Get the Concept!

Concept boards are a unique way to help our students connect information across the curriculum.  One of the key shifts challenges us to build background knowledge for our students and in our last quarterly meeting for CCRS, we explored teaching students through units.  We learned that teaching in units ties information together for students and enables them to make connections throughout the day. While we know how important connecting the dots for our students is, we often find it a challenge to make these concept boards teachable and beneficial to our students.  Many teachers struggle with what to put on a concept board and it is difficult to answer this exactly since each concept board is going to be tailored to the individual class.

CONCEPT BOARD:  WHAT IS IT?
A concept board is a visual representation that allows students to build background knowledge over the course of a unit.  It is typically centered around an essential question or a unit question, with smaller questions that are used to gradually build students' understanding of the concept  being explored.  The concept board contains student work, photographs, drawings, graphs, or anything else that students have used to answer the question.

CONCEPT BOARD: WHAT GOES ON IT?
Concept boards can vary from class to class since the material is customized to the needs of each class.  Every group brings different experiences to the classroom so what goes on the board is going to be unique to the each class.  The "must haves" for the concept board are the essential question and any student work that answers the question and leads to understanding of the concept.  This is a wonderful chance to bring in our students' creativity!

Below is a short video that contains examples from Region 11 of concept boards.  You will see many different representations of boards.  There is also a short clip at the end of a teacher talking about her concept board.  Because the video is real life and taken in a classroom with students, the sound quality is not professional.  Put on your listening ears!  If you have examples of a great concept board, please share with us!  You can share in the comment section below or you can email your pictures to alabamareadinginitiative11@gmail.com.  We can't wait to see your examples!!