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Synthesis
by Kevin Lind

It is clear that everyone has the same basic idea that [|mastery] requires students to know more than just the typical knowledge of a subject. Mastery means that students can take information and apply it to their lives outside of school. It is good to know how to write an essay, but the knowledge is pointless if it can't be used in a different setting. Some also mentioned the necessity for good assessment to judge mastery. This is where the [|Six Facets of Understanding] come in. By testing students over all six facets, teachers can be sure that their students have mastered the subject.

It was interesting to see how everyone in the class responded to the idea of mastery. Most said that this new development meant that they would change the curriculum to make it easier for their students to become masters. Backward design also came up in a few postings because of its potential use in the classroom. Another concept that appears in mulitple postings is the definition of understanding. Since there are so many different teachers, there are also many different ideas of what understanding actually means. It is important to be able to understand the ultimate expectations for students and teachers alike.

Lauren Scheidegger
In the second chapter of “Fair Isn’t Always Equal” by Rick Wormeli goes in into “The Six Faucets of Learning”. He also went into how to tell mastery from “not mastery”. To begin explaining how to assess students correctly and gauge their level of mastery he quoted Nolen Taylor. Taylor said that to correctly assess a student, the assessments should be done over multiple assessments of progress should to tracked over a series of meaningful works. Knowing how to assess mastery is vital for teachers. Another important skill Wormeli went over was how to know what is worth mastering. This is very important for obvious reasons. Mastery in a certain content area that could not be applied to anything and is irrelevant to a course is not very useful. If a teacher is unsure of how to determine what is key in their curriculum or what to put emphasis on, they should know that they have many different resources to turn to. Colleagues, curriculum guilds, and even personal reflection can aid in figuring out what should be in and emphasized in a curriculum. I had never thought of reflection being used as a resource before, but it could be quite beneficial. As a future teacher I don’t want to be afraid to reflect on what is going on in my classroom and seeing what is successful and what might need some changes. I know that as a teacher I cannot be afraid to change and tweak my lessons if it will better suit the class.

Megan Millette
This chapter discusses mastery, which is when the students understand a concept to the point where they can explain it and apply it to other situations in the class. In order for a student to master a concept they must have repeated accounts of success in that area such as good grades on tests, being able to describe it to fellow students, and apply it to more complex concepts to better understand them. When a student is demonstrating mastery the student can make conclusions and build on how they reach a thought about that concept. In this chapter the part about fully seeing levels of mastery in writing more easily caught my eye. It is interesting to know that through writing you can read your students much better than you would think. We can’t just assume our students our understanding what we are teaching them we need to find ways to see if they are mastering the skills and concepts we are teaching them. We as teachers can’t always be clear of mastery but we can make assumptions based off of how well our students are performing on that concept. If we work with our colleagues we can use their wisdom and experience to help shape our teaching ability and they can influence us. We need to make time to meet and discuss ideas with our colleagues because their advice helps us plan ideas and they can be very helpful. As a teacher I can’t just list the facts to my students or make them just repeat basic concepts because that doesn’t always mean they understand. When I teach I shouldn’t just assume that my students have mastered a concept because they are able to do well on a few tests and recite some information to me verbatim. I need to observe and assess my students to see how well they are mastering a certain concept.

Alyssa Amari
It is difficult to truly determine what student mastery is; how is it possible to know if a student actually understands what they have been taught? What ways can students show that they have mastered a concept? What is mastery? Chapter two is essentially full of questions, questions asking what it means for a student to have mastered something they have learned. Mastery is defined differently for most teachers, and most mastery is founded through the six facets of understanding. These facets help to determine if a student has actually understood what they have been taught. Most mastery cannot be shown through single presentations such as writings, videos, drawings, or discussions produced by a student. It is much more than that, and in order for a teacher to expect mastery of a subject by a student; they must declare what criteria expected for mastery for any student production of understanding. It takes a lot of consideration and thinking on a teacher’s side for a student to know what it means to be masterful in what they are learning. Also, it is the duty of a teacher to determine what is important to master, an although this may be difficult to understand, teachers have several resources to help them decide and teach what students need to know. This is important because I will need to know more than what I am going to teach, but I will need to know what I want the students to know, understand, and master through what I teach. It is much more than knowing the lesson I want to teach for the day, it is knowing what I will need students to show me so that I can determine whether they have mastered a topic. This will take a lot of consideration, time, and preparation on my side. For students, this will mean knowing what criteria to meet in order to show mastery. They will need all of the resources, opportunities, and criteria in order to master something.

