Running Head: PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA Teachers’ Perspectives on Planning for Conceptual Understanding in English Language Arts Warren Thor Nickerson A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Faculty of Education University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2017 Warren Nickerson PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA ii Running Head: PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA Abstract This study explored the conceptual ideas of secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers when they planned backwards. ELA curricula in Western Canada had largely been framed as a set of literate processes and strategies, but some literacy research and ELA curricula have included a growing emphasis on conceptual understanding. This study examined the inclusion of concepts or “big ideas” among teachers who explicitly used backwards planning. The researcher interviewed eleven secondary (i.e., grades 7 -12) ELA teachers to explore the conceptual understanding embedded in their learning designs and to find out whether their experiences with backward planning were helpful. The participants were purposefully sampled from a variety of settings – from public and private schools, from integrated to stand-alone courses, from three Canadian provinces and one American state. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2006), the interview transcripts and related artifacts from these varied settings were analyzed, coded, and themed. The analysis and interpretation of the transcripts and extant documents revealed the nature of goals, assessment practices, instructional strategies, and resources. One theme that emerged from analysis was that the concepts ELA teachers conceived for their unit plans varied in their source. Some ideas were derived from themes in texts, some concepts explored the artistry and craft within texts of various genre, and a third category of ideas went beyond texts to think critically and reflexively. The teachers’ interviews and planning documents also reflected the ways that they positioned texts in their courses: as a central object of study, as a marquee or headliner for a key idea, or simply as catalysts for students’ own lines of inquiry. PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA ii In addition to the nature of learning designs, the study also examined the experience of planning backwards with conceptual understanding in mind. Participants contended backward planning brought a sense of clarity, purposefulness, connectedness, and relevance to teaching and learning. Participants used innovative pedagogy, embedded formative assessment, developed authentic summative evaluation and offered student choice. Also, participants shared ideas about planning collaboratively, identifying necessary conditions for successful collaborative planning (flexibility, time, expertise, leadership, and norms and protocols for collaboration). The dissertation concludes with ideas for further research. PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA iii Acknowledgements I have so many people to thank for their love and support during my journey through graduate education. My family have been ever supportive. My wife, Lori Rudniski, deserves an award for her patience throughout my pacing and thinking aloud. My son and daughter, Zachary and Delaney, have encouraged their dad throughout. My own mom and dad, Pat Nickerson (BScN) and Clyde Nickerson (LLB), inspired me by being adult students themselves when I was a teen. Thanks, too, to my big sister, Kelly, for being at the end of the phone line. I am grateful to advisors, friends, colleagues and staff at the University of Manitoba. My advisors Stan Straw and Zana Lutfiyya have persisted through my struggle. Thank you to Karen E. Smith, David Watt, Dawn Wallin and Michelle Honeyford for the important guidance and feedback you provided as members of the committee. I feel a bond to our language and literacy cohort: Allyson Matczuk, Anita Ens, Karen Boyd, Michael O’Brien Moran, Karen Soiferman, and Helen Lepp Friesen. Thank you for all the conversation. Shelley Hasinoff deserves special mention as someone who gave me much appreciated feedback at a key moment along the way. Finally, I would like to thank Julianna Enns for being the smiling face of graduate study at the University of Manitoba whose organization and kindness kept me on track. Several colleagues in the field helped me directly. Damian Cooper and Leyton Schnellert, through their work, workshops, and conversations, were immensely supportive, and put me in contact with several study volunteers. To the Manitoba Rural Learning Consortium, including co-directors Eileen Sutherland and Lori Tighe, and the teachers I met in workshops, thank you for letting me try out ELA planning ideas. PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Background: Conceptual Understanding in the Context of ELA ........................... 3 Purpose of Study and Research Questions ........................................................... 26 Research Method .................................................................................................. 37 Definitions ............................................................................................................. 40 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................... 43 Teachers’ Relationship to Curriculum .................................................................. 44 Factors that Shape Curriculum ELA Teachers’ Designs ....................................... 50 Research on ELA Teacher Planning ..................................................................... 63 Research on Planning Backward .......................................................................... 67 A Close-up Examination of Planning for Conceptual Understanding in ELA ..... 72 Summary .............................................................................................................. 116 Chapter 3: Research Methods ................................................................................ 120 Restatement of Purpose ...................................................................................... 120 A Grounded Theory Approach to Inquiry ............................................................ 121 Positionality ..........................................................................................................127 Purposeful Participant Recruitment .................................................................... 131 Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 137 Data Analysis and Interpretation ....................................................................... 144 Chapter 4: (Re)Conceptualizing ELA ...................................................................... 151 Concepts in English Language Arts ..................................................................... 151 Procedural Understanding in ELA ..................................................................... 176 How Resources Were Positioned ........................................................................ 186 Patterns of Emphasis in (Re)Conceptualizing ELA ............................................ 193 Chapter 5: The Experience of Backward Design .................................................... 201 Benefits Experienced from Backward Planning ................................................. 201 Enabling and Inhibiting Factors for Backward Planning ................................... 231 Catalyst for Change ............................................................................................. 256 PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA v Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 259 Chapter 6: Conclusion ............................................................................................ 262 Planning ELA for Conceptual Understanding .................................................... 262 How Teachers Experienced Design Work .......................................................... 287 Implications for Further Research ..................................................................... 292 Appendix A: Interview Protocol ............................................................................. 298 References .............................................................................................................. 300 PLANNING FOR CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING IN ELA 1 Figures Figure 1. Four knowledge types in Anderson and Krathwohl (2001); Model created by Heer, Iowa State University (2015). Licensed under NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0. ........................ 8 Figure 2. Major types and subtypes of knowledge (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Heer, 2015). 75 Figure 3. SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs, 2016). Used with permission. ............................................ 94 Figure 4. Pattern 1: text-centred planning..................................................................................