Using Facts to Develop Conceptual Understanding Over Time

In the unit Choices and Opportunity Cost, students examine the essential questions, "How do we make thoughtful decisions?"  This conceptual question exists in the unit because it can be used to help students uncover the understanding that "All choices involve costs."

In our planning session at Van Arsdale, we discussed how students continue to uncover an essential question as they begin to learn more content.  Here's a picture of the graphic we were using in our discussion.

Through planning with the end in mind, students might be given the following performance task at the end of the unit:
Your goal is to create a diary that shares how a young person would evaluate three real-life decisions throughout the course of a week.  As you write about these decisions, you need to make sure that your use precise economic vocabulary in a way that shows your understanding of the words.  Your writing must also show that you can apply the skill of evaluating the choices in decisions. (Required vocabulary: choice, cost, opportunity cost, positive incentive, negative incentive, risk).

Preparing students for this assessment will require addressing the essential question.  First, you may talk about choices that a person makes.  Next, you may talk about choices that have many options and how economists determine that the next best choice is the opportunity cost.  Third, you may explore how some decisions are made based on different types of incentives...some that are positive and some that are negative.  Last, you may explore how some decisions mean that a person is thinking about risk.

As you go about building content knowledge with students, you have the opportunity to revisit the essential question.  By using this process, students can incorporate their new learning into their explanation of this essential question.  Over time, students might add this type of information to their notebooks.  (NOTE: It's assumed that teachers build the expectation that students use precise academic vocabulary.  It's also assumed that a teacher is modeling how to take new information and use it to add thinking to essential questions.)

This might be a page in the notebook where students come back to on a regular basis to add their thinking about the essential question.

_________________________________________________________

How do we make thoughtful decisions?

• Students learn about choices. Aug. 27 - When I make a decision I will think about what is important to me.  Sometimes I might decide that I enjoy spending my money on a video game instead of on a stuffed animal.  Sometimes I might decide to spend my time reading instead of playing with me sister.  It is what I want. 
• Students learn about opportunity cost. Aug. 30 - Sometimes I have to make a choice like what I want to do with my free time.  I could read, play with my sister, play with the dog, or play video games.  If I choose reading, then my next favorite thing is my opportunity cost.  My next favorite thing is playing with the dog so that's my opportunity cost.
• Students learn about positive and negative incentives. Sept. 3 - Sometimes people use incentives to make me act a certain way.  There are positive incentives and negative incentives.  When my mom says I am grounded if I don't clean my room, that is a negative incentive.  When my dad says I get ice cream if I clean my room, that is a positive incentive.  If my dad gives me an extra dollar for every dollar I put in the bank, that's a positive incentive.  If my mom threatens to take away my allowance if I don't save any in the bank, that's a negative incentive.
• Students learn about risk. Sept. 6 - When people make decisions, sometimes they think about risk.  For example, if Sal asks to borrow money for lunch I don't know if I would give it to him.  Sal still owes lunch money to my friend.  It is risky to let Sal borrow money.  If Lucy wants to borrow my skateboard, I might let her borrow it.  One time, I let her borrow my bike and she brought it back as soon as she was done.  It's not risky to let Lucy borrow my bike. 

Writing to Learn at the Hutchinson Staff Meeting

September 11, 2013

The inquiry notebooking team met with the Hutchinson staff Wednesday morning.

We began our meeting looking at how they have begun to build a foundation for their inquiry classroom.  We did this through a Schoology discussion.  Check out the conversation here.

We moved into thinking about how Writing to Learn can be used a foundation for using science and social studies notebooks effectively.  We looked at some resources from the CALI and support documents. You can find them under the Notebook resources in our Schoology group.

Next, grade-level teams and bands met together to answer some questions about Writing to Learn.  Here are the charts that were developed:

Kindergarten and First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth and Sixth Grades

Teachers determined next steps and made a plan on a sticky note.  Here is a collection of the words teachers used:

Thank you Hutchinson teachers for the thoughtful conversations.  

We look forward to our continued partnership!

Hutchinson: Who are we? Where are we starting?

Welcome to the beginning of our Inquiry Notebooking project.  Since teachers from Van Arsdale and Hutchinson will be working on this project and sharing ideas throughout the year, it makes sense that you should know each other and each other's work.

Hutchinson 4th grade team
Linda Dawkins (left) Reading, Writing, Math, and Literacy
Amy Bergh (middle) Reading, Writing, Math and Science
Kathryn Potter (right) Reading, Writing, Math and Social Studies 

Linda, Amy and Kathryn have made sense of the instructional day with some departmentalization.  They embrace the use of essential questions and post them in their classrooms to continually revisit as a part of the learning process.  

Daily Schedule

8:50 - 9:05        Get Ready
9:05-9:10          Announcements
9:10-10:00        Writing
10:00-10:50      Reading
10:50 - 11:25    Art, Music, or P.E.
11:35 - 12:15    Science/Social Studies/Literacy rotation
12:15 - 1:00       Recess/Lunch
1:05 - 1:45        Science/Social Studies/Literacy rotation
1:50 - 2:30        Science/Social Studies/Literacy rotation
2:30 - 3:30        Math
3:30 - 3:35        Homework, Clean-up and Dismissal

Focus for Inquiry Cycle One

The team is focused on the planning process and wants to think about how to making choices about the student work and thinking that will be in the notebook.

Chalk Talk: "Why use notebooks?"

As we begin this year's project (Inquiry Notebooking in Science and Social Studies), we're starting to explore the tool that will be used to capture thinking and work of students.  The tool (the notebook) can be used in a variety of ways to support student learning.  Consider taking a look at the charts created during Van Arsdale's chalk talk. It reveals their thinking about the question, "Why use notebooks?"  Feel free to add additional thoughts, now and in the future, in the comment space below this blog post.  Let's see how our understanding and ideas grow throughout the year as we examine the notebook as a tool for learning.