Creating Ah-Ha Moments!

Building Concept Development & Comprehension

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Ruth Ebisuzaki and Kelly Trygstad

August 13, 2010

Part 1: Overview

Overview

• Understand the importance of building concept development and comprehension

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• Identify what quality concept development and comprehension looks like

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• Strategies for building concept development and comprehension in the classroom

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• Practice developing concept development and comprehension through guided activities

 Goal

         Building

    Concept Development                       Comprehension

What is Comprehension?

Comprehension is the ability to understand what is being read or presented and the ability to connect what they are learning about with their lives and previous knowledge

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                                EEC, Cooke

What is Concept Development?

How teachers use instructional discussions and activities to promote students' higher-order thinking skills in contrast to a focus on rote instruction.

Integration of Classroom Quality Indicators

CLASS (Instructional Support)

ELLCO (Language Environment)

Quality Indicator

SIOP

Concept Development

Opportunities for Extended Conversation

Support for Conceptual Understanding

Content Concepts, Links to background knowledge,

Language Modeling

Effort to Build Vocabulary

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Language Environment (Comprehension / Vocabulary)

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Interaction and discussion

Quality of Feedback

Discourse Climate

Providing Effective Feedback

Review/ Assessment

Concept Development �Link to CLASS and ELLCO

• CLASS:
• Analysis and Reasoning
• Creating
• Integration
• Connections to the real world

• ELLCO:
• Engagement of children in conversations
• Promotion of content and language learning
• Strategies to build understanding

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Part 2: Instructional Support �Concept Development �link to CLASS

CLASS: Analysis and Reasoning

• Why and/or How Questions
• Problem Solving
• Prediction/Experimentation
• Classification/Comparison
• Evaluation

BEC, Thompson

AELPCS, Brooks

Activity: Analysis and Reasoning

• Look at examples of low and high concept development questions

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• Using an example of a low concept development example, work in groups to come up with ways to make it an example of high concept development

CLASS: Creating

• Brainstorming
• Planning
• Producing

ECA, DiNino/Patrick 

Discussion: Creating

• How would you facilitate brainstorming, planning and producing during small group around "taking turns"?

CLASS: Integration

• Connects Concepts
• Integrates with Previous Knowledge

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BEC, Pollard

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Discussion: Integration

• How would you introduce family members from the story Oonga Boonga using previous knowledge?

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CLASS: Connections to the Real World

• Real-World Applications
• Related to Students' Lives

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AELPCS SW, Hall

Discussion: Connections to the Real World

Using the story Corduroy:

• How would you make connections to the real-world (community)?
• Connections to students’ lives?

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Part 3: The Language Development  �Concept Development �link to ELLCO

ELLCO: Engagement of Children in Conversations

• Valuing individual opinions and ideas
• Listening attentively to children
• Encourage children to listen and respond to each other

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BEC, Moore

 EEC, Roskowski and Ryan

Discussion: Engagement of Children in Conversations

• Group 1: What does valuing children's contributions (opinions and ideas) look like? 
• Group 2: How do you encourage children to listen and respond to each other? 
• Group 3: How do these strategies foster concept development?

ELLCO: Promotion of Content and Language Learning

• Maximize talk that informs learning
• Example: facilitating a discussion about how to create a post office in dramatic play
• includes brainstorming
• lists needed supplies  

AELPCS SW, Pelzer

Discussion: Promotion of Content and Language Learning

Unit 1: 

To foster concept development during Dramatic Play, list 4 questions you would pose to the students if the subject was a baby sibling crying:

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.

ELLCO: Strategies to Build Understanding

• Discuss meanings of new words
• Provide opportunities for children to make their own definition and understanding of words
• Example: Ask students to relate a word or concept to their own experiences

AELPCS CH, Lafontant and Lawson

Discussion: Strategies to Build Understanding

What are some creative ways to introduce the following words?

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• 1. Gently
• 2. jig
• 3. lullaby
• 4. scamper
• 5. wail
• 6. faded

Video!

Video Discussion Questions

• What did the teacher do to build concept development?

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• Is there anything that you would do differently?

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Part 4: Integrating Concept Development in Lesson Planning

Lesson Planning

Activity: Lesson Planning

Complete the graphic organizer inserting activities and questions you would implement for each component to integrate the concept of your choice.

Part 5: Conclusion�Ah-ha Moments and Questions

What was YOUR Ah-Ha Moment?

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Questions?

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Thank you!

Resources

Block, C. (2003). Literacy difficulties: Diagnosis and instruction for reading specialists and classroom teachers (2nd ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Hamre, Bridget K., La Paro, Karen M., Pianta, Robert C., (2008). Classroom Assessment Scoring System Manual – PreK. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

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Anastasopoulos, Louisa, Brady, Joanne P., & Smith, Miriam, W. (2008). Early Language & Literacy Classroom Observation – PreK Tool. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

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