Concepts and Generalizations

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Concepts and Generalizations

• Teaching for Understanding in Social Studies

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With your neighbors

• Make a list of the things you see, hear, and
  experience at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Be
  ready to share.
• Think of other major airports you have been to.
  Are there items to add to or take away from your
  list?
• Predict what you would encounter at the Bergen,
  Norway Airport. Will there be items to add to or
  take away from your list?

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Standardization makes our lives easier by
reducing complexity.
Airports everywhere are alike in many ways to
make airline travel easier and more efficient.
Airportness
Houston Airport

• I encountered
• Signs for Baggage Claim
• Ticket counters
• TV monitor with flights
• Flight announcements
• Security checkpoint
• Parking garage and ticket
• Airplanes
• A newsstand
• Rental car counter

Organizing Our World An Example
Adapted from Lynn Erickson Concept-Based
Curriculum and Instruction
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Concepts are
Bicycle
Federalism
Friendship
Government

• mental pictures of a groups of things that have
  common characteristics
• categories for our perceptions

Subsistence farming
Frontier
Airport
Appeasement
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Economics
Sports
Sociology
Education
Concepts Rules/Laws Values Conflict Interdepende
nce Fairness Diversity Power Rights Adaptation M
ovement Diffusion Democracy Region Self
Interest Government Cooperation Compromise Aggress
ion Innovation Leadership
Family Life
Texas History
U.S. History
Political Science
Geography
World History
Movies
Understanding concepts is ultimately what enables
students to transfer understandings learned in
one time/place setting to a new time and place
even a setting with which they have no previous
acquaintance. When we teach concepts we allow
our students to transcend the settings that we
have taught. -John Hergesheimer
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People are often willing to move to improve their
lives.
English colonists came to America seeking a
better life in the New World.
Families will often relocate to follow higher
paying jobs.
Migration, push-pull factors, settlement
Migration, push-pull factors, settlement
Settling the First English Colonies
Dads Transfer to Houston

• Dad said he couldnt pass up a 20,000 raise.
• We like our new neighborhood and we have a bigger
  house.
• I also was wanting to get away from some bullies
  at my old school.

• In 1620, the Mayflower arrived off Cape Cod.
• In 1630, Puritans came to New England to escape
  the persecution of King James 1.
• Jamestown settlers believed they would find gold
  in Virginia.

Bridging Two Worlds
Adapted from Lynn Erickson Concept-Based
Curriculum and Instruction
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Generalizations Organizing the Facts to Create
Meaning

Many Irish migrated to the U.S to escape the
Potato Famine.
Topical Generalization
Topical Generalization
Topical Generalization
Universal Generalization
Topical Generalization
Topical Generalization
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Universals are special

• They finally give teacher and student a common
  language.
• They build confidence in students.
• They point to activities or prompts that
  authentically connect content to students own
  experiences.
• They help us clearly unpack the TEKS.
• They provide a framework to help students
  remember facts

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Ok So how can we put these powerful tools to
work for us in the classroom?
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Plan curriculum carefully
Curriculum developers may assume that teachers
know the essential understandings
generalizations related to a topic. My
experience has been that unless teachers
consciously identify these understandings, they
focus on the fact-based content as the endpoint
of instruction, and the conceptual level of
understanding usually is not addressed. Lynn
Erickson- Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction
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Make it easy to use effectively in the classroom
Even school districts that devote tremendous time
and energy to designing the intended curriculum
often pay little attention to the implemented
curriculum (what teachers actually teach) and
even less to the attained curriculum (what
students learn).

Richard DuFour
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So we have to systematically develop a curriculum
that is based on concepts and generalizations and
help teachers understand how to use it
effectively with students.
Is there an easy way to do that?
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Concepts and Generalizations Curriculum/Instructi
on Planning Steps

• What TEKS/SEs will we address?
• (2)  History. The student understands the
  political, economic, and social changes in the
  United States from 1877 to 1898. The student is
  expected to
• (A)  analyze political issues such as Indian
  policies, the growth of political machines, and
  civil service reform
• (B)  analyze economic issues such as
  industrialization, the growth of railroads, the
  growth of labor unions, farm issues, and the rise
  of big business and
• (C)  analyze social issues such as the treatment
  of minorities, child labor, growth of cities, and
  problems of immigrants.
• What content from those TEKS/SEs do we intend to
  cover? What are the concepts?
• (The factors that led to the unprecedented
  economic growth in America during the late 1800s
  industrialization, improved transportation,
  labor unions, agriculture, big business)

