UbDDI+B2+Chapter+7

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Abstract
This chapter discusses the difficult task of teaching for understanding in academically diverse classrooms. Tomlinson and MicTghe suggest important principles and practices that will help teachers accomplish teaching for understanding. The first practice that they suggest is using the essential questions to “uncover the content.” Recall that essential questions were identified in Stage 1 of the unit design, Tomlinson and McTiqhe suggest that now in Stage 3, essential questions can “serve as doorways to understanding” (p. 112). The second practice that Tomlinson and McTighe outline is using the six facets of understanding as instructional tools. The facets can be used to generate different ways in which the students can show their understanding. Tomlinson and McTighe also caution teachers who use the ‘ladder” metaphor of learning. Students do not necessarily need to know the basics before they take the next step. Finally, the WHERETO framework brings it altogether. The WHERETO framework is an acronym of principles designed to make sure that the teacher considers the learner whenever he or she makes a plan for learning.

[|Synthesis Ryan Snowman]
All of the blogs seem to recognize that teaching for understanding is an extremely important part of a teacher’s job, and almost every blogger stressed the importance of the WHERETO framework. Using essential questions as “doorways to understanding” is an effective way to teach for understanding, but the WHERETO framework pulls it all together. What is great about the WHERETO framework is that is keeps the student’s central to the learning plan, which can be difficult for some teacher’s to do. It also targets academically diverse classrooms. Bloggers also liked using the [|facets of understanding] as a way to launch lesson plans. An interesting theme for these blog entries was that a couple of bloggers had bad experiences of teachers who did not teach for [|understanding]. Maybe if they would have used essential questions, the facets of understanding, and the WHERETO framework, their teachers would have taught for understanding.

Kirsten This chapter talks about the idea of "uncovering" content rather than just skimming through and feeling the pressure to finish a textbook. The goal is to basically get your students to think more deeply about the content they're dealing with, rather than memorizing it for a test and then figuratively tossing it out. The book gives examples of essetial questions you can use to get students thinking about their work. I thought it was great the book said the "ladder" is a flawed metaphore. If teachers alwasy abide by this, so many students, even those who are considered to be good ones, will remain stagnant and never move beyond the basics and lose all enthusiasm for learning. I also liked the idea of the WHERETO format, but I felt like there was sooo much information to digest. I think I'll have to work with it in order to understand it more throughly.

Jordan In the chapter “Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms”, Tomlinson and McTighe address how teaching for understanding and the demands that need to be meet in order achieve this goal successfully. First and foremost, it is important that teachers work towards “uncovering” the big ideas in a unit, not just skimming over them. Essential questions become key in reminding the students what information is important and necessary to remember. The six facets of understanding and application of skill (avoiding the laddering technique) assist students and teachers in creating a deeper learning experience. The WHERETO framework, the most important part of this chapter, provides a plan for teachers to incorporate techniques in a way that creates for an authentic learning experience. Using all of the methods in conjunction creates an environment where students are aware of their expectations. I feel that I would have gained a greater learning outcome if teachers were more concerned with authentic learning. This will affect my classroom because working with skills before mastering them creates for a more authentic learning experience: something I want to give my students.

Leah
Students come to true understanding by "constructing meaning for themselves." That's why differentiation is so important, or else the title of this book would be called Understanding by Standing at the Front of the Class and Talking. One way to illustrate how students can construct meaning is to present material in a question and answer format, as opposed to the content representing the answers. Essential questions are a good way for students to get an inkling of the big ideas of a unit and to think more in depth about a topic. WHERETO framework gives teachers a set of questions similar to the one's that should be presented to students. These questions should help teachers create lesson plans that stick with the goals in stage one, but that also connect to the real world and give students a chance to construct meaning. I want my students to get the most out of their learning experience and to set up an authentic environment with the WHERETO model and the Essential questions.

