Concept- Based Lesson Planning

Curriculum AND Instruction

The Lingo of Curriculum Planning

Topic names conceptual lenses unit webs strandsconcepts generalisations principles theories

Thinking classrooms

“Thinking classrooms look different and sound different. Teachers in thinking classrooms understand how to use concepts to integrate student thinking at a deeper level of understanding- a level where knowledge can be transferred to other situations and times.”

The Paradigm Shift for Educators

Students are guided to understanding concepts, principles and generalisations

Lynn Erickson

Paradigm shift

“To have deeper, conceptual understanding we need to draw out the key concepts and guide students inductively to significant, enduring understandings”

“Master Harold”… and the boys

Language and Context

Starter

• In groups, brainstorm the connotations of either “man” or “boy” on your whiteboard.

• Feedback your responses. Are any associations more ‘neutral’ or ‘emotive’ than others?

• There are some phrases on the next slide to help with your brainstorm.

Man vs Boy

o “You’re just a boy” o “Man up”o “boyish charm”o “Man flu”o It’s a man’s world”

o “It’s a man’s job”o “boys will be boys”o “this’ll make a man out

of you”o “separate the men from

the boys”o “I’ll send the boy over

with it”

Today’s Guiding Questions

• Is what we mean and what we say the same thing? When is there a difference?

• What factors contribute to the meaning of what we say? Are these internal or external?

• Can a word or phrase be intrinsically wrong, bad or evil?

“I like the boy”

Racist languageHow racist is "boy"?Nov 1st 2010, 18:14 by R.L.G. | NEW YORK

THAT was the question facing a federal appeals court in Atlanta, Georgia, which struck down a $1.3m award to a black employee of Tyson Foods. The employee, John Hithon, applied for a promotion. The boss, Tom Hatley, instead brought in two white outsiders, saying that the money-losing plant needed new blood. Mr Hithon sued, saying that Mr Hatley's use of "boy" to him proved racial hostility, and was awarded $1.75m. An appeals court overturned the ruling. The federal Supreme Court then sent the case back to trial.

The case was then re-tried, and two witnesses (including Mr Hithon) once again testified that Mr Hatley had called each of them "boy". Mr Hithon again won at the lowest court, but at the appeals level, a three-judge panel reversed the verdict. The case could still be appealed further.

Questions:

• In the video clip, why does Mohammad Ali get upset?

• In the article, why does the case keep getting appealed and re-tried?

• So what have we learned about the word “boy”?

Need to KNOW:

• In countries such as the USA and South Africa, “boy” is historically a controversial term which has been used as an offensive term towards black men, recalling their subservient status and alleged infantility.

Closer to home

• Consider these scenarios. Place them in order of neutral to emotive. Which ones could cause offence?

1. I have lots of Gweilo friends.2. Typical Gweilo! Always turning the aircon on.3. Gweilo men always come here and marry Chinese women. 4. Chi-seen gweilo5. Gweilos can’t use chopsticks or eat spicy food.

Today’s Guiding Questions

• Is what we mean and what we say the same thing? When is there a difference?

• What factors contribute to the meaning of what we say? Are these internal or external?

• Can a word or phrase be intrinsically wrong, bad or evil?

Need to KNOW:

• Gweilo or Gwai Lo ( 鬼佬 )is a common Cantonese slang term for foreigners and has a long history of racially deprecatory use. The term is sometimes translated into English as foreign devil and originally meant "uncivilised tribes" given to mayhem and destruction.

DO: find and analyse “boy” in the text

Function Meaning How Reactionary?

Literal Young male human Neutral

Descriptive Not fully grown  

Diminutive Affection Emotive

Exclamatory Excitement  

Pejorative (Black) servant Offensive

From the link in your email, get the pdf version of the text.

Use the ‘find’ function or similar to identify each time the word “boy” is used.

Note its meaning in the table on your handout.

The title: “Master Harold” …and the boys

• What is the significance of the word “boys” in the title?

• How does it contrast with “Master Harold”?

• How is it ironic?

• How does Fugard use italics, punctuation, upper/ lower case to highlight this?

What is significant in this scene?

HALLY You’re only a servant here and don’t you forget it. (Still no response. Hally is trying hard to get one.) And as far as my father’s concerned, all you need to remember is that he is your boss. SAM (Needled at last) No he isn’t. I get paid by your mother.HALLY Don’t argue with me, Sam!SAM Then don’t say he’s my boss. HALLY He’s a and that’s good enough for you.white man

Today’s Guiding Questions

• Is what we mean and what we say the same thing? When is there a difference?

• What factors contribute to the meaning of what we say? Are these internal or external?

• Can a word or phrase be intrinsically wrong, bad or evil?

“Normal” lesson

Starter: activating the topic, creating interestGuiding questionsInput; various examples in different media Discussing theseCreating relevance with local exampleApplying new concept to exam text, finding own examplesPlenary

“Concept-based” lesson

EXIT TASK

EXIT TASK

What can you now say about the relationship between a speaker, a word and its meaning?

Make sentences to show what you understand about this relationship. Make more than one sentence if you want to.

UNDERSTAND: Make sentences using these key concepts.

meaning a speaker tone of voice

historical usage

a word

factors local custom

implication intention context

You don’t have to use all of them. Supply your own “relationship” words. Make more than one sentence if you can.

Generalisation

•A speaker’s meaning is determined by such factors as historical usage, local custom, intention, context and tone of voice.

Student Feedback

•You need to know lots of things such as intention, background and local use before you can really understand what someone means•The meaning of a word goes beyond its definition and includes its history and local use. •When a speaker says a word, the intended meaning is more than just what that word says.•You can’t understand exactly what a speaker intends just by knowing the word’s definition.•Words can mean a lot more in a certain situation that they do on paper

Student reflections

Concerns

Concepts imposed (by IB, MYP for example) will be integrated at curriculum and unit planning level only

Learning and teaching will essentially remain the same- mostly fun, interesting and engaging lessons

Students won’t necessarily gain that deep conceptual understanding from the learning experience (or they may but only by chance, not design)

Assessment will continue to focus on skills acquisition and knowledge gain and not on explicitly assessing conceptual understanding

What to do with objectives?

Teaching to Objectives

“Traditional curriculum documents list a plethora of objectives- verbs followed by a topic or concept- that only assume that teaching will reach conceptual understanding. But we cannot assume teaching for deeper conceptual understanding. Curriculum documents need revision to effectively support teachers with concept-based instruction.”

Lynn Erickson on Objectives

“I would drop teaching by objectives and teach inductively to ideas through the use of questions and quality instructional experiences.”

Summary

“The design of lesson plans by the teacher to carry out the unit work is just as critical to concept-based learning as the overall unit design.

“In fact, … a breakdown often occurs at the lesson planning level. “

“Educators on the concept-based journey are writing beautiful enduring understandings for their units, but examination of the specific lessons finds that the lesson design more often than not falls short of the conceptual understandings.”