Constructing…. Concept-Based Units for the Gifted Learner

1. Constructing…. Concept-Based Units for the Gifted Learner

2. Why Concept-Based? • Adds Depth and Breadth • Extends Beyond Knowledge • Makes Learning Meaningful • Adds Credibility To What We Do

3. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps • Choose a Topic • Topic should be chosen for its potential to illuminate the essential concepts, principles, and skills in a related discipline. Topics come from COS, student interests, etc.

4. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps 2. Identify the Critical Content a. List the important facts, skills, concepts, and essential understandings contained in the unit of study. b. Develop essential understandings by pairing important concepts of the units to form statements of conceptual relationships.

5. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Identifying Critical Content: Concepts Concepts are ways of organizing or categorizing things that have something in common. For example, the concept of migration is a way of viewing the topic of Westward Movement and organizing facts about the settlers’ experiences.

6. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Critical Content Concepts: A concept is a mental construct that frames a set of examples sharing common attributes. Concepts are timeless, universal, abstract and broad.

7. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Macro Concepts Culture, Time, Continuity, Change, Power, Governance, Production, Civic Ideals, Identity, Patterns, Systems Micro Concepts Resources, Conflict, Leadership, Citizenship, Freedom, Equality, Supply/Demand, Consumption, Justice, Needs/Wants, Perspective, Traditions, Interdependence

8. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Critical Content: Concepts Example: As I identify the categories of experiences, I see that some settlers migrated for economic reasons, some psychological reasons and some social reasons.

9. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Identifying The Critical Content: Essential Understandings Essential Understandings are statements of conceptual relationships. They are the ideas and deeper understandings that give meaning to the concepts.

10. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Essential Understandings Helpful Hints Use a concept web to look for concepts that can be paired to make statements of enduring understanding. Use active, present-tense verbs to convey the characteristic of timelessness.

11. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Essential Understandings Literature Examples The Odyssey expresses the universal human desire to overcome adversity and return to the safety of a space we call “home.” Myths are mirrors of values, religion, family, community, science, and reasoning. Literature reflects significant universal human concerns, conditions, and patterns of behavior.

12. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Essential Understandings History Examples The way a narrator/historian views the events of history determines how he or she is choosing which facts to report and how to present them. Our job is to determine which interpretations or “voices” are most accurate and complete.

13. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Critical Content: Essential Understandings Example: So, the settlers migrated to meet a variety of needs (economic, psychological, spiritual, and social).

14. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps 3. Develop Guiding Questions Work from the essential understandings to develop essential questions that will guide students’ learning…enabling them to uncover essential understandings.

15. Concept-Based: Construction in Five/Six Steps Constructing Guiding Questions: Add how or why to the essential understandings Examples: Understanding: Cultures affect one another. Question: How do cultures affect one another? Understanding: Cultures address human needs and concerns in various ways. Question: How are all cultures similar and different in how they attempt to meet basic needs?

16. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Identifying The Critical Content: Facts Facts are discrete pieces of information that we believe to be true. These facts typically fall within topics.

17. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Critical Content: Facts Example: Early explorers migrated to the West and traveled in wagon trains.

18. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Critical Content: Skills Skills refer to a set of process skills and methodologies that professionals use in a particular discipline to a) answer questions b) acquire and use information, c) analyze and organize data, and d) reach conclusions.

19. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Process Skills • Compare and Contrast • Gathering Data • Analyzing Data • Making Inferences • Categorizing • Making Predictions • Sequencing • Observing • Drawing Conclusions • Identifying Trends • Developing Questions • Determining Bias • Classifying • Evaluating Solutions

20. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Methodologies of a Discipline • How to identify a problem within a content field. • How to find and focus a problem within an area of study • How to form a hypotheses. • How to form research questions. • How to identify sources of data. • How to locate and use appropriate data gathering instruments. • How to classify, categorize, analyze, and summarize data. • How to draw conclusions. • How to state generalizations and report findings.

21. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps 4. Develop an Example of a Culminating Performance Task The culminating performance task is used to evaluate what students know, understand, and can do as a result of the unit of study.

22. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks Use the formula “what, why, and how” in writing your performance task. This ensures that the performance measures the level of deep understanding.

23. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks WHAT? What do you want students to do? Begin this statement with a higher-level cognitive verb, such as analyze, evaluate, or investigate and tie it directly to the title/theme of your unit.

24. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks WHAT? For example: If the title is “The Development of U.S. Transportation: 1920-2010” Analyze the development of U.S. transportation (or flight) from 1920-2010.

25. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks Why? Why is this statement important? Example: …in order to understand how technology advances human innovation and invention….(the transferable essential understanding). Analyze the development of U.S. transportation (or flight) from 1920 to 2010 in order to understand how technology advances human innovation and invention.

26. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks How? Begin a new sentence that frames how you want students to demonstrate their understanding of the “why” statement. This “how” statement needs to demonstrate the “why” not just knowledge of the facts learned in the “what” statement.

27. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks Example: You are a struggling inventor with a new product design that is an adaptation of a current innovation. The state Senate Finance Committee is hearing presentation on grant applications for technology based inventions. It is your turn to address the committee. Deliver a clear and energetic multimedia presentation showing how technological changes and advancements shaped the historical development of your product. Present your product design as the next historical development to meet society’s needs, and detail your technological adaptations and user benefits. Summarize your presentation with a sincere and reasoned request for financial support.

28. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Culminating Performance Tasks To Review: What: analyze, evaluate, investigate Why: in order to….. How: demonstrate understanding by…. Also: There should be a rubric or scoring guide and gifted students should be allowed input on the selection of a performance task and the scoring rubric.

29. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps 5. Develop Instructional Activities These activities will require students to learn and practice the skills and methodologies of the discipline as they grapple with the essential questions in their quest to uncover the essential understandings.

30. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps 6. Conceptual Lens Topical – Identify a major (macro) concept for your topic that will serve as a lens for viewing the topic. Thematic – Identify a major concept that could serve as a lens for viewing all of your topics for the semester or year.

31. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps • Conceptual Lens • A conceptual lens draws thinking above the discipline or topics to the integration level. • Integrated thinking sees the conceptual and transferable patterns and connections of knowledge. • Changing the concept changes the focus of the unit. For example, “change” in our village versus “conflict” in our village.

32. Concept-Based Units: Construction in Five/Six Steps Universal Concepts • Change • Conflict • Balance • Exploration • Force • Influence • Order • Chaos • Patterns • Power • Structure • Systems