When we think of a traditional American dinner plate, we imagine the food separated and compartmentalized into its own area. Meat in one section, a starch in one, and a vegetable in another. Nothing is allowed to touch. There are lots of plates designed for young children that literally have different sections for their food to prevent mixing. However, children worldwide eat meals with everything mixed together and don't think twice about it. There are only so many ways to make a meat and potato meal interesting. When we mix our foods, the possibilities for the dishes we can create are endless. We can even tailor a dish to different tastes while retaining all the delicious complexities from the mixing flavors. What if we extend this metaphor to the follow-up work we give the student after a lesson?
When our students look at the daily schedule, they see lessons with a singular focus. Math, book group, grammar, science, etc. However, while our lessons may have a primary objective, invariably, they usually have a multi-disciplinary approach engrained within them. For example, try teaching the scientific method without talking about statistics or graphing. Math requires a whole other language with words like sum, numerator, quotient, and congruence. To code effectively, one requires language, math, and logic. We have yet to mention the social and emotional abilities! Try leading a book group without asking the students to use tools like empathy or inference. Suppose so many of our lessons are multi-disciplinary (or integrated). Why aren't more of our follow-up work also integrated?
When do we get accused of giving "busy work?" Typically, when our follow-up works strictly deal with only one subject. When a student says “busy work,” what they are really saying is boring. As a former classroom teacher, homework often felt like busy work. Doing math problems without context or association with anything else is dull and monotonous. Identifying parts of speech from a random sentence is repetitive and tedious. When the work doesn't connect to anything else, it doesn't have a greater meaning. The student will end up having to reframe the objective of the work in their mind to make it enjoyable. If they can't, typically, you will begin seeing avoidance behaviors emerge. Instead of doing the work because it is genuinely interesting, they rush to get it done to work on something more entertaining. If your students use work plans, the most enjoyment they get from "busy work" is checking it off.
Word problems come closer to this multi-disciplinary approach. It forces students to use language (reading comprehension) and math skills. Students who tend to be more math-oriented do not like word problems because they also force them to read. However, word problems show us practical examples of math application. Unfortunately, lots of word problems designed for younger students are pretty lame. Problems about giving or receiving fruit (why is it always apples?) come to mind. Betsy bought ten apples, gave away four, and then ate half of her apples. How many does she have left? A good follow-up question is, why is Betsy eating so many apples in one sitting?
Imagine a math word problem set integrated with a culture or science studies lesson. We could have a question like, "if a mouse has around six pups per litter and gets pregnant about eight times a year, how many new mice would there be from one mouse after two years?" This question could connect to their study on mice within food chains. Because mice reproduce so fast, they are vital to any ecosystem they belong to as predator and prey. Suppose the students are studying early European history. In that case, the speed of mice breeding helps us understand how the Bubonic Plagues may have spread so quickly. Because mice breed so quickly, they are ideal for laboratory experiments, hence the term lab rat.
Next, imagine a student moving to sentence analysis work. Instead of generic sentences, they would read sentences about food chain ecosystems. They may even see a sentence about the importance of mice within a particular biome they are studying. Maybe the sentences are about the "Black Death" in Europe. Now they getting extra information and reinforcement of their cultural lesson. They will remember what they discovered about mice reproduction and read about ecosystems or the Bubonic Plague in their sentence analysis. It's like having three culture lessons instead of one!
“Let us give the child a vision of the whole universe. The universe is an imposing reality, and an answer to all questions. We shall walk together on this path of life, for all things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity.
Dr. Maria Montessori, 1948: 8
One can literally see the concept Whole-Part-Whole from this quote from Maria Montessori. Introduce the universe, understand all things are part of the universe, and they all connect to make the universe. Let’s highlight the concept of connection within the quote. A synonym for connection is integration. The more connections we can make within a student's work, the better they understand the full potential of its application. When students understand the possibilities they gain from new knowledge, they will never ask again, “When am I going to use this in real life?” Instead, they will come to look at anything they learn as an additional tool within their toolkit for solving whatever problem they are working on. Even better, you find multiple uses for one tool. It means the tool is precious and worth having in the toolbox. When students learn their knowledge has multiple applications, they become more versatile, and their powers of synthesis will be on another level.