UbDDI+B1+Chapter+2

 UbD/DI Chapter 2: Abstract and Synthesis By Jenn Chick

 In the second chapter of //Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design//, students become the focus. This chapter explains how the models, Understanding by Design (UbD) and Differentiated Instruction (DI), are used together to best support the students. The more a teacher begins to focus on the needs of their students, or uses DI, the more the students begin to shape the curriculum. The UbD model allows for these changes, and helps support the understanding that flexible lesson plans are, not only acceptable, but worthwhile to both the teacher and the student. As the chapter points out, teaching to the individual’s needs is ideal to help every student meet their maximum potential, but this is impractical given time, resource and energy constraints, which is how flexible lesson plans come into play. There are many reasons why having a flexible lesson is necessary, but the chapter mainly pointed out that, besides different learning styles, there are constantly outside forces that affect all students. Having a flexible lesson plan actually creates a better environment for the students, so that these outside factors are being recognized and respected in the classroom. This recognition and respect is noticed by the students, who, with a more fitted curriculum are able to succeed easier. The idea of responsive teaching is actually a way of creating patterns in the classroom to help support a variety of learners. Therefore, together, UbD and DI are creating a way for students to succeed in any way possible, and helping to cultivate an enjoyment of learning for the future. Having a flexible lesson plan helps each student grasp the content by creating a balance between challenges and encouragement, which is how students, ultimately, succeed.

In responding to this chapter, many of the posts were all in a similar mind frame. The things that were found to be important were represented in what was chosen to write about, which was mainly how helpful this chapter was in giving teachers ways to support a variety of learners in their classroom. For many, the ten teaching patterns that were mentioned helped to give a better idea of how to structure a classroom, or a lesson, while still supporting the students as individuals. The ultimate goal, or so it seemed from the responses, was to find a way to make every student succeed, and by the reactions from the posts, this chapter gave some insight into how to do so. For many people there was a thirst for having a comfortable and fair environment for their students, so if there are outside factors hindering their performance, the student is either able to mention that to the teacher, or at least the teacher will be well acquainted enough with the student that they will notice on their own. [|Comfortable environments] also seemed important for those who were worried about adjusting the levels of learning for each student. Recognizing every student’s level makes it easier for the teacher to know how to plan or adjust the content. Therefore, setting up a comfortable environment for the students and using flexible lesson plans, students can more easily learn the content, and teachers can more easily manage the students’ needs. For most of the responses, teaching to the students’ needs, but learning how to balance that with [|class] [|room management] was a major problem, and this chapter helped, for the most part, to give a solution.

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Roger
In the second chapter of UbD/DI, the authors discuss the various types of students and the struggles that they may be facing. The authors basically outline the principles of differentiated instruction, providing multiple ways to get the point across to multiple students.The authors are correct in pointing out the variations between students, a fact that falls in the same line as individuality. Every person is different from the next one, and each person will have their own set of strengths and weaknesses. It is the job of the teacher to address these strengths and weaknesses, and not so much attempt to change them so much as use them. Trying to get a kinesthetic learner to become a visual learner is not what a teacher’s objective should be. The teacher needs to adapt around their students, so that instead of producing machines, the teacher produces students who have actually learned something. The whole point of DI is to teach all students an equal amount of knowledge. This means that the same material should be presented in a variety of ways. Towards the end of chapter two, the authors provide a list of various activities that might get students better involved. One such method was ungraded “snapshot” quizzes, designed to be an informal measurement of student progress. These are a very effective way of trending a student’s progress and understanding which methods work best for individual students. Methods such as this are the backbone of DI, and should not be forgotten when teachers go into the classroom.

