UbDDI+B2+Chapter+7

Abstract- Lizzie
It was a clear that the class understood that this chapter was about using the WHERETO design model. This model uses six facets of understanding to help each student learn. The WHERETO model stands for: W-what and why, H- hook, E- equip, explore, and experience, R- rethink, revise, rehearse, and refine, E- evaluate, T- tailor (multiple intelligences), O-organize. Each section of the WHERETO model offers ways of not only keeping students engaged but allowing for different experiences verbal, physical, metal, as well as helping them to fully understand the material at hand. This chapter also highlights several points about teachers being able to guide their students towards finding meaning on their own. Guiding with essential questions, examples, and fun activities can help a student to understand the material. Many agree with the chapter with the belief that it is important to cover the material in a way that does not spend too much time on the basics, hindering the students’ ability to truly become immersed in the material. This means finding a way to cover the material without being too repetitive or boring as well as allowing students to not just know but understand the material. Re-enforcement is important when it comes to the WHERETO model, making it easier for each different learner to adapt and understand in their own way. The primary focus of the chapter was to understand that it is not enough to merely cover the content at hand but to work for a deeper understanding of the material.

[|Reflection- Lizzie]
Allowing this chapter to fully sink in, many realized just how important it is not to skim the material. As several people suggested, you must cover the material yes, but it should not cost your students’ understanding of the material to do so. Finding a way to be able to adapt to each classroom environment and work with such a wide range of [|different learners], is always going to be a challenge. However, as agreed by many yet again, if a teacher can immerse themselves into the material and truly know their students then it makes it easier for their students to become immersed in the material as well. [|Engaging] students is critical in order for them to want to and be able to understand and want to understand the material. Repeating the goals and why this material is important is also crucial. Letting students know that what they are doing is actually going to be able to help them in life and can be applied to real life, may interest them even more.

Dani
This chapter is about using the WHERETO design model to design a series of daily lessons in a unit of study. The idea is to use the six facets of understanding to help students learn. It is also necessary to get students interested in the topic by asking intriguing questions or giving them a mystery to solve. It is also important to put skills in a real world perspective so that students see why it is important for them to know. I like the idea of hooking students’ interest in the topic before going ahead with the rest of the unit. It makes sense to me that they would be more engaged if the lesson seemed interesting to them. It is important to use in my classroom because if my students are engaged they will learn more.
 * Chapter 7**

Cam
This chapter goes on by underlining that students need to find meaning by themselves in order to understand the big ideas. Teachers can guide them by asking questions and give students additional examples. From there, teachers should put students in diverse groups to elaborate on more examples. A teacher’s job is not to cover the content or skim the surface, but to uncover the content. One method through essential questions is viewing the content as the answers that pertain to the questions. This is done because students can better see what the big ideas are. Usually if this type of teaching is not carried out, then students can use their knowledge, but cannot apply the skill to other situations. Essential questions tend to be ones that are seen more than once by students. The six facets are meant to hook students and get them engaged, but also may help as far as responsive teaching. The WHERETO method gives an overview of what will be covered in the unit. Starting with the first letter of WHERETO, teachers need to help their learners have an idea of what they will learn. As professionals, we need to get students hooked and involved. The third letter signifies how the teachers equip their students and through what certain experiences? The next concept is the idea of teachers getting their students to rethink and encourage revisions. Teachers will determine how they will get their students to self-evaluate. Tailoring the diverse learning activities is also an essential. And lastly, teachers need to ask themselves how will students’ experiences be organized? This chapter impacted me professionally because it is a matter of whether my students will understand the scientific content or not. I will never leave a student out to dry when the rest of the class is excelling. I will do everything in my power to teach my students these best that I can. This impacts my students because hopefully by me setting a prime example, my students will do the same and help their peers in and out of the classroom.
 * Chapter 7; Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms **

Jason
The most important piece to this chapter is the notion that teachers spend too much time waiting for students to understand the basics and then moving on instead of immersing students in the information. The other thing that is covered is the importance of covering the essential material instead of all the nitty-gritty things that are less important; As Dr. Theresa pointed out “it is better to cover information by an inch-wide, mile-deep formula instead of a mile-wide, inch-deep philosophy. On a personal level, I have had classes where the importance is placed on just memorizing facts and putting them on paper instead of actually learning the information – the problem with that is students will only remember the information for the test and then forget it. I have also had classes where the best parts of history were quickly covered because of time constraints – I just do not think that is right to do. When it comes to my classroom, I intend to use the WHERETO method along with making sure that students actually learn about history instead of just memorizing useless facts. I much rather a student know what happened instead of when it exactly took place; I will also use pre-assessment in order to gage what my students already know and what they do not.
 * UbD/DI Chapter 7: Teaching For Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms **

Lindsey
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.

