UbDDI+B1+Chapter+9

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Josh's Abstract
The goal of chapter nine is to "offer a sample of how instructional planning might look for a teacher who uses backward design..." (page 141). This chapter is basically a review to what UbD DI has taught us to this point. Examples of how to design a lesson using the backward design model in this chapter are useful as they provide us with an outline to go by when creating a lesson plan of our own. Chapter nine stresses the importance of differentiating lessons to benefit the students. Understanding by design is a sophisticated planning process that that requires in depth knowledge, attention to students thinking, and the ability to think like an assessor. Differentiated Instruction demands attention to the strengths and requirements of learners and the ability to be a flexible teacher. The result of integrating both models in the classroom will yield a more engaged and effective classroom.

Josh's [|Synthesis]
It was important and useful for the book to include an example of what it has been trying to teach us throughout the reading. Having the visual of a backward design [|template] in front of us is a good guide. It touched on various methods of assessment that should be integrated into the classroom, and how the flexibility on the part of the instructor is most crucial. The aspect of [|differentiation] is key to the chapter, because with differentiation, the students will be more engaged, and a higher level of mastery achieved.

Darren
This chapter wasn't necessarily crucial for the book, but it was nice that a review was included. There was a ton of information in chapters one through eight, and this one spent time reiterating the key points of the philosophies that the book revolves around. However, the list that starts on page 156 is a very nice addition to this chapter. The authors spend a lot of time dealing with the logistics and principals within differentiated education and understanding by design, but there was little concrete evidence or examples up until now. There is also a very good breakdown of responsibilities of the learning environment, the curriculum, the teacher, and the students in differentiated instruction that are listed to review the key elements of a successful classroom. One of my favorite examples of this list falls under the student list, and it says that, "Students can explain how their classroom functions and how its various elements work to support success of each learner and of the class as a whole" (164). It is easy for a teacher to reflect on their abilities to differentiate in a classroom, whether good or bad, but the true test for a teacher is to ask for the students to explain how the class works. By questioning their students on the movement of the classroom, teachers would be able to reflect on their overall ability for a student who is experiencing it firsthand.

Andy
This is the chapter that sums up the book. The interesting thing that popped out to me in this chapter was the bit about doing the last two steps in the process switched around. So, this means that you need to reverse the final assessment and the lesson plan itself. The book makes a good point saying that you would want to identify the desired results and determine the acceptable evidence of those results before you begin to design you teaching plan. Also in this chapter it supplies multiple examples for focusing on students in relation to desired results, carrying out and differentiating the teaching plan, and determining student success. I found that most of the points presented are good concepts to go by.

Cassandra
Example! What I loved about his chapter was the example of the lesson plan. We are all learning what we need to do, but sometimes we just can't imagine what it will really look like in the end. We aren't just learning about incorporating differentiation and multiple intelligences into our lesson plans, we are just learning how to make any lesson plans! This chapter wraps up what we learned in the previous chapters. It reminds ups to treat the students with dignity, make them feel valued, teach them the goals before starting the unit, and have them reflect on those same goals throughout the unit.

Dan
I think the best thing about having the unit example put all together in the chapter is that it is one with HEALTH! Like honestly how often does that happen. Jokes aside, it was really nice to have the unit put there in front of us. It lets us see the big picture and some of the other parts we will be adding in soon, or ideas for how we can refine the parts we already have. It was nice that the teacher had an inclusive classroom and that she set goals for herself to accomplish with each group of students. However this chapter didn't end there because after that it gave us examples of formative and summative assessments to use during unit, how to differentiate an activity, and a sort of reminder what a successful class will look like with UbD + DI in their classroom environment. (This part is important because it can show you as a teacher your progress into backwards design)

Amy
CH. 9 In this chapter or the book, time was devoted to re-iterating the steps of backward design planning, and the goals stated in the previous chapters. I liked that this chapter brought all of the other chapters together so the reader could see the best format for designing lessons in their classroom. I especially enjoyed the example (fig. 9.1) of, “Integrating and Applying the Big Ideas of UBD/DI”, which demonstrated what an actual lesson should entail. The flow chart then led into a real lesson created using the steps of backward design. It now makes perfect sense to me, to start with the end in mind when planning any type of lesson/unit. One final aspect mentioned in this chapter is that important is the idea that students should be able to reflect on their experiences in the class, stemming all the way from what they have learned, to how they learned “it”, to what they liked about learning a certain way.

George
This chapter was a sort of a review of Backwards Design and Differentiated Instruction. Where you first build a lesson using Backwards design and then you use Differentiated Instruction to make sure it gets to all of your students. The chapter also provided multiple examples of how to do this and included a full on lesson plan. Which is important because this is what we are doing in class now. We are actually building lessons, goals in mind first and then trying to find out how to deliver it the best to the students.