Abby
The ideas presented in this chapter were extremely useful and I will definitely use them in my teaching practices. I feel that very often teachers get so preoccupied with what they need to teach or become so passionate about their subject that they forget that the student is the most important part of teaching. However, one of the issues that worried me in regards to the differentiated learning idea was the thought of needing to make a personalized learning plan for each of my students. I think that the ten teaching patterns presented at the end eased my mind on this issue. I realized that the idea is not to make a new plan for each student but rather that I need to be willing to deviate from and adjust my plan in accordance to the needs of my students as well as simply get to know them. The few steps and ideas presented were small yet could have a very great impact. I want to be one of those teachers that the kids feel comfortable with as well as one that challenges them to be the best that they can be. I appreciated the theater analogy in regards to possible obstacles the students might pose. The idea of my plans being only a script, the students themselves being the actors, and the overall goal being the play itself caused me to really think about the students as individuals because just as my theater instructors challenged us to bring our own unique spin to a character each student brings his or her own background and personality to learning. I thought that this chapter was the most practical so far in regards to actual application.

Caleb
Having a diverse group of students in your classroom that have a variety of obstacles that have to overcome is a bit of a challenge. As a teacher the ability to adapt to their needs is needed. Thus when certain obstacles such as race and learning disabilities appear one has to find a way to work around that in order to inspire learning. Now the way a teacher does this sounds at first to individualized each student you have. After all observing them and understanding how they learn is a rather intense process. But, a teacher cannot do that in the classroom instead a teacher has to be able to observe while in the midst of their lessons. Taking those brief instances before a class and during a class while talking with the students allows a teacher to develop a relationship with those students and thus they are able to figure out what that student needs. So, if a student is struggling with a cultural obstacle a teacher might have the chance to pick up on that through the way they talk during class or how they do their homework. It appears that talking with students and observing them is the best way to understand how they tick. This is where the teacher will have to adapt their lessons to best fit the students needs. That’s what I see to be the main message behind teaching responsively. In my classroom I will have to be able to do all that I’ve said to make sure that each one of my students has a diverse environment and can learn freely.

Dan
Teaching has always been about the students. Ever since I decided to become a teacher, focusing on shaping their minds with the knowledge I acquire has always been the focal point of my personal belief. This chapter strengthens my confidence in my belief, and reassures me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my career. Being aware that there is no such thing as a solid plan when it comes to teaching is very important to know. That shows a teacher must be flexible when things do not go according to plan, and handle changes respectfully and responsibly, and able to adjust accordingly. The ten teaching patterns outlined in the chapter are extremely useful, giving great ideas to get to know my students, as well as how to best use strategies to evoke students’ true potentials. It is very important that establish a trusting relationship with my students, and really get to know them so they will trust me back, but also establish the boundaries of a student and teacher relationship. I must also account for the complexity and individuality of all my students. Everyone has their own personality, which will either hinder or encourage their learning. Not everyone thinks or learns the same way, so I must be ready and prepare for many times of students. With that being said, I must always realize these plans are not meant to cater to each student singly, but rather provide multiple teaching strategies to best accommodate the masses.

Jenn
In the second chapter of //Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design//, I feel like I’ve learned how this relates to the most important point of teaching; the students. Although I feel like most of the things in this chapter are just reiterating things I’ve learned simply from being a student, I feel like it goes beyond those basic understandings to explain how to apply these ideas as a teacher. For example, to me, it is obvious that any teacher who is obviously working to create a connection with their students is likely to have more enthusiasm from the students toward their subject. I even feel like I know some ways on how to incorporate that with my teaching methods. This chapter, however, focuses on explaining some of the more beneficial ways of doing that while tying it into the curriculum. This chapter also realistically points out that outside factors are huge disruptors in many students’ education. The examples of students in various situations are all too likely to occur, and in half of them remained mostly unresolved. This is critical in understanding the models because it is important to understand that even following all the model offers won’t prevent barriers from appearing. The fact that barriers are unpreventable, and in some cases unmanageable is a frustrating concept to grasp, but the chapter does well at explaining various techniques that can help diminish these appearing in, at least, the classroom. One of the most commonly mentioned techniques is simply finding things that interest the majority of the students, because interest in the subject is key to getting students to learn. In short, this chapter explains that, as teachers, it is our job to help the students reach their own understanding of themselves and their world through the knowledge we give them, not our understanding of the content through a variety of techniques.

