Teaching+for+Understanding

Teaching for Understanding is leading students to engage in a variety of thought-provoking activities such as explaining, finding evidence in examples, generalizing, connecting, applying, making analogies, and representing the topic in new ways. Teachers assist students in making connections between prior and new knowledge to develop deep conceptual and procedural knowledge. Teachers who teach for understanding 1) make learning a long-term, thinking-centered process, 2) provide for rich ongoing assessment, 3) support learning with powerful representations, 4) pay heed to developmental factors, 5) induct students into the discipline, and 6) teach for transfer.

  

Attributes of Teaching for Understanding
Instruction facilitates the construction of deep conceptual and procedural knowledge.  - - literature circles  - - vocabulary: real-life examples of words  - - think/pair/share to make connections  - - make a Prezi about branches of government

Instruction facilitates the development of representations and conceptual models.  - - creating own story problems  - - organize elements of art into complete project  - - using a teeter-totter to represent math equations of balance

Instruction inducts students into the discipline.  - - looking at other performances in marching band <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> - - literary criticism <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> - - students write their own goals

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Instruction facilitates the application of new learnings and understandings in new and novel situations (transfer). <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> - - real-life writing <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> - - literature circle jobs & discussions <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> - - student choice in projects