Review/Continue Essential QuestionsTeaching for Understanding SAS Project team work

• Individually, think of a topic/unit you teach. (You can use examples from the text to assist you.)

• Write 1-2 good essential questions to support teaching it. (5 min.)

• When complete, I need 4-5 people to write one on the smart board. Note whether it is overarching or topical

• We will review each as a whole…

• Essential questions LINK the big ideas to individual students through relevant, connected instruction

• Big ideas = themes, topics, concepts, specific skills you want students to walk away with

• Our teaching design should make sense to students

• The design must focus on the big ideas that connect and bring meaning to facts and skills

• No single question is inherently essential• Must be tied to something larger• Must consider the audience, purpose and

overall impact of questions • EQs may be recall in nature or inquiry-based;

most are inquiry-based…• Is the universe expanding? (science)• Why might Beowulf be considered a tragedy

instead of an epic? (English)• Are numbers real? (math)• What is the third world? (social studies)

• The best get at the essence of the big idea behind the topic• If you can’t see the essence, consider why you teach it altogether

• Need not be so global/broad• Not a set number to be used in any unit/topic• Opens up thinking to children and adults• Good EQs challenge even our “fast runners” (as

we should….)• EQs can be designed in every content area

• EQs can vary in scope• Best units built around those that are balanced

and varied Topical = Specific EQs

• Within units or lessons• Valuable for relevance to topic of the day/week

Overarching = More general EQs• Across a course of study• Transferable to other content areas• Transferable to life long-skills• Valuable for framing entire courses• Centered around the truly big ideas

How do you extract useful information from massive amounts of data? (over-arching: math)

How is man’s inhumanity to man evident in today’s society? (over-arching: English)

How has the Jazz era influenced people’s lives today? (topical or over-arching: music, social studies)

Using the homicide rates for the past 10 years in Philadelphia, what types of societal issues are affecting the city of Philadelphia? (topical or over-arching: statistics(math), social studies)

Over arching

Over arching OR Topical

Over arching

• Go to Computer lab….• With a partner (or two), search the Internet for sites

that contain examples of / ideas related to Essential Questions and/or Big Ideas.

• Send the links to me so I can embed them in the Wiki (you can do this after class)

• Here are my sites…• Example A• Example B• Example C

“The act of teaching (direct instruction – talking, professing, informing, telling) is only one aspect of causing learning… The design…is as important and perhaps more important than any articulate sharing of our knowledge.”

Perhaps we need to consider how to re-invent good teaching and learning

• Moving from coverage to uncoverage will continue to be a challenge for educators

• Uncoverage is not a type of teaching• Uncoverage – method, model, experience, or

idea that makes learning tangible, real, relevant, or prepared for future experiences• Socratic questioning 1• Socratic questioning 2• Litany of many other strategies to evoke student response

and higher order thinking

• In some respects, a coverage model has brainwashed our existing parents and students• Kids & parents have come to expect a

coverage world in school• Remember! Parents experienced a coverage

model too• Parents and kids believe this is the way to

prepare kids for college and the world – NOT SO in many respects!

Breadth, not depth • Surface details• Leaner believes

everything is of equal value (facts, with no hierarchy).

• Recall and lower order thinking the norm.

Use rationalized by teachers To meet standards To use textbooks Testing

“An understanding cannot be ‘covered’ if it is to be understood.”

Finding something important in what may be not obvious

To draw out child’s experiences through relevant examples

To allow students to uncover how they understand something that they previously didn’t know or agree on

• Historically, texts have driven much of what is taught• Many textbooks summarize and point to what is known• They can distort and narrow inquiry• A variety of reports have cautioned as to their use. Not

much has changed…• 1983 Carnegie report informed the Nation at Risk

report – said texts as a highly simplified view of reality, lacking richness and excitement…

• AAAS looked at math and science texts – said texts were disconnected, not rigorous, cover too many topics for the course

• Texts not the syllabus for a course• Chapters are not units of a course• Textbooks are RESOURCES – guides and

supplements to support learning• Did you know textbook companies have

lobbyists in D.C. to advocate for them?

Bringing big ideas to life in the classroom is goal everyday

Uncoverage is vital Kids need to play, act, manipulate, research

and interact if they are to understand and use at high levels• Technology may be a great way to accomplish

this!• Teaching social studies exclusively through a

blog• Smart board tools

• Instructional design takes time and much effort• We must know ourselves (our strengths and

areas of need) as we design in order to resist habits of conformity & laziness• Rely on structured graphic organizers to plan an entire

lesson/period• Rely on resources available to vary your instruction

• Lessons = balance of experiences and activities that uncover the material for and with kids

DIRECT INSTRUCTION & COACHING

FACILITATION & GUIDED INQUIRY

• Discrete knowledge• Facts• Definitions• Obvious information• Concrete information• Predictable result• Discrete skills & technique• Rules & recipes• Literal information

Concepts & principles Systemic connections Connotations Irony Symbolism Counterintuitive

information Anomaly Strategy (using judgment) Invention of rules &

recipes

• Timing is everything• Altering flow of lesson sometimes is necessary, and

knowing when to alter it is equally key• Knowing your class helps –what types of learners

you have• This allows you to decide when you should use direct

instruction versus guided inquiry/facilitation• Consider using three roles each lesson (direct

instruction, facilitation, coaching)

• We probably don’t formatively assess as much as we should

• It is crucial to uncovering student understandings AND misunderstandings

• Student answers to simple check for understanding questions DOES NOT necessarily mean they get the big ideas behind your instruction

• Assessment techniques are NOT necessarily graded!

• Techniques should be used to teach a skill or retain knowledge (scaffolding)

• Teaching a skill requires a constant revisiting of the skill and concepts together over time• Baseball – good coaches revisit the batting basics at every

level (major leaguers use a batting tee)• Skill must then be APPLIED to the specific learning

goals you have in your class with the content they learn

• Really good coaches (teachers) find unique, fundamental, and fun ways of teaching skills

• Meet in computer lab in established pairs to review SAS site and explore respective section

• Read Chapter 11 – The Design Process• Consider what the importance of

homework is in today’s classroom