Curriculum Instruction Assesment

UbD DI chapter 8 is about grading and reporting on student success within the curriculum. It breaks down views on grading into different principals. The students should know what standards they are working towards, there should be a valid evidence for grading, there should be set criteria, not everything should be graded, teachers should not grade with averages, and grading should be achievement focused. I think that the 6th principal is one I will focus on in my classroom. I want learning and grading to be centered around student growth. Teachers should strive to make students engaged and interested in their own learning and promote lifelong learning. Lifelong learners are people who, even once they graduate, will still seek out new information and want to grow their knowledge.       Chapter 8 in Multiple Intelligences talks about classroom management tactics. It lists off ways to get students attention. I like how there are different ways to gain attention fo...

Chapters six and seven in Understanding by Design talk about student understanding. Chapter 6 talks about responsive teaching and answers questions that teachers may have about responsive teaching practices. I like how the book went into detail about different types of learners a teacher might encounter and how those learners may be problematic toward the general lesson plan. Students may be struggling with learning material at the pace he class is going or they could be going too fast for the class schedule. As teachers we should strive for student understanding and understanding where students fall in the spectrum of learning rate. By breaking down in lessons plans and in your mind it should help teachers to understand the different teaching strategies they need to use. Chapter seven is similar because it talks about how we, as educators, can help students gain deeper understanding of topics. I think that when we have these tools to help students it allows teachers to experiment with...

Teachers have to be good at juggling, not in the typical sense, but they have to juggle all the responsibilities they have thrown at them. Teachers have to manage curriculum, student progress, planning to help students succeed, maintaining a safe learning environment, and all the while they have to stay calm and collected while trying to give every student what they need. Most of the time teachers can not manage all of that and they drop one or more responsibilities. It is not that the teacher is bad at teaching or does not want to see students succeed; they just were not given the proper tools to help them succeed. They might not be up to date on modern teaching practiced or with the MI theory. I think this chapter does well in giving brief descriptions about little things a teacher can do in order to help them balance all the responsibilities. It is important for teachers to have a plan that is open to change. The plan needs to be a balancing act between curriculum and student involv...

Chapter 3 talks about the process of building a lesson using backward design. It gives examples of lesson plans and explains the most common confusions people have about backward design. The chapter also outlines the steps to take when using backward design and explains the purpose of each step. There is a shift happening in education right now and I think this chapter does well on summing it up. Teachers are used to driving curriculum into the students without worry if they actually understand it. While curriculum is important, I believe that schools should be places to also work on personal growth and understanding. Students should be able to learn more than just the basic curriculum but with the amount of information that students need to retain it is difficult to think about personal growth in students. I think that  backward design makes teachers more aware of the outcome they want and makes them think about how to reach that outcome. Step 2 of the backward design process ma...

Chapter 2: What Really Matters in Teaching? (The Students)     The title of this chapter basically sums up what all teaching should be. It should be student focused. There was an analogy made that teachers are the employee and students are the customers. According to Tony Wagner, a published educator, students are born with curiosity, and creativity. I believe that it is a teacher's job to prolong this curiosity. By working with students teachers will hopefully allow students to explore their own thoughts about subjects, to be willing to share, and to explore more on their own.     I think that the author explained why we need DI and UbD in our classrooms in a clear way. Using examples of students gave me a better understanding of how much it matters for teachers to know their students so that they can understand what is happening in their lives and plan accordingly for any issues.     I think that the author makes it very clear that p...

Chapter 1: UbD and DI: An Essential Partnership     The first chapter explains what Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction is. Both are designed to include all students in the learning process and make sure that the classroom environment allows them to succeed. The main premise is the teachers and students having a shared goal. What it takes to get to that goal is a balancing act between what makes one student successful and what makes the whole class successful.  I would like to have more of an explanation of what each one is separately. The author does a good job of explaining them as they relate to each other but it is hard to understand their differences. I think that using this method of teaching allows the student to feel more involved in their own learning. When a student feels like they have autonomy, I believe, that they are more likely to want to participate in activities and learn. Also, when using Understanding by Design and Differe...

One of the characteristics of a professional is to be able to reflect upon things. Not to just say what went well and what failed but also to reflect and seek improvement. I think that in chapter 5 the main point was to push the idea of reflection on the readers. If an assessment style does not seem to show accurate knowledge of the student the teacher has to ask why and try to correct it.     I think the author did well at staying objective when talking about assessment strategies. Teachers should understand that there are pros and cons to each way of assessing and we have to find a testing strategy that shows accurate growth and understanding of a topic within the student. This is where reflection comes in. Teachers should be able to see their students improve from the start of the unit to the assessment. I liked what the author talked about on the topic of pretesting before a unit to gauge student growth. The pretest can be a good way to understand how much students...