Wiggins Chapter Nine

Planning for Learning

In this chapter, we move into stage three of the design process. We are not just thinking about we want but what the learners will need. As also mentioned in previous chapters, this stage is focused very much on feedback and on the "learnings," not the "teachings." The teachings are only part of the learning activities. I like the fact that they highlight feedback in this chapter, since in my opinion, it is vitally important. The authors claim, "Given the likelihood that learners will misunderstand key ideas and make performance errors...the design must make sure that teachers as well as learners get the feedback they need to rethink, revise, and refine" (192). Therefore, it is not just the students that need feedback, but the teachers as well.

Another main idea of this chapter is that the best plans are both engaging and effective. The authors describe a good activity to find out when work in the classroom is considered engaging and effective. The activity consists of two groups, and each group lists what activities they consider to be either engaging or effective. They then sort their results in a Venn diagram to see what activities overlap. I think this activity could really be useful, and it is totally doable.

Finally, the rest of the chapter describes each letter of the acronym "WHERETO." This acronym does not tell us how to construct the design, as we already learned in previous chapters. Rather, it tells us how to check the elements of our designs and basically make sure they are headed in the right direction. I am sure this is beneficial, but thinking realistically, it seems very time-consuming to go through each letter after creating each and every lesson. I suppose one will have to test it out to see the true results and whether or not it is worth it in the end.

Wiggins Chapter Six

Crafting Understandings

This chapter takes an in-depth look at ¨understandings¨- such as what they are, how they are acquired and their common misconceptions. Five distinct features of understandings are given, and what seems to be emphasized is that ¨an understanding refers to transferable, big ideas,¨ like the big ideas we learned about in previous chapters. This means that an understanding is not just a simply-stated fact or truism. To acheive understanding, one must ask questions about the facts or information already known and collected and connect and apply them to other situations. There is a clear distinction between getting a fact and getting an understanding, and the authors assert, ¨An understanding makes a claim using facts¨ (132).

I find that this chapter relates to the previous chapter in many ways. In Chapter Five, we learned how questions that only ask for recall of material are almost never essential questions. In Chapter Six, we notice that through those non-essential questions, our students will not gain understanding, even if their answers are correct. A good, essential question will require the student to uncover the answer. It should take time and thought if understanding is truly the goal.