UbDDI+B2+Chapter+4

Synthesis-Morgan Ware
This chapter has some of the same themes though out, different teaching methods, diverse learning styles, and good and diverse curriculum. Teachers should be clear and up front about their expectations, essential questions, and understandings. Students will be better prepared for organization and for the curriculum. Teachers should give pre-assessments to students to see what they know before a unit, during the unit, and after the unit. This will give them to skills to see their own progress as well as giving the teacher the necessary data to see if he or she needs to change their curriculum or teaching methods. Teachers also need to take responsibility for their students learning and get to know their students and their learning styles. If teachers get to know their students in the beginning of the year their students will have a sense of comfort with their learning styles. They will also feel more comfortable with getting help and with having a support system with their teacher. Also teachers will show their students that they truly care about their success and that they believe in them. Teachers should also keep a record of each students learning style and make sure to take in consideration each students' different [|learning style]. Teachers should create lessons that incorporate different ways to teach every type of learner. Teachers also need to understand that their curriculum is subject to change with each new group of students. Teachers need to be flexible and to be able to change their way of teaching. Each entry pretty much said the same thing. They all think that teachers need to flexible with their teaching and curriculum for different types of learners. Also teachers need to create healthy relationships with students to make sure that they know that you support them with their learning styles and that you believe in them. Also teachers need to take responsibility for their students learning and progress.

toc

Emily McGee
Tomlinson and McTighe establish a basis for becoming and being a effective, efficient teacher skilled in differentiation and responsive teaching methods. They advise teachers to be clear and upfront on what the essential questions and understandings are with students to better prepare them for organization and use of the main ideas to address problems. The authors also establish key attitudes and skills for “differentiated and responsive teaching.” They explain that by giving a pre-unit assessment to students, teachers can gauge what the class, groups, and individuals already know. It provides a starting point for instruction, groupings, and certain assignments.

I believe it is important as a teacher to be able to take responsibility for student’s understanding and growth both in your content and as a young mind. With this in mind, I think there is linear progression of steps that can be followed in order to avoid becoming a negligent teacher. If you get to know you students early you can actively follow their progress and recognize if it stops. If/when it stops you can us what you know about them to find alternative ways of reaching them, providing a support system and a consistent message that you believe in them and will work with them until then understand. Even if those students only ever learn the essentials of your content, they may leave with more drive or a greater understanding of respect and self-worth.

Lauren Scheidegger
Chapter four of __Integrating Differentiated Instruction + Understanding by Design__ by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe goes into the sort of attitude that benefits a teacher and the type of skills they need when teaching Differentiated Instruction. Some of the key points in the chapter were the need to establish clarity, being responsible for students learning, building respect, and knowing what works for each student. All the points were explained and then backed up by a scenario. Each point seemed like a puzzle piece. Being able to accomplish all of them created the image of a perfect classroom. One of the things the book suggests is that teachers should help their students become effective accomplices in their own success. This stuck out to me a bit purely because I was completely unaware of how to go about doing that. After reading further my curiosity was put at ease. Helping students know all they can do and how their differences benefit them, explaining their strengths to them, and giving the students a way to share their growth and goals with parents/guardians are all simple way to achieve that goal. Another skill I paid extra close attention to was being able to create and grow an instructional strategies repertoire. As a not-yet teacher my repertoire is lacking, but I figured that it is good to know what one should consist of before I start constructing it. After reading this chapter I plan to create a very diverse repertoire that will guide students understanding, help students reflect, and keep students engaged.

Lauren Breton
Chapter 4: What Really Matters in Planning for Student Success? This chapter went into great detail about the goals of a teacher who truly integrates Differentiated Instruction into their classrooms. When I began the chapter, the nine attitudes and skills that typify all teachers who successfully apply Differentiated Instruction within their classroom just seemed to be general standards for good teaching practices. As I continued reading, however, the text went into great detail about why those nine attitudes and skills were so important for Differentiated Instruction, what teachers should do to embody those practices, and what they looked like in the classroom. This was incredibly beneficial for me because everything was logically described and defined, plus examples were given that I could apply within my own classroom. Also, this chapter used many metaphors and similes, which helped me to relate their classroom examples to real-life experiences of my own. Throughout this chapter, many of the examples provided ideas that I want to use in my future classroom. One of the ideas that I really wanted to use in my classroom was to keep a tally of who has been called on by the teacher throughout the day. I really liked this idea because then certain students aren’t dominating the conversation and everyone is able to participate. I also decided that I wanted to apply the idea of keeping quick notes on my students throughout the year. These notes would consist of how they were doing, what they needed help in, what their goals are, etc. This would give me a plethora of information to draw from to ensure that students’ needs were being met throughout the school year. This chapter provided me with many examples that showed me what Differentiated Instruction truly looks like within a classroom and ideas to implement Differentiated Instruction in my own classroom.

