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What can we do to
ENGAGE students and
motivate them to learn?
Des Dixon (1994, p. 365) offers his description of today's
curriculum:
"Today's curriculum is largely Victorian, a late
nineteenth-century expression of the industrial revolution as applied to
the education industry. We have tinkered with it but we have not changed
it."
What IS THE NEW VISION FOR THE CLASSROOM? What are the New Basics?
See:
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/framewk/vis/vision/visvisin.htm
Since 80% of today's graduates will require more than a
secondary education to get and keep a job, what T.E.A.
initiatives have been put into place to increase what
students learn? These initiatives require students to:
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successfully navigate a rigorous curriculum,
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appreciate diversity and multiculturalism,
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think critically and to creatively solve problems,
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and to engage in conceptual learning
which develops student
intellect.
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If you gave the TAKS test last
year you SAW these initiatives ON THE TEST!
A review of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for any
content area will help you remember that these TEKS are based on the Structure
of Knowledge principles.
If you NEED review
USE this POWERPOINT
T.E.A. requires us to move away from Traditional
Curriculum toward Concept-based curriculum
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Step 1:
Download TEKS, print them out so that you can WRITE on the pages.
Step 2: Find
Your teaching area appropriate Grade
Level Objectives
Example:
(1) Within a well-balanced mathematics curriculum, the
primary focal points at the Kindergarten
level involve developing whole-number concepts
and using patterns and sorting to
explore number, data, and shape.
Step 3:
Identify the Concepts. Circle all the words in your TEKS that you recognize
as Concept words. You will want to create your lesson plans using these
Concepts. Teach using the "big ideas" and students will stay motivated
because they will automatically begin to MAKE CONNECTIONS to other content
areas.
RULES
OF THUMB:
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Concepts are the "big ideas" --terms that are easily used
across the curriculum (across domains). In the Example above a concept word
is "pattern". Pattern is a concept because it can be used across the
curriculum in most areas of content.
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Bridges involve multiple areas of
content:
"Pattern" becomes a bridge for teacher and student to
integrate ideas from other content areas.
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Bridges (making connections) allow students to integrate
knowledge from one area of content to another.
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Integration of concepts from one area of knowledge to
another is required if content is to be remembered.
Step 4: Identify the Concept
"pattern" in other domains.
First Grade LA Objective 7 (E)
blend initial letter-sounds with common vowel spelling
patterns to read words (1-3);
First Grade Math Objective (4)
Patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking. The student uses
patterns to make predictions.
Fourth Grade LA Objective
(17) Writing/spelling. The student spells proficiently. The student is expected
to:
(A) write with accurate spelling of syllable
constructions, including closed, open, consonant before -le, and
syllable boundary patterns (3-6);
Fifth Grade Geography Objective
(7) Geography. The student understands the concept of
regions. The student is expected to: (A) describe a variety of regions in the United States
such as political, population, and economic regions that result from
patterns of human activity;
Step 5: Teach Concepts Across the Curriculum
to INTEGRATE learning.
As you can see "pattern" is a Concept that
is reflected across many domains. Using Multimedia (multiple intelligences)
becomes easy when teaching conceptually. Integrating curriculum is NATURAL when teaching
concepts. Listen to the video below and describe how the teacher has
built a multi-modal, multi-domain curriculum piece using the Concept of Pattern.
Another Example:
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Conceptual learning involves
higher-order brain functioning and helps to imprint the brain by getting its
attention
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Integration
of curriculum ties new knowledge to previous knowledge
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Integration
across domains assists problem-solving skills to be coordinated across
experiences
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Allows brain
to make connections which are retained in memory longer
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Allows
student to create a mental map (picture) of the new knowledge which then can be
used to create new knowledge="real learning".
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Designing
project-based units of study concepts where students
ask critical questions and then develop their own
projects to find the answers, such as interviewing people who have
experienced the
Great Depression or the Holocaust.
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Using simulations
to involve students in understanding various points of view or discussing
complex ethical
concepts.
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Playing music that
links memory to specific concept. Rythmic patterns
are effective memory tools for
learning, and music is a great medium for facilitating young adolescents
to make
sensorimotor connections.
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Having students write
reflectively every day to reiterate and consolidate
conceptual learning. |
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Posing visual and word
problems or puzzles to challenge thinking so that students learn
that there are many
ways to solve a conceptual problem or puzzle. This
type of thinking strengthens the neural
connections and gives students more confidence in their abilities to tackle
problems.
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Using physical challenges to
solve problems and build collaboration. Low ropes courses and
other
physical/mental problem solving involve the mind and body in learning
concepts and team building.
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Involving students in
real-life apprenticeships. Students shadow workers in various jobs or
learn skills in a
short internship that either connects to an area of study or helps them
understand one of
the problems they have posed themselves and are interested in finding
answers.
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Using peer collaboration or
cooperative learning helps broaden students’ understanding of
concepts and promotes group problem solving.
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Developing integrated
curriculum that encourages students to raise issues and concerns
and then weaves
those thematically into all disciplines.
These recommended practices (Beamon, 1997;
Brandt, 1998; Caine & Caine, 1994; Jensen, 1998;
Sousa, 2001; Tileston; 2000; Wolfe, 2001) |
Making the curriculum
relevant has always
made intuitive sense. There is an awareness that
relevance also has a practical and logical connection
to how the brain
makes meaning through mental
models.
Teachers must
understand how to engage students at the correct level of learning in order to
make a lasting impact on achievement.
Concepts allow students to create images in their minds which
they can manipulate, modify, and apply in other areas of learning. When a
student realizes that a previous concept can be used in a new situation, we see
the "light bulb" go off! ... And nothing excites a classroom like light
bulbs going off.
It is NOT that facts are unimportant, they
have their place. Their place is to support the concepts. If you are a social
studies or science teacher, you might discuss concepts such as "needs",
"migration", "conflict", "competition", and use factual data to demonstrate the
concepts.
In math you would teach using concepts of
"patterns", "grouping", "part-part-whole relationships", "first and last",
"combinations", "one-to-one correspondence", etc.
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