UbDDI+Chapter+7+Block+1



Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms in Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding By Design talks about covering vs. uncovering the material. Uncovering the material is a better way for students to form their own opinions and truly understand the material. Considering essential questions will help point teachers to uncover the material. Essential questions are usually open-ended and cause the students to apply what they have learned rather than just spit back what they have remembered. Using the WHERETO acronym while planning instruction will help teach all students for understanding. We know these better know, but the parts of WHERETO are as follows (in a nice list for logical learners and easy to spot for visual learners): Most of my classmates covered the same material because it was a relatively short chapter. The WHERETO acronym seemed to help a lot of people as well as uncovering the material, not just covering it. One thing Emily said that rang true with my education was the MEA’s (Maine Educational Assessment) except hers was from Massachusetts. Teachers would teach to the test and not the material. My teachers said something like //when in doubt choose C// too.
 * 1) How will I help learners know **//what//** they will be learning; **//why//** this is worth learning; what evidence will show their learning?
 * 2) How will I **//hook//** and engage the learners?
 * 3) How will I **//equip//** students to master identified standards and succeed with the targeted performances; what learning **//experiences//** will help develop and deepen understanding of important ideas?
 * 4) How will I encourage the learners to **r//ethink//** previous learning; how will I encourage ongoing **//revision//** and **//refinement//**//?//
 * 5) How will I promote students’ self-**//evaluation//** and reflection?
 * 6) How will I **//tailor//** the learning activities and my teaching to address the different readiness levels, learning profiles, and interest of my students?
 * 7) How will the learning experiences be **//organized//** to maximize engaging and effective learning?

Chapter synthesized by Jordan Hale

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Understanding by Design: Chapter 7

A very important part of this chapter is how we can give kids an awareness of where knowledge comes from, and that they can change what we know about the world. Though facts are facts, sometimes what we believe to be written in stone is sometimes wrong. The authors counter another argument: that some students don’t even have the basic facts yet and so therefore can’t do any of the higher-order thinking. The authors instead insist that trying to learn “the facts” is an exercise in futility unless you can organize them. Students who are forced to just keep trying to learn decontextualized facts are compared to “benchwarmers”-kids who show up the practice and do the drills over and over again but never get a change to play the game. To give structure to all this, there is the WHERETO framework, which is composed of “What (or why), Hook (what will get the students’ attention), Equip, Rethink, Evaluation, Tailor (the curriculum), Organized.” This framework is key to integrating understanding by design with differentiated instruction. toc

Sam Leal
Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms

Chapter 7 of UbD brings up a very important part of teaching: the difference between deep understanding and “coverage-oriented” instruction. The book reveals the important concept of teachers teaching to “uncover the content. This means to look deeper, teach to understanding, and then students will be able to make applications of what they’ve learned. This is a difficult task for teachers because it seems so difficult to make it through an entire textbook in a year and the idea that they want to cover everything within that year. One thing we’ve talked about a lot in our class and is covered in this chapter of the book is using essential questions in teaching. An essential question is often open-ended and leads the thinker to continue to be creative and make applications of what he/she has learned. This is applying learning and deeper understanding.

The chapter provides many examples of basic essential questions for each different subject area. One example, “What is a number? Why do we have numbers? What if we didn’t have numbers?” Now that makes you think and look over what you know about numbers. Another important concept in the chapter is refreshing the importance of the six facets of understanding that was earlier learn about in chapter 3 and lastly the chapter introduces a new acronym for a teaching framework known as WHERETO.

