
Generative Topic
Generative Topics are issues, themes, concepts, ideas, and so on that provide enough depth, significance, connections, and variety of perspective to support students’ development of powerful understandings.
Generative Topics are issues, themes, concepts, ideas, and so on that provide enough depth, significance, connections, and variety of perspective to support students’ development of powerful understandings.

Understanding Goals
Understanding Goals are the concepts, processes, and skills that we most want our students to understand. They come in two “size”: unit-long and course-long.
Course-long understanding goals (Throughlines) : What we want students to get out of their work with us over the course of a semester or year.
Unit-long understanding goals: What we want students to get out of their work with a particular generative topic.
(From The Teaching for Understanding Guide, ©1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
Understanding Goals are the concepts, processes, and skills that we most want our students to understand. They come in two “size”: unit-long and course-long.
Course-long understanding goals (Throughlines) : What we want students to get out of their work with us over the course of a semester or year.
Unit-long understanding goals: What we want students to get out of their work with a particular generative topic.
(From The Teaching for Understanding Guide, ©1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

Performances of Understanding
Performances of Understanding are the activities that give students the opportunity to apply knowledge in a variety of situations to develop their understanding.
Performances of Understanding are the activities that give students the opportunity to apply knowledge in a variety of situations to develop their understanding.

Ongoing Assessment
Ongoing Assessment is the process of providing students with clear responses to their performances of understanding in a way that will help them improve the next performance.
Ongoing Assessment is the process of providing students with clear responses to their performances of understanding in a way that will help them improve the next performance.
All image: Project Zero