Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding

It is important for a concept to be reinforced in multiple ways, such as asking students to read, holding a class discussion, and then asking them to explain concepts to one another. The primary focus of this chapter was upon breaking away from the desire to merely “cover” content, and instead to work towards a deeper understanding through new and exciting lessons and analysis. The chapter discusses three methods of effectively assessing student knowledge, the first of which is asking students essential questions. Instead of asking students to memorize information, we should challenge students to contemplate the source of the information in order to see the significance. In asking students to question concepts which have always been accepted, we are suggesting that they play an essential role in their own learning process, and we allow them to become more involved. The more we ask our students to contemplate a deeper meaning, the greater their understanding will be, thus in time they will progressively be able to answer more complex questions. A great aspect of this is that teachers find that they do not need to individually evaluate student learning as frequently as their learning is evaluated through the essential questions. The second concept covered in this topic was applying the six facets of understanding. I found this to be very helpful as we have just incorporated the facets into stage one, thus this tied it all back together. The facets provide students with a deeper understanding of the concepts they are discussing, yet they must not be applied merely for the sake of incorporating each of them. Instead, they should be used only in a way which influences student growth. In addition, another idea which we must keep in mind is that we must not merely give students drill activities as they will lose interest and will lose sight of the big picture they are looking toward.