Kevin Lind
A major idea conveyed in this chapter is that a good curriculum is required for students to succeed, no matter how good the teacher is. The best way for teachers to use effective curriculums is to try to adjust the curriculum in a way that would be positive for students. I hope that while I am teaching, I will get a chance to change the curriculum for the better. There is no perfect curriculum, so there will always be room to improve on the past. Differentiated Instruction is another important concept for teachers to understand. Every student learns in a different way, so in order for teachers to make sure they are teaching in the best possible way, they must know who their students are. Part of Differentiated Instruction is knowing how much of the material each students knows. Teachers should be able to know how much or how little help each student needs. As a teacher, I will focus a lot of attention to Differentiated Instruction so my students will be able to learn in the way that is most suitable for them. As teachers, it is imperative for us to use a variety of teaching methods in the classroom. Students should not always be taught with their seats forward while they stare at a chalkboard. Teachers must be able to allow their students to work in groups on some assignments. It is also important for teachers to work one on one with their students. I plan on using both of these teaching methods while I am in the classroom.

**Samy Tracy **
Teaching students how to recognize how they learn best is an emerging theme in both books. This book explains that it helps the teachers in the long run because they can better understand what their learning strategy is if the student also knows as well. Teachers have to create a classroom where students feel both comfortable and successful because if they feel like they are being discriminated or put down in any way, they are not going to be willing to learn in the first place. The first place to start in being a great teach is right with your curriculum that was gone over in chapter three of this same book. Chapter three talked about how to go about making up your curriculum and this chapter talks about how to make it the best it can be. Just by reading the information they provide on how each teacher can effectively do this, I noticed how a lot of my teachers did not actually meet these requirements. There were many moments when over half of the class did not understand what he or she was teaching but they just moved right on to the next subject. In order to help students understand the material more, it would be helpful for educators to be more flexible with their plans. There is obviously great emphasis on framing lesson plans and building a unit for the class, but if they do not understand the material that you are entitled to teach them, you are not living up to step 2 in planning backward. Taking the time to teach the subject material effectively will show students that you truly do care about their education and do not want to just teach what you have to and get it over with.

Alyssa Amari
“For teachers and students alike, the goal is no perfection but persistence in the pursuit of understanding important things” (Pg. 56). Chapter four establishes nine necessary attitudes and skills needed for differentiated instruction; each is important in using differentiated instruction in the classroom. Establishing clarity about curricular essentials so that teachers and students can focus on the knowledge, understandings, and skills that are needed to grasp the full meanings of the important parts of the contents. Accepting responsibility for learner success; each student is different, will learn different, and will perform differently than all others, so it is necessary for teachers to gather tools continuously to make themselves and students successful. Developing communities of respect by making sure every student is participating, attended to, recognized by their abilities, and essentially treated like an equal part of classroom success. Developing classroom management routines that contribute to success through continuously reminding students of the basic criteria, expectations, and routines necessary for their personal success. Helping students become effective partners in their own success is necessary because students need to be able to acknowledge their areas of weakness, strengths, and successes so they may be able to grow within each area. Developing flexible classroom routines; initial routines are susceptible to change because as time passes, students will change, learn, and grow, with this there are necessary adjustments to classroom routine. Expanding a repertoire of instructional strategies so that students can be taught according to readiness, interest, and learning profile needs. Reflecting on individual progress with an eye towards curricular coals and personal needs; it is necessary to keep track of growth, certain needs, and other assessments as the year progresses because students will change.

This is a huge impact on my future as a teacher because I know that student success is not self-accomplished, it is a guided process. I need to possess the necessary tools to help lead them towards their future. This affects the students in my classroom because they become an aid in the planning and re-planning I do for each class. Without their help and opinions I will not teach in a way that can make them successful.

