The Teaching for Understanding Guide - by Tina Blythe (Paperback)

About the Book

Companion guide to: Teaching for understanding / Martha Stone Wiske, editor. 1998.

Book Synopsis

"This handbook will both encourage and assist those teachers whotake on the important challenge of helping their students to thinkdeeply and resourcefully and to use that intellectual powerconstructively."
--Theodore R. Sizer, chairman, Coalition of Essential Schools

Walks teachers through the "teaching for understanding" process.The authors offer classroom examples, practical tips, andworksheets to help clarify the process. They also show how toselect engaging and appropriate topics, set coherent unit andcourse goals, create dynamic learning activities, improve studentperformance through continual feedback, and more.

From the Back Cover

The Teaching for Understanding Guide

What does it mean to understand something? How do students develop understanding? How can teachers know how well they understand and support the development of understanding?

The Teaching for Understanding Guide describes an approach to teaching that requires students to think, analyze, problem solve, and make meaning of what they've learned. Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with Practice introduced the approach and the research that supports it. Now this companion guide shows teachers how to use the four critical components of the Teaching for Understanding Framework. Based on extensive research conducted by Project Zero and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, The Teaching for Understanding Guide offers teachers a practical way to apply the concepts of the Teaching for Understanding Framework--both in the classroom and in curriculum planning.

Using classroom examples from science, mathematics, language arts, and social sciences, and reflecting the input of practicing teachers, the guide shows how teachers can

• Choose topics that engage student interest and connect readily to other subjects
• Set coherent unit and course goals
• Create activities that develop and demonstrate students' understanding
• Improve student performance by providing continual feedback

Brief case studies of teachers using this approach illustrate the process in action. Simple planning sheets and teaching units make this guide a useful resource for developing curriculum. Reflection sections at the end of each chapter suggest related activities, issues, and questions to facilitate further exploration of the chapter's ideas. The challenging process of rethinking classroom practice can lead to a new level of student understanding and learning. This how-to guide gives teachers the practical tools for making understanding more achievable in the classroom.

"A Baedeker's Guide to learning to understand--the ability to know and resourcefully use that knowing--and to teaching toward that goal. . . . This handbook will both encourage and assist those teachers who take on the important challenge of helping their students to think deeply and resourcefully and to use that intellectual power constructively."
--THEODORE R. SIZER, CHAIRMAN COALITION OF ESSENTIAL SCHOOLS

"In exploring the process of teaching for understanding as teachers practice it, this book succeeds, as few do, in providing different ways of entering a teacher's world. Building on teachers' 'inside knowledge, ' the authors engage, provoke and coach--in just the right ways--so that I, as a teacher, excited by these new ideas, want the semester to begin tomorrow!"
--ANN LIEBERMAN, TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

"This guide offers complex ideas and sophisticated strategies in a style that is both readily understandable and full of implications and directions for classroom use. Teachers and administrators will benefit from this thoughtful work!"
--THOMAS R. HOERR, DIRECTOR OF THE NEW CITY SCHOOL, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI

"Teaching that has understanding at its heart needs a powerful structure that nurtures thinking, personal engagement, and meaningful encounters with curriculum. In our efforts to make teaching meaningful and learning matter, the Teaching for Understanding Framework has been an invaluable resource."
--SUSAN ELHARDT AND RICHARD WALKER, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND ADJUNCT PROFESSORS THROUGH SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

Review Quotes

"A Baedeker's Guide to learning to understand--the ability to knowand resourcefully use that knowing--and to teaching toward thatgoal.... This handbook will both encourage and assist thoseteachers who take on the important challenge of helping theirstudents to think deeply and resourcefully and to use thatintellectual power constructively." --Theodore R. Sizer, chairman, Coalition of Essential Schools

"In exploring the process of teaching for understanding as teacherspractice it, this monograph succeeds, as few do, in providingdifferent ways of entering a teachers world. Building on teachers''inside knowledge, ' the authors engage, provoke and coach-in justthe right ways-so that I, as a teacher, excited by these new ideas, want the semester to begin tomorrow!" --Ann Lieberman, TeachersCollege, Columbia University

"This handbook is a Baedeker's Guide to learning to understand--theability to know and resourcefully to use that knowing--and toteaching toward that goal. The text is a readable, comprehensivemixture of argument, explanation, direction and example. The And of'deep understanding' is a complex idea and in many schools alamentably unfamiliar one. While never trivializing the subtlety ofthe task, this handbook will both encourage and assist thoseteachers who take on the important challenge of helping theirstudents to think deeply and resourcefully and to use thatintellectual power constructively." --Theodore R. Sizer, Chairman

"The Team at Harvard Project Zero has approached the search for[ital]understanding, using skills and knowledge, from an incrediblypragmatic perspective. They offer complex ideas and sophisticatedstrategies in a style that is both readily understandable and fullof implications and directions for classroom use. Teachers andadministrators will benefit from this thoughtful work!" --Thomas R.Hoerr, director of the New City School in St. Louis, MO

"Teaching that has understanding at its heart needs a powerfulstructure that nurtures thinking, personal engagement andmeaningful encounters with curriculum. In our efforts to maketeaching meaningful and learning matter, the Teaching forUnderstanding framework has been an invaluable resource." --SusanElhardt and Richard Walker, adjunct professors through SeattlePacific University

About the Author

THE AUTHOR

A former middle and high school teacher, Tina Blythe is a researcher for Project Zero at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.