Wathall Chapter 4 Synthesis (How do I Plan Units of Work for A Concept Based Curriculum?) by Anthony Giliberto

Unit Web

agiliber — 2025-04-10 23:41:56 UTC

Contains critical content topics and helps give an overview of the depth and breadth of a unit of instruction. The web is an overview of a major concept that is being studies and includes the conceptual lens, which stimulates thinking, and the strands, which detail important concepts within the unit.

Teacher Empowerment

agiliber — 2025-04-10 23:45:30 UTC

Unit planning helps teachers feel more empowered as they take more ownership over their classroom and lesson. When you unit plan you do not just aimlessly follow a textbook but have more freedom over lesson and ways to describe content.

Unit Web

agiliber — 2025-04-10 23:48:52 UTC

Knowledge Strands

agiliber — 2025-04-10 23:51:16 UTC

Based on the unit and conceptual lens, knowledge strands are areas of content that want to be presented. For example, for a web on functions, knowledge strands can include modeling, equations, and linear functions.

Micro Concepts

agiliber — 2025-04-10 23:53:05 UTC

Underneath each knowledge strand a microconcept narrows the focus into topics that will be covered through a unit. Going back to the functions example, under the modeling knowledge strand, micro concepts would include linear modeling, rate of change, and slope.

Generalizations

agiliber — 2025-04-10 23:58:28 UTC

Are in boxes underneath the micro concepts. In these boxes are essential, enduring understandings based on these micro concepts that help educators visualize standards and objectives. For example, for a unit on functions, knowledge standard of modeling, and micro concept of linear models, a generalization could be "linear functions model real life situations which facilitate predictions.

Concepts in Mathematical Processes

agiliber — 2025-04-11 00:00:41 UTC

MUST HAVE THIS KNOWLEDGE STANDARD IN EVERY WEB - this is because it represents process generalizations specific to the unit (also highlights previous concepts used in unit)

Guiding Questions

agiliber — 2025-04-11 00:02:29 UTC

Helps students connect the factual support with the conceptual understandings.

2-3 Proactive/Debatable Questions Per Unit

3-5 Factual and Conceptual Questions

Purpose of Questions

agiliber — 2025-04-11 00:17:26 UTC

Factual - focuses on recall and comprehension of information

Conceptual - stimulate analysis and application to concepts

Debatable - encourages synthesis and evaluation

All together when applied to unit planning it helps students create conceptual understanding instead of spitting back facts or formulas.

Collaboration In Unit Planning

agiliber — 2025-04-11 00:22:16 UTC

It is essential to promote the sharing of ideas between collogues in your department when unit planning. Collaboration helps save time and can support ownership of the materials within a unit. This can be done so by teachers talking about common micro concepts, generalizations, and collaborating on ideas for guiding questions to asks students.

Common Weekly Planners

agiliber — 2025-04-11 00:24:09 UTC

Having a collaborative link/site/calendar in which teachers can add in new resources and other findings for a specific lesson or day can help with creating the most effective unit plans.