Chapter 10 FIAE: Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit

This chapter talks about differentiated classrooms, and “allowing students to redo work and assessments for full credit” (131). One thing that really stood out to me was that the book says that we should treat the students in our class as adults. That when they slip and completely forget to do something, to tell them that that’s fine and to just get it to us at…, and give a day to them. This stands out to me, not because I think it’s wrong, but because, until I came to college, I have never seen this happen in a middle or high school classroom. It also may be because I never was in this situation, and still have never been in this situation. However, I really hope that this book isn’t just full of it, and that there are teachers out there doing this for their students. Because, like the book says, everybody slips up sometimes. One thing I really liked from this chapter, and will use in the classroom is that we should not allow students to turn in any redone work a week before the grading period. This forces the students to manage their time properly, and if they really want that improved grade, then they will get it done in the allotted time period.

Chapter 9 FIAE: Ten Approaches to Avoid When Differentiating Assessment and Grading

This chapter outlines ten things to avoid with differentiation. Two that really stood out to me were: avoid grading practice (homework), and avoid allowing extra credit and bonus points. The first one concerning avoiding grading homework I feel is really important. Because I know that when I was a student in the classroom I didn’t enjoy taking the homework I had done and turning it in just for a grade without any discussion on the homework that we had the night prior. Giving homework is fine, but having it as a check to make sure it was completed is all that the teacher really needs to see, grading what they are doing for practicing to master the content just seems to tear the students down. The second thing of avoiding extra credit and bonus points is really interesting for me. Because the student side of me really wants to say that that’s not fair, but the teacher side of me knows that when giving extra credit, it needs to be presented to the whole class, or all students taking that particular class. Which then leads to more work for me. I like the alternative idea though of improving old work instead. Both sides of me like this, the student and the teacher, because it makes it easy on both. While in the classroom I will definitely use this technique.

Chapter 8 FIAE: Why We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior?

This chapter discusses just why it is that we grade, and the other factors that always seem to be put into final grades, which are essentially really hard to justifiably put into a final grade. Grading is there to be able to gauge the student’s mastery. Therefore, it is hard to be able to incorporate behavior, attendance, and effort into an academic grade. What I learned from this chapter was that participation should never really be involved in an academic grade, unless you know of a special situation where the student is unable to provide the outside work, but they really excel in the classroom to make up for it. Effort and behavior are really tricky when it comes to putting them into the final academic grade. In the book it says, “if we incorporate behavior into the grade, we run afoul of our intent to keep grades as accurate indicators of mastery” (104). This goes to show that if we stay true to grading based on mastery, behavior is not something that involves mastering the content.

Chapter 7 FIAE: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions

This chapter focuses on grades, grading, and defining grading. The book points out to “avoid becoming complacent regarding the role of grading in teaching and learning” (94). Grading has become the “elephant in the room” that everyone has to do, but no one likes to talk about. I found two things to be very interesting from this chapter. The first one was that adjustments must be made to each student when it comes to grading their work. Many different factors take part in each assignment with each student. The quote “Students thrive because teachers bend a little here and there to teach in ways in which students can best learn and so remain hopeful about their prospects” (92), really called out to me. While I was a student in high school I had a teacher who did just that for me when it came to my math class. She recognized that if I were to orally do a math test, or have her handwriting on the test as opposed to a word processed test, I scored much higher. Her ability to recognize my style of learning, and then to “bend” to help me receive the best grade possible meant the world to me. The second thing that I found to be very interesting is that research finds that when a task is graded the quality of the work declines. It’s almost like because students know they’re going to be judged they worry too much about that, and lose focus on their premium work that they’re capable of. The thing that I really took from this chapter was that students need feedback, and that grades are not feedback. Grades are the final call...if we want students to learn, we need to always be discussing the content, and must always be giving feedback, without the grade.

