Understanding Map: Elephants

On Thursday night I went to seeRon Ritchhart speak at a local school. I think the presentation was really aimed at parents, but I enjoyed hearing him talk more about enculturation and enjoyed him going through the Understanding Map.

Although I was familiar with this already, (my lovely colleague and office mate has it proudly on our wall), I had never really thought about it as a practical tool.

It gave me two main thoughts:

1. Have Grade 10 students look through their process journal or report, using this map, so they can assess if they are showing how their knowledge and understanding has improved through the Personal Project.
   
2.  Use this for creating units/lesson series - guiding students through each stage to explore a topic.
   
   

I decided to challenge myself to create a mini unit using this as a guide...and of course... I am always using the Guardian's "Twenty Photographs of the Week"... and this is what I came up with:

Link to the presentation!

I'll be taking over two science option classes next week to run this class!
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How do you use the Understanding Map? Add your suggestions, ideas and examples in the comments!