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• What topical generalization summarizes the
  content?
• Technical innovations created the capacity for an
  unprecedented industrial boom of the late 1800s.
• Industrialization had significant political,
  social, and economic impact.
• What universal generalization that students
  already understand well is this generalization an
  example of ?
• New ideas/inventions allow people to be more
  productive and have more choices.
• Change has both positive and negative effects on
  lifestyle.
• Can you develop an analogy/guiding question that
  would help students make the connection between
  their own lives (universal generalization) and
  todays lesson (objectives, concepts, and
  topical generalizations)
• How would our lives be different if the computer
  had not been invented?

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Once we have the generalizations, they provide a
clear focus for planning instructional activities.
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The first step is to explore the experiences
students have already had with our universal.
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The Hook - Focus

• Using examples from their experiences, students
  reflect on their knowledge of the universal
  generalization or concept to be covered in the
  lesson.
• Students examples of the generalization/concept
  clearly link to the examples the teacher wants
  them to explore in the lesson.

Helps me understand
Adapted from History Alive! Teachers
Curriculum Institute
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The second step is to allow students to explore
new examples of the universal, examples that
are in fact the content of the lesson.
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The Line Concept Development

• Students collect information and use it to
  develop notes or use graphic organizers
• The new information consists of content-based
  examples of the same concept or universal
  generalization they explored in the hook.
• The line activity requires students to compare
  their own experiences with the concept or
  generalization with examples from the lessons
  content.

Adapted from History Alive! Teachers
Curriculum Institute
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The third step is to let students process their
new examples of the universal, practicing and
extending their fresh understanding of it.
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The Sinker Student Practice

• The activity requires students to process and
  extend their new understanding of the concept or
  generalization based on the new content
  application.
• The activity is engaging, challenging, and
  interesting and allows students to interact with
  new information

Adapted from History Alive! Teachers
Curriculum Institute
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The fourth step is to assess the extent of
student processing and understanding of new
learning and applications of concepts and
generalizations.
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The Catch Assessing Student Learning

• Using formative or summative assessment
  strategies the teacher and/or student determines
  the extent of their learning in relation to the
  new material/concepts/facts/generalizations
• This part of a lesson or unit can be informal or
  formal based on answering questions,
  observation
• Helps the teacher decide whether the fish is
  big enough to keep or needs to be thrown back in
  to grow some more

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Can this approach improve student achievement in
Social Studies?
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The Bottom Line
Students already understand universals. Our task
is to help them learn more examples of the
concepts and topical generalizations as they
apply in Social Studies classrooms.
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Two More Examples
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Imposing restrictions on subordinates who want to
be independent may lead to resentment and even
conflict.
After years of relative independence, the
colonies resisted attempts by Britain to impose
new restrictions.
As children become older and less dependent on
parents, they tend to resist parental controls.
Independence Resistance Conflict
Independence Resistance Conflict
Growing Tensions between the Colonies and Great
Britain
Tensions between Parent and Child

• He poured out the milk rather than drinking it
  like his mother demanded.
• His mother made him stay in his room for pouring
  out the milk..

• Rather than pay a tax on tea, the colonists
  dumped the tea in the harbor..
• Because the colonists dumped out the tea, Great
  Britain closed Boston Harbor.

Bridging Two Worlds
Adapted from Lynn Erickson Concept-Based
Curriculum and Instruction
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New ideas and inventions often help people
achieve things that werent possible before.
Computers have transformed business productivity
and personal lifestyles in the past 20 years..
Scientific and business innovation converged to
produce the industrial boom of the late 1800s.
Innovation Industry Productivity Progress
Innovation Industry Productivity Progress
Industrialization in America, 1860-1900
The Computer Revolution

• Millions of people pay their bills
  electronically.
• I can buy, sell, fax, copy, play games, talk to
  my friends, and print all my school papers on my
  computer at home.

• By 1900, 190,000 miles of rails linked businesses
  and their customers.
• The Bessemer process made it possible to mass
  produce high-quality steel.

Bridging Two Worlds
Adapted from Lynn Erickson Concept-Based
Curriculum and Instruction