Kevin Lind
The main purpose of this chapter is to show exactly what it means for students to master content in the classroom. The thing about mastery that caught my attention was the critique of assessment for mastery. Asking students to memorize a bunch of facts doesn’t really show that they understand the content. Teachers have to focus on questions that will test a student’s ability to fully understand. I’m going to try to ask my students question that can’t be answered with a couple words, so they will actually have to think deeply about what they’re doing.

In order for students to truly master a class, they must encompass the six facets of true understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. So my students will be able to master my class, I will make sure to give assignments that require a little bit of each of the facets. This will require complex questioning, and a variety of different assessments to test the knowledge of my students.

It is incredibly important for teachers to help their students reach a level of mastery in their classes. Otherwise, students will take in information and simply forget it all a week later. If all teachers help their students become masters, then the students will be able to retain more knowledge and use it in their lives outside of school. This is going to affect my teaching quite a bit because I definitely want my students to remember what I teach them. I am willing to work with students as much as humanly possible to get them to the point where they are masters.

**Samy Tracy**
Wormeli describes in chapter two of how to figure out the difference between mastering a subject and not mastering one. He included a chart that showed clear differences between each and how not mastering a subject is harmful for students. Teachers need to figure out what mastery of a subject is by looking at the standards that their state provides. I certainly agree with the author when he mentions that states’ standards are very broad and have to be broken down to figure out the meaning. In order to do so, just answer some specific questions that you want students to know in order to achieve this standard. Taking the time to figure out what it is exactly that you need to do, is really helpful in the long run because you feel more accomplished as a teacher and know your students are actually gaining something that will carry on through their life. There are many ways to show that a student has mastered a subject but it is your goals that you need to focus on to actually show if they have mastered it in the right way. For me, a true mastery of a subject is that students can leave my classroom and be able to apply what they just learned to things that happen in their lives. It clicks easier in my mind, and I am sure for others too, if I can apply what I learned to things I do daily. Learning math in elementary school was especially important because I learned about adding and subtracting and when I actually started using money, I was able to apply these math skills to spending money.

Lauren Breton
The second chapter of the text discusses the importance of mastery of the curriculum. While the text acknowledges the differences in opinion of what true mastery is as well as the fact that the curriculum teachers choose to have their students master can be different, it advocates for teachers coming together for discussions on these issues. I have found it interesting that every teacher can interpret the standards differently and can, consequently, focus their efforts on whatever standards they have interpreted to be the most important. In light of these discrepancies within standards, however, I believe that it would be beneficial for all faculty members in certain concentrations to get together within their schools and discuss how each of them have interpreted the standards. This would be particularly beneficial for new or struggling teachers, because they would be able to see what their other, more successful, coworkers were doing correctly for their students. As a teacher, I plan on using my coworkers and peers as resources when I am beginning teaching or struggling as an educator, so that I have a variety of ideas for how to improve.

One aspect of the chapter that I’m not sure whether or not I agree with is the quote from Julie Greenberg on page 18. Although I realize that mastery should be the goal, since students need this information in order to further their education and their lives, I am not entirely sure that hard work coupled with near-mastery should be overlooked. As an educator, I have always envisioned myself rewarding hard work but I am not sure how that would be possible if the students still had not mastered the material. Although I would never want hard work to go unnoticed, I am not sure where the boundary between whether or not to reward hard work without mastery of content is in education.

T.J. Hebert
Mastery of a subject is defined in many ways and depends on who you ask. This book makes reference to //Understanding by Design// (how convenient that it is one of the other books we are reading this semester) by describing mastery by six facets of understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy and self-knowledge. A student has mastery of a topic when they can explain it, interpret it for others, apply it, explore alternate perspectives on the topic, appreciate the experience of others and identify and reflect on their own self-knowledge. Things such as tests, essays, projects and performance do not display mastery but can be used as a piece of the mastery puzzle. There has to be several tools used and displayed in order for a student to show mastery of a topic. Determining what topics students should be masters of can be the most difficult part. The use of resources is essential in determining this, resources like peers, standards, textbooks and school guidelines.

