UbDDI+B2+Chapter+7

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Lauren Scheidegger
Chapter seven of “Integrating Differentiated Instruction + Understanding by Design” by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay MicTighe goes into teaching a diverse classroom. Asking the correct questions is very important when teaching. Students should “uncover” content so they can get a glimpse into the origin and meaning of what they’re learning. Open ended questions can be used as a starting point for student exploration. Students can discover big ideas and concepts. Asking less narrow questions and using more broad questions allow students to develop their understanding. As students gain understanding their answers to deep questions will become more thorough and contain more evidence. I believe questions can be a powerful tool in the classroom. I hope to perfect the art of asking the right questions to help make my future classrooms full of understanding.

The chapter also went over the “WHERETO” framework. The “W” is to remind teachers to think of WHAT students will be learning, WHY? And WHAT will the evidence be? The “H” is for the HOOK of the lesson and gaining the students attention. The “E” is for EQUIPPING students and EXPERIENCE. The “R” is for REVISION and REFINEMENT. The next “E” is for EVALUATION. The “T” is for TAILORING your lesson to fit your students. Finally the “O” is for being ORGANIZED. The WHERETO model is full of very important lessons that teachers should keep in mind. I plan to incorporate it into my classroom to help ensure student growth.

Kevin Lind
The main idea in this chapter is that students must be able to fully understand ideas, rather than just memorize facts. The easiest way to make sure students fully understand concepts is to make meaning of it. Students should know real world applications for the information they’re learning. Essential questions are question that cover the entire main idea of a unit. These are important because they can be framed in a way that makes real world connections. These are incredibly helpful tools that I will most likely implement while I am teaching.

The six facets of understanding, which we have already talked about, can be used in a similar way. The many verbs connected to each of the facets can easily be used to assess the information that students have processed. Each of the six facets targets a different way for students to understand the information, so they make it possible for students to use any of their multiple intelligences. I think that I will be using the six facets with my lessons on a regular basis.

The WHERETO acronym is used to plan lessons that will engage students and help them understand. Each aspect of WHERETO is constructed to make teachers think about how their lesson will make their students understand information. It works similarly to a rubric by letting teachers see what they have missed in their lesson and how they can add to it. This model seems like a good idea, since it essentially requires teachers to look at their own lessons from the point of view of their students.

Lauren Breton
Throughout this chapter of the text, the emphasis was placed on how to teach students for their understanding. One of the aspects of the text that I found particularly interesting was the section entitled “A Reminder: The ‘Ladder’ Is a Flawed Metaphor for Learning”. For me, logically, it seemed important for students to have all of the basics and then proceed on toward more complex and challenging work. In this section, however, it made me realize that this is not how life works. I came to this realization through the following comparison; “Just as toddlers do not wait to master the rules of grammar before they begin speaking, neither must any school-age learners fully master the fundamentals before attempting to use them,” (p. 119).

After that way of looking at the idea of mastering all of the basics before applying them, I realized that I, too, had been a subscriber to the idea of the “Ladder” of knowledge. This chapter helped me to realize that basic skills can be applied before they are fully mastered by students and that by not allowing those students to apply their semi-mastered skills is to limit their education. If they are unable to see the application for such skills, for instance, how would I be able to expect them to know that they are worth mastering? After reading this chapter, my classroom will be a place where the basics are mastered, but students who are having difficulty with learning the basics will not be limited. My students will certainly practice the basics until they are mastered, but they will also try and apply them to better understand why they are learning the basics and, hopefully, this application will also help them to learn the basics themselves.

