Cross-curricular learning
Revised July 2008
Aztec accommodation History is a very good practice ground for the other subjects in the curriculum: while doing history we can genuinely incorporate other subjects, because history embraces all of human life.
In all cross-curricular topics, history provides an ideal context for extending children’s literacy, in speaking and listening, reading and writing. See History and Literacy.
Key questions
Drive your cross-curricular topic with key questions; they will provide a purpose for activities. For example, Mexico/Aztecs:
• How did the Aztecs keep control over their Empire?
• Why was the mighty Aztec Empire so quickly defeated?
• How did the Aztecs grow their food? What foods did they give to Europe?
• How does Mexico produce food nowadays?
• What environmental factors did the Aztecs have to cope with? Are they the same for today’s Mexicans?
As a start, see on this website The Aztec experience.
Why cross-curricular?
Cross-curricular learning provides:
Connections
Choose areas where genuine connections between subjects occur naturally. Will the connections make sense to the children?
Coherence
Good cross-curricular topics can include several subjects, but there should be just one (or at most two) lead subject/s. The lead subject provides a framework and focus for the topic. (Teaching cross-curricular topics does not mean doing the kind of unfocused topic work which was common before the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 and had been heavily criticised by HMI in 1978.)
Creativity
Cross-curricular work offers a creative way to help children to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding, while motivating them to learn through stimulating, interconnected topics. A study which crosses subject boundaries allows for investigations that engage children’s imagination. It also provides opportunities to encourage children to take the initiative, engage in active enquiry, and discuss and debate their findings. See Creativity
How do I plan for cross-curricular learning?
When planning a cross-curricular topic, think about:
Curriculum breadth and balance
Schools have long-term plans to ensure that pupils receive their entitlement to the whole primary curriculum. The Senior Leadership Team generally maps the curriculum for the school over a whole year or more.
Links between subjects
Make these real, not contrived. On the school’s long-term plan, what are the year’s history topics for your class? Are there any obvious links with the other subject topics on the plan? For example, if in geography you are doing Mexico as a locality study, and in history doing a world study, choose the Aztecs for the world study; this could create a genuine history/geography cross-curricular topic.
Keeping track of subject objectives
Use your medium- and short-term plans to map the learning objectives for each separate subject to be included in the cross-curricular topic. Even though the teaching may be integrated, objectives should be identified as history, PSCHE, geography, and so on. This is the only way to check your coverage of the primary curriculum overall, and to plan for progression in each subject.
Ensuring progression
There is a difference between children making progress in a subject and doing a bit of practice in it. For example, getting children to practise counting in twos when looking at house numbers in a local study does not ensure progression in numeracy.
Key questions to ask yourself
• Am I tackling substantive concepts, knowledge or skills in all the subjects included in the topic?
• Will the children be making real progress in each subject?
Framework and focus
You can give your cross-curricular topic a coherent framework through the following.
Key concepts
For instance ‘Change and continuity’.
At KS1, 'Change and continuity' could involve shopping, transport or school, comparing now with then - parents’ or grandparents’ generation. It could involve geography (surveys, maps), art (such as collage of a street now and then), and maths (using and applying – pictorial graphs). All this as well as the key subject of history.
At KS2, the History Study Unit ‘Britain since 1930’ provides an ideal historical framework for examining concepts of change and continuity.
It could incorporate RE (new religions in Britain); geography (change/ continuity involving a locality and/or one of the themes – water, settlement, environment); music (continuity – traditional/ classical; change – rock/punk/rap); ICT (now and in 1930), and so on.
A main theme (e.g. ‘Our school’, or ‘The story of flight’). The latter is an old favourite at KS1, and makes a good cross-curricular history-led topic, incorporating design technology and science (when we taught it, hot air balloons and paper aeroplanes were the focus of both scientific and design experimentation). See Creativity.
A specific focus (e.g. Local study). Local studies are perfect for both key stages and are available to us all. Using the local area as the focus of learning can serve different subjects splendidly and naturally. Studying local history always involves using maps and plans and looking at settlement and change: this of course is geography too. Local studies can also include art, design, science, RE, and other subjects.
As an example see our cross-curricular Urban spaces project on local urban parks and gardens. Here the two key themes were The parks and their environs in the past' and 'People, plants and animals' in the parks.
by Jacqui Dean