I have reviewed a majority of the Maine Learning Results health education and physical education standards and have determined that most of the topics that I feel students should reach a mastery level are covered in the standards. This works out well for me as the things I feel are most important are in the Maine standards. My favorite part of this is that I get to teach the things I am passionate about using my ideas and it should all fall in line with the standards. There will certainly be times when emphasis will be put on certain things and some topics may not be exactly in line with the standards; however, that is al part of a differentiated classroom. The problem with health is that the field changes so often and so rapidly, that it never feels like I am a master of the field. I may be a master of very particular topics within health, but I do not feel like I will ever be a master of “health” itself. I will do everything I can to maintain the highest level of competence in the widest variety of topic areas possible and, like everything I do, teach with confidence.

Rachel Joiner
After reading this chapter, I have gained a much better understanding for gauging my student’s mastery of a subject. I found this chapter to be extremely helpful, and I learned many things from this chapter. One thing I learned from this chapter was how to “unpack” standards into pieces that we could break down so that we can measure student’s mastery of a subject. It is important to specify which skills and content are important for students to know. It is also important to set out clear information on what the teacher is going to accept for a proper answer. Another piece of important information I gained from this chapter was exactly how the best way to demonstrate mastery was. The book explains that through writing we can see in depth the student’s mastery of the subject. If the student writes, it out we can see what level of understanding the student is at. This was important for me to know as a teacher, because now I can better assess my students and find out where they are for understanding in a variety of ways. This chapter helped me to understand the idea of mastery a lot better, and how to apply it in my classroom. One thing from this chapter that I found interesting was the chapter mentioned streamlining mastery, and giving teachers set dates’ information to follow. I found this strange that teachers had to be on a certain page on a certain day. As a teacher, I think this could really hinder the learning of some of my students, especially those who move at a slower pace. I honestly think that this would make things worse, instead of better. However, after reading this chapter I have a much better understanding of mastery.

Emily McGee
Wormeli explicates the importance of mastery in education, how to guide students to achieve mastery, and recognizing and gaining evidence of mastery. Wormeli describes “The 6 Facets of True Understanding” as explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. Students should be able to analyze information and evaluate what they know in order to create their own work, thereby demonstrating the degree of mastery they possess. The collected products throughout the course should be both substantive and demonstrate skills. He believes teachers must obtain multiple assignments and track progress throughout the unit to gain evidence of mastery for the subject- that any single assignment, project, or test cannot demonstrate mastery. In order to know if a student has mastered a subject, the teacher must unpackaged the standards into pieces that specify what information and skill sets are acceptable to demonstrate mastery.

This is important to my future teaching career because it dictates how my units, and therefore lessons, activities, homework, projects, and assessments, will need to be designed- with mastery of essential questions as the main objective. Using the backwards design model this is a starting point for all unit plans, what requires mastery? What degree of mastery? How will mastery in this subject and/or skill be evaluated? I believe evaluation techniques vary based on specific inquiries and must always be comprehensive, not just an end of the term exam. I want to have entrance questions, just one or two quick questions about what was learned the day before as a diagnostic assessment and a quiz at the end of every week, roughly, in order to accurately track progress in class, while other projects and labs are occurring simultaneously.

Morgan Ware
This chapter talks about mastering the content information for not only the teachers but the students as well. Mastery is more than knowing the information but it can go further than applying it to everyday life. Most schools will have a common definition of what mastery is. Some say that it is the appropriate application of the information. Everyone has different definitions as to what it means to him or her. To me it means the correct knowledge and application of a certain subject. Teachers can use the six facets of true understanding to see of their students fully understand the material. Students should be able to explain, interpret, apply, have alternate perspectives, experience empathy, and accurately reflect on the subject. This shows that a student has successfully master the material. There are two ways to successfully get evidence to show that a student has mastered the information. The first is multiple assignments and the second is tracking the progress of a few important works over time. There are many questions about what is best for the students in ways to assess them. The only way we can answer the questions is by knowing the specific objectives, or the essential knowledge and skills of the lesson. We can also use our peers for ideas on how to assess and master the information for students. This information will help me assess how well my students are doing with the information. It will also help me master my content so that I can help my students master the content as well.

