Teaching for Understanding

Powerful Websites for Powerful Teaching & Learning

We are always looking for good websites to improve teaching and learning. Know of a good link that could be added to this page? Email it to us & we'll add it!
Lori@linksforlearning.org
Teaching for Understanding

What Is Backward Design?
http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/%7Ecroom/what_is_backward_design.htm

Indicators of Teaching for Understanding
http://www.ubdexchange.org/resources/news-articles/article4.html
This link is from the UbD Exchange site. It contains good, fairly basic information about what Teaching for Understanding looks like for both the teacher and the student.

Engauge
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/framewk/efp/research/efpressu.htm
This is an example of a first/second grade teacher who used the Teaching for Understanding model with a water habitat project. There is both text and video examples available of this project on this site.

UbD Exchange
http://www.ubdexchange.org
This is the Understanding by Design Exchange site. You will need to have a subscription to access everything on this site.

A Primary Tech. Integration Example
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/framewk/efp/research/efpressu.htm
This link will take you to an example of an inquiry-based 1st & 2nd grade classroom in Pullman, WA. There are video & transcript links.

Technology Integration with SPARC
http://www.TechSparc.com/
Backwards design unit planning with technology integration can be found here.

Meadowdale Elementary's Understanding by Design Links
http://staff.edmonds.wednet.edu/me/UBD.html

Blooms' Taxonomy
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html
This site provides Blooms' Taxonomy & comes from the University of Victoria.

Teaching for Understanding (TfU)
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/tfu/info.cfm

Essential Questions
From Trivial Pursuit to Essential Questions and Standards-Based Learning
http://optin.iserver.net/fromnow/feb01/pl.html
This is from Jamie McKenzie’s From Now On online journal

From Now On Educational Technology Journal
http://fno.org
This is Jamie McKenzie’s website.

Questioning Toolkit
http://optin.iserver.net/fromnow/nov97/toolkit.html
This page provides examples of at least 17 different types of questions. This is again from Jamie McKenzie's site.

The Question is the Answer
http://optin.iserver.net/fromnow/oct97/question.html
Creating Research Programs
One more Jamie McKenzie article on questioning strategies.

Foundation for Critical Thinking: Three Categories of Questions-Crucial Distinctions
http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/3catquest.html
This site provides definitions of three types of essential questions.

Samples of Essential Questions
http://www.biopoint.com/ibr/essential.html
The Farmington High School staff created these essential question samples.

Creating Essential Questions
http://www.galileo.org/tips/essential_questions.html
The key componants of effective essential questions are gone over at this site.