UbDDI+B1+Chapter+6

Abstract (Moe):
This chapter stresses the importance of creating an enabling environment through responsive teaching. Responsive teaching is the art of responding to what they students need in order to learn optimally. The environment of the classroom should look to help each of the students learning needs and abilities, while maintaining a flexible atmosphere (for both student and teacher). While developing a curriculum, you should only focus on the most important aspects that you want students to learn. Leave out the fluff because it isn't important. There is little to no room for rigidness in the differentiated classroom, as flexibility is key to making sure students learn all of the important concepts before you move on.

Synthesis (Moe):
We all agreed that one of the most important aspects of differentiation is flexibility. Flexibility is something that we plan on using to ensure our students are learning what we want them to learn (even if it means spending a couple extra days on a lesson or unit). When developing our curriculum, we all thought that developing meaning was extremely effective in active learning. It will allow our students to create deeper understandings and make connections more readily between what they are learning and how it affects them in their lives. Along with creating meaning, we need to teach in response to what the students need and expect from us (i.e. responsive teaching).

Moe
An essential aspect of promoting student success and flexibility within the classroom is to create an “orderly and enabling environment” (101). These kinds of environments are more likely to encourage students to use higher order thinking because the students do not feel anxious or unsafe in pursuing what is best for them. Along with the importance of the environment, this chapter discussed the effect that higher thinking, such as the Facets and Bloom’s Taxonomy, can have on students. I think that the high thinking method of learning is much better then just throwing standards at students and letting them learn nothing because they simply “met the requirements” of the standard.

Amanda Martemucci
UbD/DI-Chapter 6: Chapter 6 discusses how a teacher begins practicing their curriculum design in the classroom. Teachers need to practice responsive teaching. It is important for a teacher to remember that all students should be given the opportunity to learn the curriculum in a way that creates meaning of information and allows them to think at a high level. It is also important to incorporate the “basics” into the curriculum and giving students the opportunity to use them in meaning ways. There needs to be a balance between student’s individual learning and the guidance of the teacher in learning. Furthermore, it is important for a teacher to let students know the goals and expectations of the unit. All these suggestions from the chapter help to support a high standard of student learning where they not only understand concrete facts, but they create deep meaning of information and are able to apply them to numerous situations. In English, I believe creating meaning is important. Students shouldn’t just learn facts about a novel, poem, etc. They should find the deep meaning in the piece, or even create their own interpretation of it. Using these tips will help me fulfill creating meaning in my students learning.

Bridget
Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UBD in Academically Diverse Classrooms Teachers who wish to teach effectively must create a curriculum that built up from the most important and relevant ideas within a discipline. Students should learn the skills and knowledge the curriculum is teaching, but more importantly, students should know how to apply their knowledge and see how it is relevant to their lives. Students should know the goals of the curriculum and how they can meet them. All students should be focusing on the big ideas and how it relates to them. Just because student needs to catch up on basic skills before they can fully understand a lesson does not mean they should be left out of seeing the big picture. This means that as a teacher, I need to know what my students’ strengths and weaknesses are so that I can teach to both to ensure that I strengthen all their knowledge. My students will gain a better understanding of my subject that is applicable to their lives and presents knowledge in a clear manner that displays it’s importance.

Jesika
The idea that cam across most boldly to me is that one needs to be flexible, responsive and efficient when planning how to execute the curriculum. Each student is different and things happen throughout the course of a class that may warrant a change in plans. This is easily applicable to my classroom. My class will be just like every other class in that it is unique.

Christina
In //Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design//, chapter six discusses responsive teaching in the differentiated classroom. The students should be taught core beliefs in a manner that meets their instructional needs. In order for this to happen, the teacher must plan the instruction so that the students are able to learn it in a differentiated but meaningful manner. By taking advantage of classroom elements, such as time and space, the teacher can effectively use them as tools for instruction. To make it less overwhelming for the teacher, it is more efficient to cluster learner needs and select instructional strategies that support responsive teaching. In my classroom, I will take advantage of classroom management (as well as the aforementioned strategies) in order to teach for meaning and understanding.

Kevin
Chapter 6 is about how to effectively implement curriculum plans once you’ve made them. The book lists the roles of a teacher in three categories: direct instructor, facilitator, and coach. This book shares the sentiment we’ve read in previous books that students should know the learning goals of a unit at the beginning and there is no reason to keep anything a mystery from them. This includes telling them the ways they are going to be assessed as well as showing models of previous work, and having them use reflection to explain how each activity is preparing them for their final task. When planning how lessons will be implemented the author says it is important to be thinking of different categories of learners and how you will need adjust instructional strategies for these different groups. This chapter points out something that I hadn’t really thought of before, we have been working hard on the planning phase of developing a unit, but even once you have all your lessons planned, implementing them is a whole other issue.

Chelsea
This chapter discussed how when creating a curriculum we must keep in mind all the needs of our students. There needs to be an opportunities for students to learn but to also apply what they have learned in a meaningful way. As a teacher the biggest thing we need to learn is flexibility. By being flexible we can make our lessons more efficient. We need to make sure that we are flexible in terms of the classroom and the student’s needs. Flexibility makes students be more successful. The book also discussed that by “clustering learner’s needs” (101) it makes instruction more efficient. By using flexibility and clustering students needs to makes teaching more responsive and successful. I think that flexibility is the key to being a teacher because you so often need to adjust to your students that without flexibility it would be impossible.

Kristen
The key theme in this chapter seems to be flexibility. Chapter six encourages flexibility with time, space, lessons and partnerships with other teachers. Several charts and tables are offered with suggestions on how to deal with all of the different questions that teachers have to consider. Often the best answer to these questions requires flexibility. Often differentiation requires you to be able to see that some students need more time with the subject or that something needs to be added or looked at in a different way. Teachers that most of us probably had did not take the time to differentiate. In the closing it says that many teachers are often uncertain about differentiation. “I don’t have time…” “I don’t even know where to start”(p. 106). In this chapter we are encouraged to look for the answer and be flexible about our time and/or open to new ideas. I think this is useful for me because I tend to be a bit rigid in the way I think about things and this chapter is a reminder that I’m going to have to learn to let go of that a little bit.