Chapter 12 MI: MI Theory and Cognitive Skills

This chapter discussed how you need to teach students to learn how to learn using their multiple intelligences. If you teach a musical student to learn their spelling words using a rhythm, or having kinesthetic learners putting movements to their spelling words, then they are most likely going to remember them later on down the road. I can say that after having watched the movie “Bruce Almighty”, every time since then, when I spell the word beautiful I say it b-e-a-u-tiful, because I heard Jim Carey say it in the movie. Students all learn in different ways, which means the way that they commit things to memories is going to be different as well. It is the educator’s job to be sure to hone in on this different intelligences, so that the students will hold the knowledge for as long as possible.

Chapter 11 MI: MI Theory and Special Education

This chapter discusses how the multiple intelligences theory is beneficial to special education. Having a cousin who is autistic, I was very aware of the fact that multiple intelligences existed, and that if you teach to their multiple intelligence, then no matter the learning disability, you can make an honor student out of them. When I am in the classroom, and I am presented with a special education student, I will be sure to find their multiple intelligence, and teach to that. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn and be successful in the classroom. One thing that I did learn was that MI theory is very significant to the development of IEP’s. However, once I read this it wasn’t surprising, and made IEP’s that much clearer for myself.

Chapter 8 MI: MI Theory and Classroom Management

This chapter in the MI book talked about the ways you can use multiple intelligences for classroom management. A lot of the ideas that were given could probably be most effective in an elementary classroom. In camp we use the musical way of gaining students attention. It seems to work the best for the young ones. While I am in the classroom with middle schoolers or high schoolers, I might me more apt to use the bodily-kinesthetic way of getting students attention, because movements and gestures are what they are more prone to at that age.

Chapter 9 UbD/DI: Bringing It All Together: Curriculum and Instruction Through The Lens of UbD and DI

Chapter nine was about bringing differentiated instruction and understanding by design together. It brought together everything from the previous chapters that we had read, and gave us many useful tips in order to make the two fit together in the classroom setting. The backwards design is very important and key to the whole UbD/DI way of teaching, because it is focused on goals, and it provides flexibility for the teacher to make sure students are learning the way they need. It also provides a place for there to be a lot of summative assessment to happen, where students can check in.

Chapter 14 MI: MI Theory and Existential Intelligence

Existential intelligence is “a concern with ultimate life issues” (182). Teaching this in the classroom could become a very touchy subject for the educator, the students, the administrators, as well as parents. However, in almost every subject you are able to apply the existential intelligence to it. Howard Gardner claims that this may be the 9th intelligence to the MI Theory. Personally, while I think it is a very interesting intelligence, I think that apply it into the classroom, while it may be very easy to do for some subjects, it may be a very sticky situation to get into. Just because it brings a lot of political issues along with it. However, it is a very cool intelligence to consider.

Chapter 13 MI: Other Applications of MI Theory

This chapter discussed three different ways in which MI theory can be applied in the classroom other than through lessons; computer technology, cultural diversity, and career counseling. With computer technology, a lot of it we’re learning about in Theresa’s class, which deals with integrating technology in the classroom, I just never realized that it could apply to the MI theory, even though it doesn’t really surprise me. The line, “every culture has and uses all eight intelligences” (177), is very powerful. With the cultural diversity that is happening all over America realizing this is very important. Since I want to move into a city to teach I should especially be aware of this, hopefully find the multiple intelligences across the different cultures in my classroom. Career counseling is actually really fun for the students to do. I remember being in high school and taking a bunch of quizzes about myself to find out what I should do when I grow up. These different ways to use the MI theory in the classroom is very important, and I will be sure to make sure I incorporate these three things while I am in the classroom.

Chapter 8 UbD/DI: Grading and Reporting Achievement

This chapter discussed how to grade in a differentiated classroom, and the differences between grading and assessments. Grades “should represent a definable degree of proficiency related to important goals” (130). I found this statement to be very helpful when thinking about providing grades for my students in the future. It also helped me with thinking about the second E in the WHERETO model. Because, if the students know the goal at the beginning of the unit, then they know what it is that they need to achieve or acknowledge to be able to receive an acceptable grade at the end of the unit. From this chapter I found, that in order to grade your student’s you need to gather information about your student’s progress throughout the unit, so you have an idea of how they are doing, before you start grading them. One new thing I learned in this unit was that there’s a way of grading called Reporting, which supports standards based teaching, and differentiation. It grades for achievements and goals, it shows progress towards goals, and produces good work habits. When I am in the classroom, I will more likely resort to the reporting way of grading my students. That way they are always aware of what they are going to get for a grade, and they are never ambushed with the grade they received.

