Chapter 4

Concept –Based Curriculum and Instruction
Chapter 4 Designing Concept-Based Units and Lessons

“Concept-based instructional units can be either interdisciplinary (multiple subjects addressing a common topic) or intradisciplinary (within a specific subject area). What makes them concept based is the conceptual/factual synergy built into the curricular design.”

The unit components:
A unit title
A conceptual lens
Concepts and subconcepts (macro and micro)
Generalizations (enduring, essential understandings – transferable)
Guiding and Essential Questions
Critical Content (factual content students must know)
Key Skills (skills that define what the student must be able to do)
Performance Tasks and Scoring Guides (demonstrate what students know, understand and are able to do)
Learning Experiences (this step precedes performance tasks in a unit)
Unit Resources/Teacher Notes
Comparing Topic-based and Concept-Based Units

There is a chart comparing topic-based and concept-based units on p. 73
I will add some of her notes here:
She considers step 4 (generalizations) to be the step that raises the bar for teaching and learning.
Step 5 (guiding and essential questions) is where a huge difference is found between eh two methods. Topic based units use fact-based questions, and concept-based units use factual, conceptual and essential (debatable or provocative) questions.
Step 8 (performance task) notes that the focus for the two dimensional task is having students answer factual questions, while the focus for the 3 dimensional task is having students answer questions to show understandings in addition to factual knowledge.

She feels educators will need to know the difference between a topic and a concept, as well as a fact and a generalization, and to understand the importance of teaching transferable, conceptual ideas, before they can design units and lessons to support these concepts.

Reflection: “How can I design the curricular and instructional experiences to help each student attaint eh key concepts and understandings using the critical content?”

She suggests that teachers plan for the year by designing overview webs of the core instructional units before they begin on the full units. The webs “only identify the critical content topics and concepts for a unit; the skills are brought into the unit at a later point.”
This will not only provide a teacher with reassurance that they can accomplish the required curriculum, but allows the teacher to control standards-driven curriculum. “The textbook and the standards are a resource. The instructional units are the curriculum.”

There are several examples of unit planners. She also includes a flow chart, as some districts rely on them to identify macroconcepts and subconcepts.

“Correlating the know, understand, and able to do components from an instructional unit ensures that all components are addressed and moves a lower-level activity into a performance of deeper, conceptual understanding.”

Quality lesson plans are:
Coherent
Interesting
Time-worthy
Standards-aligned
Differentiated

She mentions that the “student performance picks up some of the language from the conceptual understanding to ensure that this dimension is addressed”.

Differentiation:
Tomlinson and Edison identify 5 classroom elements that can be differentiated or modified:
Content
Process
Products
Affect
Learning environments

A tip for writing powerful generalizations:
Do not use the weak verbs such as impact, affect, influence, is are and have.
Instead, answer the questions How? Why? and So what?

Reflection (questions p. 91 and 95):
How can I identify appropriate concepts for my grade level or course?
How can we use unit overview webs to contextualize the state academic standards?
What is the difference between an activity and a performance?