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Concepts-In-Use: Designing your lessons for Conceptual Understanding (Part 6)

 


Concepts-In Use

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In this post, one more strategy takes center stage when it comes to designing lessons that aid conceptual understanding in our students: Concept-In-Use.

This strategy should be used once several concepts have been covered in class.  A great way to know whether your students are internalizing the concepts is to ask them to explain the connections between two concepts.

For example: 

In Math

Ask them to convert a fraction to a percentage.  Or a percentage to a decimal.  Can they clearly explain the connection?  Can they use drawings to support their explanation?

Can they articulate the difference between a prism and a pyramid.  How are they same?  How are they different?

How can you represent data visually?  Bar graphs, pictographs, line charts are all concepts.



As a designer of conceptual lessons, a teacher needs to be keenly aware of the connections between concepts.  For instance, is the Grade 3 teacher aware that multiplication (times tables) and skip counting are conceptual understandings that are the precursors of algebra in upper elementary.  In other words, as a curriculum designer, you need to see the connections between seemingly dissimilar concepts.

In Language

Read aloud sessions during language classes are a great way to teach concepts.  You can kill five birds with one stone!

An example that comes to mind that worked well in my class happened in my Grade 8 class, when we were reading "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins.  

My goal was to see how well students could connect characters (concept) to the plot (concept).

My inquiry question was a very simple one and yet it encouraged students to focus on the characters in relation to the plot.  Can you come up with an inquiry question before reading mine?

Scroll down.





My inquiry question was : 

In the novel "Hunger Games, who has the power at any given point?"





Let us look at another connection-the concepts of punctuation and author's style.

As a conceptual designer of lessons, if you mindfully focus on concepts in this manner, your lesson objectives become simple and clear.  You are constantly on the look out for great texts where the voice of the author shines through by their unique way of using punctuation.  You may discover patterns in the way they use commas or ellipses.  Some authors use commas sparingly, while some use them to create long-winding sentences with an equal emphasis on subject, verb and object! 

Conceptual designers of language lessons are avid readers.  They are constantly on the look out for great writers.  Here are three journalists to look up in your free time.  Their writing dazzles and make me want to be a better reader, writer and teacher!

Dave Barry's From edible tarantulas to a squirrel wallet: Here’s Dave Barry’s 2023 holiday gift guide  (Miami Herald)

Some other columnists with amazing writing skills you could check out are Meg Greenfield and P.J. O'Rourke. 


This was the last post of this series on designing conceptual lessons.  I hope you enjoyed them and found value in them.   Do check out the other posts! I look forward to any constructive feedback to make these posts more helpful for teaches new to PYP.


Cheers!

Naini


Source:

Jonassen, D. H. (2006). On the role of concepts in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 54(2), 177–196.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-006-8253-9





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