Opinion Blog

Ask a Psychologist

Helping Students Thrive Now

Angela Duckworth and other behavioral-science experts offer advice to teachers based on scientific research. Read more from this blog.

Teaching Opinion

Time for Bin Busting: Teach Math, Reading, and Social Skills Together

By Hailey Gibbs, Elias Blinkoff & Kathy Hirsh-Pasek — December 15, 2021 2 min read
How do I integrate whole-child instruction across different subjects?
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

I support a whole-child approach to teaching, but how do schools integrate it when we have so many different subjects to cover?

Stop teaching in “bins.” Math is from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., followed by reading until 11:50, then off to recess to build social-emotional skills. We often break the whole child into fragments to receive piecemeal instruction in individual subjects.

Even though the science of learning indicates that teaching in bins is not optimal, the practice has remained a mainstay for decades. Take the bins we absolutely believe in—the divide between reading and math. There are number people and good readers, and they often do not exist in the same person, right? Well, it turns out that even here, the science demonstrates that reading and math skills enjoy a lot of overlap. Would you believe that early-language ability is the single best predictor of both math and reading scores? Children who know number words and spatial terms like over, under, around, and through have better STEM scores. And a recent study reports that both reading and math ability is contingent on the same broad network of skills: memory, attention (executive function), language, and general knowledge.

Instead of binning, try a whole-child approach built from children’s interests. Consider, for example, using a birthday party as a thematic exercise. For kindergartners, planning a party requires diverse (previously binned) skills. How many people will we invite, and who will be included? How can we write invitations for each child? What should the invitation look like?

For a 3rd grade math class with fractions as part of the curriculum, just adjust the questions. If we’ve invited 12 children, and 10 can come to the party, what percentage of our invitation list is available? How much pizza should we order, assuming that each child will eat two slices and a large pizza includes 12 slices? Here again, we motivate children while still teaching writing, reading, and division!

By coming up with integrative themes, you can carry out your curricular goals while creating an engaging climate for your students. Think about the key characteristics of a good classroom activity, then test if it works by using this checklist: Is your activity …

Active or passive?
Engaging or distracting?
Meaningful to your students or disconnected from their lives?
Socially interactive with peer collaboration or entirely independent?
Iterative, allowing students to build on ideas each time they come to the classroom, or merely repetitive?
Joyful or boring?

A whole-child approach is not hard to do. Just pick a topic that you like and that you think children will enjoy—race cars, family recipes, music, dinosaurs—and create integrated lessons that draw on a range of topics in reading, math, social skills, geography, and science. You will have a happier classroom, and your students will not only learn reading and math but also how to collaborate, communicate, critically think, and create.

Related Tags:

The opinions expressed in Ask a Psychologist: Helping Students Thrive Now are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Reports Student Motivation and Learning: Teacher and Teen Perspectives
The EdWeek Research Center surveyed teachers and teenagers to learn more about student motivation. This report highlights key findings.
Teaching Opinion To Get Culturally Responsive Teaching Right, Follow These 3 Basic Tenets
Prioritizing students' academic success is fundamental to getting this instructional approach right.
13 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Teaching Opinion 7 Books That Are Inspiring Teachers Right Now
Teachers share books that have transformed the way they think about instruction.
9 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Teaching How School Gardens Can Teach Students Valuable Skills for a Tech-Heavy World
There are many ways to integrate technology into school gardening experiences.
4 min read
Enrichment specialist Ally Audas works with 2nd graders Ansleigh Keeler and Liora Ward in the John Rex Charter School's garden lab in Oklahoma City.
Enrichment specialist Ally Audas works with 2nd graders Ansleigh Keeler and Liora Ward in the John Rex Charter School's garden lab in Oklahoma City.
Courtesy of Anna Shaffer