Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Elementary
Harnessing Natural Curiosity for Learning That Transfers
Foreword by Debbie Silver
Corwin Teaching Essentials
Brain-Friendly Teaching & Learning | Elementary Education | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles
Young children are naturally curious, asking deep questions about complex concepts. This tendency is a talent that can be nurtured so that children grow to be deep thinkers and innovators later in life. However, in our complex world, it is impossible to teach students everything they need to know. Pushing more factual content ignores what we know about how children learn and endangers their love of learning. Concept-based teaching helps young learners uncover conceptual relationships in a way that is developmentally appropriate. Readers of this guide will learn:
• Why conceptual learning is a natural fit for children
• Strategies for introducing conceptual learning
• Instructional strategies to help students uncover and transfer concepts
• How to write lessons, assess understanding, and differentiate in a concept-based classroom
• How concept-based teaching aligns with best practices and initiatives
Written for educators who strive to cultivate conceptual understanding while honoring students’ innate curiosity, this is a must-have road map for implementing concept-based teaching in elementary classrooms.
"This book provides the research and resources educators need to help students take ownership of their learning. It fosters students’ curiosity about their environment and it allows them to explore and become life-long learners."
Ellen Asregadoo, Fifth Grade Teacher
Public School 190, Brooklyn, NY
"This is an important book for all teachers. We need to be honoring our students as thinkers who deserve developmentally appropriate intellectual rigor in the classroom. We will not achieve this in our traditional coverage based classroom. I am so inspired and can’t wait to start this journey (making mistakes and learning along the way!)."
Sarah Gat, Second Grade Teacher
Ecole Arbour Vista Public School, Guelph, Ontario
Free resources
Lesson Framework #2: Generating and Testing Hypotheses
Use this lesson framework from Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Elementary, to guide your students through the process of generating and testing hypotheses to discover connections between concepts.
Clarifying Transfer: The Ultimate Goal of Learning
"They want kids to see the world differently, and to be empowered to act differently, because of what they have learned. It seems that the goal of all learning—not just conceptual understanding—is transfer." Read more from Julie Stern, author of Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Elementary, on Corwin Connect.
Strategy #6: Concept Attainment
Use the strategy of concept attainment, from Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Elementary, with your students, which mimics the brain’s natural concept-formation process by drawing out patterns from examples and nonexamples.
Webinar: Making Sense of Learning Transfer
This cutting-edge webinar with Julie Stern and Nathalie Lauriault, authors of Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Elementary, will help you to promote depth and breadth of understanding by using learning transfer as both a means and an end goal of learning.
"Using a concept-based curriculum is essential to get students thinking and active in their own learning. Erickson, Lanning & French explain in detail how to plan and teach in order to transform content into understanding that is relevant and compelling for all students."
"This book provides the research and resources educators need to help students take ownership of their learning. It fosters students’ curiosity about their environment and it allows them to explore and become life-long learners."
"This book gives a nice overview of how to plan for and implement concept based learning into the elementary classroom. Additionally, it provides practical examples and ideas that any educator can take and implement into his or her classroom immediately."
"The practical strategies and examples supported by manageable theoretical information is exactly what teachers need to begin to take the steps that feel so difficult for many teachers who can’t visualize what it would look like in their classrooms."
"This is an important book for all teachers. We need to be honoring our students as thinkers who deserve developmentally appropriate intellectual rigor in the classroom. We will not achieve this in our traditional coverage based classroom. I am so inspired and can’t wait to start this journey (making mistakes and learning along the way!)."
"This is the book that teachers who have been trying to implement concept-based teaching and learning have been waiting for. The research-based lesson frameworks create a clear and doable plan for teachers at any grade or content level. This book is a must for any instructional coach or curriculum writer."