Chapter 5 MI: MI Theory and Curriculum Development

This chapter dealt with the many different ways to take the multiple intelligences and create lessons for these intelligences. MI theory’s key focus is for teachers to branch out from their typical way of teaching by lecturing, and involving new ways for lessons to be taught. While I was reading this chapter I realized that towards the end of my high school career my high school English teacher was trying to use this MI theory to teach us some of Shakespeare’s plays. Since, as a class we had never been introduced with this way of teaching, we were unsure of what to think. But, thinking about it now, I really liked her lesson plans where we didn’t just sit and listen to the book, but actually act it out, or to make a movie in current time of what we thought the play would be like. When I’m teaching, I will be sure to consult this chapter, when I need ideas for how to set up a lesson for my hard to reach students, or just to get the class thinking a different way.

Chapter 7 MI: MI Theory and the Classroom Environment

In order for MI theory to work at its full capacity, the classroom environment needs to be able to reach each of those multiple intelligences. This chapter discusses the different ways to set up the classroom in order for the different intelligences to be comfortable. While I was reading this, it made me think of my combined three/four class. In this class we had many different places to go, if we wanted to work a certain way. After the lesson was taught, we had the option to work alone at our desks, to go to the listening table and talk about the lesson with the rest of our classmates. There were also areas where we could listen to music, and just relax and take in the information we had just learned. While I am in the classroom, I will be sure to provide a different kind of setting for the students to be able to receive the environment they need to learn best.

Chapter 6 MI: MI Theory and Teaching Strategies

This chapter focuses on the strategies for the many different intelligences that we will be faced with in our classroom. Rather than falling back on what our multiple intelligences consist of, we are given in this chapter many different tools for teaching the students in our classroom from the eight multiple intelligences. For me, the most useful tools that were presented in the chapter were for those who are of logical-mathematical intelligences. Since I am not strong with this intelligence at all, the tips that we were given in this section will be very helpful to me, since I am sure I will have students in my class that are more interested in math and science than social studies. It will be my responsibility to reach all of my students, despite their learning intelligence.

Chapter 7 UbD/DI: Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms

When you are teaching for understanding you are “uncovering” the content that you are teaching, instead of covering the content or “skim the surface”. If we want the students to get a better understanding of what they are being taught, you need to have the students really dig deeper into the material, and ask them thought-provoking questions that ensure this deep thought process. In the book, the way that I learned the best way to make sure your students are through the WHERETO framework model, while keeping the six facets in mind as well. Through this model, there are seven key points that the students should be getting out of the content to create a deeper understanding for them to carry for years to come. WHERETO is useful for the teachers to be thinking about while preparing the unit for their perspective students, along with keeping this WHERETO model in mind, it is also useful to keep the essential questions in mind. Along with keeping the essential questions in mind, they should also be presented numerous times throughout a unit. This helps to keep the students aware of what they’re learning, and also for the teacher to be aware of what their supposed to be teaching. While in the classroom, I will be sure to use this WHERETO model, with the six facets to ensure my students are gathering the deeper knowledge they come to school to receive.

Chapter 6 UbD/DI: Responsive Teaching with UbD in Academically Diverse Classrooms

This chapter talks about the environment of the classroom, and how it is necessary for the students learning. When beginning to discuss the environment of a classroom, it talks about how it should flow like a melody and that a “teacher is always aware of the melody – the curriculum goals – but finds many different ways to the melody” (89). This goes to show that not only will the teacher need to create a melody for their classroom; they will also need to be able to change that melody to fit each of their students. When the students are comfortable, and know that the teacher is making the adjustments for the classroom to be comfortable, then their learning will greatly improve. Another thing this chapter talked about, which I found to be very interesting, is that in order for the classroom too be comfortable to the students it needs to be flexible. This flexibility exists in many forms through time, space, resource’s, strategies from the teacher and students, and partnerships, to name a few. While in the classroom I will keep in mind of these key elements of flexibility, and use them to help me when I have run out of tricks from my bag of tricks that Dr. Theresa talks about.

