Early Childhood

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

Project Spectrum: Project Zero Frameworks for Early Childhood Education, Volume 2

This curriculum resource will enable teachers in the early primary years to apply multiple intelligences theory in their own classrooms. It provides enriching activities in a wide variety of disciplines, including mechanics and construction, movement, and music. ISBN: 978-0807737675

The Thinking Classroom: Learning and Teaching in a Culture of Thinking

Going beyond the piecemeal approach of injecting thinking skills into existing classroom lessons or units, The Thinking Classroom shows how to transform the classroom, through a culture of thinking, into a place where the many aspects of high-level thoughts, skills, attitudes, values, and habits of mind are supported and encouraged by the learning environment. ISBN: 978-0205165087

Thinking Connections: Learning to Think and Thinking to Learn

Thinking Connections includes step-by-step instructions and practical suggestions for teaching three strategies: Mental Management: A strategy that develops an awareness of how the thinking process works and presents a three-step method to control and improve thinking for any task in any subject. Decision-Making: A strategy that presents a series of three questions to be considered and answered in order to evaluate of make thoughtful decisions in or out of the classroom.Understanding through Design: A strategy that allows students to analyze and evaluate almost anything in a systematic way in order to discover its meaning and achieve a genuine understanding of it. Thinking Connections was designed to be used across the curriculum, beginning in upper elementary levels and continuing through teacher training. ISBN: 978-0201819984

Putting Understanding Up Front

A simple four-part framework gives teachers a language and strategy for enhancing their efforts to teach for greater understanding.