Assessment, Evaluation & Documentation

Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with Practice

This book describes an innovative approach to teaching that helps take students beyond the rote memorization of facts and figures to levels of understanding that will serve them well throughout their lives. The book is filled with rich examples gathered during six years of collaboration between reflective classroom teachers and researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At the heart of the approach is a framework that transforms traditional teaching by providing clear and coherent guidance in: choosing curriculum topics; defining explicit goals; designing learning activities; fostering student understanding; and assessing students' performance. ISBN: 978-0787910020

The Teaching for Understanding Guide

The Teaching for Understanding Guide: What does it mean to understand something? How do students develop understanding? How can teachers know how well they understand and support the development of understanding? Teaching for Understanding describes an approach to teaching that requires students to think, analyze, problem solve, and make meaning of what they have learned. Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with Practice introduced the approach and the research that supports it. Now this companion workbook shows teachers how to use the four critical components of the Teaching for Understanding Framework.

Based on extensive research conducted by Project Zero and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, The Teaching for Understanding Guide offers teachers a practical way to apply the concepts of the Teaching for Understanding framework—both in the classroom and in curriculum planning. Using classroom examples from science, mathematics, language arts and social sciences, and reflecting the input of practicing teachers, the workbook shows how teachers can:

• Choose topics that engage student interest and connect readily to other subjects.
• Set coherent unit and course goals.
• Create activities that develop an demonstrate students' understanding.
• Improve student performance by providing continual feedback.

Brief case studies of teachers using this approach illustrate the process in action. Simple planning sheets and teaching units make this guide a useful resource for developing curriculum. Reflection sections at the end of each chapter suggest related activities, issues, and questions to facilitate further exploration of the chapter's ideas. The challenging process of rethinking classroom practice can lead to a new level of student understanding and learning. This how-to guide gives teachers the practical tools for making understanding more achievable in the classroom. ISBN-13: 978-0787909932

Assessing Student Learning: From Grading to Understanding

Featuring contributions from some of today's leading educators, this resource provides a range of practical processes for collaboratively examining student work, including writing samples, visual work, portfolios, and exhibitions. The text presents vivid descriptions of teachers engaged in collaborative processes in actual school settings, from early elementary through high school. Reporting on the work of several of the most important school change networks and institutes, and incorporating the perspectives of education researchers, teacher educators, administrators, and teachers, this volume builds a powerful argument for refocusing professional development on the collaborative and reflective examination of authentic student work, rather than on test scores and grades, as representations of student learning. ISBN: 978-0807737538

Teaching through Projects: Creating Effective Learning Environments

The ideas in Teaching through Projects can be used in grades 3-6 for both classroom and out-of-school programs. Projects can make learning meaningful to students lives in ways that subject-by-subject teaching cannot and can motivate students to take charge of their own learning. Teaching through Projects helps teachers become coaches and mentors by setting up a model for integrated learning. You'll find successful projects, teaching strategies, and project design to increase students interest and motivation while meeting curriculum demands. The approach will help your students develop literacy and thinking skills by building on a wide variety of activities and interests. 1996, ISBN: 978-0201495072

Arts PROPEL: A Handbook for Imaginative Writing

In the Arts PROPEL approach to instruction and assessment, students write poems, and tackle other real-life projects as the starting point for exploring the works of practicing artists. Prepared by Project Zero and the Educational Testing Service with the help of teachers and administrators from the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The Arts PROPEL handbooks, An Introductory Handbook, A Handbook for Imaginative Writing, A Handbook for Music, and A Handbook for Visual Arts, offer guidelines and models for creating a project-based curriculum and using portfolios to assess student work in the arts.