UbDDI+B2+Chapter+6


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Sarah McGinley
Understanding by Design Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UbD in Academically Diverse Classrooms 2/4/10

I agree when the book talks about how teachers should be more flexible in their teaching methods. Teachers need to be more flexible in the way the students utilize the classroom resources and getting students to work in groups. Also, teachers should be more flexible with the students’ learning styles. I would like to be able to help students as much as I can with getting comfortable about using the different learning styles. Most of the time a student has not tried using that particular learning style and therefore, they do not want to try it but it would be good for them to try something new because that learning style might work better than all the others. Although, this change cannot be an abrupt one, it will take some time to incorporate some new learning styles because of the fear of change. This encourages creativity as well, which will also be useful in their further education. Students should have the chance to be creative and this is one part of the responsive teaching. These students are not worried about the grade or just getting their homework done, but instead they are interested in learning and in an exciting way. This is the kind of teacher I would like to become. I want to be able to get my students excited about learning and have them learn in different ways through the different learning styles.

Scott Bowden
All about how to work well in a classroom, this chapter gives many strategies discussing how to be proactive and target the needs of students. The information here can be used in my classroom as I could have groups set up for group work beforehand or discussed throughout the year. The problem I had was this seemed like a more useful model for elementary teachers than for high school. Many tactics discussed here sound like processes for switching subjects and changing teams for it. I can use the pieces about how to keep students of all readiness levels engaged and teach to everybody, but this seemed like it was more geared toward elementary teachers who have the same students for many different subjects and for longer stretches of time in a day.

Sarah Robinson
In this chapter I have learned that we as teachers of the future have to take these new techniques of teaching and beat out the old techniques of teaching because it will only help students learn better. There are many questions that teachers have, and I know I will have these questions as a new teacher. But this chapter has answers to many of these questions. This chapter has taught me that differentiated classrooms are effective when all students have learned and have an understanding of the attended curriculum that was taught. In the chapter it has made one of the most important points that a teacher should make sure that they do, this would be teaching the basics of whatever you are teaching. The basics is the most important thing to teach and make sure the students have masters because without the basics a teacher can not build on the basics as a foundation for the rest of the intended content that is to be taught. As it has been taught before in this book, every student learns different and every student will understand the meaning of the taught concepts differently. Therefore teachers need to adapt to the all the different understandings. This chapter has impacted my future classroom by teaching me to look for patterns in my classes, and try to catch these patterns and try to change the course of these patterns. Having a classroom that is flexible is very important to ensure that every student is learning, and that is what this chapter teaches.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UbD in Academically Diverse Classrooms

It only makes sense that every student experience the same or a similar curriculum, regardless of performance level. This chapter reflected on the challenges that teachers face in such an academically differentiated classroom, and I agree with most of the beliefs it puts forth. A few of the beliefs, especially the one that states that every student should have the opportunity to learn the basics and what lies beyond, reminds me of the old statement that some lower-performing students will perform more effectively if they are given a proper challenge. This is actually true for myself in some instances, and I agree that the basics are seldom enough in any subject. There was a few times when I was zoning out of the reading because the vernacular it used was rather complex, but the metaphor regarding the chess game and the jazz musician caught my attention and helped me to grasp the main point of the chapter. I can understand how the “melody” is sometimes improvisational; this is required whenever students have slightly off-topic questions or a new concept is introduced during a lesson. Also, the numerous figures in the chapter helped me to better understand. I especially enjoyed Figure 6.2, which discussed flexible use of classroom elements. This chart, along with the others, will surely come in handy when I am in front of a diverse classroom with varying needs and learning styles. The last thing I want to do is hinder any one of my students’ growth. Also, the thought of “clustering” teaching styles to students of all learning strategies and (dis)abilities seems like a reiteration from a previous chapter, but it is a fantastic concept that I will surely try to perfect in my classroom. Again, I want no student left behind. However, the UbD book has failed to address maintaining order in the classroom, and that streak ends with the end of this chapter. I found the table to be especially helpful, since classroom management is one of my biggest trepidations about becoming a teacher.

Diana Quinlan
The most important thing I learned from chapter six is that I need to teach the basics. Students can not learn more difficult concepts if they do not know the basics first, they are the foundation of education. If I realize that my students do not understand the basic concepts and do nothing about it than I am doing them a disservice all students have the right to learn and understand. Although it is my job to make sure students are learning I also need to remember to be flexible in my teaching style. Everyone learns in different ways so I can not just teach on way and expect it to work all the time. I also need to allow some room for creativity. If students are not allowed to be creative than they will not be excited about learning. Over all I want my students to be able to learn in a fun creative environment and it is my goal to help them in any way possible while allowing them some room to learn on their own as well.

Jason Malbon
Teachers engage in a constant exercise of questioning and reevaluating how they teach. In diverse classrooms, the question of how to present curriculum has ever changing results. For example, questions such as, who are the students I will teach? What material matters the most? How must I teach for understanding? Since every group of students is different, these questions will result in different answers. As a teacher, I want to make sure I always evaluate and reevaluate to ensure I am giving all learners what they need to be successful. The core of the modern teachers thinking should be to challenge all learners to think at higher-order levels. Applying knowledge in real world situations allow students to make meaningful connections. Do not keep higher functioning students in the game while keeping lower-learning students on the sidelines doing “drills”. I really connected with this analogy because I have seen it played out in schools. Lower learners are stuck doing the same old rote memorization drills and mundane pen and paper exercises. Everyone should play in the game with authentic (real-world) learning to demonstrate basic skills and understandings. Breaking old teaching habits will be an on-going task for me. Even these modern teaching and learning techniques will one day be considered old fashioned. Will I be able to stay innovative and fresh in my ideas? As long as school districts focus on teacher training, my guess is that I will.

