Friday Four 12/15
The theme for this week’s Final Four is a tad different as a result of a conversation I had with a fellow colleague. Our Dean of Faculty, Ned Parsons,(@nedparsons) spends a good deal of time in the Winter term visiting and observing classes. He likes to have something in general he is “looking for” in each round of his visits that he will then report back on to the faculty. This past week, he focused on seeing the various ways that teachers and students check for understanding during a class. We thought it might be interesting if my Friday Four was related to his focus for the week. So, here are four interesting articles, blog posts, etc. that I ran across related to the topic of how students and teachers check for understanding in the classroom. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.
- Edutopia is a great website that has a wealth of information for educators at every grade level. Here is a post “Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students?” that will get you started.
- If you are looking for a more philosophical look at teaching for understanding, Grant Wiggins is a great resource. Here is a link to a post on his blog “On Not Teaching for Understanding” that will definitely get you thinking.
- Here is a link to an article from the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) journal Educational Leadership that explores the student’s role in assessment of understanding.
- ASCD has an entire section of their website dedicated to the Understanding by Design concept attributed to Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. This section of the site has links to articles, videos and much more if you are looking for a general starting point to explore the topic.