Chapter 6 FIAE: Creating Good Test Questions

I enjoyed this chapter because, while reading it, I finally felt like a teacher. Or at least like a teacher that I had while I was in school. Considering things to put on tests seems very official and teacher like. I enjoyed how it talked about how teachers usually get stuck with the traditional ways in asking questions, with the same type of vocabulary. Instead it provided us with other words to use to make the question seem more intriguing to those being tested. Another thing that I liked was the idea to make it efficient for the students. I can’t even begin to count the number of times got an answer wrong on the true/false questions, because my handwriting was sloppy. As a teacher I will be sure to have the T and F on the paper to be circled, rather have them write it. As a young teacher, I would like to think I will be able to keep up with the times, and be able to joke around with my students. So the idea of making tests fun is cool, because it’s almost the last thing the students will be expecting when they’re taking the test, and will be a nice surprise when they get to that part of the test.

Chapter 5 FIAE: Tiering Assessments

This chapter discusses the idea of “teiring”. Teiring is a way of “ ‘ratcheting’ up or down the challenge level” (p.56). In other words each student will be at a different level in your classroom and it is your job as the teacher to adjust the challenge on students to have them learn at their level. I found that the two most (I thought) informative ways to do this were learning menus, and learning contracts. Learning contracts can be set up with the teacher and student, and the student is able to work at their own pace and on skills that they, and the teacher, feel need to be worked on. Student menus are a good way to provide teiring in the classroom. Because the students are provided with multiple choices, each of which get more challenging as you read down the list of options. This is helpful for the teacher, because with these options the students get to choose which level works best for them, but it also meets the understanding and knowledge part that the teachers want their students to learn.

Chapter 4 FIAE: Three Important Types of Assessment

The two things that I liked the best from this chapter was the form of portfolios and self-assessment for ways to assess students. First, I think that portfolios are a really good tool for teachers, because they are able to easily see the progress students have made. This progress could be from either the academic year, or it could be throughout their whole middle or high school career. The students also like it as well, because, while they will complain about the amount of work put into it to create it, they will enjoy the end product and seeing how much they have done, and the progress they have made. The second form of assessment I liked was self-assessment. This is a good tool, because it requires the students to take a deeper look at what they have done throughout the unit, and to see if they reached the requirements set out for them. It’s also good because then the students can look and see how their own self-assessment compares to the teachers assessment. These two types of assessment are two that I will definitely be using in the classroom, because I feel that the students should be assessing and reviewing their work with a critical eye, just like the teacher does.

Chapter 10 MI: MI Theory and Assessment

This tenth chapter in Multiple Intelligences discusses how to apply assessment to the MI theory. The one thing that I really learned from this chapter was the many ways you can see your students’ progress in the classroom, instead of just doing the usual testing process. I personally thought the anecdotal records, work samples, student journals, and calendar records. I also learned that to test the 8 multiple intelligences in the classroom, you literally manipulate the different learning styles to show you through their particular way of learning how they know the material. While I’m in the classroom I’m definitely going to try to use this 8 way assessment for my students, because I know that as a student I would have liked that option.

Chapter 3 FIAE: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

This chapter on assessment was a lot like the UbD/DI book in saying that the backwards design is a good way to build units. And that, in order to build a successful unit, you should start at the middle or the end, instead of the beginning. This is successful, because as the teacher, I am first thinking about what my students should be getting out of the unit, and not necessarily the content of the unit. Another thing that I gathered from this chapter was that students like to know exactly what it is they’re getting assessed on before they begin a project. So as the teacher, I need to be able to provide them with the information and goals that they need to reach, to achieve the grade that they deserve. These two things that I pulled out of the chapter are linked together. Because you cannot create a rubric on what the students should be able to show, without coming up with the skills and content within the standard that they need to know. I may also be able to incorporate some of the skills from the UbD/DI and the Tic-Tac-Toe model that was provided. So not only will the kids know what they need to show, they will also be able to chose the best way for their learning styles to show that mastery.