Ted
The highlight of Chapter Seven of UbD/DI was the explanation of WHERETO. The WHERETO framework has seven sections with a few questions to consider for each one. The first focuses on what is being taught, why it’s worth knowing, and what evidence will show the learning. The second focuses on hooking and holding the learners’ attention. The third aims at equipping students to master standards and making learning experiences to help develop and deepen understanding. The fourth encourages learners to rethink, revise, and refine their ideas throughout their lives. The fifth point urges student self-evaluation. The sixth focuses on tailoring activities and instruction to differentiated learners. The last aspect of WHERETO is organization, or the order in which teachers address parts of instruction. The other part of the chapter that really struck me well was the rejection of the “ladder” metaphor for education.

Marcy
The idea of teaching in general is not to simply get through a textbook in a given year, just to say that the students finished it. In real teaching the idea is for students to discover the important truths hidden in the material. That takes time. Using the essential questions from a unit plan to probe students’ minds to start thinking on their own is a good way to introduce a new topic. Open ended questions, with which students can make up their own opinions and draw their own conclusions, helps jumpstart students’ thinking. By the end of the unit, the students’ understanding and “answer” to the essential questions should have evolved much deeper than the first time the question was posed. The six facets of thinking can tie in here and help deepen students’ understanding. Students do not always need to master the basic skills of a subject before they start theorizing or become involved in higher order thinking. This all affects me as a teacher because I have to plan how all of this will fit into a unit plan. There is a solution to this problem in the WHERETO model. Each letter stands for one step to remember while designing how to teach the students. This will impact my students because they will be forced not only to “cover” the material in the subject but “uncover” the deeper meanings and understandings within the information. Higher level thinking and understanding of the important meanings will help them in their future.

Ben
Chapter 7 says to stay away from coverage-oriented instruction. Teachers have to uncover the material for the students, since they take cover as meaning as to hide. Asking students essential questions makes it so when students answer they will have uncovered something new, and now understand it better. Deepening a students understanding of the uncovered material helps ensure that will not be forgotten. Thus the student will always have this reference of this material in their life. A monumental tool for helping students uncover the different aspects of the lesson is the six facets. Creating an essential question for each facet can help get a student "hooked, engaged, and equipped for desired performances and to rethink earlier ideas." (page 118) Ladder method is only efficient for the gifted students. Students that do not master the basic skills right off, surely will not be able to apply these ideas more abstractly. That's why the classroom is differentiated, using the ladder for the gifted is fine but make sure there is an alternate method for those students that are not. Using WHERETO for the planning of learning is one way to help those students are not a part of the gifted, let's face it most students are not, get ready for the next level. I plan on using WHERETO for my math class, because it is too often when math teachers will have the desire to cover the whole book, and not focus on why students are still confused about material from the beginning of the year.

Andrew D
This chapter talks about how students need to find the meaning themselves in order to fully understand the big idea. Students will not be able to do this unless teachers teach for understanding by uncovering the content. To help uncover the content teachers need to use essential questions that help stimulate student thinking that will hopefully lead to deeper understanding. The chapter gives good examples of essential questions from each subject that teachers can use to help students fully understand. The chapter then goes on to talk about the six facets of understanding as a framework for generating learning activities. Finally, the last part of chapter talks about WHERETO. This impacted me because with each letter a good example of how to use each one was given. The first W uses the bulletin board example. This will impact my classroom because I will use the bulletin board example at times when I am teaching different units. I believe it is an effective strategy and one that all teachers can use to help their students.

Lizzie
In this chapter we read about and explore the ideas surrounding how to teach students to understand the material rather than simply learning the material, and why this is vastly important. We can also see how to develop and the students’ thinking and understanding of the important ideas and processes as well as approaches to help students help themselves when searching for ideas and meanings. Students are asked to do so many things within the classroom including thinking, questioning, rethinking, and reflecting. Teachers are also expected to uncover many new things such as stimulate these thoughts and ideas, ask probing questions, play devil’s advocate, evaluate, explain and justify. Teachers must uncover the content and present it to the students in an exciting way as well was ask the “essential questions” to foster the students’ thoughts. Essential questions are questions that promote thinking within the students. Having the “how and why” skills help to apply any material to your content area and enrich the important material. There are several key points for teachers to remember when using these essential questions: less is more, be sure students understand key vocabulary to explore the questions, use “kid language” as needed to make them more accessible, help students to personalize questions and share their own interests, post these questions around the classroom, and finally use follow-up strategies to further engage students.

