FIAE+B1+Chapter+2


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Abstract**: Chapter two emphasizes the importance of students’ mastery of the curriculum. In order to successfully assess our students’ mastery we must first know the meaning of mastery. “Mastery is more than knowing information, or course, but it can even go beyond manipulating and applying that information successfully in other situations.” Rick Wormeli //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//. By this open ended definition we know that student must be able to manipulate and apply the curriculum to other situations at the least to obtain mastery. Through the use of the six facets of understanding, as described in the book //Understanding By Design//, by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, we have a basis for our assessment of mastery. The six facets are listed as; Explanation, Interpretation, Application, Perspective, Empathy, and Self- Knowledge. When students can demonstrate proficiency in all of these six facets, then we can determine that students fully understand the unit. As educators, we can make this determination easier if we first, evaluate the unit ourselves, this ensures that we have fully mastered the unit, and also determine which sections of the unit are important for students to master. [|Brian Synthesis]: The most pivotal point of chapter two that my colleagues honed in on was assessment. I think the class almost unanimously felt that the use of quizzes and tests do not successfully asses students’ mastery. Where the problem lies is; how do educators create a means of assessment that can evaluate mastery? ([|Differentiated Instruction and Assessment]) The nature of all different subjects being just that, different, makes it very difficult to establish one typical structure to evaluate mastery. Many of my peers found that even within one content it would be difficult for one type of assessment to assess mastery of different units. However, because tests and quizzes are so integrated into schools, it makes it difficult to stray away from them. ([|Differentiated Assessment and Grading])This is by no means a problem because tests and quizzes can still be a useful tool to evaluate students understanding. I believe the entire class agreed that test and quizzes can NOT be the only means of assessment; hence the use of differentiated assessment. I believe that the class feels that when using differentiation in the class, we need to remember to use differentiation in our assessments.

Cassandra
Once the lessons are completed and the teacher thinks they have taught the kids the information the best way they possibly could, testing comes next. However, the way most teachers test is by fill in the blanks quizzes and other incomplete testing methods. These methods test the "knowledge" of the students, however even if they can pass the tests, it still doesn't mean that they //understand// that information. Recreating information is a much successful test for the students. If they can manipulate their knowledge in some sort of way then they are more likely to fully grasp the information. Tests are where teachers should be a little more creative. If all the teacher wants is for the students to pass the class, thaen fill in the blank answers and multiple choices are the way to go. But if the teachers want students to be able to comprehend the ideas and facts to the point that years down the road, they would still be able to use the information.

Darren
One of the big issues in the second chapter of FIAE was **mastery**. It is interesting to consider how relative the term actually is, how different teachers may have completely opposing ideas of what exactly mastery means. The author writes that it is also important for rookie and veteran teachersto always determine if something is important enough or worthy of student mastery. Many of the examples of mastery involve application of the learned objective. For example, when students might consider something they've learned in history, a teacher can ask them if that would be the same if something had happened in another way. They could explain how the subject they learned might have ended or came about differently. For vocabulary, kids would not memorize a list of words and their defintions, but they would be able to apply the language to figure out how other words might be spelled. The tools they learn in vocabulary could allow them access to a very helpful set of skills. Therefore, mastery is involved not only in learning, but in reciprocating the learning in other ways. The skills students learn should be bounced off and compared to other ideas, and the student should never entirely be certain in what they've learned. However, mastery comes when their ability to defend and use what they've learned in other situations and applications is successful.

Dan
In chapter two we really get to break down the definition of mastery. The book mentions big guns like Ben Franklin, Howard Gardner, and Jean Piaget and their definitions of mastery. Each one of them had a different idea but could all be equal. Mastery, I have learned is what your students need to have of your subject matter now, not just knowledge. Knowledge must be tested, but mastery can be left with a wide range of assessment. To have mastery over a subject a student needs multiple assessments from many different angles. Mastery can also involve real world applications. An example in the book was that mastery isn't knowing your times tables, but recognizing a series of additions of the same number as multiplication. However, from the chapter I do know that mastery is a tough concept to master.

Amy
CH. 2 The completion of new material in a classroom usually signals time for a test or assessment of some sort. The problem with assessing the material learned by students, is what determines if the students have mastered the content? Every teacher has a slightly different view of what it means to master something. However, In their book, “Understanding by Design, McTighe and Wiggins provide six facets of true understanding. Those facets are: Explanation, Interpretation, Application, Perspective, Empathy, and Self-Knowledge” (12). Those six facets provide teachers with the framework necessary to determine mastery of a subject. If teachers can incorporate those facets into tracking, and a variety of assignments, they will be able to accurately judge the students’ understanding of the material. This also allows teachers a chance to evaluate their own methods of teaching, and determine how they can change lessons to help the students progress.

Ethan
This section deals with the idea of mastery. When we as teachers try to determine whether or not our students are learning it can be very difficult. It is very easy to do well on a test, especially in math, and not have any true mastery of the material. The book gives us some ways to determine mastery in our students, such as assessing their understanding in a variety of ways. This again goes back to the idea of not only using test scores, but also activities involving real world applications and in depth analysis of the material. In math, this may be labs or projects that you ask your students to complete. Mastery is very difficult to achieve, and you must keep this in mind when in the classroom.

