Levels of Explanation

WHAT-HOW-WHY

Levels of Explanation

Throughout the unit, students use evidence from their lived experiences and activities to explain the unit phenomenon and/or apply concepts to explain related phenomena. Over time, student understanding deepens. It is important to track student thinking in order to identify gaps or questions that will help shape future instruction.

What are what-how-why levels?

These levels indicate a depth of explanation. These can target a unit-long explanation of an entire phenomenon OR focus in on one core concept of the larger phenomenon.

WHAT - Student describes what happened. Describes, summarizes, restates a pattern or trend in data without making connection to any unobservable components.
HOW - Student describes how or partial why something happened. Addresses unobservable components tangentially.
WHY - Student explains why something happened and can trace a causal story for why a phenomenon occurred or ask questions at this level. Uses important science ideas that have unobservable components to explain observable events.

* Students may have a blend of what-how-why depending on which concepts they best understand.

Ultimately, students are pressedto develop a ‘why’ level explanation. However, ‘why’ level is the most challenging to achieve because it requires wrestling with unobservable mechanisms.

Tracking the Development of Student Understanding

Planning - When planning a unit or lesson, teachers outline what they expect to see or hear at each level of understanding (for a phenomenon). This could also be done for each component idea that makes up a full explanation.
Collecting data - By listening to student talk and analyzing student work, teachers can identify and track the levels of understanding of their students about particular concepts or the phenomenon at large.
Tracking sheets – There are many ways to keep track of student understanding. The most intensive is tracking individual students across a unit to see how and when they shift from a what, to how, to why levels of explanation. Another way is to select 4 focal students per class to follow. These students should be selected to represent the class or can target a particular population (i.e. English Learners, students of color, typically underserved, etc.). Focal students could change each week or unit.

* Data informs the teacher about when students’ levels of understanding shift and can also identify concepts that need to be further addressed (i.e. ones with little or no progression).

EXAMPLES

The next page shows what-how-why levels of explanation for 2 different units. This would be written by the teacher at the start of the unit to help focus observations of students during class. There is a blank area to map out levels of understanding for your unit or a particular concept within the unit.

WHAT-HOW-WHY

The What-How-Why Rubric

Level 1
“What happened” Explanation / Level 2
How/partial why something happened Explanation / Level 3
“Why” or Causal Explanation
Depth of Explanation / • Student describes what is observable or measureable in a phenomenon. / •Student tells one-step “cause and effect” story.
• Student describes but does not explain relationships between variables, or differences between experimental groups, or trends over time or qualitative observations.
• Student predicts the way some natural systems will behave, based on previously collected data, but without talking about unobservable events, processes. /

Student can trace a full causal story for why a phenomenon unfolded the way it did.
Student uses powerful science ideas that have unobservable/theoretical components that link to observable events.
Explanation is about a system of events and processes that are linked.

EXAMPLE
Physics of Tug-of-war / STUDENT RESPONSE:
“In the game of tug-a-war players pull until someone moves.
When I played, I felt my hands get pulled by the rope and I also felt my feet push against the ground as I tried to keep myself from moving.
Wearing different things on my feet (like socks compared to shoes) made a difference in winning the game. When someone had socks on their feet, they couldn’t pull as hard and it was easier to win against them.” / STUDENT RESPONSE:
“I think there is a connection between the push of my feet and the pull from the rope because the harder we pulled on the rope, the more I felt my feet pushing into the ground to stop me. When I finally moved forward, I couldn’t push hard enough to overcome the pull of the rope and my feet started to slide on the ground.
I think that surfaces are important (the surface of the ground and the surface of your shoes). There is an interaction between those surfaces that makes a difference in how much you can pull or resist being pulled. Knowing the surfaces can help predict who wins.” / STUDENT RESPONSE:
“Tug-a-war is more than just a game of who can pull the hardest. It is a matter of who has the greatest push on ground which is a friction force between your feet and the ground. By changing the ground surface or the type of shoes you are wearing, you can change who wins a game because you change how much friction force a person can have before sliding. The amount of the friction force depends on the surface, what is on the person’s feet and the mass of the person.
When you play and no one is moving then all the pull and push forces are balanced, that is they are all the same. When someone starts to move, then the players have different friction forces. The winning player has more friction force than the losing player. The players now have a net force because the force from the pull of the rope is not equal and opposite to the friction force. Unbalanced forces result in changes in motion.”
EXAMPLE
Sound Energy Unit / STUDENT RESPONSE:
“The singer sings until the glass shatters. The singer’s vocal chords vibrate when he makes a sound. I know this because I felt my vocal chords vibrate when we talked and yelled. He also has to sing loud and close to the glass. The glass vibrates until it breaks.” / STUDENT RESPONSE:
“I think there is a connection between the push of the singer’s diaphragm and how his vocal chords move that affects how much the glass vibrates when he sings at the glass. He has to be loud and close to the glass when he sings. The loudness comes from his diaphragm pushing the air with a force. When he pushes hard enough then the air can push the top of the glass making it flex back-and-forth until it breaks.” / STUDENT RESPONSE:
“The singer shatters the glass using energy. First, he pushes with his diaphragm muscle to push air out of his lungs. Then he uses his vocal chords to jiggle the air particles just right, at the right pitch. The jiggling air particles hit into each other giving some of its energy to the next particle making it jiggle to. These air particle dominoes carry the sound energy from the singer’s mouth to the glass. The air particles hit or bump into the glass making the glass particles jiggle, too. If the glass jiggles long enough it breaks at the weak points in the glass which are mostly near the top where the glass is thinner.”

