MI Chapter Ten

Much like chapter five from Understanding by Design and chapter three from Fair Isn’t Always Equal, this chapter focused primarily on the subject of assessment. Because this book focuses on the different multiple intelligences that students express in the classroom, this chapter looked at the different ways that teachers can assess their students while also staying in line with their students multiple intelligence.  The book talks about how tricky standard tests can be, while they assess students and their learning, they are more in line with logical and linguistic based learners and are much more difficult for spatial learners and visual learners, as most of the questions are words and numbers.

The chapter then goes on to talk about what kinds of assessments teachers can use to make sure that all the different multiple intelligences in their classroom are being fairly looked at. Some suggestions are things like portfolios, video assessments, interviews with students, student journals, photography. The chapter also talks about real world examples of schools that work with Gardner to come up with ways to assess all intelligences, which includes programs that utilize different assessments for all kinds of learners, or video assessments that travel with students through school.

The only problem with some of these, is that it might be hard as teachers to implement these kinds of programs into the classroom if they aren’t already written into the school program.  Also, not every unit has room to make sure that every single multiple intelligence is being looked at. While, it would be great to make sure that the intelligences of every student is represented and fairly assessed, it might be easier in some classes or units than others.

UbD & DI Chapter Five

Like the third chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, this chapter of Understanding by Design talks about the different kinds of assessment and how each one is important in the classroom. Also like Fair Isn’t Always Equal, this chapter highlights the three main kinds of assessments from teachers, pre-assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment. The authors of this book talk a lot about how as teachers, you should have a multitude of different evidence to assess a student. Comparing student success to a photo album, the authors say that you get a much better understanding by looking at many different pieces of evidence (like an entire photo album) instead of just one test or one project that highlights the entire unit (must like one singular photograph).

This chapter also makes sure to point out some important things that teachers should remember when figuring out how to assess students. One being to provide feedback as often as possible, by providing feedback to students on their work, teachers are able to help students adjust their work if they need to, and are allowing you as a teacher to track how they take feedback and apply it to their learning. Another thing the author makes sure to talk about is the importance of self assessment, something that the other book hasn’t mentioned. By allowing students the opportunity to self assess their learning, teachers are giving them the opportunity to reflect on their learning and helps you as the teacher to find out how difficult students found the task and how well their end product matched with their original goals for the project.

Assessment is important and crucial for teachers, and by allowing many different opportunities and options for assessment, it helps create that differentiation in the classroom that is so important.  

FIAE Chapter Three

This chapter mainly focused on the topic of assessment and how teachers should use assessment in the classroom as a means of a learning experience. The author outlines that there are three main types of assessments that teachers should implement in their classrooms, pre-assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment. Each of these assessments is important in a student’s learning and can help them better their skills in the classroom and assist them in understanding the unit and the achieving the overall goals of the unit.

Pre-assessment is when teachers find out where the student’s knowledge is on a unit before it begins, the author says that teachers can achieve pre-assessment by doing some kind of activity or test prior to the start of the unit. This assessment determines where each student is when it comes to the unit content. Formative assessment, is, according to the author, the most important type of assessment. Formative assessment comes into play during the unit and is when the teachers test the student’s progress thus far. The reason the author considers this the most important kind of assessment is because it allows teachers to change how they are teaching something and allows students to adjust their learning if the assessment determines that things aren’t working.

Summative assessment is the end of the unit assessments. This determines how much students learned in the unit and how well they retained the material. The author makes sure to state at the beginning of the chapter, that when planning a unit, teachers should start at the end and determine what they want the goals of the unit to be before beginning the planning. This stuck out to me, because the same thing was said in Understanding by Design.

FIAE Chapter Two

The subject of this chapter was the idea of mastery, and the place that it has in the classroom and in student’s learning. This chapter made sure to outline what mastery was and difference between mastery and having a skill that you’re good at and can get a good grade on. Just because a student is able to do a math problem or spell all the words right on a spelling test doesn’t mean he has mastered either of those skills and should be considered a master. This chapter also makes sure to talk about ways that teachers can find evidence of mastery of a skill, which means, testing the skill in many different ways to test the mastery of the skill from the student.

One thing I loved about this chapter was how it connected what they were talking about on the subject of mastery and connecting it to what we already learned about while reading the Understanding by Design book. This book uses the six facets of understanding introduced in Understanding by Design to talk about how students have a true understanding of a subject when they succeed in explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy and self-knowledge.

As a teacher, you’re going to have to determine what skills your students are going to need to master and have in order to successfully move onto the next grade. You can help your students master the skills they need to master. This chapter gives teachers ideas on how to help their students master those skills and gives many definitions of what mastering a skill means.

FIAE Chapter One

In the first chapter of “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”, we’re introduced to the idea of differentiation is the classroom. This chapter also addresses exactly what differentiation is and what it means to bring it into a classroom, which is when you adjust your teaching style to help students understand the work better, but you don’t make it so it’s too easy for students to understand. To have a good differentiated classroom, you must continue to make the classroom a thriving environment for students, but allow them to change the way you teach if it would allow them to understand concepts that are necessary for them to know.

