THE CORE PARTS 1 AND 2
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ETAP623 : THE CORE, PARTS 1 AND 2 This page last changed on Jan 23, 2008 by wikiadm1.
Unit 3.1 - Generative Topics. "You have to pick your battles." This common advice reminds us that it's not best to attack everything at once. As such, in teaching for understanding (especially when you're beginning), you must begin slowly, and create or revise your lessons wisely. In choosing what you should try to teach for understanding, you should focus on those topics that are generative. A generative topic is a topic that lends itself well to teaching for understanding. Such topics are characterized by a) being central to the discipline, b) having high accessibility to students, and c) possessing the ability to connect to many other topics, either within or without the discipline at hand. (Perkins and Blythe, 1994, p. 6) Many educators will insist that anything can be taught for understanding, but can you think of why generative topics may be the most important topics to teach for understanding, and thankfully, why they are the easiest to do so for? Unit 3.2 - Understanding Goals. Oftentimes, when we choose a generative topic, we can be bogged down in how generative the topic really can be. Without setting some sort of boundary, students may travel too far off track from the desired learning outcomes of the topic. So, in order to keep control of what is learned and understood as a result of the methods used in teaching for understanding, it is recommended that teachers write out exactly what the outcomes of their lessons should be. This simple list of understanding goals should accompany a lesson plan. These understanding goals will help you, the teacher, guide students' understanding and make sure they stay on track. Perkins and Blythe (1994) give easy examples of what these understanding goals should look like. Simple sentences such as "Students will understand that..." and "Students will appreciate that..." (p. 7) should be sufficient to guide your teaching. Activity for Units 3.1 and 3.2. Taking into account what you have just learned about generative topics, choose a topic that you teach in one of your courses that you would like students to understand better. This is the topic that you will create a revised lesson for in this mini-course. After choosing your topic, review it and write a short paragraph on why you want students to understand this topic better. From this paragraph, adapt a list of understanding goals for the topic. (Please note that you will use this topic and list of understanding goals in your next activity - this will be the end-product of your work in this mini-course, the "revised lesson plan".) In choosing your topic, were you careful to choose one that fulfills the characteristics of a generative topic? Will your understanding goals assist students in transferring - and understanding - the topic in the future in many new contexts? Please follow the link to the next portion of the mini-course: THE CORE PART 3 |
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