Mykayla
Chapter seven was mostly devoted to ways to get students to understand the “big ideas.” “A certain portion is visible about the surface of the water, but we cannot fully comprehend the iceberg without going below” (pg 110 Tomlinson and McTighe). Teaching is all about getting students to acquire a complete understanding of the topic that one is teaching. One of the most beneficial ways to accomplish this is to ask essential questions. With these inquiries, students themselves can try to discover the answer and learn more in the process. It also enables the learner to ask his or her own questions without feeling like he or she doesn’t understand. The issue I have with this technique is what questions to use for my class in order to capture their attention so that they want to learn and ask their own questions.

Ryan Snowman
This chapter discusses teaching for understanding in academically diverse classrooms. Teaching for understanding is a difficult task. The essential questions that we made in Stage 1 come into play at this point. Tomlinson and McTighe write that “Essential questions serve as doorways to understandings” (p. 112). This means that we can use the essential questions to try and foster deeper understandings within students. The big idea to this chapter, however, was the introduction and explanation of the WHERETO framework. The WHERETO framework is an acronym that provides teachers with a plan to teach for understanding. The WHERETO principles reflect effective teaching methods for teachers who want to teach for understanding. I think it is very important to institute the WHERETO principles into the lessons that I design. Using essential questions and the WHERETO framework will help me become a teacher that teaches for understanding.

Brittany
A big mistake that many teachers make is “covering” the material. When teachers use this method, they are not actually teaching for the students, they are teaching to the students. This results in a much lower retention of the material. To help relay the information to the students, the teacher can use the essential questions for each unit as the framework for the lessons. These questions are broad so that there are many different paths that a class of students can take to learn different aspects of the topic. By letting the students get actively involved in the learning of the material, there is a greater chance that they will be engaged and want to learn. As a teacher, I want to be able to guide my students through lessons that allow them to discover the information on their own. Through this form of active learning, I feel that my students will have a better grasp on the information because they did not just learn it they discovered it.

Corinne
Chapter seven is helpful in discussing how to cover the content with limited time in the classroom. I like the method outlined in this chapter about using essential questions. I will use essential questions in my classroom as part of the introduction to the unit. Essential questions give meaning to each lesson because it gives the students the answer to where their learning will end up, and also gives teachers a a place to refer back to, in order to keep each lesson on track and stick to the big idea. The essential question in this idea is constantly repeated to frame the lessons, so students can relate one lesson the the others in the unit. I really took to the idea of using a series of lessons with in one big idea (the unit).

Jennie
In this chapter, the authors discuss teaching techniques. Two of the techniques they talk about are using the six facets to teach your lesson and using WHERETO to teach. The six facets are application, expectation, empathy, self knowledge, perspective, interpretation. Using these abilities, we can create lessons and assessment that gear towards getting students to understand a main idea. WHERETO was created for teachers to get into the learner's head. The questions that go along with each letter help us keep the learner in mind.

Scott
Chapter seven tells us how to make sure that we are teaching for understanding (something that students should remember for the rest of our lives) instead of memorizing (which may or may not be remembered for more than a week). Many of us experienced the "covering" though process, "we really need to cover chapter 4," or "we've finished covering that so it's time to move on." The key is to uncover material, and go in depth. As we've learned in class, we need to identify essential questions that we want students to be able to answer at the end of a unit. The book offered an acronym to keep in mind when planning what we are going to teach. A theme that was present in this chapter, that I've noticed in most other chapters is that students constantly need to be able to identify how content relates to them personally.

Ryan
Chapter seven seems to be preaching something that I have heard all the way through school and that is to learn for understanding, instead of memorizing information for a test. In order to make sure students are learning for understanding teachers need to look for essential questions that way we allow the students to know what we are going to want them to learn. Also in this chapter the WHERETO framework was discussed. This acronym stands for what, hook, equip, rethink, evaluation, tailor, and organized. This helps with planning what will be taught. As a teacher I will try and make sure my students understand the information instead of just memorizing.

