Concept Attainment Democracy Lesson • 5th Grade Level

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Concept AttainmentDemocracy Lesson 5th Grade
Level

• Becky Dougherty Catherine Li
• Valerie Mighetto Karen Nelson

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Introduction

• The Concept Attainment model is an instructional
  method that teaches students concepts by using
  pattern recognition and categorizing skills.
• By learning this skill students are able to
  deductively apply the concept in new situations

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Instructor preparation

• Identify a significant concept to the students.
• Convey the characteristics of the concept to the
  students.
• Present the students with positive and negative
  examples to illustrate the concept.
• Ask the students to define the concept.
• Coach the students to articulate the reasoning
  skills they used.
• Ask the students for examples of the concept to
  demonstrate their new knowledge.

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Context

• Elementary school
• 5th grade students
• Social Studies focusing on American government

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Concept

• Democracy

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• Teds class will vote to decide who will be on
  student council. Every student in his class gets
  to vote. Those students with most votes will be
  on student council.

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• - Bill is the leader of a group of boys. He is
  the boss. No one dares to question his
  decisions. He has two friends who are
  bodyguards and they enforce his decisions.

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• In Ms. Hansens class, the students worked
  together to come up with class rules.

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• - In Mr. Hansens class, he made all the rules,
  and he decided that all students with blue eyes
  must sit on the floor.

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• The mayor and officials of a city were elected
  by the citizens of that city.

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• - The mayor of a city is assigned by the governor
  of the state.

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• The citizens of the city vote to make
  decisions about city planning. For example, the
  citizens of Davis were able to vote whether or
  not they wanted a Target store in their town.

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• - The city officials made the decision to paint
  all the houses in this city pink without asking
  the opinion of the people living in that city.

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• In the USA, every citizen, in good standing,
  regardless of race or ethnicity has the right to
  vote.

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• - In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh was the supreme
  ruler, and his word was law.

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• In the USA, people elect a new president every
  four years.

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• - In ancient Egypt, when the old Pharaoh died,
  his son became the new Pharaoh and so on.

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The students begin to understand the concept

• The exemplars become more complex in the second
  part of the lesson.
• Additional exemplars will test and confirm the
  concept hypothesis

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• Margaret Thatcher was elected to serve as British
  Prime Minister.

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• Under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, girls and
  women could not attend school.

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• Salvador is class president. He was nominated by
  his best friend, but the majority of the class
  voted for him.

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• People can express their political views through
  newspapers, television, and other public media.
  For example, you can say I strongly oppose the
  recent action taken by Bush government....

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• The news is controlled by the government. People
  are not allowed to discuss their own ideas or
  views in newspapers, television, or any other
  public way.

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• In 1960, many people of the Christian faith in
  China were put in jail because of their religion.

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• The American colonies were ruled by England.

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• The people of ancient Athens developed a system
  of government that elected officials by lot and
  decisions were made by majority rules.

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• The county supervisors defeated the proposal to
  build a new stadium downtown.

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• After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment
  guaranteed African American men the right to
  vote, but American women were not granted the
  same right until 1920.

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Assessment and evaluation

• Ask the students to define the concept of
  democracy
• Have the students develop their own exemplars.
• Can they articulate the reasoning skills that
  they used to learn the concept?
• Ask the students to suggest other concepts that
  can be identified with this method.

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Concept and rule

• Concept Democracy
• Rule Democracy means rule by the people

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Critical attributes

• People have the right to vote
• All people are considered equal
• There is respect for individual rights and
  freedoms

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References

• Pritchard, P. D., Florence Fay (1994). "Teaching
  Thinking Across the Curriculum with the Concept
  Attainment Model." 20.
• Todd Twyman, Jennifer McCleery., Gerald Tindal
  (2006). "Using Concepts to Frame History
  Content." The Journal of Experiment Education
  74(4) 331-349.
• Johnson, J., Carlson, Susan (1992). "Developing
  conceptual thinking The concept attainment
  model." Clearing House 66(2) 117-121.