The Teaching for Understanding Guide

by Tina Blythe

"This handbook will both encourage and assist those teachers whotake on the important challenge of helping their students to thinkdeeply and resourcefully and to use that intellectual powerconstructively."
--Theodore R. Sizer, chairman, Coalition of Essential Schools

Walks teachers through the "teaching for understanding" process.The authors offer classroom examples, practical tips, andworksheets to help clarify the process. They also show how toselect engaging and appropriate topics, set coherent unit andcourse goals, create dynamic learning activities, improve studentperformance through continual feedback, and more.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 1997

About the author

Tina Blythe is a senior developer at Project Zero and adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is coauthor of Facilitating for Learning: Tools for Teacher Groups of All Kinds (Teachers College Press, 2015).

Reviews

[Eli C · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Curriculum Development book club read this book in the late fall. I had already read parts of it in my Master's program. Going through the book as a group, we discussed how techniques and concepts could be used in the curriculum we design. Blythe does a great job at organizing and illustrating steps in the TfU process so that educators in a wide range of capacities can implement these effective concepts easily.
I recommend this book to anyone in education.

[char · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and useful, and unlike many other manuals I've read, this one clearly demonstrates how the case studies given demonstrate the framework. Additional brief examples reinforce each component of the framework. Unsure how often this method is still used or how well it's held up (20 years later!) but I certainly found it helpful!

[Sarah Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the TFU framework is very wise and can be quite effective in inspiring students and deepening the learning. This is a very slim book that I think deserves re-reading to really contemplate how to apply it to your teaching. The only reason I rated it 3 stars is because I personally prefer to read the research that goes into this kind of framework. The authors do point us to a separate book which contains the story of the research that lead to its creation.

[Mark]

While this is certainly a worthy companion to Martha Stone Wiske's Teaching for Understanding (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997), it isn't a necessary one. In fact, this is mostly a recap of much of the material in Ms. Wiske's volume; so if you're planning to adopt Teaching for Understanding as the framework for your instructional planning, that book will suffice. That said, this book might be a handy compendium to keep on your desk in your classroom.

[Ida · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is by far one of the most helpful books assigned in any course in my credential work at Mills. I love Tina Blythe and only wish that she would write another Teaching for Understanding Guide specific to teaching English.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A basic, no-nonsense guide to making teaching and lesson planning simple. It really emphasizes the planning stage, which is where all the work happens. If you plan effectively, teaching is the easy part.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Teaching for Understanding Guide provides a unique framework for improving pedagogy. Multiple examples from real classrooms make the book practical and engaging.

[Leanna Aker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another way of writing lesson plans. Boring!

[David02139 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty short book on teaching and performance assessments. Good ideas on how to structure your performance assessments and what make a performance assessment for understanding a good one.