Creating a Concept Based Inquiry Lesson - Part 2

The following lesson has been taken once again from the work of Lynn Erickson. Her work has perhaps been the biggest help to me as I prepared for my new role as PYP coordinator.

Marianne Kroll, a master teacher featured in the ASCD video Designing Integrated Units: A Concept-Based Approach, shares a lesson she used for helping third grade students see how facts provide a "pattern of evidence". This evidence can be used to develop timeless, transferrable big ideas (generalisations). Marianne explains, "The teacher keeps the generalization in mind as the lesson is planned, and constructs a chart using the concepts from the generalization as column headings" (See Figure 1).

 Grade 3: Lesson on Natural Disasters

Enduring understanding: "Natural disasters affect daily lives and the economy of a community."

Guiding Question:

• "What is a natural disaster?"

Teacher Note: After discussing the idea of a natural disaster and having students name some different kinds of natural disasters, provide them with internet or other appropriate reading material on Hurricane Kartina. Ask them to use sticky notes as they read, to mark places that tell about the impact of the hurricane on the daily lives or economy. Then use the following questions and fill out the Hurricane Katrina example on the chart with student responses. Leave the "Big Idea" column until each row has been filled in.

Figure 1               Natural Disaster Graphic Organiser

Natural Disaster	Impacts: Daily Living	Impacts: Economy	Big Idea
Hurricane Katrina (2005 southern U.S.)
The tsunami in Southeast Asia (2004)
Forest Fires that threaten a community

Source: Marianne Kroll, Curriculum Consultant, Eleva, Wisconsin

• How did Hurricane Katrina change the daily lives of people in communities like New Orleans?
• How did Hurricane Katrina affect the business and economy in New Orleans and other involved communities?

After taking students through the Hurricane Katrina example, provide them with resources to compete the same process (in cooperative groups) of filling out the chart  related to the 2005 tsunami and forest fires. You could either specify a particular geographic location where forest fires threaten communities, such as southern California, or you could have them generalize how forest fires would threaten the daily lives and economy of a community based on their work with the disaster just studied. It is important for the teacher to keep the relationship between the concepts in mind when constructing the chart.

Reference

Erikson H. L., 2007, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom, Corwin, CA., p. 103-104.