Cross-Curricular Lessons in Intermediate Mathematics
- Jessica Costello
- Jun 21, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 30, 2021
Learning Station
These are the words that generate in my head when I think about cross curricular lessons and connections to the intermediate ABQ math course. Cross curricular math lessons is an overarching concept that can bring in parallel tasks, student voice, and rich tasks into the classroom. Cross curricular learning is such a big opportunity for teachers to connect and build relationships with their students.
What can I do to engage and inspire students to use math beyond these four walls? I believe it is cross curricular math. Our professional outcome and goal is to better understand what is cross-curricular math and how do we implement it into the classroom?
In order to build on this topic I invite you to use this graphic organizer to take notes!
Before we start I want to address the elephant in the room.......
You are probably thinking intermediate math is grades 7 to 10. That means in grade 9 and 10 students will be streamed into applied and academic streams. Students will also no longer have one classroom but will attend subject-specific classrooms that they travel to. To address this I wanted to point out that the world rarely presents problems in an isolated bubble where you are solely solving a geography problem or math question. As teachers we are also promoting a 21st-century ideology in Ontario classrooms which presents the understanding that we are preparing students for the unknown where skills like communication and collaboration will thrive. This ideology rarely offers an isolated bubble wrapped question. Another one of the words I used in the word map above was real-life connections. Real-life connections are made in grades 9 and 10 math when math is made explicit through cross-curricular connections. Throughout this blog post, you will be able to see how cross-curricular problems overarch effective questions, rich tasks, 21st century learning, and just how effective they can be in your classroom.
Let's get into it!
WHAT: It is an instructional practice and or strategy that teachers use to demonstrate the usefulness of mathematics (OME , 2005). At their best, integrative activities highlight the most unique aspects of each subject and fuse them, so that they reveal relationships among subjects that would not have been understood had each subject been taught alone. (Rauschenbach, 1996).
WHEN: It is often found in primary and junior classrooms where teachers have control of all subjects but it can also be implemented in intermediate and senior grades with the collaboration of subject-specific teachers. It can be implemented now.
WHY: Educational research not to mention experience and common sense tells us that students learn best and make better sense of what they're learning when they can make connections with previous learning or with different areas of learning (Starr, 2010).
Promotes flexibility: teachers can plan for the development of primary skills and understandings that transcend individual strands and subjects
Builds upon prior knowledge/experiences: helps students build on their diverse prior knowledge/experiences
Unifies student learning: enables students to acquire a unified view of the curriculum to broaden the context of their learning beyond single subjects
Supports how students think: supports how young students process information (e.g., children take in many things while processing and organizing them at one time) (Canadian Teacher, 2016)
WHERE: In Canadian classrooms!
HOW: Integration refers to coordinating, blending, or fusing individual components into a functioning, unified and harmonious whole (Alberta Education, 2007). It is important the there is a focus on collaboration, especially with intermediate teachers. For example, the goal is to create cross-curricular math lessons, and the success criteria would be to understand curriculum documents, collaborate with other teachers, open communication, and dialogue including student's voices.
Case Study: Focus on Fractions
This case study focuses on fractional understanding. It is apparent that fractions are a very difficult topic for students as many students do not have a strong fractional understanding. This then leads to students just memorizing rules. These get by rules create difficulties and are muddled when not supported with conceptual understanding. In 2018 an Ontario high-school took a cross-curricular approach to help build students' fractional sense. A team of teachers; a math teacher, food and nutrition teacher, music teacher, manufacturing teacher, and two educational assistants, worked collaboratively together to plan, and implement a unified focus on fractions. Here is the sample of the tasks they co-created.
Tasks
The more connections that are made across subject areas, the greater the chance of solidifying understanding for students, this can lead to deeper foundational mathematical understanding. This case study also demonstrates how cross-curricular lessons help to build strong teacher efficacy and foster leadership in mathematics.
Additional Resources
Sourced from Capacity Building K-12 series: Fractions across the Curriculum (2018)
Watch This...
Take notes on the strategies and the tools teachers use to create cross curricular lessons.
Comment below your thoughts on the teacher's and the administration's teamwork? What leadership skills are needed to make cross curricular lessons successful?
Connections and Take-Aways!
Interdisciplinary studies allow students to answer the question when will I use this? Why am I learning this?
Establishes a holistic approach to whole learning
Cross-curricular lessons are founded on teacher collaboration, planning, assessments, and evaluations
It is a great strategy and tool to use in the classroom to support inquiry-based learning, rich tasks, 21st-century learning, and student's voice.
What are your biggest take-aways that you could see implementing into your classroom? Comment below!
Resources to use in your classroom!
Math and History
Math and Science
Math and Art
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