There are also six important tools or facets of understanding which are to explain, interpret, apply, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. These six facets have proven to be useful within the classroom for generating ideas to “hook” students around a topic, thus engaging them in a deeper understanding and reflection of their work. There is no one step, ladder to engage and teach students. Learning the basics and working your way up to a higher level thinking is not always the order in which things should be accomplished. Obviously the basics are important however the interconnection of all these steps can lead to meaningful learning. The WHERETO framework provides a structure for teaching and helps students with their understanding. Each letter stands for: W- what and why, H- hook, E- equip, experience, R- rethink, revision and refine, E-evaluation, T- tailor, and lastly O- organized. All of these letters make up the understanding and teaching approach that guides the teacher through a series of lessons a larger unit of study. This chapter allowed me to further understand the six facets of understanding as well as the WHERETO framework. Both of these approaches to teaching allow not only the students to become more engaged in the material but the teacher as well. It allows the teacher to be able to play with the idea or “old school” mind set that everything has to follow one set pattern. It allows for new ideas, new techniques and lets the teacher further engage the students. Both of these things can help improve various aspects of a student’s learning as well as their social and metal abilities.

Andrew F.
This chapter was talking about the WHERETO framework, which is the application of stages 1 and 2 we have been working on in class recently, which i will explain below:

W-This section of the acronym is for all of the students who need to see the "what" and "why" in what they are doing. It's the clear statement of goals with the materials we are teaching, so that students can see the process of the work they will be completing to give them each a better understanding on what they are doing. It is also knowing why we teach each lesson to the students so they can take personal relevance to their lives.

H-Stands for the hook educators must throw to the learners in order to draw them into the materials. Without the student's interest in the material we are teaching, they will not be inclined to listen to anything we have to say. So the challenge is engaging every student and making each lesson personally relate to each student for continued success in moving students forward.

E-is talking about the experiences students need to further their understanding of the material. Without being engaged in experiences that will last forever in the student's memory, there is no long standing foundation in what we teach. Instead of just being pointless memorized facts students remember, we need to mix the right content with the right set of activitys to help divulge the content we are trying to portray.

R-The process of re-thinking things is one of the most important in terms of learning, to dig deeper and come to new conclusions is very important. When new perspectives, and experiences are given to students it causes them to re-think many things and helps each individual grow mentally.

E-Talking about self evaluation is another very important part of learning, reflection is a way in which all learners can look to their past and give honest descriptions of what happened, what they would change or do differently, and what they will try next time. Its a process of forward thinking by looking into the past and learning from successes and failure.

T-Is about tailoring to the needs of each student, and how we need to help each student no matter what their strengths or weaknesses are within our class rooms. Now that we have learned so much about differentiated instruction, it is now time to apply it to help each student to the best of his/her potential.

O-Deals with organization, which is talking about our lesson plans and how we must consider the order and sequence of how we construct each experience to best fit the needs of the learners in our classrooms.

Now that I have a better understanding of the WHERETO framework, I feel that I will have a much easier time in thinking of the way I conduct myself as a teacher. We are told through this course we come in students and we leave as educators, but we can never truly forget what it is like to be in those seats. After all those students are the reason we are in this profession.

Jenna
Chapter seven of __Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design__ described the problem of teachers spending too much time teaching the students to understand the basics. Once the students understand the basics, the teachers move onto the next subject, instead of engrossing the students in the information. The chapter also explained the importance of having the students "uncover" the knowledge, instead of covering it. Teachers should not just focus on the little things. In the famous words of Dr. Theresa, "It is better to cover information an inch-wide, mile-deep formula than an mile-wide, inch-deep philosophy!" Too many teachers have their students memorize facts, definitions, and vocabulary. Students are made to repetitiously write it over and over again on tests and notes. The problem with this method is that later on, the students forget the material they had previously learned! Time limits were also a problem within this chapter. When time constraints a subject, it is unfair. The WHERETO model is a perfect guide to help me avoid having these problems in my classroom. My students will not only be remembering the information in class, but they will also be diving deeper into the knowledge to uncover it. I will do my best to not conform my lessons and units into a time frame. Because when students have more time, the deeper the knowledge is uncovered. Because I am teaching history, I am not going to be like my previous history teachers. I would rather have students who know what happened instead of when. Uncovering the bigger picture of history is more important than filling my students' heads with useless and repetitious facts.

Nicholas
**Chapter 7: **This chapter was able to go into detail about the WHERETO framework. The W asks questions like: How will I help learners know what they will be learning? Why this is worth learning? What evidence will show their learning? How their performance will be evaluated? H is asking how you plan to hook your students. E is referring to how you, as a teacher, will equip students and how will you figure out what learning experiences will help deepen their understanding. R stands for rethink, revise and refine. These are used as a way to help you encourage your students to keep researching and thinking. E is for the evaluation piece and that focuses a lot on self-evaluation and reflection. The T is for tailor which helps you to keep in mind how you will modify your teaching to your students. And finally the O which is referring to how you plan to organize your teaching to maximize your effectiveness as a teacher. This chapter put a lot of ideas into perspective for me and now I feel as though I have the knowledge needed to really push myself to be as effective as possible. Also, by following the WHERETO model as a teacher you become forced to consider the students’ perspective on the material at hand.