Megan Millette
In this chapter, Tomlinson and McTighe show you many techniques for teaching and understanding in a diverse classroom. One of the methods they describe is the thought of understanding the big idea and how this involves students constructing meaning for themselves. They discuss how students must think, question, apply, rethink, and reflect on these big ideas to come up with a comprehension of information brought forward in the class. However, students can only do so when they have teachers pushing them and stimulating the students to discuss and look deeper into basic thoughts. The chapter then goes on to discuss the idea of uncovering which kind of goes with the thoughts before. This challenged me to think that as a teacher I must help students uncover content that can be found below the surface of basic understandings, questions, and skills. This means that I must use teaching methods I learn that go in depth and encourage students to want to study the context. The text then discusses essential questions and how they are good to get one’s students to think and respond. As teachers we can use essential questions to acquire a better grasp on what our students know. It can also be revisited later to see the information students obtained through the lesson. The questions can easily relate to students’ lives and can be very helpful; therefore, essential questions are proficient for the classroom. Tomlinson and McTighe spent the rest of the chapter discussing the WHERETO framework and how it works. This is a beneficial system to use to help guide a series of lessons in the classroom. It gives you an idea of questions to ask and answer while working with students. These techniques in turn will help better the class as a whole.

Rachel Joiner
One thing I learned from this chapter was it is important for teachers to “uncover” content. This chapter offers idea on how to handle “uncovering” the content. Instead of simply lecturing or giving dry facts to the students, the teacher poses questions that force the students to think. Once they have answered the questions they can make the connection to the content, and realize the reasons for the content and not just memorize facts. As a teacher, I found this to be a neat idea. I think that by doing this students will find learning more exciting. I think this could be fun, as well as help them learn more information. I did not have many teachers that had done this for me, and I think if they would have, we would have learned more from their classes. I loved the idea the chapter brought up of using essential understandings as a pre-assessment in a way. The chapter describes to give students an essential question at the beginning of a unit, and this will show what they know already. By doing this the teacher can find out what information needs to be targeted. The same essential question could be asked again during the middle of the unit, to show how much students have progressed, and at the end of the unit, they could see the same question and give a proper response full of understanding. I thought this was a great idea as a teacher, because this would really help in a classroom. I think it is a great idea, because then students are working with this essential question throughout the unit, so they know what they are aiming for, and what they are ultimately going to understand. I thought this was a great idea and would love to use this in my classroom.

T.J. Hebert
Most teachers will agree that covering all content areas is extremely challenging due to pressure of the standards and time restraints. It is even more difficult to “uncover” all content areas in the classroom, although that is the ultimate goal. Finding ways for students to understand the big ideas and be able to apply them to real world. One way to uncover the content is to use it as answers to the essential questions that were developed as part of the backward design for unit development. The questions should be left open ended to allow broad understanding instead of a narrow scope with one answer. Another way is to use the six facets of understanding as an instructional tool for generating learning activities. The chart that provides examples of action verbs to describe each facet can help the students understand the facets more in depth and relate to it. It can help students become interested in a topic, engage them in higher-order thinking and opens them up to other points of view. It can also help the teacher discover different learning styles of the students. Once it is all pulled together it represents the WHERETO principles: What and Why, Hook, Equip and Experiences, Re-Think, Revision and Refinement, Evaluation (self), Tailor, and Organized.

I really like the WHERETO principles, it does a great job of breaking everything down for a teacher and can help build an effective curriculum. There are so many factors involved when teaching content to students that teachers must remember and by summing it up with an acronym can be very helpful. It is much easier for me to remember by having the framework put into an acronym. I am very used to acronyms from being in the Navy for so long, so I find them very useful. I am quite sure that I will refer to this acronym many times in the future.

**Samy Tracy **
A very important piece of this chapter is the fact that the authors address how teachers actually teach and how they should teach. They explain that many teachers rush to just cover subjects because it is required of them, they do not go into depth about the importance or try to have their students fully grasp the concept. Teachers who uncover content are helping the students understand rather than just drill ideas into their heads that they will forget by the end of the semester. To get students to fully understand a subject, educators need to use essential questions, which are asked more than once. These questions help frame the subject and also act as assessments of sorts for the students. They can be formative and pre-assessments for students which are also helpful for students’ education as noted in previous chapters.  Another important aspect that I thought was intriguing was the WHERETO framework. This provides a blueprint to help design lesson plans and figure out what to include in the unit. This stands for “**What** will they be learning?” “How will I **hook** and engage the learners?” “How will I **equip** students to master identified standards and succeed with the targeted performances” “How will I encourage the learners to **rethink** previous learning?” “How will I promote students’ self-**evaluation** and reflection?” “The importance of **tailoring** teaching so as to address differences in students’ identified needs and strengths” and finally, “ How will the learning experiences be **organized** to maximize engaging and effective learning?” These questions are mostly frames of what we have learned thus far when it comes to teaching, designing lesson plans, framing a unit, and so forth. This really puts everything into one and was helpful to show how everything connects to one another well, while they are also separate categories in each other.