Alex Randall
UbD/DI Chapter 7 "Coming to an understanding of 'big ideas' requires students to construct meaning for themselves" (108). This popped out to me because it made me think of how to help my students think in ways that can go deeper than most are expected to go. Within the first few pages, "using essential questions in teaching" comes up and continues to press the notion of teachers knowing what questions they want answered and to find ways to get their students to think in more meaningful ways so that they can arrive at these conclusions on their own. What I find interesting about this chapter is that there is a list of questions that invite deeper thinking about subjects in everything from arithmetic to writing. It gets kids brainstorming and sometimes our best and most productive thoughts come from just thinking. Even if we are thinking intensively about a subject that we are not needed to think about, by merely developing the skills to think deeply and analytically about something is a good trigger for higher thinking (which is what we want). The chapter goes on to discuss the Six Facets of Learning and then introduces the "WHERETO Framework" (What/Why, Hook, Equip/Experiences, Rethink/Revision/Refinement, Self-Evaluation, Tailor, and Organized) which is a list of design elements that help reach the goal of teaching all students to understand.

Cidney
Chapter 7 opens with the idea of “breadth versus depth” when teaching material, and criticizes the phrase “covering material” because it implies the opposite of what we are trying to do as teachers. We want to uncover the material, and foster understanding rather than simply get through what needs to be taught as quickly as we are able. Using essential questions in the classroom broadens the horizons of learning and promotes thinking deeply about profound questions related to content, which moves information from students’ short term memory to their long term memories. Also, the Six Facets (and Bloom’s Taxonomy) can be used as tool for teaching and fostering higher order thinking. Finally, the WHERETO Framework is introduced as a method for creating meaningful and engaging instruction.

Using essential questions in the classroom is, I think, an excellent strategy to promote higher order thinking in students, as well as give an overall theme for a class or lesson. In my classroom, I plan to begin each day with an essential question that relates to the content and prompts students to think about the content in a context that is meaningful. The WHERETO model is new to me, but I really like how the model gives an acronym to create meaningful and engaging lessons for students.

Elizabeth Sargent
UbD/DI Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms

Chapter 7 of //Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design// focuses on important practices that help each learner understand and master ideas being studied. It includes differentiated instruction, which includes multiple teacher approaches and support systems for a range of learners. It also focuses on the WHERETO guide that helps create lessons that will have a range of learners understand the big ideas in a variety of ways.

While reading the chapter I came across a graphic organizer that helps teachers brainstorm units. It uses the six facets as instructional tools. Therefore: application, explanation, interpretation, perspective, self-knowledge, and empathy are all used to hook, engage, and equip students in learning and then get them to rethink their ideas. As a teacher, not all these facets are used in a lesson. But looking at all six it is helpful to have an array of options to choose from. The most meaningful and engaging one should be the ones you choose. Facets don’t just help teachers get organized, the make different ways to stimulate students. I think using the facets is a great idea because not only do you get good hooks for your students, you engage them in critical thinking, and cause them to consider different points of view. Reflection is also an important part of the facets. The idea that you can get students to self-assess through the facets in your topic of choice helps students to rethink their ideas and conclusions, and gives them a better understanding on the topic based their personal experience.

Colby Hill
UbD chapter 7 Covering the content; it is nearly impossible to do this. At least, it’s what I have always heard when I was in high school, and it is what I hear now out of high school. However, Tomlinson and McTighe are right when they say that the word //cover// does convey a negative meaning. I could cover a subject by telling the class. There is no way a student will remember that later if it was a rushed afterthought. We must uncover the material! The whole WHERETO acronym and framework seems like it works wonderfully as soon as you memorize it. This framework has a lot of substance to it, so it as plenty to love and plenty to hate. The W emphasizes that the communication of goals should be clear and relevant. I like the W very well. There should never be a mystery to what will make the work they are about to do spectacular, great, good, or bad. The H is important too, even if it’s not the word I was expecting (hook). The only part about this that may be frustrating is the idea that some students may not be “hooked” no matter what you do if he or she hates the topic. The E has its pluses and true statements: “understanding cannot be simply transferred like a load of freight from one mind to another” (123). Hopefully, by the end of this book, equipping students with the tools to master will be a piece of cake. The R brings the idea of what happens //after// the lesson (refinement, rethink, revision) and seems to be an overlooked step on the ladder. E is evaluation. This was always iffy for me. Yes I think students should always have self-evaluation, but some won’t care about it and just write off a good grade for themselves. The T (tailoring) is all about the differentiated part and the O is organization.

