CBCI Key Points:
The main reasons behind Concept Based Curriculum and Instruction (CBCI) that influenced my teaching the most include the importance of creative thinking, making learning relevant, and learning through inquiry based education.
Many educators, including myself, are concerned about subjects and education experiences are becoming limited due to the high pressure placed on standardized tests. This pressure to perform well on these tests often means students spend more time honing a specific set of skills, leaving less room for diverse and enriching learning experiences. Unfortunately, this narrow approach limits students’ creativity and ability to make meaningful connections with the materials. Ron Richardt expresses how he believes the components of creative thinking plays a role in critical reflection and problem solving skills. He believes that creative thinking, innovation, exploration leads to sharper critical thinking and problem-solving skills; which is more relevant to our world.
CBCI also emphasizes the importance of balance between the structure of processes and the structure of knowledge. Misconceptions hinder our learning, which is why educators must make learning relevant and ensure genuine understanding of materials, rather than rote learning and memorization. Effective lessons captivate students, enhance motivation, and facilitate memorable learning experiences. CBCI’s emphasis on this balance is imperative to creating effective lessons.
Lastly, CBCI stresses the importance for students to develop their understanding by exploring ideas, analyzing evidence and seeking connections. This advocates for an inquiry-based educational approach and shifts the emphasis on what students know to what they can learn and comprehend. This is referred to as KUDs- Knowledge, Understanding, Skills. Students are able to sharpen their critical thinking skills and become active learners by encouraging them to question and analyze through a nurturing sense of curiosity.
I have positive interactions with CBCI, prior to knowing there is a term for this. The strongest memory I have is in my senior year of high school, I researched the inequalities in Cincinnati Public Schools for my capstone project. During the semester, I collected data about funding, extracurricular activities, and state testing scores. I frequently met with my teacher for feedback and a new perspective on my topic. I was enthusiastic about this project because I was able to pick something I was interested in and guide my research through my interests. I spent more time on this project than I did other homework at the time, because of my engagement. I even recall being excited to present at the end of the semester. I believe that inquiry based learning was helpful in my learning process.
Unit Plan
Title: Welcome Home Habitat Heroes
Standard: 1.LS.2: Living things survive only in environments that meet their needs.
Objectives:
- By the end of the lesson, students will be able to name eight habitats based on the description or picture 8/8 times
- By the end of the lesson, students will demonstrate an understanding of the key characteristics in each habitat. Some examples include; the climate, types of animals that live there, and land features through discussions and drawings 8/8 times.
- As a summative assessment, students will be able to choose one habitat that they would like to live in and explain why using the traits from the habitat.
Summary: I will employ the principles of CBCI in my first grade unit on habits. I plan on engaging students in an interactive read aloud from the book Welcome Home Bear,” on day one. We will explore a new habitat everyday such as aquatic, forest, and arctic environments. The students will work together on projects throughout the unit, taking a collaborative pedagogical approach. On the 10th day, the students will write about which habitat they would like to live in and why as a summative assessment. This will ensure the students are learning about different habitats while developing their critical thinking and communication skills. The concepts addressed include writing and creative thinking.
Challenges: There are a few challenges I anticipate ahead. Firstly, I want to create exit tickets for every habitat to gauge their understanding before progressing to the next habitat. I would also have to carve time in the beginning of each lesson to review the misconceptions from the previous day. I also am searching for a user-friendly and age-appropriate website that uses AI technology to photoshop them in their favorite habitat.
TCE Threshold
One of the TCE thresholds that this unit plan addresses is that both teachers and students have empowerment/agency. This impacts my student’s lives and larger social issues because it will integrate the significance of conserving habitats to safeguard the wildlife and ecosystems they support. The preservation of these environments is imperative, and I believe by conveying the importance of them, that students will feel motivated to participate in preservation efforts. I believe that teachers, parents, and students understand the importance of conserving our planet. I also believe it would be beneficial to learn from firsthand experiences of people who have visited the habitats.
Another TCE threshold concept is that the curriculum is co-constructed. As a teacher, I am responsible for learning about the habitats alongside my students. I can achieve this by researching firsthand experiences shared by others, as I haven’t personally visited each of these environments. One limitation I anticipate is that I have some students who have only encountered one habitat. This potentially makes it more challenging for them to grasp the differences among various habitats. To overcome this, I plan on building upon their prior knowledge from our zoo trip early in the school year, and showing them engaging visuals, photos, and videos.
JaTayzia,
Thank you for seeing the TCE Thresholds in the unit plan- this was a challenging point for me! I agree that my role should be as a facilitator, and the students should be engaged in hands-on activities. Thank you for the feedback!
Hanninra,
Thank you! For my lesson, I was very reflective about how I could effectively show CBCI in my lessons; I am glad that you were able to see this. I appreciate your response!
Mccunebl,
Thank you! I tried to emphasize the importance of parental, student, and teacher involvement and the importance of everyone working together. I am so excited for the final project as well. I appreciate your response!
Ciara,
Thank you! I love the shoe box design- I’m glad to hear it went well. I also like the explicit focus on an animal and the habitat traits. Thank you for the example! I will have to incorporate the YouTube videos to immerse them in the habitats. Thanks for your ideas!
