Planning a cross- curricular topic Good evening, for those of you who don’t know us we are Carrie Cameron and Scott Russell, two of the Primary 7 teachers in the School. We are going to explain the process of planning a cross curricular topic. We hope that after this session you have a clear understanding of how the skills that your child is taught are planned and assessed to ensure that each individual child’s needs are met.

Previous Knowledge After identifying the E&Os that need to be taught the topics are then planned which will allow the skills to be covered and in collaboration with the children, a context is chosen. This example is of a Primary 5 topic called ‘Clyde in the Classroom’ and the initial stages of the planning is finding out previous knowledge that the children have.

What we want to learn The children have the opportunity to identify what they wish to know by the end of the topic and this mind map is an example of this. The children at this point have a lot of input into the context, e.g. WWII, but the skills are firmly being led by the teacher to ensure that what is being done is meaningful and covers the skills. This then leads to a formalising of the topic in a planning grid to ensure there is clear progression and the children are being assessed to see if they are achieving the intended learning outcomes.

Skills Framework This is an example of an East Renfrewshire, Second Level, social studies skills framework broad planner. Here you can see the broad Experiences and Outcomes are broken down into more specific skills that the children are expected to know and learn in order to have completed the second level planner. We use these E+Os and skills to plan and inform our teaching. Learning across the curriculum allows teachers to make links between subjects, drawing on a range of themes and topics. At this point we know what the children need to learn, and we can then involve the children in how they learn. The advantages of interdisciplinary learning are similar to those of other high quality and effective learning and teaching situations. By involving the children in their learning in this way it means they are motivated and involved and they demonstrate an inquisitive attitude. Children develop confidence in facing challenges, both intellectual and practical. Learning is connected and directly related to real-life experiences and they get to work individually and collaboratively. In addition, there are particular benefits of interdisciplinary learning. It allows more in-depth exploration of topics, issues and problems within and across subject areas and various perspectives. It makes children want to understand the different curriculum areas in greater depth and it promotes critical thinking by supporting the children to: grasp main ideas, consider different ways of working, compare and contrast what is learned in different subjects, identify the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to investigate a particular issue or problem, bring together information and ideas from different subjects, consider alternative ways of doing things or alternative solutions, predict outcomes and explain all of these and practise critical literacy skills in context. These characteristics of interdisciplinary learning can support individual children in integrating and using what they have learnt in different subject areas.

Sample Planning Grid 1 This is an exemplar of a sample planning grid that we use in kirkhill. This is the template that all teachers in Kirkhill use for planning cross curricular topics. At the top there is space to include the relevant experiences and outcomes from the skills planners. More than one experience and outcome can be included in the plan, including different disciplines where this is appropriate Learning intentions - Learners learn best when they understand what they are learning and what is expected of them. A learning intention is specific to what the children should learn from a lesson or series of lessons. It is taken from the E+O which states what children should be learning. The learning intention is what the children are learning. Success Criteria – Is linked closely to the L.I. and is the ‘how’ as in how the children will achieve the L.I. and will be linked to specific parts of the work that will be assessed. Learners need to know what a good piece of work looks like, the success criteria gives children this knowledge by sharing what they need to do to be successful in any specific task. It’s useful to think also about the difference between the activity set and the skills needed to complete it. Success criteria helps to keep the focus on the learning by engaging with the task. Assessment is also an integral part of the planning process. Through planning the learning, teaching and assessment together and ensuring that there are opportunities to gather a wide range of evidence of learning, staff and learners can reflect on what has been achieved and agree next steps in learning and progression. This evidence can include examples of what the learners say, write, make or do.  Assessments should be supported by criteria for success which have been agreed with the learners, so that they can actively contribute to the assessment process through self and peer assessment, and are clear about what they are learning and what they need to do to be successful.

Sample Planning Grid 2 The next stage of planning is to actually plan the learning experiences or lessons that the children will actually do. Each learning experience may take more than one lesson and can be a series of lessons. Teachers do the actual planning and can now think about the practical things like what will be needed etc. At this point in the planning progress the lessons are not set in stone and can evolve and adapt to suit individual learners needs throughout the topic. Evaluation of learning – In this box teachers will comment on learning based upon evidence collected during lessons. Teachers may comment on the class as a whole but also may mention individuals who have performed particularly well during the topic or those who required more support to grasp a concept. Teachers may also here record the next steps in the childrens’ learning.

P7 Example Here is an example of a primary 7 plan for an electricity topic this year. You can see the learning intentions which are listed are taken from the relevant experience and outcome. Learning intentions may take more than one lesson to achieve. Linked closely to the Learning intention are the success criteria; these can be created by the teacher, or can be taken directly from the skills framework. Success criteria can be viewed as ‘how to achieve’ the learning intention, i.e. if the children can complete the success criteria then they have achieved the learning intention. As you can see here, we have planned to assess this topic in 4 different ways and included the evidence which we, as teachers, may want to have for this. Make – A chemical cell, Evidence photographs. Write – A report and the evidence of this work is simply that it will be written in a jotter. Say – Explain how batteries work, maybe recorded but teacher listening to peer conversations, group discussions or even one to one discussions with the child. Do – Complete a functioning circuit. The circuit will light up, but also children recording accurately in their jotter, drawing accurate circuit diagrams and the teacher observing the work completed.

P7 Example Here you can see there are a variety of learning experiences which have been planned for the children in this topic. Although there are only four learning experiences, as we said earlier these experiences are often done over a number of lessons. We hope our presentation has provided a helpful insight and introduction into how we plan and assess cross curricular topics, Thank you for listening.