activity (see 
the example below of the STEAL activity for R.J. Palacio’s W ​ onder​). This is 
where students identify a character’s Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others, 
Actions, and Looks. After looking at these characteristics of each 
individual character, then the students can analyze the relationships of 
these characters. Writing can be tied into these unit by having students 
  

write to characters about their relationships with other characters or how 

their relationships have an effect on the story’s plot.  
 

 
 
4. HOOK: 
 
Describe how you’d go about introducing this concept to your students in 
an interdisciplinary nature. You may use any of the strategies from class, 
from Chapter 4, etc. D​ escribe the hook and briefly explain how it would 
set students up for success in each of the units you’ve described​. 
 
 
Shake ‘n’ Share 
Greeting:​ What is your favorite way to eat potatoes? ​Question:​ What 
do you think of when you hear the word “relationship”? 
 
Greeting:​ What is your favorite time of day? ​Question:​ How do 
relationships impact your life? 
 
Greeting:​ What is your favorite thing you own? Why? ​Question:​ What 
are some examples of when you have learned about relationships in 
school? 
 
This hook would get students to start thinking about what relationships 
are and how they play a role in students’ personal lives and their 
classrooms. This hook gets students to define relationships in their own 
  

words and discuss their experiences with them both personally and 
academically. Since relationship is an overarching concept taught in math, 
science, or English, this hook can be used as a transition into the 
introduction of the concept and how relationships are important and play 
a role both in and out of the classroom.