The part that stuck out to me the most was when the author used glasses as an example to how differentiated instruction works and how “fair is not always equal.” The author says that while making students who need glasses to take them off to read the board, in order to make them equal to everyone else, they would fail because they wouldn’t be able to see anything on the board. By allowing and giving students who need glasses, glasses, teachers are giving students the tools they need to succeed, but in no way giving them an advantage over other students.

The big picture of this chapter, was that while students can’t always be equal and as a teacher you might have to make adjustments in your classroom for those who need it, you must always make sure that your students all have the tools they need to succeed. But, you should never allow students to have a learning advantage over others, just provide them with the tools they need to succeed at the same level.

MI Chapter Four

This chapter was mainly about how, as a teacher, you can introduce multiple intelligence to your students in a way that they’ll understand and a way that they’ll be able to see how their multiple intelligence carries out of school and into the real world. The chapter talks about many different ways that teachers can introduce and integrate activities surrounding multiple intelligence into the classroom. The only thing I really noticed though, is that most of these ideas would probably work best with a group of younger students, as opposed to middle or high school students, but there are most likely ways that you can change the ideas slightly to make them fit middle or high schoolers.

My favorite part of this chapter was when the author said that one of the best ways to try and teach students about multiple intelligence and what kind of multiple intelligence they might have, is to show them examples of the world outside of school. By bringing in adults to talk about their careers and what kind of intelligence their career requires and also bringing students outside the classroom to see these intelligences first hand, could help them get a sense of what multiple intelligence is and how it relates to the real world.

The most important thing that I picked up from this chapter is that students need to understand that they have more than just one of the multiple intelligences and that by doing these activities in the classroom, students will learn that their intelligences can be used in many different ways and they all have more than one of them inside them. 

MI Chapter Three

I really enjoyed what was talked about in this chapter, about how teachers can observe their students and the unique ways teachers can learn their students multiple intelligence and what areas of multiple intelligence their students have skills in. My favorite part of the chapter, was when Armstrong, the author, mentioned that you can tell a lot about a student and their intelligence by how they m​isbehave​ in the classroom. It really was an interesting way to look at it and an interesting way to discover the intelligences of their students.

I also loved what the author said about how you can look at school records to determine what kind of intelligence a student might hold. A strong grade in math and science classes might indicate a logical learning, higher grades in physical education could point to bodily­kinesthetic learnings and good performances in art and music classes could mean musical or visual learners. The different methods this chapter introduced about learning about student intelligences were all really interesting and were definitely things that I’ll remember for when I have my own classroom.

I also really liked how the author talked about the importance of student intelligences and stressing that communicating with students about their intelligences is a great way to learn them. By learning the intelligences of all the students, we, as teachers, can model our curriculum around making our lessons easy for everyone in the class to understand, even if everyone in the class has a different intelligence that they are strongest in. The author also made sure to stress that we can be strong in several of the different intelligences, even if one happens to be the strongest. 

DI & UbD Chapter Four

This chapter focused primarily on how teachers can build their classrooms to make sure they have maximum student success. Using many examples and giving many scenarios, this chapter highlights that teachers should value their students and create one on one relationships with their students in order to help those students reach their maximum success level. The authors also make sure to debunk such teaching methods like giving advanced students more work and behind students less work, stating that neither of those methods will help either of those groups become better learners.

The authors also make sure to highlight that the teachers must become responsible for the student learner’s success and use all of their skills to assist students in become the best learners they can be. The success of students as learners is just as important as how well they retain the material they learned. Teachers must also make sure to have diversity in their classroom, the authors make sure to note that students will get a lot out of diversity in the classroom and by highlighting on that diversity, students can learn and grow from the differences within the classroom.

Ultimately, this chapter highlights important things that teachers need to understand before going out into the field and how to make sure that all their students reach their maximum potential as learners. I know now, that once I get into the classroom, I have to make sure to highlight and work with everyone’s different methods of learning in order to create that maximum success, much like, how the Multiple Intelligence book highlights how we as teachers must work with every student’s multiple intelligence to help them grow. 

DI & UbD Chapter Three

This chapter introduces the idea of “backward design”, which is a model that teachers should apply to curriculum planning that addresses all the essential questions that will arise in the class that students should be aware of. This chapter mainly focuses on how to create a good curriculum for one’s classroom that has the necessary elements of the subject, but does not overload the student with information. This process can sometimes be affected by the standards that are in place and teachers must find a way to work with the standards and still create a classroom that the students will get the most information out of.

This idea of “backward design” is where that all comes into play and something that I found extremely interesting. With the backward design, there are three major stages that come with planning a curriculum, identifying the desired results by the end of the class, determining acceptable evidence and planning learning experiences and instruction. According to the textbook, this design avoids the two major “sins” which are things that I had never even thought about before, which are focus on activity oriented instruction (common in middle and elementary school) and trying to cover too much information, which is more common in the secondary and college level.