Chapter 2 FIAE

A student’s mastery of a subject is not just the ability to memorize and repeat what they know, but the ability to use the information in different situations, recreate a problem, and evaluate and explain what they know. As teachers we need to create ways of assessing whether or not the students have mastered our subject. Asking them to do one math problem, or find one thing in text is not going to show their mastery of the subject. We also need to make sure that we are teaching skills that should be mastered. I will not be able to teach everything in one year to my students, so I must pick out the important things. Asking other teachers, looking at the standards of learning, and curriculum guides will help me to teach the things that will matter most.

George
Chapter 2

This chapter attacked the concept of mastery. What is mastery? How does one find out if someone has mastered what is being taught? What needs mastering? Mastery is defined by whoever is giving the material. You've taught a student something new what do you want them to do with it? This also ties in with assesing mastery. What does a student need to do with what they have been taught to prove they mastered it? This is also up to the instructor. The one thing that in most cases the instructor does not have as much power of is what needs to be mastered. State and school standards set most of those needs.

Sean
Chapter 2 One of the big things it talked about right off was how to determine if a student has achieved mastery. The book gave a couple examples of a question that could be asked on a quiz, exam, etc. What it then went on to discuss was how ineffective this approach was. It listed a bunch of possibilities as to how the student came up with the answer they did. And it also discussed how flexible the term mastery really is. To one teacher, it could be to know the dates of a historical event and recite the correct order of how things happen. To another, it could be to discuss in detail, with evidence, how something happened, how it could have been avoided, and it's impact on history. So the term mastery has a very complex meaning behind it.

Andy
This chapter discusses the depth of material you teach. Having your students be able to spit out one line answer is not what we aim for, but having mastery in the material at hand is what is important. The author brought up some great points on how to stimulate the students to gain mastery. A few of these are simple test/quizzes, projects, drawings, discussions, or skits. This chapter reiterates the importance of going beyond the normal classroom drills and problems and to give your students a new look at the material. If your students are gaining mastery in the topic at hand they should be able to give you answers to material much later on down the road and not forgetting about it as soon as the test is over. The author did mention that there will be times when a teacher will have to decide what to go in depth on to allow the students to achieve mastery and what to prune back. I feel that this will be difficult for me right off. I will want to be that amazing teacher and I will think that everything I teach is worth mastering.

Damian
Chapter 2; FIAE What constitutes mastery of a craft? Do we ask our teachers to aspire for mastery in their concentration, in education methodology or in both? How do we quantify mastery? Though the book presents a rather ambiguous philosophy on the concept it fails to mention the common consensus of mastery in societal contexts: Mastery is knowing more on something than someone else. Don’t know how many times I heard high school students proclaim their teachers, expect them in fact, to be masters of their craft simply because they knew more about the subject than the student did. I would then hear the same teacher referenced speak about somebody in the same field who had attained a higher level of understanding in the subject referenced in a //master// role. I don’t think that we have a definition as to what a ‘master’ of something is; I believe that we have a definition for an unreachable and penultimate plateau of knowledge that, if attained, would constitute one in a mastery capacity. Perhaps we set the bar too high.

Brian
Chapter two’s most prominent question is, how do we assess students’ mastery? By mastery the book eludes to the students ability to fully understand curriculum. Through differentiated assessments we can allow our students to prove their mastery. For example in a math class, instead of just laying out a problem and having our students just remember a few tricks and different memorized processes, we could have the student write us a problem, do it out, and explain what and why each step was important. So if we were trying to prove mastery of perfect squares we could say, “Give me an example of a perfect square, show me why it’s a perfect square, and the steps involved in factoring, and multiplying a perfect square.”

Zackary
This chapter discusses on how teachers will be ablle to know whether their students have been able to master a subject. Teachers should be able to give the student a question on the material in which they do not know the answer. The students than should be able to deduce from what they already know how to do this new thing the teacher has given them. Students should also be able to express themselves in moe than one way, a student that can only use one resource to show they know the subject does not in fact know the subject. Once a student is able to show all of the six faucets in a subject then, and only then will they actually know the subject at hand. The students should be able to analyze, comprehend, understand all of the material that is shown to them, even if it goes above and beyond what was asked of them in the lesson.

Liz
Chapter Two of FIAE makes you think about mastery in regards to school. It requires that the teacher knows what should be mastered in their subject area. The other important aspects is that the teacher knows how it shall be mastered and how to determine if a student has mastered it. What this really means for my classroom is out of all the Social Studies concepts what should students know to be a part of society, how shall they master it, and how will I know they have mastered the concept. The idea of knowing what shall be mastered seems to be the most important for students and how I will access the students.

Josh
The concept of teaching mastery to students was the main focus of chapter two. "Mastery is more than knowing information, of course, but it can even go beyond manipulating and applying that information successfully in other situations"(FIAE page 11). Mastery of something can be difficult to accomplish, but methods for teaching are improving to give students the knowledge needed to complete tasks. If a student can be proficient with each aspect discussed in a subject, mastery has been achieved. I feel that having every student being able to demonstrate a thorough understanding of a subject is a definite struggle, but that's what keeps teachers teaching. Things such as tests, quizzes models, demonstrations, videos, cds, and rubrics, are all things that puts students on the right track to achieving mastery of a subject. To have students be able to tell you how they got to the point where they have mastered something is key to understanding if they have really reached that level.