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DYSLEXIC MIND STRENGTHS
The Dyslexic MIND we described in our book, The Dyslexic Advantage, talked about talent areas in Material Reasoning (reasoning through physical materials), Interconnected Reasoning (relating different areas), Narrative Reasoning (storytelling and scene construction), and Dynamic Reasoning, looking into the future and making predictions.
Summer activities based on material reasoning could take the form of building a go cart or tree house, going on an architectural tour in a city, or redesigning a room.
Interconnected reasoning can take place whenever different disciplines or subjects come together - like math and physical education or art and biology or music and science.
In schools, one helpful way to create interdisciplinary programs is to partner with a teacher from another subject discipline.
Sometimes there are web resources giving examples of interdisciplinary projects (for example, this article from Edutopia), but if you want to take an approach to many projects or subjects you are planning to teach, then using ChatGPT or Grok or another AI assistant may provide many ideas for blending different topics in learning.
For example, for a prompt to suggest interdisciplinary projects based on early American history, a chat assistant suggested creative writing assignments from different points of view in early American History, research on the biological and disease impacts of early immigrants and settlers, learning about early Native American and European art traditions, in addition to other project ideas that touch on Geography, Economics, Math, or Government.
It may seem a bit of a stretch planning interdisciplinary projects for students if these haven't been a conscious part of students' education before, but this is an area where many dyslexic students (and later adults) can excel - and gaining exposure and experience with this complex higher order thinking can be exciting for students as they discover some of where their strengths lie.