5 Quick and Easy Techniques for Using Understandings In Your Classroom

By Kate Wolfe Maxlow

Teachers inherently know how to use questions to illicit learning, and therefore it often seems less daunting to use Essential Questions in the classroom. But what about the slightly less known Understanding? (Not sure what an Understanding is? Click here.) How can we use those effectively to help students gain deeper insights into the topics they’re studying?  If the whole point is that students should walk away with the Understandings, then don’t we want to ensure that they actually interact with them?

Turns out, there are plenty of easy ways to authentically incorporate Understandings into your classroom instruction as well, other than just posting on the board and reading it aloud to students. In addition to strategies like the think-pair-share and journaling that were described in the article on using Essential Questions in the classroom, here are five easy techniques for incorporating Understandings into your classroom:

1. Whole Group or Individual Graphic Organizers or Anchor Charts

A great way to introduce an Understanding is by using a graphic organizer or anchor chart that has the Understanding at the top (almost like the main idea), and then supporting facts below (like the details). For instance, in first grade mathematics classroom where the students are learning how to add one-digit numbers, the teacher might have the Essential Question: What do I do when I get stuck on a problem? And the Understanding: Problem-solvers choose the best strategy to help them solve the problem. With the whole group, the teacher could introduce this Essential Question through a think-pair-share, having students do their best to answer the question (for first graders, the teacher might also need to ask the Essential Question and then add a specific topic, such as “...when you get stuck on a problem adding two numbers”). As students share out and give their answers, the teacher will then introduce the Understanding, taking note of various strategies shared by the students (such as: “I use unifix cubes” or “I draw a picture,” or “I visualize it in my head”). The teacher then creates an Anchor Chart with the heading “Problem-Solvers Choose the Best Strategy to Help Them Solve Addition Problems,” and then lists the various strategies that students can use. The teacher leaves this anchor chart up in the classroom during the entire unit (and maybe longer) so that students can refer to it.

But maybe you have older students who can create their own graphic organizers. Let’s imagine a social studies classroom about to study Reconstruction in which the Essential Question is: Who gains, loses, or maintains power in a conflict? And the Understanding is: Conflict creates opportunities for changes in power structures. The teacher asks the Essential Question and presents the Understanding to students, who write the Essential Question at the top and the Understanding in the center circle of a Main Idea Web. Off that main circle are three other circles that say: Gained Power, Lost Power, and Maintained Power. During the unit, the teacher continues to circle back to this Essential Question and Understanding, and periodically has students add bubbles to their Main Idea Webs that illustrate examples of people or groups who gained power, lost power, and maintained power during Reconstruction (and potentially adding more bubbles to each providing other relevant details).

2. Student-Created Performances or Products

Another great way to get students up, moving, and being creative is by having them create a performance or product that illustrates the Understanding. For our primary grades example, let’s imagine a kindergarten social studies classroom in which the students are learning about citizenship. The Understanding might be: Rules keep us safe and the Essential Question might be: What rules do we need to stay safe? The teacher does a whole group lesson with students by presenting the Understanding and asking the Essential Question, and then has students role-play various rules, such as how to stand quietly in line, how to keep hands and feet to themselves, how to ask nicely to share, etc..

Older students can also create products that show their understanding of the Understanding. For instance, in a Health class in which the Essential Question is: What makes a food healthy? And the Understanding is: There are many short and long-term health benefits and risks associated with nutritional choices, students might write the question and understanding out on the outside of a food journal, in which they track their own eating for a week and then reflect each day on how healthy their choices were and what they ate could potentially impact their future health.

3. Five Levels of Why

Have you ever tried to play the “Why?” game with a four year old? It’s almost impossible to win. Any time you answer their “why” question, they come back to you with “Why?” again. But it turns out that the world’s four year olds are onto something: this is actually a GREAT technique for really looking at the heart of the matter and digging deeper.

You can either do this formally or informally with students around an Understanding. Students will need a certain amount of background knowledge on the topic, so if it’s a brand new concept, you might want to wait until after instruction has taken place. It can work either with a whole group or with a small group, and you can explicitly teach older students the technique so that they can use it to structure their own small group discussions. It goes something like this:

Let’s say a graphic design teacher introduces the Understanding: Advertising art imitates society and society imitates advertising art. The teacher then asks students: “Why do you think this is?” (Why #1)

Students will give a variety of answers. Let’s say one of them focuses mostly on the second half of the statement and says, “Because a lot ot of graphic design uses famous people in the artwork.”