Rachel Joiner
From this chapter I have gathered important information in order how best to teach my students, and various ways to increase learning potential. One important thing I got out of this chapter was how important setting clear goals are. As a teacher, we will not be able to attend to every detail of our subject, so we need to set a goal that we must achieve. This goal would contain everything we need to have the students understand, and we can use this goal and work backwards for lessons. By having a goal, it allows a clear purpose and marker for what to teach. I also learned another important lesson from this book, which were students needed to feel safe within the classroom. If the students can feel safe, then they will feel free to say they do not understand, or something is too easy for them. By knowing this as a teacher, I will be able to better address student’s needs and spend less time figuring out where everyone is, and more time instructing. I think this is an important tool and piece of information in order to continue to learn best in a classroom setting. I thought it was great with the scenario with Mr. LeMay, where he used in his demonstration, storytelling, and visual images. I thought this was a wonderful idea and would love to use this is my classroom. I am a visual learner, and I would find this helpful. I think by giving visuals during a lecture it can keep students interests as well as reach out to various amounts of learners within my classroom. I found this chapter extremely helpful towards understanding how to allow student success in the classroom.

Matt Roy
The central idea of Chapter 4 was: “There are many ways I can help my students learn. My job is to find enough ways to teach and enough ways to support learning so that what I teach works for each person who needs to learn the essential content (pg 39).” The authors took the entire chapter and focused on differentiation in course curriculum. While chapter 3 was spent trying to plan backwards and identify the big ideas that we wanted to convey to students, chapter 4 was spent focusing on how to reach the most students as possible. On page 40 the authors outlined 9 “attitudes and skills” that they believed (when practiced) led to quality differentiated instruction. Following the outline, the authors spent the rest of the chapter explaining the attitudes and supplying quality examples of how they have been employed in the real world. This chapter has been the most “eye-opening” (for lack of a better term) for me in the course to this point. Coming from a small high school, I don’t feel that I have ever (knowingly at least) been truly exposed to students with diverse learning styles and even less so to students with learning disabilities. The key thing that I have learned from this chapter is that teachers must be constantly observant and aware of the learners in their classrooms. Even more difficult, teachers must engage in routine and thorough introspection in order to honestly determine if they are (or are not) meeting the needs of all their students to the best of their abilities. More times than not, this task is extremely difficult and is often neglected (sometimes it is hardest to be honest with ourselves when we’re not making the cut).

It is vital for teachers to quickly learn the different learning styles represented in their classroom. Students have a variety of learning styles and teachers must be able to adapt in order for the students to fully understand the content. One of the problems is that teachers do not know how to recognize and adapt to the different styles. Nine attitudes and skills have been identified that demonstrate a teacher that helps all students. Some of these include clarity about curriculum essentials, community respect, awareness and flexibility in teaching routines. Without a majority of these skills it would be very difficult for a teacher to be very effective. When I was in high school I was an application learner. I did not do well sitting for an hour and a half looking at a projector or listening to a lecture. I could sit for an hour and use the last half hour to apply what was just discussed; however, if that does not happen I will not retain much of that information. It also seems that when I was in school, not very many teachers had these skills or attitudes. They all had a curriculum and stuck to it regardless of performance by the students. As a student you just kind of did what you can, I knew it was not best for me but I tried to make the most of it and did ok in high school. I am very happy to see these skills and attitudes being identified and made available for teachers. It makes me more confident about the education my children will receive when they enter the public school systems. It is how I will strive to teach in my classrooms.

Morgan Ware
Teachers need to be very clear about what is the most important in their content. This also shows that we are awake that one’s learning has to do with one’s ability to organize and use ideas/skills to address problems. Teachers need to make sure that the curriculum is a medium for successful learning. We have to make sure that our curriculum needs to cater to everyone’s learning styles and it needs to be varied. Most teachers find it necessary to change their lessons for different learners, and it is. However. Few teachers actually apply it in their classrooms. Teachers need to establish clarity, accept responsibility, develop respect, build awareness, and develop management routines. Also they need to help students with their own success, develop classroom flexibility, expand on their own instructional strategies, and reflect on individual progress. As teachers we need to understand that we cannot teach everything and that we need to make what we teach reachable to students. This will help me in the classroom because it gives me the skills and confidence to effectively teach my lessons to my students. It is important for me as a teacher to cater to my students needs.

