Book Review: "The Teaching For Understanding Guide - 5 views

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  #1 Kevin Kerbrat on 21 Feb 12

   

  For my book review I went with "The Teaching for Understanding Guide" by Tina Blythe and Associates. I went with this book because it is a book that can help beginning teachers, and veteran teachers alike. This book is based on research done by three faculty members at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They are Howard Gardner, David Perkins, and Vito Perrone. They then called upon many other people in the field of education and they began working on this massive five year research project to help them understand what would best help students understand what it was they were learning. Too many times students will only retain information for a test, and then it is on to the next chapter and the information from the previous test is lost seemingly forever. This book does not go into the research that was done rather this book is all about the main ideas and framework to help teachers to get their students to understand what they are teaching them. Another great thing about this book is it isn't a book that needs to be read in order. If you need to jump around from topic to topic feel free.
  
  Within the book there are basically four sub categories that the book is divided up into Generative Topics, Understanding Goals, Performances of Understanding, and Ongoing Assessment. To go along with these four categories they give you examples from the classroom, and feedback from teachers and students on how they felt about what they did.
  
  First off is Generative Topics. This really lets the teacher and the students delve deep into a topic. Generative topics are basically issues, different themes, ideas, and concepts that allow a variety of different perspectives to support development of powerful understanding. Instead of just reading chapters from a book and having the teacher tell the students about the American Civil War for instance. The generative topic whatever it may be will allow the students to get a greater understanding by getting inside of different subtopics off of the main topic of the Civil War. Another great feature of generative topics is it something that highly interests the teacher and the students, and the more controversial of a topic the better.
  
  The next topic of discussion is Understanding Goals. Before you start a unit or course you need to have goals set. This will allow the students as well as the teacher to know right from the start what it is they want and need to accomplish to meet the goals. When you're beginning a new unit or even a school year it can greatly help by going over these things with other teachers in your department. This will allow you as the teacher to see more clearly what it is that you want the students to accomplish by taking this course or unit. This is a great one for veteran teachers who are now trying to get a better understanding for teaching for understanding. Instead of your old way of doing things the same way over and over again, try making some goals that lead to higher thinking and an understanding of the students. This will bring closure and an understanding for the students.
  
  Next topic in the book is Performances of Understanding. They talked about a great of example in the book about learning how to drive a car and do all of the things associated with driving a car from a book. By studying diagrams of where everything is and you memorize how far it takes for the car to slow down under breaking. This is all well and good, but you don't have the same understanding as if you were behind the wheel yourself. So many different circumstances can come your way that you can't read about how to react in a book. You need to be on the road to practice driving under different conditions with feedback from an instructor to be able to learn how to drive effectively. This is the same way in school. There are many facts and pieces of knowledge that a student can learn from a book, but they need to be able to apply that knowledge in a variety of different circumstances, and they do this with the guide of an instructor. This is the basis for the performance of understanding. In performance for understanding students need to go beyond the things that they in, in the classroom. They need to be able to create new ideas and extrapolating on what they already know. This is in essence what the teaching for understanding is. The students can take the information that the teacher is giving them and then can manipulate that information into many different things. They will understand the ins and outs of what the teacher is presenting them.
  
  Finally the book speaks ongoing assessment. Ongoing assessment is not giving the students a test at the end of the unit. It also isn't playing a game of jeopardy with the students. Ongoing assessment is such a large role in the teaching for understanding. By always assessing the students each class period multiple times in different forms it let the teacher know that the students understand what they are doing. If you need to go back over things it is easy to find those things out by ongoing assessment. The biggest favor a teacher can ever do in my opinion is giving them feedback. This will allow the students and the teacher to understand what needs to be done for the student to get a better understanding.
  
  I believe the teaching for understanding is a great tool for teachers to use to help their students not only be able to learn something, but to know how to implement what they have learned in many different ways. This book will give you the framework needed to implement the teacher for understanding method. I love that the book is quick and to the point with little fluff, you can hop around until you find the spot in the book that you need. They aren't trying to reinvent the wheel with this book. This book is something that teachers should use to help build upon the great things that they are already implementing in their classroom. This model is an easy model to follow, and it is a great tool to share amongst colleagues.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Understanding-Guide-Jossey-Education/dp/0787909939/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329769688&sr=1-1

