Concept Based Teaching

Starting last year, I have been working with some Social Science teachers in the area to explore and develop concept based units in my classes. We started with a pilot unit to see how things will go. We have all just started teaching this unit in our classrooms over the past week. Let's stop here and talk about what a conceptual unit looks like. Instead of just plowing through the decades chronologically like a standard history class, we look at different concepts that have to do with a main idea. For our westward expansion unit, the big idea is, "Opportunity is a catalyst for change." With that as our backdrop, we then focus on topics like the great migration of settlers to the plains, the subsequent effect on Native Americans and the culture clash that ensued. We have based our unit on 3 main questions:

1. What causes people to move geographically?
2. How do differences in culture lead to division?
3. Does prosperity for one group mean exploitation for another?
The questions are supposed to be broad and hard to answer on purpose. With those questions as our guide, we are working to understand this period in history.

My initial feelings on the unit are good. I like how it's going for the most part. So far, I feel as though it is really teacher directed. That's the only part I'm not crazy about. I like to see my students take a more hands-on approach. My fellow teachers and I have had discussions about how hard it is to make social studies totally hands-on. Unfortunately there are time when we have to front load a learning task with a keynote presentation and lecture. I personally think that is somewhat true, but I don't think I have explored every single way of teaching social studies. There has to be a way to make any subject hands on for students. This is part of my learning and growing as an educator and I'm still in process. On the whole, student engagement is up in my classroom and kids are responding well to the unit. I'm excited to keep going and get their feedback after the whole process is complete.