Understanding Goals come in levels or sizes. Throughlines are the overarching level. They orient all the inquiries about all the Generative Topics a class engages with over a year or a course.

In the fall of 1993, I posted twelve "Throughlines" in our classroom:

I had become clear about them gradually during the previous year, although they weren't as refined as I would have liked. Nevertheless, I thought they might help students, so I told them these were what I hoped they'd get smarter about during the year. "Everything we do and every topic we study should help us understand more about these questions. If you can't see how they relate to what we're doing, ask someone. If you see a connection to something we're doing, mention it, and I will, too." I also told them of my dissatisfaction with the questions: "I'm not sure they're right. I've been thinking about them for over a year, so they're probably pretty good, but I'm not certain. There are too many—I wish there were four or six instead of twelve. Some seem great, and others seem okay. But let's use them for now; we can always change them."

After talking with the class about what each Throughline might mean, I asked the students to write what they thought about them so we'd all know where we were starting and would be able to see how we were learning more as time went on. In March, after students had used the Throughlines in the first three units, and again at the end of the year, I asked them to write about the Throughlines again. The following anecdote shows why I think the students cared about the Throughlines and felt that they had helped them develop understanding.

Near the end of the school year, we were planning a field trip to walk the Freedom Trail. We were deciding how much independence and free-time students would have during lunch at Quincy Market—a subject of great interest to them. But in the middle of it, a student asked, "Hey, Mrs. Hetland, when are we going to have that conversation about the Throughlines?" I had not realized that we were going to have any such conversation, but a general clamor around the room told me it made sense to do so. "What do you want to say?" I asked. Here are their collective answers, synthesized from the notes I took during the discussion.

"The Throughlines were what made the difference. Every year we do fun things-great projects and cool stuff. But we haven't always known why. This year we did. Or if we didn't, we knew there was a reason, so we'd look up at the Throughlines and try to figure it out. And if we couldn't, we could ask someone, or you, or even talk to our parents about it. So we could see how everything made a difference, because we always knew why we were doing what we were doing. They're really important, and you should tell other teachers about them."

Although I still cringe when other teachers see these Throughlines—I see their imperfections more than their strengths—I realize that even in their raw form, they had a profound impact on the students' attitudes toward developing understanding. The Throughlines kept the intention to develop understanding in the fronts of all of our minds, and that allowed us to be more purposeful in all our work. You will see examples of how that happened in the Biography unit.

Pictures of Practice Contents Introduction The Colonial Biography Unit (7th Grade History) A Year of Seventh Grade English A Year of Eighth Grade Science The Jazz Unit Snapshot Using the CCDT to Develop Generative Topics