Chatper 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement

This chapter focused on grading in a differentiated classroom and ways of ensuring fair assessment. A major focus of this chapter is upon breaking away from a single grade to represent a student’s achievement. While this may seem easier for the teacher, this does not determine student growth. Instead, assessment must occur at all times throughout the course of the semester, with grading occurring after students have worked through a lesson. While it is necessary to provide a final grade, I would like to include an attachment explaining student progress as well as a folder showing work along the way.

Chapter 9: Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

Chapter 9 discusses the actual application of the backward design model. In order to proficiently explore the model, the chapter worked its way through the stages. It was really helpful to see the stages in completion and the way they fit together to create a unit through backwards design. In addition to providing the unit plan, the chapter goes on to discuss differentiating the unit. I found this to be extremely helpful as up until this point we have only looked at hypothetical differentiation. While it is evident that planning needs to occur in advance, I didn’t really stop to consider the ways I would apply differentiated instruction in the actual classroom, but assumed instead that this would merely happen naturally. However, this chapter suggests that the teacher must come up with countless methods of differentiating the classroom with the acceptance that many of the plans will never be put into action. Another interesting aspect of this chapter was that it provided the teacher’s final unit rather than the unit while in progress. This is significant as students will be exposed to the “real” unit rather than the unit as it is created. I enjoyed the chapter’s inclusion of countless methods of differentiating the classroom, whether working with students who have a difficulty comprehending text, or students whose native language is not English. In addition, there was a follow up of this information which explored the long term success of the student, as well as methods of helping those students if they continued to struggle. The chapter provided a list of expectations presumably present in a differentiated classroom, stating that teachers will in time learn to gauge the most important of the items and recognize whether it is problematic if a circumstance is not prevalent.

Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding

It is important for a concept to be reinforced in multiple ways, such as asking students to read, holding a class discussion, and then asking them to explain concepts to one another. The primary focus of this chapter was upon breaking away from the desire to merely “cover” content, and instead to work towards a deeper understanding through new and exciting lessons and analysis. The chapter discusses three methods of effectively assessing student knowledge, the first of which is asking students essential questions. Instead of asking students to memorize information, we should challenge students to contemplate the source of the information in order to see the significance. In asking students to question concepts which have always been accepted, we are suggesting that they play an essential role in their own learning process, and we allow them to become more involved. The more we ask our students to contemplate a deeper meaning, the greater their understanding will be, thus in time they will progressively be able to answer more complex questions. A great aspect of this is that teachers find that they do not need to individually evaluate student learning as frequently as their learning is evaluated through the essential questions. The second concept covered in this topic was applying the six facets of understanding. I found this to be very helpful as we have just incorporated the facets into stage one, thus this tied it all back together. The facets provide students with a deeper understanding of the concepts they are discussing, yet they must not be applied merely for the sake of incorporating each of them. Instead, they should be used only in a way which influences student growth. In addition, another idea which we must keep in mind is that we must not merely give students drill activities as they will lose interest and will lose sight of the big picture they are looking toward.

Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UbD

The focal point of this chapter is based around the idea that all students must be given an equal basis for learning. This means that we must expect the same things from all students, regardless of their current skill level. While drills clearly serve a purpose for students having a difficult time learning a concept, they must always be able to recognize the end result while they are practicing. Just as the coaching analogy pointed out, athletes will practice relentlessly if they understand that the drills will enable them to succeed in the long run, but what is the incentive if they do not understand the sought after long term effect? The student should always understand the objective of the lesson so that they may work towards mastery. Just as previous chapters have suggested allowing students access to the test at the beginning of a unit, the student should be given mentor texts and a clear explanation of what they should take away from the lesson. Along these lines, a teacher must not only ensure that a lesson is meaningful, he or she must also recognize that the lesson means nothing if the student does not gain personal meaning. I really enjoy this chapter because it does not deny that providing a differentiated classroom is difficult, but instead provides countless examples of how to make it manageable and effective. The charts throughout the chapter displayed countless ways through which teachers may integrate differentiated instruction, and showed that although the transition may be slow, it is happening effectively.

Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

The photo album analogy was helpful to me as there is no way to understand student growth if the teacher only sporadically examines the work of the student. Instead, by constantly observing the work of the student as well as the student’s learning style, the teacher may gain a more complete image of who the student is as a learner. While testing remains important in the classroom, relying on a single test to evaluate the work of a student will not give the teacher a full concept of how the student is progressing. When a school uses testing as the primary means of understanding student progress, many important aspects of learning are missed. There is a tendency to focus primarily on the standardized test topics than upon a well rounded curriculum, and many important methods of learning are missed as students are only asked to show their linguistic and logical intelligences. In addition, I thought it was valuable that the chapter discussed the various testing styles used for each educational goal. For example, an art evaluation should never be done through a test, but instead by allowing the student to create artwork or find another way to show their proficiency.

I enjoyed that the chapter discussed the difference between knowledge and understanding. While this should be a rather simple distinction, it is nice to have the lines drawn and an explanation given. Understanding can be seen as shades of gray, as there is a large scale of how students understand a concept. In addition, there are many types of understand, thus assessing a student’s level of understanding of a concept can be difficult. When students are capable of explaining as well as applying skills, it can be understood that they understand the concept.

Chapter 4: What Really Matters in Planning for Student Success

I really enjoyed chapter four as it began to examine teachers as humans teaching other humans and passing on a passion for learning. Rather than focusing purely on curriculum, this chapter instead instructs the teacher to look at the student’s needs and work toward engaging the learner. There must always be a balance between teaching to the students and teaching a well thought out curriculum. This chapter explains teacher attitudes and beliefs which enable student growth. Another interesting element was that the chapter discussed the importance of maintaining an equal work load for all students. While it may appear logical to give less homework to a struggling student and more to a student who understands concepts, this is actually far from beneficial. The student who is struggling is given less work, yet she is also given less practice, and thus not able to develop a proficiency in the topic. At the same time, the student who understands the topic will eventually lose interest as they are essentially being asked to do busy work which does assist their learning.

An interesting aspect of this chapter was that it discussed that as well as a teacher may teach a lesson, there are still students who may not understand. While this is a reasonable concept, it is more important to realize that a student not understanding is not the fault of the student, thus the teacher needs to find a more effective approach. Although very intimidating, the teacher must evaluate the way in the class was taught and then attempt to teach the students in a different manner.

Chapter 3: What Really Matters In Learning? (Content)

Chapter three of UbD/DI speaks of the difficulties of incorporating all content standards into the classroom, and gives the shocking fact that it would take nine extra years of school if all of the benchmarks were to be even touched upon. Rather than selecting enormous concepts which can easily be misunderstood, standards should instead be addressed as big concepts broken into smaller guiding questions. At the same time, it is not necessary to break every concept down as thoroughly as this destroys the overall concept. Students as well as teachers get lost in the details and miss the important issues. In addition, the chapter instructs the teacher to work backwards with a goal in mind, beginning with identifying desired results. In identifying the results, the teacher should understand what the student needs to learn and be able to reapply in a daily context. The next step is to determine the evidence which will help us to assess the student’s results. The final step is to plan effective lesson plans which will assist the teacher through achieving the desired results. The final thing I enjoyed about this chapter was the explanation of the “twin sins”, an interesting way in which teachers either teach based upon the activities they plan or use curriculum to support the book rather than the book to explain the curriculum.

Chapter 2: What Really Matters in Teaching? (The Students)

The final chapter of this book began by providing examples of students who had once performed well and suddenly encountered difficulties performing in class, thus challenging the teacher to manipulate the curriculum to the students needs. In the case of one of these students, the teacher was able to diagnose an otherwise unseen learning disability. The chapter goes on to explain the methods of teaching responsively, and ways in which teachers may do so on a daily basis.

Chapter 1: UbD and DI: An Essential Partnership

The aim of the first chapter of “Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design,” works to explain the necessity of pulling together the learning methods of understanding by design and differentiated instruction as students are increasingly diverse in both background as well as learning style. While this may feel intimidating to many teachers, they must collaborate in order to effectively teach all students. Teachers must always keep in mind the standards of the district, the objective of their curriculum, and the learning needs of each individual student, thus this chapter helps teachers to combine each of these needs. This chapter discusses the way in which the most organized curriculum means nothing if students are not learning. At the same time, if the teacher attempts to focus upon each student’s individual needs but applies no organized curriculum, the teacher does not assist the student as he will learn nothing, therefore this chapter is helpful in explaining the way in which a teacher may incorporate both an organized curriculum and teach to each student’s needs. A great aspect of this chapter was that it provided realistic explanations of axioms and their corollaries, making it much easier to understand the application of axioms.