Patrick Hurley
You have to teach for understanding, not just retention. If the students understand the content they will be able to remember it better. A teacher’s attitude is also important. They have to be willing to accept responsibility for learner’s success and build awareness of what works for each student. There are other attitudes and skills, like developing flexible classroom teaching routines, but I did not ant to just list them all. A curriculum must focus on knowledge, understanding, and skill. Giving certain students less work is not differentiation, it only hurts that student. One must get to know each student to be able to effectively teach them. You need to develop a community of respect. You need to be able to adapt you plan depending on how the class goes. So you will need to know many different strategies for teaching the same topics. In my class I will need to make sure that I Have a curriculum that focuses on understanding, not just retention. I will have to be flexible with my students. I need to take charge of their educations. I will have to make sure I give everyone the same work even if it is different because of different intelligences; I think this could get tricky. I just worry about giving uneven assignments and shorting certain students. My students will hopefully be able to gain a solid understanding of what I teach. I know every lesson won’t be perfect but I just want to make sure I am giving the students everything they need.

Megan Millette
In chapter 4 of DI and DuB, Tomlinson and McTighe bring up many aspects of differentiated learning that I found quite fascinating. They discussed the more powerful curriculum and how it makes more promise for the students and educators in the classroom. They then go to tell educator to keep in mind though that they are still teaching human beings. This caught my eye because many times teachers focus too much on one aspect or the other but never think that it is a combination of both that lead to the success. The book then went to discuss curricular essentials and how curriculum should focus on certain areas. These areas are knowledge, understanding and skill. As they discuss curricular goals they refer to how they are like “springboards” I found this interesting. In the classroom, educators must have goals set out for themselves for many reasons; for instance, it makes it easier for teachers and students to feel ownership and contribute to the lessons, it makes your curriculum more flexible, and makes it seem more clear as it comes across. The part about student success got my attention and made me think this important to my future. I found it surprising that it is better for teachers to accept responsibility for their students’ success. I never would have thought of it in the way they described it as if a student is not progressing then the teacher must not have been teaching in a way that students can progress. Educators must remember that their students should always be moving forward. Our goals help us accomplish this. One example is taking the time to get to know students because this allows them to be taught effectively when we know what their strengths and weaknesses. This and many others will help our class progress.

Simone Thiry
‘What really matters in planning for student success?’ is a broad question, with many different answers. From the reading, it is clear to me that differentiated instruction, based in the multiple intelligences, combined with a flexible curriculum and open lanes of communication between teacher and students is one pivotal component of planning for student success. One thing that really stuck out to me is the idea of taking responsibility for student success. It makes sense that the teacher should accept some responsibility for the success of their students, and now I understand that it will help keep us as teachers on top of our game, so that we never settle for muddled understanding. Respect is also a crucial component to planning for student success. If there is respect between all individuals in the classroom, the community of trust will elevate the efficiency and depth of learning; students will feel comfortable sharing different points of view and working together to maximize learning. Many of the sections of the chapter address teacher awareness of what works with each student, and flexibility in changing and developing instructional strategies to help each student learn. Part of this process is communicating with students in such a way that both students and teacher understand that they have a common goal in promoting understanding, and that they both are active and reflective participants in the learning process. When I become a teacher, my classroom will be constructed upon the twin pillars of communication and respect, and I hope that I will take responsibility for student success, and help my students take responsibility for their success as well.

Mike Kahler
In this chapter it is established that there are many important factors when it comes to effectively teaching a class full of students. One of these factors is the curriculum that is being taught, and the another factor is teaching towards all of the multiple intelligences so that all of your students have the best opportunity possible to learn. These may be the two more important factors, but there are still more that come into play and can be viewed by students as just as important. Teachers need to be clear about curricular essentials, accept responsibility for learner success, develop communities of respect, build awareness of what works for each student, develop classroom management routines, help students with their own success, develop flexible teaching routines, expand their base of instructional strategies, and watch individuals progress. Although these may seem like no brainers each of these areas is a little thing beyond content that leads to effective teaching. This is something that I find will make or break otherwise good teachers so I personally really need to learn how to do all of these things to make myself the most effective educator that I can be. I plan on having a classroom with a set routine with clear cut rules and an established agenda every day, but I’ll also be flexible enough to sway off of the plan and vary activates to accommodate the different students within my class. I’ll grow my strategies over the years and eventually learn to deal with many typical learning style variations. Each class however will be a new puzzle for me as an educator to crack. If things do not work I’ll mix up my style to make sure all of my students’ progress I need to make learning easier for them, and accept responsibility for their learning, but also drive them to take an active role in themselves.