Mike Lawson
UbD/DI Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UbD in Academically Diverse Classrooms. This chapter really made me focus on how important the basics are to students overall learning. Without the basics, there is nothing to build on. Without a general knowledge of any subject it is much harder to grasp. Athletes wouldn’t be able to perform at high levels if they didn’t always have the basics they learned as kids. Ryan Braun would never be able to hit 40 home runs in a season if the basic skills of baseball weren’t imprinted in his mind. But he also wouldn’t be interested in waking up at six in the morning for batting practice if he didn’t think it was essential to his improvement as a player. My students will always be aware that what they are learning now is also essential to their futures, and even any other history class they will take. Although knowing crucial information like rooting my lesson plans in the basics is helpful, I know I will still have questions. As a new teacher I expect to have many questions like the ones stated in the book. My favorite question was "How do we transition from one part of a lesson to the next" (p. 89). I know that I will be able to come up with things to teach, but connecting everything is also important. Knowing that I will have many questions, its good knowing I will always have resources to go to like colleagues, mentors, past teachers/professors. However, I understand there are some questions that I will discover the answer to in my personal reflections and just when thinking about teaching. Which I have already started to do. I'm sure I'll be running so many things through my head as a new teacher.

Susanna Cooper
I like how this chapter broke down the backwards design stages, just as we have in class. I could relate to the text better that way. I feel that the elements listed in this chapter, such as time, space, resources, etc are so important in helping my students learn and my class run smoothly. These elements are “tools” that I can use to my advantage if I choose. My usage of time on a unit can affect a students understanding of a lesson. By using the whole room, space, I can set my room up in ways that benefit group work or individual work easily. I think that it will probably be a challenge to use some of these elements, but this chapter seems to really stress how important they are when creating a well working, flexible classroom. Management routines that support flexible teaching seems to be very important. I can see how having different students working on different things all at the same time can make my job rough. I will have to keep everyone on task, not causing disruptions, and work individually sometimes with certain groupings of students. By having management routines in place, my students may be better behaved and on task since they will know what they should do when their work is done and what routines will take place at certain times. As we mentioned in class, the students should know what to expect, this helps them learn better.

Eric Cole
This chapter addresses several items of interest, and really puts to rest some fears that we have as teachers. First it offers a few core beliefs when it comes to curriculum. Most of these were pretty self-explanatory, but there is one that really sticks out to me, and that was the third one. Teachers always just want students to “get it” right away. We write on the blackboard, or we hand out packets, and we expect students to just get the meaning behind all of this right away so then we can move on to other things. If a student doesn’t get it, then most teachers simply tell the student what it means, and that is the end of the story. This is the wrong way though. Students like to figure things out on their own. It makes them feel smarter, and feel better about themselves, and in a place like high school, those are some pretty important things. The bigger reason to allow students to figure things out on their own though is that students will understand things better when they figure things out for themselves. Students will remember the process, and the struggle, and the hours of thinking, and so they will have a clearer picture of what the meaning of the assignment is.The rest of this chapter has a whole bunch of tables that help answer some pressing questions that teachers have. How do you manage noise in the classroom? How do you manage time? I found these tables to be helpful because a lot of my own questions were on them, and it really made me start thinking about what exactly I am going to do when I get into my classroom.

Jared Boghosian
This chapter uncovered a lot of information on teaching in classrooms that have a diverse range of understanding. Students should be engaged in a variety of curriculum that promotes creation of meaning. As a teacher you should never just push basic information such as memorization skills on a student, instead take that basic skill and apply it in a meaningful way. A helpful tip I picked up is that teachers should avoid keeping their goals hidden from the students, why not share them with the students so that they understand what is to be expected of them by the end of the lesson? The most useful information from this chapter pertained to the use of average everyday classroom elements like time, space, resources, and student groupings to ameliorate the needs of the students. I paid the most attention to time and space for my future classroom needs (not because I ever wanted to be a time traveler).

Amanda Fitzpatrick
Chapter 6 was all about various methods of teaching. I learned that the most important thing in a classroom is to start off with the basics--teach the things that are vital first. To do this the chapter laid out many different teaching styles that will be beneficial. It is important to snap the students from their old habits of being taught in the "old" teaching style of lectures and standard tests, and we have to do this by bringing in new methods of teaching. The differentiated classroom will work if it is done correctly. If this is the case the students really have the best chance possible of being able to be successful.

Alicia Kenison
Tomlinson and McTighe tried to drill the importance of flexibility, strategies and classroom management through this chapter. I learned that consistency is key; one must think through conventional practices to think in a respectful manner. Goals should not be a mystery they should be underlined as what to teach and what students should learn. With the backwards design this all comes clear to us. I hope to take the environment plans to my own classrooms. Seating helps keep focus and if students are in the same seat everyday it would get extremely boring. We need to configure how our students work best (individual or in groups). There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all plan, but we must try our hardest to differentiate and accommodate to all. Even though we let our students work independently, it is crucial that we ask questions and keep them on track.