Chapter 2 FIAE: Mastery

In this chapter it discussed the difference between students knowing the material that is being taught to them, and mastering the material. It talked about the six facets discussed in UbD/DI. However, it went even further to say that there are two ways to obtain good examples of mastery. The first being multiple assignments, and the second of tracking the progress of important works over time. In order for the students to be able to know the material that they are doing in class, they need to be repetitively doing the work. This can happen with homework assignments every night, and it can also be done with projects. Personally, as a student I always found that by doing a project I learned the material the best. In the classroom, as a social studies teacher, I would be more likely to expect my students to learn the material via projects, rather than essays and tests. While essays and tests are a good source for the students to learn the material, it’s not a successful way for them to master the material, like it would if you were to have them create a project that requires many components to lead to understanding.

Chapter 1 FIAE: The Different Instruction Mind-set

In this first chapter of FIAE I enjoyed how the book actually defined differentiated instruction. I learned from getting the definition that not only is it doing what is fair for every student; it is a collection of the best ways to teach to maximize the students learning. I also learned that while it sounds like differentiated instruction is a crutch for the students, it really isn’t. Differentiated instruction just provides students with “the appropriate challenge that enables students to thrive” (p.4). Differentiated in the classroom helped me a lot in high school. Luckily for me I had a teacher who understood that I was more of an auditory learner, and instead of having my math test and quiz grade based on the written portion, she would let me come in during my free time and go over the problems I struggled with, and give me a grade for talking them out with her. When I’m in the classroom, I will also provide this type of service to the students as well. If I know that a certain student learns in a certain way, and their grades will improve because of it, I will most definitely offer them that help.

Chapter 5 UbD/DI: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

In chapter five, it addressed the issue of assessment and the different ways in which to do assessment throughout the classroom. One thing that I learned was that you should always assess before you begin the teaching. That way, you know just what the students in your classroom know about the material that is about to be covered. If you have an idea of what your students know in the classroom, you can avoid spending a lot of time on the stuff they do know, and instead, spend more time on the things that they aren’t so sure about. Another thing that I learned was that if you involve the students being able to chose what they do in order for your to asses them, it makes it more enjoyable for the student. Not only does it make it more interesting for the student, it also allows them to use their own learning styles to show you that they know what is was that you just taught them. In the book I enjoyed how they showed us the “Product and Performance Tic-Tac-Toe Versions’ 1 and 2”. These two figures are something that I might contemplate using in the class. I know that when I was a student and the teacher gave us options about what to do for a final project on a unit, that I enjoyed having the option.

Chapter 4 UbD/DI: What Really Matters in Planning for Student Success?

In this chapter, the thing that I learned, and was comforting to read was that there is “no such thing as the perfect lesson, the perfect day in school, or the perfect teacher…the goal is not perfection but persistence in the pursuit of understanding important things” (UbD p. 56). It was nice to read this, because being a teacher brings a lot of responsibilities. But, going into it knowing that it’s not going to run smoothly everyday is comforting to read from other professionals. I completely agree with the idea of always on the pursuit of understanding the important things. So maybe something doesn’t go right that day in the lesson that I planned out, that’s fine, as long as the students are learning something from me, then what does it matter if it’s not exactly what I planned out?

Chapter 3 UbD/DI:What Really Matters in Teaching? (Content)

The one thing that stood out to me the most in this chapter was at the end where it said that “how students demonstrate proficiency can be responsive to students readiness, interest, and/ore mode of learning…” (UbD p. 35). What I learned from this was that if the student is doing very well assessment wise with the way that they are being taught in the classroom, than you know that they learn best that certain way. But, that just because some students do well with that learning style, the teacher needs to mix it up, and continuously teach different ways, so that all students in the classroom have the chance to succeed in their own way.