Anya,
I taught 3rd grade a few years ago, and remember the pressures of state testing- I am wishing you all the best of luck! I agree that science is so important, and I have also taught in schools that place a stronger emphasis on literacy and math skills. I love the shoe box idea, and this is a great example of a summative assessment aligned with CBCI. The exit ticket is also great- I will definitely be using this! I appreciate your feedback!
Delany,
I appreciate you seeing the connection between the thresholds and CBCI within my instructional plan. I am hoping to relay the importance of conservation to make learning relevant to real world experiences. Thank you for your response!
Carolyn,
Thank you! I appreciate the suggestions, and I will definitely look into Canva and Seesaw.
Pikaarm,
I am so excited about our assessment and to see their creative projects. I am glad to know that the exit tickets will help- I actively try to avoid busy work! I love the warm up activity as I would rather preteach than reteach. I appreciate your feedback!
I absolutely love your unit plan idea, especially the final step where they choose which one they would want to live in. What a fun and engaging way for them to demonstrate their knowledge!
I use reflective exit tickets almost every day in class and I can attest that finding time to review and reinforce the next day is challenging. Recently I have started doing warm up activities in which they review responses as a group and then create feedback with a partner. It sounds like it may take up more class time, but I have found it is just as efficient as when I review it whole-class. It can help break the “cycle” of repetitive lesson openers and lets students talk amongst themselves.
Hi Emma!
I liked what you shared about the importance of giving students the creativity and freedom to learn and explore rather than have them stress over a set of skills or ideas that they need to memorize for a test. I wish that this would have been the way that I learned in school growing up!
I love your unit plan idea, my unit plan is similar in that it will touch on bear habitats! I like that students can explore a different habitat each day and that you are going to check their understanding of each habitat and address misconceptions. I am not totally sure about the apps or websites that they could use, but I wonder if Canva or Seesaw would give them the option to import a photo of a habitat and add their image to the picture. Thank you for sharing!
Hello!
Great first blog post! You hit on so many key points that are so important! I really appreciate your emphasis on relevant learning. I link that then to your unit plan where you ask a question then ask students to explain why they made that choice. When you begin to explain your thresholds you make great points as well. I really like your first one on student and teacher agency! I agree completely. Giving students some leadership over their own education is going to provide long term learning benefits. Not only are they accepting responsibility but also seeing their learning in the real world and with real problems we are facing. The conservation is a concept students should be learning about so they are ready to help solve similar problems when they are older. Great lesson, great post!
Hi there!
I loved reading your blog post. I cannot agree with you enough about the toll that standardized testing takes on us as educators. I noted this as one of my challenges for this unit, as I will be teaching it in the second semester, which is when we start preparing students for their first-ever Ohio State Test. As an early childhood educator myself (I teach 3rd grade!), I am so excited that you are also doing a science unit. I am doing one as well! I think that our students in an early childhood setting just don’t get enough science because it’s not a required class and we are so focused on their literacy and math skills. I like your idea of having them work in groups each day and also write about which habitat they would like to live in. I think it would be really neat to have students create a 3-D model of a habitat of their choosing inside of a shoe box or cereal box. This would bring in some creative piece that connects to CBCI! For an exit ticket, one idea would be to project a picture of a habitat on the screen and then give them 3 habitat words to choose from. Then, they could write which habitat it is (and know how to spell it since it’s on the board) on a Post-it note and turn it into you! Great unit plan, I am looking forward to seeing how it comes out!
Hi,
Great blog post! I love your habitat unit plan. We just wrapped up 2 weeks on habitats, and we had students use a variety of supplies and shoe boxes to design their own habitats. They turned out really AWESOME! Students took their chosen animal that they researched and glued an image inside the box, and then included the necessary components to their habitats. For example, a student chose a shark. Therefore they created an ocean scene, with different plants/moss as well as blue construction paper for water. Students could create a model like this with your unit to go along with their writing projects!
You will be able to make such great connections with your students to their zoo field trip! There may also be different YouTube videos out there for you to do some virtual explorations of the 8 different habitats. It seems like you have a great idea formed around your unit plan, I cannot wait to see how it all comes together!
Yes! We love student empowerment and agency! Also, it is so cool to teach about conservation and why we need it! I also like how you talked about parents, students, and teachers being involved in this and it really demonstrates that conservation is a collective effort! I also love the co-construction idea that gives students real-world knowledge from your zoo trip! I would personally love to conduct this project and see the different habitats. This will definitely be a project students remember and I think you just might create the next group of conservationists! Great work!
Hello! I was struggling to wrap my head around how to use CBCI in the younger grades. I really like your Unit Plan outline here and it gives me a better understanding and model on how CBCI can work with younger students with foundational skills, like reading comprehension. I also like how you discussed being responsible for developing learning habits. This is vitally important, I think especially with such fast-paced curriculum now required in the younger grades. I see how CBCI units can support this through your explanation.
Hello
I like how you connected the TCE Thresholds to the Unit Plan you are creating. In order for students to feel empowered, they need to have to practice and do hands-on activities. However, they need someone to facilitate these activities. Having teachers lead by example and letting students participate in active learning. That is one way to ensure empowerment for both groups involved in the learning process. To create a well-rounded unit, involving the students in the creation process will help facilitate the student empowerment mentioned in the first threshold. Nice Job!