Alyssa Amari
Chapter seven of Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction discusses the fact that most learning is composed of memorizing facts through drill and practice. However, the best learning comes from the students themselves, when they are able take something they have been taught and construct a meaning for themselves, and that is true understanding. For students to be able to understand, they need to know exactly what they need to know. This is done through framing the content, so that students know what they must learn in relations to the contents essential questions. Essential questions are deigned to create an openness that “invites all learners to think and respond” (114). In using essential questions, teacher should remember less is more when deciding how many essential questions for each unit, students need to understand key vocabulary in relation to the questions, use kid language, have students personalize the questions, post the questions in the classroom, and use follow up strategies to deepen student understanding. Another useful tool for teaching for understanding is using the six facets of understanding to “hook” your students around a topic. The facets create more opportunities for teaching and allowing students to explore content more widely. The WHERETO framework is also helpful in developing a plan for learning, each letter stands for a step in developing the plan: W for what they will learn, what evidence is need to show the learning, and why is this worth learning, H for hooking and engaging learners, E for equipping students to master the standards, R for rethinking, revising, and refining previous learning, E for self evaluation, T for tailoring the learning activities and teaching to address readiness, and O for how the learning will be organized. It is a much different concept to learn than it is to understand. Understanding cannot be fostered on its own, it must be guided by my teaching. The WHERETO framework is a method I would like to use when developing my plan for student learning. I think that it will benefit all of my students because it will be geared towards increasing their understanding, not just what they have learned.

Patrick Hurley
You can teach the facts in class but in order for understanding of the material the students need to be able to find a personal meaning of the topic. Just telling the students about the information doesn’t ensure understanding, it takes more than that. One way to try and get you students to understand the material is by stirring the pot, whether it be in class discussion or in an assignment. This will get discussions going and cause the students to look deeper into the subject. Teachers need to uncover the content so it is easier to understand. Use your essential questions to bring things to life. The essential understandings serve as a doorway to understanding; use them to frame larger ideas. Use the WHERETO framework. I will need to make sure that I give students plenty of opportunities to explore the topics so they can gain a better understanding of the topics. I think I will be able to stir the pot in my class. There are many controversial things in history that I could easily use to promote discussions and prompts to help the students understand it better. I also need to use the essential questions to help uncover the course material so the students can gain a better understanding.

Matt Roy
Chapter 7 focused on how best to reach students and enhance understanding. The key to quality education is the idea of “uncovering” the material. Rather than simply presenting the material to students and telling them how they should understand it, we must present the material to students and provide framework and opportunities so that they can develop their own understanding. Many people make the false assumption that, in order to progress with understanding/mastery, one must first master the basic facts. However, the author uses a great example of children learning to speak to prove how this assumption is simply not the case. The author points out that children do not master all of the rules of grammar before they begin speaking but rather they learn (both grammar and speaking) as they make mistakes. This is where the true learning is found, when we are given the opportunities to apply the material and maybe even make some mistakes with it.

This chapter was extremely important because it touches on the issues of how information should be presented. We must be careful to not simply lecture at the student but rather guide them to develop their own understanding of the material. When this happens a deeper and richer learning occurs. Additionally, it touched on the issue of students learning at different rates. Just because a student is struggling to master the basics, it does not mean that they will not be able to grasp the deeper concepts. In fact, the challenge of the deeper understandings may help them grasp the basics.

