This week's reading focused on the concept of student understanding. What is it exactly and how to teachers truly measure it? According to the text, Understanding by Design, "the goal in understanding is to take whatever you are given to produce or find something of significance - to use what we have in memory but to go beyond the facts and...use them mindfully" (p. 39). As a history teacher, this describes my daily challenge! How do I go beyond the facts and create more meaningful learning activities that will promote a deeper level of understanding?
I also enjoyed reading about student misconceptions. I've never realized how valuable misunderstandings can actually be to teachers. According to the text, "it signifies an attempted and plausible but unsuccessful transfer. The challenge is to reward the try without reinforcing the mistake or dampening future transfer attempts" (p. 51).
Identifying "Big Ideas" and core tasks was a little more difficult for me. In my current practice, I feel like I do a good job unpacking the standards and developing lessons and learning activities that guide my students toward building those understandings, but identifying multiple core tasks to fit one big idea was more of a challenge. I'm hoping to gain more insights over the coming weeks into how these lessons/tasks will work together to meet a certain objective.
I also enjoyed reading about student misconceptions. I've never realized how valuable misunderstandings can actually be to teachers. According to the text, "it signifies an attempted and plausible but unsuccessful transfer. The challenge is to reward the try without reinforcing the mistake or dampening future transfer attempts" (p. 51).
Identifying "Big Ideas" and core tasks was a little more difficult for me. In my current practice, I feel like I do a good job unpacking the standards and developing lessons and learning activities that guide my students toward building those understandings, but identifying multiple core tasks to fit one big idea was more of a challenge. I'm hoping to gain more insights over the coming weeks into how these lessons/tasks will work together to meet a certain objective.