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Session #6
•Final Discussion of Interview Analysis
•Is Everything Worth Understanding?
•Selecting an essential understanding for unitdesign.
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Any complex unit of study will involvemany targets:
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Habits of Mind
Understanding
Which conceptrequiresunderstanding?
Is Everything Worth Understanding?
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What is worthy ofunderstanding?
Establishing
Curricular Priorities
Worth being
familiar with
Important to
know and do
“Enduring”
understanding
Is Everything Worth Understanding?
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The need to understand is heightenedwhen something is counterintuitive.
2 x 3 = a larger number
but
½ x ½ = a smaller number
How can this be?
Is Everything Worth Understanding?
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Acceleration candecrease at thesame time velocityincreases.
How is this possible?
Is Everything Worth Understanding?
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Is Everything Worth Understanding?
Material worth understanding:
•is enduring
•is at the heart of the discipline
•needs careful uncoverage
•is potentially engaging
Do standards help us identify conceptsworth understanding? Yes and No
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Is Everything Worth Understanding?
Material worth understanding:
•is enduring
•is at the heart of the discipline
•needs careful uncoverage
•is potentially engaging
Do standards help us identify conceptsworth understanding? Yes and No
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Filters for selecting enduringunderstandings?
Represent a big idea having enduring value beyond theclassroom.
Resides at the heart of the discipline
(involves doing the subject).
Requires uncoverage of abstract
or counterintuitive ideas.
Offers potential for
engaging students.
Enduring Understanding
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- symbolizes achievementin several domains and isrevealed through diverseperformances andproducts.
- is not immediate, not youget it or you don’t, but amatter of degree.
- implies the ability toescape from a naïve orinexperienced point ofview.
- includes an ability totransfer the information tonew contexts.
Enduring Understanding
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A Doorway to Understanding
After we identify the enduring understandingswhat do we do next?
Ask Questions!
Organizing a unit around questions providesfocus and direction.
Questions demand more than a collection ofactivities.
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A Doorway to Understanding
•How have planting, growing, and harvest seasonsaffected life in the United States over the years?
•How have children’s roles at harvest time changed?
•Do we still need to close schools for nearly threemonths in the summer?
What key questions could frame a unit onapples?
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A Doorway to Understanding
•How do geography and climate affect the growthof apples?
•Why is apple growing well suited to our region?
•What other regions support apple growing?
•Who was the real JohnnyAppleseed, and were there others?
•Will an apple a day keep the doctoraway?
•Compared to other foods, how goodfor you are apples?
•Can today’s apple farmers surviveeconomically?
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Weaknesses in a Conventional UnitDesigns
Read and analyze vignette 1
Will this unit lead to understanding. If not,what is wrong with the units design?
Hands-on not minds on
No clear priorities
Participation in fun activities is the only goal
Activity-oriented approach assumes learning byosmosis.
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Weaknesses in a Conventional UnitDesigns
Read and analyze vignette 2
Will this unit lead to understanding. If not,what is wrong with the unit?
Hurried march through the topic
No consideration for understanding or application
What information is most important?
Coverage approach = teaching by mentioning it.
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A Doorway to Understanding
Whatever the questions are, by asking questionsa unit becomes more coherent and the students’role become appropriately intellectual.
Important ideas must be questioned and verifiedif they are to be understood.
By framing our teaching around questions andworthy performances we can overcome activity-based and coverage oriented instruction.
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A Doorway to Understanding
The best questions have another virtue. Theyallow us to judge our progress?
For example: From our work so far, what do weknow about the influence of apples on theeconomy of our region?
Student’s answers tell us a lot about theeffectiveness of our activities.
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Will Any Old Questions Work?
Start with a Jeopardyapproach?
View the textbook as acollection of Jeopardyanswers. What are thequestions for which thetextbook provides thoseanswers?
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Will Any Old Questions Work?
Ask questions that cannot be answered in oneword or even one sentence.
•How do we knowthere enough(food, air, water,fuel) for everyone?
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Will Any Old Questions Work?
•Can a machine be made toovercome gravity?
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Will Any Old Questions Work?
•How close can you come to producing aperpetual motion machine?
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Essential Questions…
……..go to the heart of the discipline.
……..recur naturally.
……..raise other important questions.
……..have no obvious right answer.
……..are deliberately framed to provoke andsustain student interest.
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Essential Questions…
are deliberately framed to provoke and sustainstudent interest.
What are the chances of someone gettingpregnant after one episode of unprotected sex?
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Essential Questions – Concept Attainment
Examine the following examples and non-examples to determine the commoncharacteristics of Essential Questions.
1.How are “form” and “function” related in biology?
2.How many legs does a spider have?
3.How does an elephant use its trunk?
4.What is the original meaning of the term, technology(from its Greek root, “techne”)?
5.Who “wins” and who “loses” when technologieschange?
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Essential Questions – Quiz yourself
Examine these six questions and tell whetheror not each is an essential question.
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Essential Questions – Quiz yourself
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Essential Questions
Questions not only focuslearning… they make allsubject knowledge possible.
If students are tounderstand… they need torecreate some of the inquiryby which the knowledge wascreated.
Wiggins and McTighe, p. 33. UbD, 1998
Nicholas Copernicus
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Learning Standards
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How do standards help?
In what ways do science learning standardshelp us as teachers?
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How do standards hurt?
The Overload Problem
250 individual content standards and 3,968benchmarks
3,968 x 30 minutes per benchmark = 59,520 hours
15,465 hours (9 school years) more than we nowhave
The Goldilocks Problem
The Ambiguity Problem
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How do standards hurt?
The Overload Problem
250 individual content standards and 3,968benchmarks
3,968 x 30 minutes per benchmark = 59,520 hours
15,465 hours (9 school years) more than we nowhave
The Goldilocks Problem – too big, too small, just right
The Ambiguity Problem – too open to interpretation
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How do standards hurt?
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Working with the Standards
Select a topic that you will be covering duringthe 3rd advisory.
Prioritize the concepts.
Worth being
familiar with
Important to
know and do
“Enduring”
understanding
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What makes a good unit
•The most important ideas (those worthunderstanding) are clearly identified.
•Essential questions are asked and ideas arelinked in logical ways.
•Students have clear performance targets—they know what they have to do todemonstrate their understanding.
•Both teacher and students know whatevidence is required to demonstrateunderstanding.
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Develop Your Own!
Write three essential questions that require theenduring understand that you identified for yourunit.
•You may work together.
•After 15 minutes you will report:
the enduring understanding(s) for yourunit
three essential questions