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Design a Conceptual Framework

The following prompts will help you define the conception framework of your project.

For individuals: Reflect on this series of questions and record your responses on your own wiki page. Be ready to share at your next team meeting. Don’t become too wedded to your ideas yet.

For a group: When you meet, share and discuss your individual responses, then respond to the questions again together. If you aim for a collaborative project, try to “mash up” your efforts into one shared project idea.

1. What important and enduring concepts are fundamental to each subject you teach? List them. Try to limit the list to two to three big concepts for each subject. Refer to content standards you teach to determine those covered by these big “umbrella” concepts. Tolerance, characteristics of a civilization or culture, legacies.

2. Why do these concepts matter? Why are they important?  They encompass how a culture developed,  it's unquiness, why it has qualities you want to know more about and the gifts they give to all other peoples.

3. Outside of school, who cares about these topics? What is their relevance in different people’s lives and in different parts of the world?  We are becoming a one world nation, and these topics effect us all.

4. Select one or two of the most promising of these topics and think about real-to-life contexts to answer: What are the interdisciplinary connections? What other subjects might be incorporated?  I really need all 3, include reading and writing.  Should include: history, geography, literature, geology etc.

5. As you begin to imagine working with these topics, how might you push past rote learning into analysis, evaluation and creation? Incorporate Bloom’s “rigor” verbs in your answer.    blooms digital taxonomy, 

 This is a culminating project to asses their understanding of the study of Ancient Cultures.  This is the standard based curriculum for 6th grade Social Studies.  I also teach Language Arts so I incorporate reading and writing for understanding within the unit as well.  The goal is to have students collaborate together to create a unique group culture.  Utilizing their year's worth of background information they need to design a country/culture within a made up world.  They need to follow known rules of climate and the worlds available geography.  They will work together to create an economy from their groups available natural resources.  They will invent a verbal and written language to communicate in at their barter market.  Their final sharing celebration will present original myths, literature, dance, music or drama in their cultural dress,  language & food festival.

6. Imagine authentic ways students might engage in this topics within a project and the ways 21st century skills might be addressed. Hint: The terms collaboration, digital tools, and information literacy could appear in your answer!ISTE's National Education Technology for Students, 

7. What aspects of these topics will interest your students? (A feature that seems superficial or tangential but fascinates students can give you entrée into more essential matters, so brainstorm as many as you can.) creativity and the hands-on aspect of creating the physical components of their civilization.  For example:  shelter, hairstyles, artifacts, clothing, masks, holidays, music/anthems, dance.  They will also like the chance to collaborate and work with a group of their peers. 

8. What learning dispositions should you cultivate and ask your students to pay attention to? (REINV p. 51-52)