Jordan Hale
The learner should be at forefront of the teachers mind when creating //all// of their plans. Teachers must make sure to not cover the content, but uncover the material. Teachers should be giving the students direction to explore and learn for themselves. By teaching for understanding, uncovering the material will be step number one in the planning process. Essential questions teacher use in the planning stages of their lessons should be used every day in that lesson. The questions should help think about the topic in a deeper light. An example the book used was about a lesson involving learning the three branches of government. Instead of presenting them with the three branches and testing them, you could ask how might a country keep country leaders form abusing their powers? (111). That question gets kids thinking about the three branches without them even knowing it! Thinking about diverse learners and how to help uncover material rather than cover it is an important skill to master as a teacher. Connecting material and getting students to really dive into the material and lesson is a skill learned over time through experiences, but learning this now will certainly point me in the right direction. One technique to deepen student thinking I liked was to ask for summaries periodically. Having a student compile a step-by-step list in their head of what you just taught them is important to make sure they are on the right track. It is a good way to hear how the student is thinking to correct any mistakes early and help other students see mistakes that they might make.

Karina Sprague
I am occasionally a vision learner and I think that is going to help me remember this chapter. As soon as I started reading, all I could think of was the comment that someone made at the beginning of the course: “A mile wide and an inch deep”. I really liked that symbolism because it seemed to explain what a lot of teachers do. Since the school year is so short, teachers tend to cram everything into one year. This usually leads to rushed lessons and brief learning periods. It is impossible to cover everything you want your students to know in one year. In result, if you teach something for only one class period, if not less, students will most likely forget the information because it does not seem important. The book suggested to get the main idea’s that cover almost everything you want to teach. If you do this, you will be teaching the most important things, and in turn your students will probably learn about the little things on the way. I liked the idea of “uncovering” the information and the “WHERETO” acronym, too. It helped me visually because I picture a whole that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Inside that whole is a treasure chest filled with the best treasure. Students have to find and dig up the treasure using a map (The “WHERETO” part of it, because a map tells you “where-to go”). This visual will help me remember that I want my students to find a treasure, not just dig a hole.

Emily Haskell
Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms

One of the first things the authors make sure to say at the beginning of this chapter is that understanding must be learned. It is very easy for a student to memorize facts for a quiz or test and any kind of skill can be strengthened and refined with enough drill and practice. However, you can’t teach a person to understand something. You can push them along, ask them questions, and give them all of the skills they could ever need. However, it is ultimately up to the student to really understand something.

I think one of the things that I really want to be able to do as a teacher is to help kids to understand all kinds of literary concepts, perhaps even those that go beyond the classroom. I know that in my high school we never really learned anything. Our teachers were supposed to get us ready for MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System). So we were taught all kinds of vocabulary words and were made to memorize useful equations. Some teachers even went to the extent of teaching us things like “when in doubt choose C.” We never really understood a lot of the material and I would have liked to see how much we would have learned if the teachers took the time to help us understand the material.

This idea plays into another part of the chapter that I liked. It suggested that teachers were not there to simply give the answers, they were meant to ask probing questions and facilitate discussion in appropriate situations. If this were to happen I truly believe that it would be much easier for student to understand concepts.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter 7 of UbD/DI is all about how to teach for understanding in students. It starts off by saying that simply presenting the students with the information is dry, dull, and won’t make them understand the questions we want them to know the answers to. Instead of just handing them the information, as teachers we should make them think about reasons for why things are the way they are by asking them essential questions to incite some response. The acronym WHERETO introduced towards the end of the chapter is a powerful tool that I plan on using in my classroom. These 7 questions I feel can definitely help me when I go to decide what’s important to teach my students and how I plan on teaching it to them. For me it is also important that I include real word examples for my students to connect to during instruction.