Ethan
Chapter nine gives us a great summary of the UbD and DI methods and how to correctly apply them in the classroom. They give specific examples of a health class that is taught using these methods. I found those examples to be especially helpful, not only in understanding the text, but I feel like we are doing the same thing in class right now when we are making our WHERETO lesson plans. This chapter really brings out the complexity of the ideas expressed, but also shows us ways to use them. From identifying the desired results to clear up any confusion with your students to using pre-assessment and ongoing assessment to make instructional adaptations, all the parts of differentiated instruction work together to help improve student understanding. This chapter will be very helpful to me in my classroom because I will be able to use the examples to make sure I don’t miss any important steps in the process.

Brian
Chapter nine re-emphasizes the need to be flexible in lesson plans. When preparing a lesson we need to ensure that the lesson has the ability to be flexible and is made in a way that can be molded to ensure covering all learning styles. By using unique differentiation techniques the backwards model of lesson planning can be very successful on every level of learning. We need to be sure that when constructing a lesson plan we need to be sure that the lesson creates a positive, supportive, but challenging environment for our students to learn. When we do this combined with the adaptations to cover our students learning styles we can ensure student progress.

Josh
This chapter discusses the backward design model, and how it works with differentiation. Tomlinson outlined an extensive example of a lesson outline that uses the backward design model. What was helpful was when the authors took lessons from the example and adjusted the lessons to differentiate the classroom according to different students needs. Mostly, from this chapter I was able to grasp a better understanding of how a unit planned with the backward design models ends up looking like, and how to adjust it to the needs of other students. As a result I better understand how a learning environment should look in an Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction classroom. Looking back I can remember teachers who outlined essential questions and ideas in the beginning with the introduction to the unit. However, if the class was having trouble understanding something, they would adjust their method or reinforce the idea in a different way.

Damian
Let’s review! In an attempt to make this unit more cohesive and wrap everything together in a neat and trim little bundle the authors decided that it was critical to explain how everything works in conjunction. Despite the fact that it would have taken less paper to produce a list of key points at the end of each chapter, or perhaps even just say: A quick review of Essential Goals – see chapter 3. Instead we are given a neatly composed dopy of what might have been the author’s original outline they produced after resolving to write the book. I suppose that it is nice to have the review of what it is (in case we’ve made it to chapter nine and forgotten) before exploring how to implement the techniques in chapter 10.

Sean
This chapter discussed the differentiated classroom, and what it would look like in real life application. It also has a big chart of how to apply everything about UbD/DI in in the classroom. It starts with suggesting that you pre-assess your students' understanding of previous knowledge. It goes through these other steps that ultimately end with reporting to the students and parents regarding their progress. It sort of works as a reminder to make your lessons target the abilities of your students.

Zack
This chapter reviewed what we have learned in the book, the most important thing again that I got from this chapter is the ability to be flexible. Students all learn at different speeds, and at different intelligences. The more flexible a teacher can make themselves the better off the student body will be in the end. A student that learns a material three different ways will have much more in his arsenal than somone that only learns it one way, especially if the student does not have the intelligence for the one way. As a teacher I need to make sure that I take all of this into account when I am trying to teach my students effectively. Teaching is not about effeciency, it is all about how effective the teacher is at communicating the material to the students at hand.

Liz
Chapter nine provided one sentence I really liked, “In addition to drawing upon a range of more generic approaches to address a range of student readiness, a teacher can examine any task or assessment to determine whether some students might benefit from a differentiated version of the work and how that work might be modified to benefit particular learners.” (UbD/DI 159). This sentence also sums up the key point of the chapter which is for teachers to look at their lessons and their learners and adjust to better fit the learners. This requires for each student to be recognized as some form of an individual and not the entire class as a group. This is important for teachers to remember as the whole concept of a differentiated classroom is to identify needs of students. This chapter also provides a variety of ways to differentiate the lesson. There is also a key reminder to pre-assess and to do formative assessments. These two concepts are vital as it allows the teacher to learn more about each individual learner and to better understand each learner. One thing that I think is valuable for classroom teachers is the checklist about what a classroom looks like when UbD/DI are used; this is valuable as it allows the teacher to evaluate their classes and how they themselves are doing.

Jennifer
This chapter discussed using both Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction in instructional planning and what it would look like. When I use backward design to create a lesson I follow a set of goals that benefits my students and will make my lessons better. It pulls in all that I am learning about multiple intelligences and integration. It helps me become a more effective teacher. The book has good examples of a unit planned with backward design with everything that is necessary. Once we make a unit, we do not need to stick to it exactly, using observation and pre-assessments, we must be able to adapt the unit to fit the students. We must take into account what they already know, what their interests are, the level that they are at, and how successful they are are throughout the unit.