Increasing your So What? Factor: One Approach to Understanding in a Social Studies Methods Course

Social Studies Review, Fall 2004 by Chadwick, Frances (Fran)

* as teachers, by creating a unit based on the same theoretical framework

For this reason I began the work of integrating the Teacher Performance Expectations, the college level standards for teacher credentialing, within my required coursework. I created my social studies methods course as a unit of study based on the framework of Understanding by Design. I began working through the three stages of the design.

1. Desired Results

2. Assessment Evidence

3. Learning activities

While implementing Stage One, Desired Results, I began by asking myself what big idea I wanted my students to go away with at the end of the course. What Enduring Understanding must they gain, when other details are forgotten? Following the Enduring Understanding, I needed to develop Essential Questions. These are questions that recur throughout the duration of the course that will lead students toward the big idea, or Enduring Understanding. Essential Questions are to be thoughtprovoking, sparking enthusiasm and controversy, and are meant to require critical thinking (see Figure 2).

Assessment became the focus as I moved on to Stage Two. I found myself analyzing the different skills, concepts, and principles students must acquire in order to reach the big idea. Stage Two called for evidence of understanding; I created assessments, including an overall authentic assessment, and clearly articulated the criteria that would be necessary to indicate true understanding of the Essential Questions and Enduring Understanding (see Figure 3).

As I approached Stage Three, I looked at the learning activities and assignments I had previously used in the course. I asked myself if the activities and assignments provided my students the opportunity to show evidence of understanding - would they lead students toward the big idea and answers to the Essential Questions? A variety of assessments were developed; student evidence of understanding of skills and concepts were analyzed through teacher observation, quizzes, open-ended prompts and performance assessments. I completed the development of the course as a unit of study, with all assignments and lesson activities leading to the Enduring Understanding. Some of the titles of the student assignments and activities are listed below (see Figure 4).

PLANNING FOR STANDARDS-BASED PRACTICE IN THE ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM

Following a theoretical framework for Understanding by Design is not easy. Students have been required to create a standards-based unit using Understanding by Design, the same framework modeled in the course. Students have worked at higher levels of thinking as they have synthesized their assignments. For example, the Book Chat, Field Trip, and Oral History Project must all lead toward the same Enduring Understanding or big idea. Their unit design included an Enduring Understanding and several Essential Questions to be answered through these projects. This has produced much higher quality student work than received before I implemented this theoretical framework. Students struggle when they begin the steps necessary for developing an Enduring Understanding ~ but they make it ~ moving beyond a simplistic approach of creating unrelated activity based lessons. I believe that all of us will continue to grow as we actively strive to study and implement this design.