Enduring+Understandings

What are Enduring Understandings?

 * Sentences that specify what we want students to come to understand about the unit.
 * Have enduring value beyond the classroom.
 * The anchors of the unit and establish the rationale for teaching it.
 * Give meaning and importance to facts.

How to Write Enduring Understandings:

 * Build the understandings from the Big Ideas in your standards
 * Write them as statements that the learner will come to understand as the unit unfolds.

Things to Keep in Mind:

 * Enduring Understandings are written for the designer, not the learner.
 * Don't state the obvious (facts go in the knowledge box)
 * Think of it as "the moral of the story". (moral of the lesson).
 * Understandings require "uncoverage" - they are not obvious.
 * Understandings should not be understood simply by being stated.
 * Each statement should begin with "The student will understand that ..." (note how this is different from saying 'students will understand _').