Mike Kahler
This chapter talks about teaching an academically diverse classroom so that they all truly understand the material. Coving everything in the curriculum very quickly may get everything done, but do students really learn anything. Can they apply what they learned to anything beyond the specific style of questions in your classroom? No. As a teacher you need to take learning one step further. In literature for example simply telling students what a story means is not enough. You need to teach them to interpret literature for themselves, and apply what it is they learn to something else. One question posed specifically in the chapter is “is there is truth to fiction?” This is an example of going one step deeper. Have your students relate the lessons in the book to their own lives, or another subject. Deep thought like this will teach them to apply the lessons that they learn to something outside of the classroom. The lesson will reverberate longer, and they will start to pick up the themes in other works easier. This skill is a true proof of learning. The students should be given essential questions at the beginning of a unit so they know what they are striving for. Then they can recognize their accomplishment when they do get it. Utilizing the six facets will help along this path, as they will give students a deep understanding of the material. This is how I want to teach. I want students to understand the power of literature. They will be able to apply it in many places, and learn to find it in the future with significant practice. The material will become relevant and ultimately a life lesson instead of nothing but testable material.

Emily McGee
Tomlinson and McTighe draw out the important roles of students and of teachers in the UbD + DI classroom. The explain the importance of using whole class, small group, and individual learning and assessment. They challenge teachers to “uncover” material, rather than to “cover” it. The explicate the importance of using essential questions to frame larger ideas and processes, ones that will be revisited throughout school life and in the “real world.” The authors explain strategies that deepen student thinking and using the six facets of understanding as an instructional tool. They explain the WHERETO framework in depth to model a system for designing plans with a goal of student understanding.

I find the information presented in this chapter incredibly important for teachers who are designing unit plans to consider. It provides a good framework for why and how backwards design can be useful/beneficial in the classroom. I hope to implement these instructional tools to coach students towards exploring materials in diverse ways and searching for meaning. I liked the idea of using essential questions three times in each unit or lesson: once as a diagnostic tool prior to the unit or lesson, once as a formative assessment during the unit or lesson, and once at the end of the lesson as a summative assessment to chart conceptual growth.

Morgan Ware
Chapter seven is about teaching students to understand the content in a diverse classroom. Teachers might give certain examples to students to help them fully understand content and to compare, hypothesize, and conclude about the information. A way that teachers can reinforce the information to students is to have them create their own lessons for younger students. This way will allow them to look at the content is a different and new way. Teachers also need to “uncover” not just cover it. Teachers can use essential questions, the six facets of understanding, and the WHERETO framework to uncover the content to fully teach the material to their students. Essential questions help teachers by framing the big ideas of the unit or lesson. Teachers show structure the information so that students see it as “the answers to questions or solutions to problems” (page 110). The six facets of understanding are the framework for creating learning activities. Teachers should “hook” the students to the topic and engage them into higher order thinking and analyzing. The goal is to not create activities that include all the facets but instead to choose one facet to create an activity around. The WHERETO framework is how teachers plan the lessons and learning for their students. The W reminds teachers to communicate with students about the goals of the lessons. The H is about hooking students to the topic through introductory activities. The E is about coming to understand active engagement. The R is about teaching reflection to students. The E is about evaluation. The T is about creating lessons for diverse students. The O is about being organized. This framework will help me in the classroom to make me more confident about my lessons and units. Also it will help my students feel more confident about their own learning and success.

Simone Thiry
Chapter seven discussed several major components of successful teaching for understanding. By beginning with essential questions, which we have spent time on in class, and in previous readings, the chapter brings home the point that “essential questions serve as doorways to understanding” (page 112). By using essential questions, we are encouraging our students to think deeper about the material, why it matters and how it connects to their lives and the world around them. Though I understood why essential questions are an integral part of backward design, I learned more about how to follow-up essential questions in order to help them reach students effectively. By using these strategies in my future classroom, I will be able to ensure that students are thinking critically about the essential questions and help me use informal formative assessments throughout my unit. The chapter also emphasizes the flaws in the ‘ladder’ concept of learning, which assumes that if students have gaps in their basic knowledge they should stay in a remedial setting and are incapable of progressing with the rest of the class. Rather than banishing lower-achieving students to an island of repetitive exercises, I hope to ensure that the core principles of my units are accessible to individuals of many levels of skill and experience. The WHERETO framework is a way to combine all of these concepts into a cohesive outline for each lesson. The seven aspects of the WHERETO format encourage organization of lessons within a unit so that teachers can be sure to meet the many criteria necessary for utilizing differentiated instruction, backward design, and good practice in each aspect of unit planning.