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">For my book review I went with "The Teaching for Understanding Guide" by Tina Blythe and Associates. I went with this book because it is a book that can help beginning teachers, and veteran teachers alike. This book is based on research done by three faculty members at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. They are Howard Gardner, David Perkins, and Vito Perrone. They then called upon many other people in the field of education and they began working on this massive five year research project to help them understand what would best help students understand what it was they were learning. Too many times students will only retain information for a test, and then it is on to the next chapter and the information from the previous test is lost seemingly forever. This book does not go into the research that was done rather this book is all about the main ideas and framework to help teachers to get their students to understand what they are teaching them. Another great thing about this book is it isn't a book that needs to be read in order. If you need to jump around from topic to topic feel free. <br /> <br /> Within the book there are basically four sub categories that the book is divided up into Generative Topics, Understanding Goals, Performances of Understanding, and Ongoing Assessment. To go along with these four categories they give you examples from the classroom, and feedback from teachers and students on how they felt about what they did. <br /> <br /> First off is Generative Topics. This really lets the teacher and the students delve deep into a topic. Generative topics are basically issues, different themes, ideas, and concepts that allow a variety of different perspectives to support development of powerful understanding. Instead of just reading chapters from a book and having the teacher tell the students about the American Civil War for instance. The generative topic whatever it may be will allow the students to get a greater understanding by getting inside of different subtopics off of the main topic of the Civil War. Another great feature of generative topics is it something that highly interests the teacher and the students, and the more controversial of a topic the better. <br /> <br /> The next topic of discussion is Understanding Goals. Before you start a unit or course you need to have goals set. This will allow the students as well as the teacher to know right from the start what it is they want and need to accomplish to meet the goals. When you're beginning a new unit or even a school year it can greatly help by going over these things with other teachers in your department. This will allow you as the teacher to see more clearly what it is that you want the students to accomplish by taking this course or unit. This is a great one for veteran teachers who are now trying to get a better understanding for teaching for understanding. Instead of your old way of doing things the same way over and over again, try making some goals that lead to higher thinking and an understanding of the students. This will bring closure and an understanding for the students. <br /> <br /> Next topic in the book is Performances of Understanding. They talked about a great of example in the book about learning how to drive a car and do all of the things associated with driving a car from a book. By studying diagrams of where everything is and you memorize how far it takes for the car to slow down under breaking. This is all well and good, but you don't have the same understanding as if you were behind the wheel yourself. So many different circumstances can come your way that you can't read about how to react in a book. You need to be on the road to practice driving under different conditions with feedback from an instructor to be able to learn how to drive effectively. This is the same way in school. There are many facts and pieces of knowledge that a student can learn from a book, but they need to be able to apply that knowledge in a variety of different circumstances, and they do this with the guide of an instructor. This is the basis for the performance of understanding. In performance for understanding students need to go beyond the things that they in, in the classroom. They need to be able to create new ideas and extrapolating on what they already know. This is in essence what the teaching for understanding is. The students can take the information that the teacher is giving them and then can manipulate that information into many different things. They will understand the ins and outs of what the teacher is presenting them. <br /> <br /> Finally the book speaks ongoing assessment. Ongoing assessment is not giving the students a test at the end of the unit. It also isn't playing a game of jeopardy with the students. Ongoing assessment is such a large role in the teaching for understanding. By always assessing the students each class period multiple times in different forms it let the teacher know that the students understand what they are doing. If you need to go back over things it is easy to find those things out by ongoing assessment. The biggest favor a teacher can ever do in my opinion is giving them feedback. This will allow the students and the teacher to understand what needs to be done for the student to get a better understanding. <br /> <br /> I believe the teaching for understanding is a great tool for teachers to use to help their students not only be able to learn something, but to know how to implement what they have learned in many different ways. This book will give you the framework needed to implement the teacher for understanding method. I love that the book is quick and to the point with little fluff, you can hop around until you find the spot in the book that you need. They aren't trying to reinvent the wheel with this book. This book is something that teachers should use to help build upon the great things that they are already implementing in their classroom. This model is an easy model to follow, and it is a great tool to share amongst colleagues. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Understanding-Guide-Jossey-Education/dp/0787909939/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329769688&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Understanding-Guide-Jossey-Education/dp/0787909939/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329769688&sr=1-1</a></div>

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  #2 Wendy Morales on 21 Feb 12

   

  I also have this book at home as a professional resource. I enjoy referring to the ongoing assessment material in the book. Great review Kevin!!!!

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">I also have this book at home as a professional resource. I enjoy referring to the ongoing assessment material in the book. Great review Kevin!!!!</div>

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  #3 Linda Clinton on 26 Feb 12

   

  I don't think I've seen this book before. It sounds intriguing. I'll have to check it out.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">I don't think I've seen this book before. It sounds intriguing. I'll have to check it out.</div>

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