UbDDI+B1+Chapter+6



toc

[|Sean's]Abstract
The main idea behind Differentiated Instruction is to help students who learn in very different styles to be able to connect to what you're teaching. Part of that is trying to make them reason and understand what they're being taught and it's our job to help them find meaning in it so they can feel some level of importance. Give it a real-life application, regardless of how much of a stretch it has to be. Another part is helping the students understand what you're expecting of them. They need to understand exactly what you want so they can know what to drive their end product to. And a final point is understanding that as teachers, it is very intimidating to try to reach EVERY single need from EVERY single student. As teachers, it's our job to find ways that allow for student success, despite any student learning problems.

Synthesis
Something that came up a bit was how to tap into each students [|strengths and interests] to better engage them in the classroom. A lot of people are concerned about losing their students interest, and want to find a way to make this relevant to them. This sort of taps into what we've been talking about in MI as well, which is interesting. Another point that came up a lot was trying to find a way to show[| flexibility] in the classroom, which is very important to try to not overwhelm our students.

Amy
CH. 6 To be a responsive teacher in an academically diverse classroom requires careful planning, time, and effort. It can be challenging because lessons must be planned with the curriculum in mind, along with the understanding that there are different learners in every class who must be reached. There are four core beliefs about why and how to combine curriculum and classroom diversity. First off, students should be able to make something out of what they are learning, rather than just memorize information. Therefore, instruction directly focused on meaning and understanding helps both high and low-performing students. The next step in enhancing student learning abilities, comes when opportunities to learn basic ideas and concepts, and then apply what has been learned. One example of step two, is, “A good coach has players do sideline drills-but inevitably in service of playing the game” (UBD/DI p.85). It is most effective to prepare for the “real world” by practicing techniques and developing skills-actually doing “it”. Step three calls for a balance between student constructed understanding, and guided understanding-which comes from a teacher-, because every individual constructs meaning in ways different from their peers. However, support systems are a valuable tool regardless of the different ways understanding is constructed. Differentiation provides students with a chance to understand in the way they best know how. The final step indicates that success for every individual is easiest when goals and expectations are laid out in a straightforward way. Essential questions, followed by smaller sub-questions are good for highlighting exactly what students will learn, and why it will be useful in the “real world”. Another important concept in chapter six demonstrates effective ways to plan instruction for understanding no matter how a person learns. To do so, a teacher must first be aware of the curriculum goals. The teacher must also have planned instruction, but be willing to improvise depending on the individual/s in the classroom. When a teacher is flexible with her instruction, she can address the needs of every student rather than a specific student or group of students with the same learning/understanding capabilities.

Darren
I found two important ideas (or examples) in the sixth chapter of Tomlinson's book. First, I liked the analogy of "sideline drills" in a classroom environment. The author described the pushing and learning of basics and fundamentals as a football would use sideline drills to establish routine and form. In this way, the student is able to see the bigger picture and relate their progress to the end product. I also liked that the authors mentioning students' need to see the learning goals of a unit or lesson, and in a way, these two facets of the chapter compliment each other. In order to learn the basics effectively, a student should be able to see the bigger picture--the goals of the unit--and this will help them practice and understand the smaller concepts easier. I didn't have a high school teacher who showed us the bigger picture. Many times, I wondered if the teacher knew themselves. There was an air of mystery about each and every activity (especially with a certain History teacher that I have in mind), and the students were baffled when we would switch between seemingly irrelevant topics. As a teacher, I want students to understand what I'm teaching, and if we have to articulate basics and fundamentals in length, I think that giving them an overall picture would only help me instruct them further.

Brian
Chapter six further alludes to the understanding of content and curriculum instead of brainless memorization. Through being a responsive teacher we can develop our students skills in a way that will answer the ever prominent question, “When will we ever use this in the ‘real World.’” Through hands on experience and projects we can promote the use of our teachings in every day use. For math this is a very easy task to accomplish. Look around at anything in the room around you, everything there, the structure built around you, the spare change lost in the couch, the statistics on your sports station, or the polls on MSNBC, all involve some level of mathematical competence. By using predetermined goals and a simple laid out structure we can easily persuade our students to learn form the curriculum based lessons we offer. However flexibility in these lessons are key. Through differentiating our lessons we can reach all corners of our class and provide a lesson that will enthrall all of our students.

George
Chapter six attacked how to be a responsive teacher in an academically diverse classroom. One of the key elements is to make students see why they are learning a particular skill or otherwise in the classroom. One thing that frustrated me in math classes was I never saw myself using matrices or graphing polar coordinate grids in day to day activity. The book likened it to a football player running drills in practice. I would know from experience that this is a good example. I would spend a block of time learning how to make a particular block and then later on in practice I would be applying it to the plays we were running that week. This would all culminate in the big game on Friday night. We as teachers need to gear the curriculum and how we deliver it so that the students can see the lit field at the end of the week. = =

= =

Jennifer
All students, not matter what "level" of learning they are at, low or high, need to be exposed to not just the low-level and repetitive work. Teachers need to give them meaning-focused lessons and a variety of curriculum based on forming those essential basic skills as well as high-level work. I want my students to know why I give them certain lessons, assessments, and what criteria I use to grade. This way students are not in the dark and will know what to expect from me as a teacher. Using different classroom elements will be very helpful in a differentiated classroom. Elements like: time, space, resources, student groupings, instructional or learning strategies, presentation or teaching strategies, and partnerships. Students may need more time on certain activities to master the skills, or teachers need new ways of presenting material, and even the space in the classroom can be change to help the students learn.