The chapter also says, that while the backward design is a fine way to plan out a class and create a curriculum, it’s extremely important to remember who are the learners and how are we going to teach them. I think that, while it’s important to have a firm grasp on what is going to be taught, the how is more important and will change with each group of students to fit the needs of the group, something not outlined by the “backward design.” 

MI Chapter Two

This chapter talked mostly about how we as adults and educators, before we teach our students how to bring their multiple intelligence into the classroom, we must first determine our own multiple intelligence and how we bring that into our classroom. My favorite part of the chapter was the part that talked about how they might be events in someone’s life that cause a certain intelligence to not develop, or flourish as much as it could have, because that intelligence was shot down. It made me think, as a teacher, that we should encourage students to flourish in their intelligence and that shutting down something they might be passion about, might hinder that intelligence from flourishing properly.

I also loved what the author said about how we can bring intelligences we aren’t as comfortable with into the classroom, such as asking students to draw on the board if we feel like we aren’t visual or spatial, who asking teachers for help if their area of intelligence differs from yours and getting ideas from one another if your areas of intelligence are different.

Another one of my favorite things the author talked about was how something like geography, or economy could influence what someone’s major intelligence was. Someone who grew up as an only child and was homeschooled, probably doesn’t have a very strong interpersonal intelligence, which they might have had, had they grown up going to school and had brothers and sisters. It really was interested to think about how an outside source could influence something that seems so internal. 

MI Chapter One

My favorite part of this whole chapter was what was said about all the eight intelligences working together, even though one or two might be more prominent than the others. All students have their strengths, and an intelligence that no doubt they feel most comfortable with and that shines brighter than the rest, but they have the ability to use their other intelligences. I also loved what the author said about how these intelligences aren’t necessarily expressed through standardized tests. Something that I really want to talk about in my classroom, is that multiple intelligences are important and it’s important to know how you learn, so students can apply their intelligence to their learning and have control of their learning, because of the multiple intelligence that’s most prevalent to them.

I also really liked what the author said about each intelligence having a “developmental trajectory”, which means that for each intelligence, there is a certain development for each intelligence based on age. Some intelligences are much more prominent at a younger age, and some don’t become more prominent until later in life. So, even if some students feel as though they don’t fit into a certain intelligence, that intelligence may develop more and become more prominent as the student grows older.

One of the most important things that I took away from this chapter, is that student’s intelligence is important and each student will develop their intelligence at a different time and express it a different way. Either way, it’s important to incorporate those intelligences into the classroom and help students gain from their intelligence. 

DI & UbD Chapter Two

This chapter made sure to touch on the subject of the connection between the teacher and the students and most of the chapter was highlighting ways that teachers can strengthen that connection. Some of the biggest ways that the chapter highlights are, having an understanding of culture diversity in one’s classroom, making time to make one on one connections with students, no matter how small they might be, and making sure that student’s interests are tapped upon in the classroom.

One of the parts of the chapter that really impacted me, was the part where the authors talk about responsive teaching. Responsive teaching is when teachers find the best way for students to access information and establish positive relationships with the students to help them access this information. The chapter then goes on to list many different ways that teachers can establish those relationships and become successful responsive teachers.

I really loved how this chapter gave real world examples of students who provide student variance that we as teachers might have in our classrooms. I also loved how the authors showed us examples of students who had all the potential to be wonderful, successful students in all rights, their might be an outside source that is stopping them from reaching their full potential. This is where the responsive teaching method comes in, by having a good idea of some of the things happening in kid’s lives outside of school, you might help reach out to a student that would otherwise be suffering.

These real world examples of students also provide a look at students who have different ways of processing information and have different strengths within the classroom, and as responsive teachers, it’s our job to teach using many different methods to reach out to many different students. 

DI & UbD Chapter One

Understanding by Design is the model that focuses mostly on the “what” (content area) and the “how” (teaching instruction) of teaching, and the Differentiated Instruction model focuses more on the “whom” (students they teach) and the “where” (learning environment), while also having a focus in the “how”. This chapter mainly focused on ways that teachers can combine the two models and successfully and become a master at focusing on all major parts of teaching will make you a more successful teacher in the long run. The part in this chapter that impacted me the most, was when the authors said that if the teacher loses sight of any of the four elements of teaching (the whom, where, how & what), than “the whole fabric of their work is damaged and the quality of learning impaired.”

Most of this chapter is dedicated to talking about how, as a teacher, you can incorporate these ways of thinking into your teaching and how to be the most effective teacher you can be, you make sure to focus on all the elements and bring each of the elements into your classroom successfully. The chapter makes sure to note that student success is the most important thing, it’s important to make sure that you stress each of the elements in your classroom.

The authors make sure to stress that teachers adapt both the Understanding by Design model and the Differentiated Instruction model in order to maximize your own learning, your student’s learning and your classroom environment.