Chapter 6: Crafting Understanding

In this chapter, the author takes us deeper into the complex meaning of understanding. Understandings are transferable, abstract and not obvious; they are generalizations and big ideas. The author wants us understand that without leading our students to inquiry, we are just making misunderstandings persist. This can be originated if we only focus on content. The book uses the word “uncoverage” to show one way to teach for understanding. Unpacking misunderstandings is a clever and practical form of creating enduring understandings.   

To better understand what an enduring understanding is, the book provides us a couple of connotations of the term. First, an enduring understanding is the one that remains over time because it is important and meaningful. Second, an enduring understanding is the one that stay in our students’ minds. Through these last six chapters, the book has been narrowing what an understanding is and what we are supposed to design to reach the desired learning objective.

Most of the time understandings are framed as full-sentence propositions. In my particular case, it has been very helpful to finish the sentence “Students should understand that…” because it allows me to remember about what I am going to write, so I can keep in mind what I want my students take home. Thus I have more opportunities to create a meaningful proposition and an enduring understanding.

I work with elementary students and I really connected with the part in which the author explains that essential questions, facts and understandings will depend on who the learners are and what their previous experiences are. I have to always be aware of context, specially in my case.

Reading this book has been a complete self-reflection journey. I now understand that I must make lots of changes in my teaching practice. I must give my students space to consider, propose, test, question, criticize and verify, because an enduring understanding must be always investigated.