Dan
This chapter speaks of techniques teachers can use to present their curriculum of UbD. A couple of the tools that I found helpful was the table that gave a student need and then ways a teacher can deliver their material so that the student need is taken care of and the rest of the class' learning is not hindered in any way. So if a student is not interested in subject matter for example, it gave ways that such as using WebQuests, Design a day, or an independent study as ways to keep a student interested. Another table and something that I had trouble with in the days I presented my lesson while in the field was time management. When teaching a particular lesson, my time wasn't always the same because I found something that didn't work and then had to add something else in, or nothing at all. But it became a problem when students finished their work earlier than expected. My obvious first question was “What do I have my students do now? There was a chart in the chapter that covered many areas and answered questions that teachers would have like the one that popped into my head when I saw students finish early. So the chart had 3 columns. One for concern (time management), the second was for questions that may arise (What if students finish work early?), and the third it answers the question (You need to provide activities that relate to material that students will be able to use to help themselves in the future for studying or just relating back to).

Sean
So this chapter is about how teachers work in a classroom of students with varying level of skill. Something that particularly caught my interest was how to keep a student interested in the curriculum. When I was at MBHS, a student asked me why the work we were doing was at all important and when he will ever need it. I told him that there's no way to know if he will ever use any of this, but there is definite value in what he's learning and that it can really help in life. And then he asked me again, referring to the particular assignment we were doing. Didn't really have a response for that. Anyway, so this chapter was helpful in showing me how to keep student interest and how to differentiate my classroom to fit the skill level of varying types of students. = =

= =

Andy
The bit about the coaching analogy stuck out for me. It makes the connection that a coach will make sure all the drills will translate over to the game in one way or another. It even mentions that “sideline drills” are, at times, called for to help refine and to extend key skills. This makes sense to me. Even though a student may know how to add to numbers, we have to use many different sets of numbers so in the real world they will not be surprised if a different set of numbers comes up and they have to add them (just an example). The section following also caught my attention. The quote they provided from a cognitive psychologist who says that a teacher should never tell anything to the student and instead have the student construct the knowledge themselves. I like the thinking behind this, and it puts the learning in their hands.

Damian
So the analogy reigns supreme and school work is a side-line drill while the application of said drill is the unit test or the real world. It’s a good analogy I suppose, though my knowledge of sports could be likened to a salmon’s inherent knowledge of the oxygen molecule. The question that this analogy leaves for me, however, is large in scope. How can you apply this thought process to an intellectually diversified population of students who are invariably all aiming for different stars along their own horizons? We as educators are encouraged to teach for the real world and show that knowledge has applicability, in effect justifying our approach to a jaded population that takes our curriculum with a grain of salt. Teaching with the end in sight is a wonderful concept as long as you’re able to teach methods that appeal to a wide array of contingencies.

Cassandra
One aspect this chapter talks about is teaching students in a way that shows them the big picture. They can accept tedious smaller ranged work if they know where it is leading later. So many students do work that they don't connect to any end goal. I guess in my units case, I want the students to be savants in grammar so that they can write coherently and be respected by grammar snobs when they are writing applications or making formal complaints. This chapter also talks about ways to make lessons more appropriate for different learning abilities. One I found useful was flexible deadlines. However, I see a down fall in this: what happens when these flexible deadlines have all flexed to a later date and the end of the semester is coming? There is also the idea that a teacher can exempt the students who have already mastered the work and then the teacher can give them more advanced work. This reminds me of my little cousin; he had already mastered second grade level math and English by the time he started Kindergarten. However, he wasn't very social, so the teacher decided to have him start learning French and then Spanish to supplement his learning while the other kids were just learning everything in English.

Zack
The main thing I learned from this chapter is that I must be flexible to all of my students needs. Just because I think that I am reaching all of my students does not mean that I am, it actually means I am not. To believe that I am reaching all of my students, I have to realize that I must always change my lesson plans. I will never come up with the coveted perfect lesson plan, instead I must make it so that I am always change it to accomdate all of the students. Even if I am not reaching just one student, that is one student that is being failed by me, therefore, I consider myself failing at my job. My job is never finished, and will never finish it will always change year to year, day by day. I must remain as flexible as I can be to what the students need from me.

Ethan
This chapter focuses on the need for teachers to maintain flexibility in the classroom. As this book states, every student is different. It would only make sense then that as a teacher you must be flexible. The problem I had before this chapter was how I maintain flexibility while still reaching the goals I have in regards to curriculum. This chapter gave some great ideas as to how to be flexible in the classroom. It really comes down to giving the students what they need. I feel like the biggest thing I took from this chapter is that having the desire to reach all the students is the first step in creating a flexible classroom. Do not do it because the book is telling you to, as a teacher you must be flexible because it is what your students need.

Josh
Chapter 6 discussed how to design a rich, challenging, and learning based curriculum. It gave the reader the key to designing a good curriculum based on the Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction theory. The key is focusing on important ideas, giving the lessons meaning, making the students think, allowing students to find knowledge for themselves, and eliminating the mystery of where the lesson is going. I will try and use this information when I create lesson plans myself. The chapter also discussed several questions that frequently arise from teachers. The answer the book gives for every question is that it takes experience to understand students and find patterns in what works and what doesn't. This impacts me because now I understand that teaching will be very difficult at first, and that once I am a working teacher my learning process is not over, I will always be learning about not only my subject, but about the students and patterns in human beings.

Liz
The basic idea of this chapter is for teachers to identify situations or problems in the classroom and to **reflect** upon these problems and how they can be fixed. The book suggests many different ways to reflect upon the classroom and then for the teacher to make adjustments. While the overall theme was for teachers to reflect over time, a valuable element of teaching and a good thing to remember for my own classroom, the other idea from the beginning of this chapter is for teachers to review their curriculum. The reason why they should review their curriculum is to make sure students are gathering the basics **and** are capable of applying them in meaningful ways.