Chapter 4 MI: Teaching Students about MI Theory

This fourth chapter, I found to be very interesting. Since, when I was in elementary school, the MI theory had not really been very developed, I was never really taught about it. When it came time for middle school and high school, it didn’t really matter whether or not you knew which way you learned, you just had to do the work, and it was through the everyday lecture and homework, with the occasional project thrown in there. However, while I was reading this and I learned that the MI Theory is something that can be taught to kids as young as 5, I got kind of angry reading that. Because, I feel I wasn’t provided with a good enough education. That maybe, I would have been an even better learner had I know exactly how I learned. When I get into the classroom, despite the grade level that I teach, I will make sure each of my students know what kind of learner they are. Along with that, I am also going to do the posters of famous people who are one of each 8 learning styles. Also, I may make a MI pizza and put each of my student's names in it next to their style.

Chapter 3 MI: Describing Intelligences in Students

This third chapter had to do with the multiple intelligences that you will come across in your classroom, and the ways in which you should go about figuring out the way they learn. The one thing that I learned out of this reading was that a good way to figure out how your student learns in the classroom is by seeing how they misbehave. I had never really thought of it that way, that those who talk out of turn at the ones who are verbal learners, and the ones who are always fidgeting are the ones who are the kinesthetic learners. When I am in the classroom I am going to use this little trick, and really observe what the students are doing, and how they are acting.

Chapter 2 MI: The Foundations of MI Theory

In this second chapter I feel that I learned a lot of new information. The first chapter was about things that we have been talking about in the past week or so. What really stuck out to me for was the term “paralyzing experiences”. In the book this was defined as experiences that “shut down” certain intelligences in your brain. I found this to be very interesting, because something like that did happen to me in elementary school with a teacher and math. I was forced to go to the board and do the math problem when I clearly stated to the teacher I didn’t know how to do it. After having read this it seemed to make sense to me why I panic when it comes to math.

Chpater 1 MI: The Foundations of MI Theory

In this first chapter of Multiple Intelligences, the one thing that I learned from Gardner was that intelligence isn’t, and shouldn’t be measured with and IQ test. I really liked the thing that Gardner himself said, which involved intelligence measurement being put on a pedestal, and how it only focuses on one form of intelligences. So therefore, his multiple intelligences theory proves that there are different types of intelligences, and that you can’t measure someone’s intelligence based on one test alone. Reading this was comforting for me, because I’m definitely one of those people who’s more of a linguistic and interpersonal, and not so much when it comes to things dealing with math and spatial. Knowing that it’s okay for me to be better in one topic than another. Another thing I learned was that I could adapt myself to becoming all of the 8 kinds of learners, and not have to be so closed off to the couple that I am already naturally like.

Chapter 2 UbD/DI: What Really Matters In Teaching? (The Students)

In this second chapter I learned that not only what we teach, but also who we teach it to is the key ingredient to what matters in teaching. I have been around the inner workings of teaching for many years, since many people in my family are teachers, or work in the schools. So when I read that teacher’s usually indentify “successful” and “unsuccessful” students, I wasn’t very surprised to read that. But it was nice to read ways to avoid becoming those types of teachers. Reading how to be a responsive teacher was very informational, and I liked seeing the ten different ways in which to be a responsive teacher. Those ten ways in being a responsive teacher will be with me when I find myself in a classroom setting.

Chapter 1 UbD and DI: An Essential Partnership

This first chapter in “Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design” was filled with many answers to the many questions that I had after reading the first reading assignment of the class. To begin with it answered my questions about just what UbD and DI are. Learning that Understanding by Design is what is being taught to the students and how it is assessed, and that Differentiated Instruction is more about who is being taught, where the teaching is being done, as well as how it is being taught, is actually something that makes a lot of sense. The axioms in the chapter, I felt, did a very good job representing the many ways in which UbD and DI can be presented in the classroom. It really helped me to see just what UbD and DI is, and it taught me the various ways in which it is applied in the classroom. One of the biggest things I learned in this chapter was that teachers, just like any profession have two characteristics, the first being the knowledge that defines them, and the second being the ability to adapt to the people they serve. With teachers, that is the curriculum they teach, and the students they teach it to.