The teacher then remarks, “Yes, that is often true! Why do you think that is?” (Why #2)

Another student adds, “Because they know that we all want to be like famous people.”

“Why would they think that we all want to be like famous people?” the teacher asks, including the previous statement in the question (Why #3). (Four year olds everywhere would be proud!)

A student might then answer, “Because famous people are glamorous and have things that we all want.”

The teacher might change it up a bit to focus students on the things being advertised rather than the celebrities: “Okay, so why do we want those things?” (Why #4)

Let’s say another student responds, “Because who wouldn’t want to have a big house and a great car and the latest iPhone?”

The teacher could can also use statements to refocus before asking another why. “So, celebrities often seem like they have the perfect lives. Why do you think that is?” (Why #5)

Getting it, a student might say, “Oh! Because art makes it seem like that! They might not actually have perfectly lives, but that’s how they’re portrayed in advertising, and that’s what makes us think that if we just get the latest iPhone, our lives will be perfect, too.”

Note that this is a technique that might take some practice in order for the teacher to learn when to probe more deeply and when to restate a point to better focus the discussion. But regardless, it’s a fun way to have a quick classroom discussion around deeper thoughts that place the emphasis on why the learning is important.

4. Give One, Get One

This is another great technique to get students up out of their desks and oxygen flowing into their brains. Even better, it takes little prep on the part of the teacher and doesn’t have to take a lot of classroom time. It works great as a closure activity at the end of a lesson or unit.

After reviewing the Understanding with students, give each student a note card. Have them write down 1 fact from the unit that supports the Understanding. While they write, monitor and provide feedback on any misconceptions. When students are finished, have them stand up. Play music or have them move around the classroom until you give the sign to stop (can be stopping the music, or flicking the lights, or just yelling “Stop!”).

Have students raise their hands, and high five the person closest to them, then put their hands down; the person they have just high-fived will be their partner (this makes it easy for students to see who still needs a partner and navigate toward that person). Students can then each share their Understandings verbally, and the person listening should summarize what they heard and write it on the other side of their notecard. After about one minute, have them thank their partner, turn the music back on, and repeat the process. Repeat until students have 3-5 facts that back up the Understanding.

5. Student-Created Understandings (or: Guess the Understanding)

Lastly, I’ve had some teachers ask: if we have an Understanding in mind, does this mean that students can’t come up with their own Understandings? Students should absolutely be able to come up with their own Understandings; that’s actually at the heart of why we teach. We WANT students to be able to succinctly determine what is important about the learning.

Here’s a way that you might do this. Let’s say that you’re working on a unit on weather and you want your students to understand that “Patterns help us to make predictions.” You might hold off on introducing this Understanding to students at the beginning of the unit, and instead create summaries of your learning each day that you post on the board or on an anchor chart, such as:

1. Clouds can tell us what kind of weather is coming.
2. Different seasons are associated with different types of weather and different types of storms.
3. When the measures on the barometer fall, we know that a low pressure system, and therefore foul weather, may be coming.

After you’ve posted each summary of the day, ask students to look at all three and see what GENERAL Understanding they can come up with based on them. Note that the first few times you do this, you will most likely have to model to students how to come up with a general Understanding. Also note that students may surprise you and come up with an Understanding that’s not at all what you were thinking; as long as it’s accurate, that’s okay!

For instance, using the above, you might have students come to any of the following Understandings:

• Weather affects our daily lives.
• Knowing how to predict the weather can help you make choices.
• Observations help us know what’s coming next.

Any of these are technically true! That shouldn’t stop you from also sharing your Understanding (the one you had planned from the start) to add to the ones that students come up with.

When students make an Understanding, have them test it with each summary to make sure that it actually fits them all. For instance, if a student came up with the Understanding “Technology helps us predict the weather,” when you test it against A, B, and C, it works well for C, but not for the A and B. That doesn’t mean it isn’t still an important understanding, but press the student to see if he or she can generalize even more to find a statement that fits all three summaries.

Do you have another great way to use Understandings in the classroom?  Let us know!

Kate Wolfe Maxlow is the Professional Learning Coordinator for Hampton City Schools. You can reach her at kmaxlow@hampton.k12.va.us.