Drew
Chapter seven has a strong definition between the difference of covering material and teaching material. When you cover, you are teaching to the students, as opposed to teaching for the students. This is not the goal of an educator. The goal is the retention of the information, not bits and pieces based on the "covering" method of educating. Another huge part of this chapter is a discussion on the WHERETO model. As I briefed myself on this framework I began to become rather consumed. I always reference back to the way I learned, and educators never really used these things in my classroom. Naturally, I tend to stray from all this new stuff. However, the WHERETO framework seems to make a lot of sense in terms of cognitive psychology in reference to students. If you can follow this framework, I think your students will take a certain level of appreciation for what they are taking in and, therefore, learn the material.

Cara
This chapter really emphasizes that it is bad to simply cover material when teaching a unit. This is why a teacher must think of essential questions when they plan out a lesson. I think this is a good organizational strategy for building a course. When you are required to think of specific questions that you would like students to answer, the course will be more organized since the main ideas are right in front of you. I think the devil's advocate follow-up strategy will be one that I use often because I have a challenging personality. I like to hear the reasoning behind the answers a person gives me. The chapter gave a little more background on the facets, which helped me to remember them all a little more clearly.

Sarah
Chapter Seven explored the realm of teaching curriculum and methods for deciding what to teach. The model this chapter primarily preached was the WHERETO method in which teachers can narrow their teaching to a customized fit for the class. This is accomplished by addressing each aspect of the WHERETO acronym; the what/why, the hook/engagement, the equip/experiences, the rethink/revision, the evaluation (student self-evaluation), the tailor (to address the different “readiness” of individuals), and the organization of the lesson. I feel as though examining curriculum through this lens will enable me to create engaging and differentiated lessons that surpass the linear approach my former teachers have exhibited.

Tim
Chapter seven of UbD/DI is mostly talking about teaching to understand in a classroom setting with a multitude of differentiated learners. I had many teachers in the past who would just teach the subject while not offering the students in the class to ask questions or discuss the lesson; these teachers were just “covering” the content. This in part prevents a student from truly grasping the knowledge and understanding what the unit is going over. Tomlinson and McTighe focused a good deal of this chapter on three different instructional approaches to help develop a student’s understanding of important ideas. (Essential questions, the six facets of teaching, and the WHERETO framework). McTight and Tomlinson write about using the essential questions to help bring content to life within a lesson. They use the example of presenting the U.S. and teaching the three branches of the government. Instead of lecturing about such a dry subject, teachers can ask essential questions to help stimulate and provoke thought within a student as well as helping the student grasp the curriculum. The chapter also incorporates the WHERETO framework to the reader. The WHERETO format is used as a teaching guide to help design instructions and lessons that will be “teaching all students for understanding.” (P. 120). This chapter helped gave me more insight into teaching differentiated learners and how to teach to understand in the classroom.

Rachel
Sometimes it seems like my teachers aren’t trying to help me understand the information that they are teaching. Instead, it seems like they are skimming the information because they have to cover it. So many times I’ve sat in class, unsure what my teacher is talking about, and then trying to memorize facts to my short-term memory the night before or even the day of the test. This chapter did help me understand the difficulties with teaching, such as time constraints and having to meet standards. Chapter seven also discussed using essential questions. This stuck out to me because we have spent so much time talking about them in class. I think the essential questions are very important because they create connections between the different lessons within the unit.

Jordan
=== Classrooms”, Tomlinson and McTighe address how teaching for understanding and the demands that need to be meet in order achieve this goal successfully. First and foremost, it is important that teachers work towards “uncovering” the big ideas in a unit, not just skimming over them. Essential questions become key in reminding the students what information is important and necessary to remember. The six facets of understanding and application of skill (avoiding the laddering technique) assist students and teachers in creating a deeper learning experience. The WHERETO framework, the most important part of this chapter, provides a plan for teachers to incorporate techniques in a way that creates for an authentic learning experience. Using all of the methods in conjunction creates an environment where students are aware of their expectations. I feel that I would have gained a greater learning outcome if teachers were more concerned with authentic learning. This will affect my classroom because working with skills before mastering them creates for a more authentic learning experience: something I want to give my students. === === ===

