Abstract of

Teaching Tips
When Opportunity Knocks: Integrating Language Arts and the Daily Calendar

Melissa Biddle

With daily classroom schedules jammed with many concepts and skills to cover, integrating subjects whenever possible offers some relief. Primary classrooms can use their daily calendar time to integrate language arts and math. This teaching approach includes the use of word walls, interactive writing, journaling, and other effective teaching strategies.

The author describes some unique activities to foster integration of language arts and the calendar. Interdisciplinary teaching allows for more to be covered in shorter blocks of time and lets the teacher decide what needs to be reviewed and revisited. This time can be used to meet goals suggested by established curricula or by state standards. Teaching occurs in a whole group, small groups, with partners, or individually to promote cooperation as well as individualized assistance. Such integration has proven to be an exciting, stimulating alternative in classroom teaching.

Abstract from Biddle, M. (2007, February). When Opportunity Knocks: Integrating Language Arts and the Daily Calendar. The Reading Teacher, 60(5), 488–491. doi: 10.1598/RT.60.5.8