Patrick Hurley
One needs to strive for mastery of a subject not just knowledge. Your students may know the information but do they understand it and can they apply it to other situation. You need to consider the 6 facets of understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. For evidence of mastery of a subject you can either use multiple assignments or track the progress of a few important works over time. You have to spend time unpacking standards to find what is acceptable evidence to demonstrate a mastery of the subject. One way to easily tell if someone has mastered the topic is through writing. This way you can see if there are any parts that the student struggles with. You need to pay close attention when choosing what is important to master. I am worried about picking the wrong things to master in my classroom. This is one of the things I worry about most, because if I choose the wrong thing then my class won’t get what they need out of my class. I need to make sure I am not just making my students memorize dates and people and events. I need to make sure they know who the people are, what they did, why it was important, and what were the effects of that person or event. I will have to ask my colleagues to check what I chose to master so I pick the correct things. My class will benefit from this because they will master the subjects which will help them later on in school.

Matt Roy
Chapter two focuses on the issue of Mastery. The first half of the chapter focuses largely on the lack of consistency regarding what mastery actually means. In this book, the authors believe that mastery is used as a synonym for understanding. Now the question is: what defines true understanding? Again, the authors pointed out the lack of clarity as to what really defines understanding. If we were to ask that question of x-number of teachers at a given school, the odds are high that we would receive x different responses. In this chapter, the authors suggest that schools as a whole should sit down and decide one blanket belief for what understanding truly is. After all, if the school isn’t absolutely sure what they mean when they say “understanding” how could we ever expect the students to ever understand? The authors use the six facets of understanding from UbD as a suggested starting point. It was nice to see the authors make a connection to the UbD textbook, it’s not very often that multiple textbooks in a class are ever linked to each other in the physical text itself (often the ideas overlap). It was also interesting to consider the meaning of the word “understanding”. I feel like it is one of those words we all use, having our own meaning that we associate and assume everyone else associates as well. However, in reality, it seems that most people have very different views as to what understanding really means.

Mike Kahler
In the second chapter of Fair isn’t always equal discusses the varying definitions of master y, and what it truly means for a student to have mastered the material in a unit. There are a number of different ways to assess whether or not a student has mastered some material, but students only truly understand the material when they can apply what it is that they have learned to something new. For example in literature it is not mastery if the student can spit back information about one book that you have read in class. They have to be able to apply other skills that they have learned and used those to show that they have learned something else by making connections between literature, recognizing context clues, identifying an author’s intended audience and purpose, and using background information to make sense of new material. The chapter goes on to cover that as a first year teacher it is awfully hard to determine what it is exactly that your students need to master. Because you have never taught before it could be hard to tell what is truly important, but there are many resources to help you including mentors, colleagues, professional organizations, curriculum guides, posted benchmarks, standards of learning, programs of study, textbook scope and sequence, other teacher tests and assessments, and finally personal reflection (after years of teaching). In my classroom I may not have an incredible understanding of what my students need to master during my first teaching job, but I’ll eventually get a clear idea of what matters with the help of other teachers. They will help me get a better idea of mastery too. My assessments will eventually become very powerful tools for determining student master of a subject. = =

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Simone Thiry
As teachers, we should all be working to help students achieve mastery in our subject areas. Mastery is difficult to define, but essentially it means that students not only know, but also understand and are able to put the material into practice. The text suggests that in order to maintain a working definition of mastery, teachers within a school and department must work together to decide what it means for students to master topics in a subject area. The book also uses McTighe and Wiggins’ six facets of understanding in their description of mastery (explanation, interpretation, application, empathy, and self-knowledge). Part of understanding mastery is developing standards of acceptable evidence for mastery (which may be differentiated for different students, as long as they demonstrate the same level of understanding), and determining what is important for students to master as a result of the unit. I learned that mastery doesn’t mean that students can just repeat back information; they have to understand it on a deeper level. Similarly, mastery cannot be measured by only one type of test, but rather is demonstrated in a variety different ways in different activities. In my future classroom, I hope to use the resources available to me to determine what mastery is, and what acceptable evidence for mastery in my class will look like. I also hope to use a variety of assessment methods to help myself understand levels of mastery within my students. By using the concept of mastery, I will be digging deeper and holding my students to higher standards that I know they are capable of.