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Session 5. Cross-Curricular Links and Improving a Unit with Evidence
Objective. Plan a small cross-curricular link with a colleague, and review a taught unit using test results, work samples and pupil feedback to decide what to keep and change.
A unit is finished when you have taught it, but it only improves when you look back. Most teachers do look back, informally, on the way home. This lesson makes that habit short and evidence-based, so the next class gets a better unit. It also covers the link between subjects: a good link saves lesson time because pupils meet an idea twice; a poor link steals time from both subjects. In both cases the question is the same: does this help pupils reach the outcomes?
Key ideas
Why link subjects
- Pupils meet the same idea or skill in more than one subject: reading a bar chart in mathematics and in natural science, or water in geography and in literature.
- Three useful kinds of link: a shared skill, a shared theme and a shared product, such as a class Navruz fair or a booklet about the Aral Sea.
- A link is useful if it helps pupils reach the outcomes of each subject. Enjoyment alone is not enough.
Rules for a healthy link
- Each subject keeps its own outcomes, lessons and assessment. A link reinforces them; it does not replace them.
- Plan it with the colleague: who teaches the shared idea first, which words and methods you both use, and what the shared product is.
- Start small: one link per term. Do not force a link where the subjects have nothing in common.
Three kinds of evidence for reviewing a unit
- Item analysis: count how many pupils got each test item right and link each item to an outcome. Low items show weak outcomes.
- Work samples: sort 10 papers into three piles (secure, nearly, not yet) and read the errors. Numbers say where; pupils' work says why.
- Pupil voice and your notes: a one-question exit ticket ('what was hardest?') and a few lines on timing and what you had to rush.
From evidence to a small, clear change
- Find the weakest outcome. Ask why: was it taught, practised and tested at the same level? Was a prerequisite missing? Was time too short?
- Choose one or two changes, not ten. Write a unit review note: what to keep, what to fix, what to cut, and when you will check again.
- Share the note with a colleague. Teachers who study each other's lessons and student work, as in lesson study, improve faster than alone.
The unit improvement cycle
Linking subjects without losing outcomes
Start from a real shared need. Pupils read bar charts in mathematics and in natural science; a temperature unit needs graphs that the mathematics course teaches in term 3. Talk to the colleague and agree three things: who teaches the shared idea first, which words and methods you both use, and what each subject will still assess alone. Write them on a half page that both of you keep.
A shared product, such as a class weather chart or a Navruz fair, can motivate pupils, but only if it does not replace lesson time that outcomes need. Ask before you begin: which outcome of mine does this product practise, and where will I check it? If you cannot answer, shrink the project or make it a club activity, not a unit.
Reading the evidence kindly and carefully
Start the review with numbers, but do not stop there. Percentages tell you where pupils struggled; the work samples tell you how they thought. Item 7 at 30 percent could mean pupils do not understand the data, or that they do not know how to write a sentence with a number in it. The two causes need different changes.
Be careful with small samples. Ten papers are enough to see a pattern, not enough to prove a rule. Look for the change that is cheap, clear and likely to help, and then check again with the next class. Write the review note immediately, while you remember: one paragraph, one or two changes, a date. A short note that exists beats a perfect plan that does not.
Examples from the classroom
Charts before the unit
Scene. Dilnoza in Samarkand reviews a Grade 6 temperature unit. Items on bar charts were answered correctly by 12 of 30 pupils. Exit tickets say charts were hardest. She asks the mathematics teacher, Jasur, to teach bar charts a week earlier. Science still teaches and assesses temperature outcomes; mathematics assesses charts in its own test.
Insight. A link that fixes a cause keeps each subject's own outcomes.
Sentences with numbers
Scene. Malika in Tashkent reads three work samples. One pupil writes 'It was hot.' Another writes 'Monday was hotter than Tuesday because 31 is more than 27.' She puts the second sentence on the board as a frame, practises it for 5 minutes with new numbers, and plans to check item 7 again next year.
Insight. Work samples show the thinking behind a low item and suggest a small, specific change.
Not ten changes
Scene. Aziz in Fergana finds nine things he dislikes in a Grade 7 geography unit. He picks two: an exit ticket after lesson 3 and a rubric given on day one. He writes in his notebook, 'keep: map task; fix: no rubric; cut: second dictation; check again: May'. The other seven wait for the next review.
Insight. One or two changes can be tested; ten changes cannot be told apart.
Common pitfalls
- Forcing a link between subjects that have nothing in common to make a project.
- Letting a shared project replace the lessons an outcome needs.
- Judging the unit by how much pupils enjoyed it and not by what they could do.
- Making many changes at once, so that nobody knows which one helped.
Plan a Link and Review a Unit
- Open the Kit: a SAMPLE Grade 6 natural science unit on temperature, with a data pack (test results for 30 pupils, three work samples, an exit ticket tally and your notes).
- Pairs (15 min): analyse. Convert the counts to a rough percentage, link each item to an outcome, find the weakest outcome and write two possible reasons from the evidence.
- Pairs (10 min): write a unit review note (keep, fix, cut) with one or two changes. Check that each change answers a reason you found.
- Pairs (10 min): use the link planner. Propose a cross-curricular link with the maths teacher that would fix the cause you found, and say what each subject still teaches and assesses.
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- What did the numbers show, and what did the work samples add that the numbers could not?
- Was your change aimed at the cause or at the symptom?
- Who is the colleague you will plan a link with, and what is the first small step?
Reflect
- Which unit did you teach this year that you never looked back at?
- Which colleague teaches an idea your pupils need before your unit?
- What is the smallest change that could improve your next unit?
Try it tomorrow
- After your next test, count correct answers per item for one class and mark the lowest two items.
- Sort ten papers into three piles and read the errors in the lowest pile.
- Write a unit review note in five lines: keep, fix, cut, one change, date to check again.
Further reading and links
Link subjects only when each subject gains, and review every unit with evidence: numbers, work and pupil voice.