Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Secondary: Designing Lessons and Assessments for Deep Learning (Corwin Teaching Essentials)

Deep Learning in Theory and in Practice!
This is a rich resource for teachers seeking to facilitate deep learning for their students. As an educator with five years of experience at the secondary level, I have rarely encountered a text that is such a valuable mix of theory and practice. I am grateful for this text, and will share it with my teacher friends.

Using History class to help Students Understand their Present & Future
Every year, the majority of the students in my non-AP U.S. History class confess that they find history classes boring and irrelevant: of what use is it to learn about events and developments in our past? Meanwhile, so many of our country’s young citizens struggle to understand current and political events and developments.I don’t blame them: although I was a dutiful student and did what was necessary to get a good grade in my U.S. History, I was convinced it was a huge waste of time. It was not until years later when I was reading about the events and developments at the time, that I started to recognize many of the same CONCEPTS we had learned about in history class. Times change, actors change, and issues change, but CONCEPTS are fairly timeless and universal. I finally realized that my U.S. History class HAD been useful after all–studying history helps one identify patterns, underlying tensions, and the causes and effects of these (in other words, CONCEPTS) that can give one a significant amount of insight and perspective on how these same concepts will play out today and in the future.But why did I have to be 10 years out of college to realize this on my own? Why wasn’t objective explicitly explained, and why didn’t my high school teachers explicitly teach me how to transfer concepts from history to the present and future, use history to understand the present and the future?Luckily, we now have a guidebook that breaks down how to do this: Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding, Secondary: Designing Lessons and Assessments for Deep Learning! I had been trying to use history to understand the present and future for several years, but it was on a “stumbling through the dark”, ad hoc, trial and error manner. This book helped me accomplish this in a more consistent, deliberate manner.

Teacher-Friendly “How-to” implement Concept-Based Learning
I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a 3-day workshop in DC hosted by Julie and it produced endless lightbulb moments on how to realistically implement concept-based learning. As an I also work in the world of IB, who utilized inquiry/concept-based teaching learning as the foundation of its pedagogy I struggled to understand and communicate to my teachers what it “actually looked like” on a day to day basis in a classroom. Julie and her book (and her workshop) changed everything!! I could actually put together viable Professional Development opportunities and support my teams of teachers in understanding how to embed concept-based instruction. I can’t tell you how many times I have recommended Julie’s book, website, YouTube channel and even if possible attending a workshop! This book is your teacher-friendly answer to changing your instruction to suit the needs of our changing world and readying our students to work and grow in it!!

What to actually do in your classroom
I have read so many teaching books that have great, research supported, common sense ideas but they just don’t move out of the theory and into the classroom. FINALLY this book shares fully practical tools for what I can do with my students tomorrow to develop their conceptual understanding of the world. I want to plan lessons that help my students think deeply and transfer their thinking, Julie Stern’s book helps me do this again and again – it’s packed with ideas that are supported by educational research and designed for teachers to use in their classes straight away.

This book is super informative as a teacher to grasp and understand conceptual thinking. There is a wide range of examples and frameworks to look at and apply to your teaching practices. Would highly recommend!