The What-How-Why Rubric

Level 1
“What happened” Explanation / Level 2
How/partial why something happened Explanation / Level 3
“Why” or Causal Explanation
Depth of Explanation / • Student describes what is observable or measureable in a phenomenon. / •Student tells a one-step “cause and effect” story.
• Student describes but does not explain relationships between variables, or differences between experimental groups, or trends over time or qualitative observations.
• Student predicts the way some natural systems will behave, based on previously collected data, but without talking about unobservable events, processes. /

Student can trace a full causal story for why a phenomenon unfolded the way it did.
Student uses powerful science ideas that have unobservable/theoretical components that link to observable events.
Explanation is about a system of events and processes that are linked.

YOUR UNIT: ______ / WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT FROM STUDENTS AT THE “WHAT” LEVEL?
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______/ WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT FROM STUDENTS AT THE “HOW” LEVEL?
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______/ WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT FROM STUDENTS AT THE “WHY” LEVEL?
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WHAT-HOW-WHYClass Tracking Sheet

Tracking Levels of Student Explanation for Topic/Idea: ______within a unit about ______Period/block: ______

WHAT / HOW / WHY
Student describes what happened. Describes, summarizes, restates a pattern or trend in data without making connection to any unobservable components. / Student describes how or partial why something happened. Addresses unobservable components tangentially. / Student explains why something happened and can trace a causal story for why a phenomenon occurred or ask questions at this level. Uses important science ideas that have unobservable components to explain observable events
What are you looking/listening for at WHAT level of explanation? / What are you looking/listening for at HOW level of explanation? / What are you looking/listening for at WHY level of explanation?

For each student place a check mark to locate their understanding at a what, how, or why level.

Use different colored pens to track growth/change over time as students revisit key concepts.

Student Name / What Level / How Level / Why Level
Student Name / What Level / How Level / Why Level

WHAT-HOW-WHYIndividual Tracking Sheet for Understanding & Evidence

Focal Students: Levels of Explanation for Topic/Idea: ______within a unit about: ______Period/block: ______

Select 4 students to be focal students that represent different groups of students in your class. Instead of tracking all students, it is more manageable to track the understanding of 4 in any given lesson. Types of student groups you may consider focusing on include representatives from: English Learners, students with IEPs, students of color, students that are typically underserved or underperform.

Teacher directions: Jot notes from students talk and work as evidence for placing them at a level of understanding in the boxes below. Think about what future shifts in instruction or scaffolds would deepen their level of understanding.

Student Name / What Level / How Level / Why Level

WHAT-HOW-WHYIndividual Tracking Sheet for Understanding & Evidence

Topic/Idea: ______within a unit about: ______

This sheet tracks individual student conceptual understanding and also the individual’s use of evidence. Use different colored pens to indicate different points in time to show shifts in understanding about the concept and also growing sophistication with use of supporting evidence.

Teacher directions: Jot notes from student’s talk and work as evidence for placing them at a level of understanding in the boxes below. Think about what future shifts in instruction or scaffolds would deepen his/her level of understanding. Also, note shifts if now the student uses evidence and what can be done instructionally to strengthen use of evidence.

Student Name: ______Period/block: ______

Explanation 
Evidence** / What Level / How Level / Why Level
WHAT LEVEL
Student names or references an activity or experience
HOW LEVEL
Student uses patterns in data to support a concept or idea
WHY LEVEL
Student justifies why the data supports the claim or argument and/or why it is strong or weak evidence and/or coordinating multiple data sources.

** These are suggestions for how to define each level of use-of-evidence. The teacher can redefine these expectations to support students. May vary by grade level.