Alex
Chapter 2: I learned a lot from chapter two because bit shows how to relate to children in the classroom and how to personally allow children to grow and develop by distributing multiple learning styles and specialize in making learning fun and bringing school as fun back into the picture. This is important to me because I want to be able to take every single student I have and have them understand that learning is fun, being able to learn everyday for free in school is amazing, and school is fun it is a place where you become the person you want to be. Being able to meet each student that you meet on a one-on-one basis and being able to meet there individual learning needs is important I feel to a classroom, if I can meet each student and know what they like and what they enjoy in life then I will be able to form the material the what they like to make it interesting. Being able to teach in multiple ways is important to classroom being able to meet the varied learning style is crucial for development in the classroom. This is something that I am going to need help in figuring out, and this is because I personally struggle with learning styles in the visual category and in order for me to be an affective teacher I have to be able to meet every students learning styles, and if I personally struggle with one style then I am not being effective.

Jasmine
Chapter 2 discussed the importance of students. They are the most important component to being a teacher of course. Since students are human beings, they are subject to go off the plan or path which a teacher tries to set up with a unit design. Even the best plans are subject to change. This is very important for me to know coming into teaching because it is hard to adjust sometimes when there is a student with a disability that I haven’t been exposed to before, but being open to differential instruction makes it much easier to figure out a solution in order to make sure each student is getting the proper learning situation out of the class. There are so many scenarios that could come in to play and teachers need to be able to realize when a student has a home life. This will be important to me because I want to be able to help students who have home problems and discuss a possible solution or discuss the problem in general so we can figure out what’s going on. Several scenarios were given in the text including students going through divorces at home, kinesthetic students, or students with an undiagnosed learning disability. (14) A point that I saw which seemed most important from the chapter was the points about teaching responsively. This includes things that a lot of people wouldn’t normally think about. These include attending to teacher-student relationships, attending to the learning environment, and attending to students’ readiness to learn. This one stood out to me because I wasn’t sure what it meant at first but it seems to be the concept that if work is too hard, students will get frustrated and not try, but the most learning takes place when the work is a little bit too difficult and help is needed. It is important to find that balance which would be difficult but very great for all students if it were found.

Jake
This chapter outlined a bit more concerning the need for individual relationships with students, and this point I agree with. I think it is very important that a teacher get to know his students so that he can better understand their learning style and any other trait that may in some way affect their ability to grasp the curriculum. However, there is one aspect of the reading that I have severe difficulty imagining a realistic application. The text provides one example of a student being allowed to get up and pace around the classroom while working on material, and though this is exactly what this student needs, how is that going to be interpreted among the group. In theory if every student was genuinely passionate about learning than sure it might work, but there will always be students who see an action, like pacing around the room, as an opportunity to neglect their work and goof off with the students around them. In that same vain there will then be the students who have difficulty focusing on their work while there is noise and activity in the classroom. What if you have one student who is best able to focus while listening to music, and another who can’t focus on two things at once and the music is simply a distraction. I suppose headphones would be the easy answer but we then get into the issue of having adequate resources. The difficulty I see with this approach is that with the current classroom structure of one room, one teacher, and twenty or more students, how is the application realistic.

Katie Stubbs
When teaching, it is important to be flexible with lesson plans and have them ready for subject to change. Sometimes, there may be students that are having issues at home or who are having issues with their identity and may start to do badly in their subjects. It is the teacher’s job to give the students someone to talk to and to work through their issues so that they can continue to improve in their education. Educators must adjust their curriculum to the needs of their students by giving some students extra help when its needed. In the example with the student Yana who had trouble organizing her thoughts in an essay, the teacher helped her one on one by cutting strips out of the essay and asking her to organize her thoughts in a clear and concise order. The teacher did not just stick to the lesson plan he had created, knowing that not all of this students were succeeding. Teaching is about caring more about the students and their learning more than following the structure of a lesson plan. Lesson plans should always be left for room for change based upon how well the students are learning the material being taught. It seems difficult to have one lesson plan for more than 20 students who all learn on different levels. Many students are not at school to succeed in classes, but they are there to find themselves and to discover their talents and uncover their true potential.

