Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Teaching and Writing. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

In Chapter One, Elbow says he believes the teaching he found most effective as a student was interdisciplinary: "Interdisciplinary study seemed to make learning 'real' for me and for my students i na way that learning had not often been before" (5).

"I'm arguing that, whereas plain, garden variety, in-school learning consists of the ability to apply academic concepts to academic contexts, 'real learning' consists of two further skills: the ability to apply known concepts moe widely -- to situations never found in schoo; and the ability to invent new concepts never presented in school. By fostering these two skills, non-disciplinary teaching can teach the ability to learn" (6-7).

I imagine he means interdisciplinary as outside of writing, but I also think it can pertain to teaching different genres of writing, or even creative writing and composition at the same time. I do this now in expository writing, and plan to a bit in my narration and description class. I think if students can better make the connections between what different kinds of genres entail, and what crosses over in writing across the disciplines.