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Planning Concept-based Curriculum

Whats the Big Idea?Seeking Enduring Value Beyond the Classroom

Linda Kateeb, Ed.D.

Manager

Professional Development, Differentiation

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Goals of the Session

Investigate examples of differentiating

instruction.

Explore how the use of concepts andessential understandings plays a vital role in

differentiating instruction.

Consider how to "equalize" opportunities foreach learner, giving appropriate levels of

challenge while learning the same concept

and essential understandings.

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Brain ResearchThe brain cannot retain lots of unconnected facts.

We know from brain research that students

need to see patterns and connections. And if

they have no way to make sense of thismassive amount of information that's coming

at them, they tend to get confused. It just

becomes traipsing over trivia.

Lynn Erickson, from an interview with Leslie

J. Kiernan, 1997.

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How Knowledge is Structured

Facts Concepts Principles

Discrete pieces of

information believed to

be true

May typically fall

within topics

Example: Westward

Movement

Early American

settlers migrated to

the west.

Many settlers

traveled in wagon

trains.

Ways of organizing

or categorizing things

that have something

in common

Example:

Concept of

migration is a way

of viewing

WestwardMovement

...a way of

organizing facts

about the settlers'

experiences

Ideas and deeper

understandings that

give meaning to the

concepts (essential

understandings,

generalizations, "big

ideas)

Example:

"People migrate tomeet a variety of

needs"

"Migration may

lead to enhanced

opportunity or

greater freedom."

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What is a Concept?

What is a concept? A concept is a mental

construct. It's an organizing idea. Concepts

are timeless; they never change.

Lynn Erickson, from an interview with Leslie

J. Kiernan, 1997.

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Creating a Differentiated Task

When you're creating a differentiated task, you

really aren't about the idea of trying to find

something totally different for each student todo. What you really are trying to do is have

all of the students focus on the same big idea

or essential understanding.

Carol Ann Tomlinson, from an interview with

Leslie J. Kiernan, 1996.

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The Equalizer

Foundational

Concrete

SimpleFewerFacets

Smaller Leaps

More StructuredClearly Defined

Less Independent

Slower

Transformational

Abstract

ComplexMore Facets

Greater Leaps

More OpenFuzzy

More Independent

Quicker

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Differentiated Lesson Examples

Read each lesson description

Grade 7 language arts or

Grade 2 social studies Analyze the differentiated lesson tasks

Identify where they fall on one or more of the

equalizer continuums

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Student Progress

In any particular task, students themselves

start at different points on a continuum. So

the teacher is trying to start the studentswhere they are on the continuum and move

them along that continuum as fast and as far

as they can.

Carol Ann Tomlinson, from an interview with

Leslie J. Kiernan, 1996.

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Professional Reading

Curriculum and Assessment: Two Sides of

the Same Coin (Educational Leadership, May 1993)

Mapping a Route Toward Differentiated

Instruction (Educational Leadership, September 1999)

Five Standards of Authentic Instruction(Educational Leadership, April 1993)