Lizz
Chapter 2 states that the student is the focal point of a teachers work and that the students lives should be shaped in better ways though a high-quality curriculum. I completely agree with this because I do think that students should be the focal point of teaching. When I was in high school, my teachers always said that we were the generation that could change the world and I still believe that the future students I teach will be the generation who will change the world. According to the book a learner’s success benefits from teachers who are responsive to a learners needs which are: 1) Attending to teacher-student relationships contributes to student energy for learning. 2) Attending to learning environment builds a context for learning. 3) Attending to students background and needs build bridges that connect learners and important content. 4) Attending to student readiness allows for academic growth. 5) Attending to student interest enlists student motivation 6) Attending to student learning profiles enables efficiency of learning (pgs. 18-19). For me these six aspects of teaching are extremely important and I think these would have a huge impact on my classroom, especially on myself as a teacher. All of these are important because I want my students to learn and anyway that I can make that happen I will whether it’s through relationships or the environment. Like the title of the chapter states, the only thing that really matters in teaching is the students and how they achieve success in any way possible.

Tyler W UbD/DI Chapter 2 Review

Chapter two focuses on student needs and how to adapt to them. Students are similar in many ways but are different in almost as many. They go to school not to master any given subject, but instead look for affirmation, affiliation, accomplishment, and autonomy. The real trick for teachers is to learn how to take a planned curriculum and adjust it to students with different needs and abilities. Even the best planned curriculum can not account for everything. The book gave a few examples of students suffering in school and how the teacher responded. One student's parents got divorced in the beginning of the year and believed that if her grades dropped enough, they would have to get back together. She did not tell her teacher or parents her plan and almost failed because of it. One student had an unknown and undiagnosed learning disability that prevented her from successfully writing a paper. With the help of her teacher, she was able to learn how to organize and effectively write. Both of these examples show what happens when a teacher adapts his curriculum and when a teacher sticks to the curriculum. Not only does differentiating the curriculum improve student learning, but getting to know the students and their interests helps, too. By building a relationship, creating a learning environment, and attending to students background, needs, readiness, interests, and learning profiles all improves student motivation and academic growth. Also, incorporating a student relationship with different teaching styles, such as read-alouds, group work, exit cards, and other means of differentiated learning really improves student performance.

Ally
Chapter Two- I found this chapter to be really interesting and informative. I believe in order to be a successful teacher we need to recognize not every student is alike and that we as educators need to have a fair environment, which means recognizing that you will have a diverse group of students and you need to prepare for it. The stories about the different students were really inspiring that some of the teachers were really willing to work with their students until they succeeded. From this chapter I learned that as a teacher you not only need to know your content but also who your student is in order to recognize a change, figure out why, and try to find a solution to help them. I want to be a teacher that has a good relationship with my students where I can recognize those changes and help out my student. This will help me as a teacher because I can structure my class so it is a healthy learning environment for all my students. I can also make a difference to my students by being there for them when there might not be anyone else. In order to have a healthy classroom then you need to make sure each student is comfortable and you do that by teaching for each students needs. It might be difficult depending on the different situations but that to me, is what being a teacher is all about, you are flexible with your students. By accommodating for your students different learning strengths or difficulties you are helping them succeed which is the goal of a classroom and a teacher.

Brittany
Ch 2: This chapter is all about the student and how they learn and in what ways we can make them feel more comfortable doing so. Through the examples the author gave I learned that it is completely necessary to look into why a student is failing or acting out in depth rather than simply asking them. There are always the possibilities that students do not want to discuss their problems with the teacher because they feel insecure and do not want to get into trouble. As teachers it is our job to find ways that students can deal with any problems in their lives and any disabilities they may have to make learning an experience they enjoy. The book states that it is the differences students bring to school that shape who they see themselves as in the “context of curriculum and school.” I found that chart on categories of student variances to be helpful in determining different ways to address the content you as a teacher are presenting. I agree with the chapter that through showing a student you value them not only as a human being but also for their opinions and abilities, they are more willing to take the risks you present to them. I think this is because they will then want to continue to seek your value in them. I liked the overall idea that in order to help students succeed to you need to challenge them to a degree that will allow them to continue learning, but not discourage them. By approaching students with a subject and allowing them to include their interests you not only help them to learn the information that is necessary but also helps them maintain an enjoyment for learning.