Teaching for Understanding with Technology by Wiske, Franz, and Breit-Chapters 1 and 2

Below is my interpretation of the key ideas in chapters one and two of Teaching for Understanding with Technology by Wiske, Franz, and Breit.

Chapter one defines what it means to "understand" in the context of both education and technology. It also explores how the process of understanding is an active process, and how teachers can assist their students in achieving an understanding of the course content.

Civic preparation, cultural assimilation, economic development, individual achievement as well as academic achievement are all historic purposes of education (Wiske, Franz, and Breit, 2005) however the most important purpose of the traditional teacher and student relationship is to pass on knowledge. This purpose has become increasingly complex and difficult due to the ever changing nature of society, technology, and educational philosophies. While it is becoming more difficult to come up with strategies for understanding, it is still the duty of every educator to figure out how to get students to understand and how to assess each individual student’s understanding.

The authors define "understanding a topic" as "being able to perform flexibly with the topic - to explain, justify, extrapolate, relate, and apply in ways that go beyond knowledge and routine skill" (Wiske, et al., 2005, p.5). When I think about this definition, I think back to my college years, not so much my high school years. In college you had more freedom to interpret information and come to your own conclusions-this was not the case in high school, where you spent most of your time trying to figure out what the teacher wanted you to find in the research. This definition of understanding is bringing the freedom to the high schools and not only giving freedom to students to show understanding but giving teachers more freedom in assignment creation and grading for understanding. While the idea of teaching for understanding is an easy concept for educators and future educators to grasp; it is not so easy to put into practice. There is a lot of work for the educators, especially on the front end of implementing such a process. Teachers need to reflect on their own teaching and lesson and determine what is worthy of understanding, they need to define what students need to grasp from a topic, and come up with an ongoing assessment that can authentically demonstrate their understanding (Wiske, et al. 2005). The chapter closes by outlining the framework for the Teaching for Understanding model, to which there are five steps:

1) Generative topics: connected to multiple ideas in multiple subject matters, authentic,
accessible, and interesting for the students, fascinating and compelling for the teachers,
have a variety of entry points, and have a “bottomless” quality that rewards continued
inquiry.
2) Understanding Goals: clearly defined and publicly stated, focus on big ideas-NOT
memorization and routine skills, address multiple dimensions, and are connected to lesson
level goals
3) Performances of Understanding: develop and demonstrate understanding of
target goals, require active learning and creative thinking, build understanding through
sequenced activities, engage a rich variety of entry points and multiple intelligences
4) Ongoing Assessment: explicit, public criteria directly related to understanding goals,
conducted frequently and generates suggestions for improvement, includes informal and
formal structures and products, uses multiple sources(self, peer, and teacher assessments)
5) Reflective Collaborative Communities: support dialogue and reflection based on
shared goals and common language, take into account diverse perspectives, promotes
respect, reciprocity, and collaboration among members of the community on communal,
as well as, individual accomplishments.
-(Wiske, et al. 2005, p.10)

I, unfortunately, do not have much in the way of experiences at this point in time, as I do not currently teach. In looking at the five steps outlined in the chapter, I feel I have applied some of the concepts into the lesson and unit plans I have created for my courses at UMW. I generally try to use the vast topics provided in curriculum guides (generally Spotsylvania County Schools) when I am creating lesson or unit plans. I begin by looking at what topics the County feels are important as well as what skills the students should display and then add in a smidge of my own personality-trying to make it accessible for the students and compelling for me(I could easily see myself getting bored if I simply followed their plan and suggestions).

Once I have an idea of the topics and the “final project”. I typically try to figure out how I am going to get from the beginning to the end with the students. In most cases I enjoy group work, where I can have access to more than one student at a time and still act as a guide. I believe it also allows the students to help each other out, especially if I am working with another group at the time. I believe that this approach, along with a rubric, which would be explained at the beginning of the project, allows me room to differentiate or customize a lesson if a student is having trouble while also customizing for those students who want to and can go above and beyond what is being asked of them.

I believe that my interaction with each group would be a form of assessment. It would allow me to look for participation and activity, while being a reference point at the same time. Also the groups themselves would be able to assess each other, within the confines of the group. I would also assess my students on their final projects, based on the rubric that they would have had as a reference from the very beginning of the assignment.

As far as reflection, while I have never implemented it, into a lesson plan, I think it would be easy to ask the students to confidentially reflect on the assignment, wither in a paragraph form or by creating a short worksheet with questions about the project I would have them individually answer. I generally put room at the end of a lesson plan for my own reflections, where I can make notes about what worked well or did not work at all, and I will hopefully be able to change the lesson to work with the next group of students.

Chapter two defines "new technology" in the schools and what the "new technology" classroom looks and feels like.The authors define new technology as "any new tools for information and communication beyond the ones traditionally used for teaching and learning" (Wiske, et al., 2005, p15). The authors note that the classroom that utilizes this type of technology is quite different from the classroom of old, visually and procedurally, as the focus turns from textbooks and worksheets to the students' experiences and interests (Wiske, et al., 2005, p. 18-19).

Chapter two, in my opinion, gives justification to those teachers who do not use the textbook in their classrooms, whether it is, because it is outdated, not well written, or there simply is not enough for every student. To me textbooks are becoming more of a hindrance on students, rather than a tool for them to use. Granted they are still more cost efficient than rewiring every school and getting enough computers for every students to have one to use-but they simply do not get the job done anymore. In a day and age when educators realize that students are individuals and learn differently, it is hard to believe that a twenty-five chapter textbook is the primary tool for each student. I have seen very good resources for teachers to use with the textbut I do not believe it should be used than anything more than a jumping off point for discussions or short readings. With most classrooms at least having a computer that the teacher can control and students can watch on the TV or a screen, there are many resources to use. In the field of social studies, it is very easy to have a class in Fredericksburg tour Jamestown, Gettysburg, Congress, the White House, or view The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and The Bill of Rights, without leaving the classroom. I pray that I will use these sources when I actually get a class of my own, because I believe they are easy to find and relatively easy to use, and it is a great way to make sure that the lessons are authentic and accessible to the students and compelling for me, the teacher.

Reference:Wiske, M.S., Franz, K.R., & Breit, L. (2005). Teaching for Understanding with Technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.