UbD: Chapter 1 Analysis and Synthesis

Chapter one in UbD and DI provided information on exactly what Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction is and gave examples of them being used in a classroom. Every student in a classroom is going to be different, whether it is their learning style or culture. Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design can be applied to all students based on their learning styles and how much they know on a certain subject or content area. As the chapter states, “quality classrooms evolve around powerful knowledge that works for each student” (3). The knowledge being presented in a classroom not only has to be explained in a way so that every student can understand it but they also have to be given different routes of expressing this knowledge that they are learning.

Every teacher is different so therefore they are going to incorporate UbD and DI in different ways and focus on certain methods more than others. UbD and DI can be applied in a classroom many different ways. One way is to assess the students before a unit begins to see how much they do or do not know about the unit and go from there. Another is to provide choices on how to present knowledge on a certain project or assignment, children can choose to act something out or create a poster depending on what best suits them. The children in a classroom are going to be diverse so everything in the class has to offer options. As a teacher one has to use different methods of teaching to reach out to all students and the students need to have choices in the classroom. A teacher needs to recognize all the students differences and structure the class around these differences. Teachers have to teach in different ways and students have to learn in different ways.

Here are some links to media relating to UbD and DI:
This is a great website that offers podcasts and movies on DI
Here is a movie from YouTube on UbD and DI

UbD: Chapter 4

The part of this chapter I found to be the best was when it stated that some teachers may give kids that are behind less work and ones that are ahead more work to incorporate differentiation. That should not be the case, the kids that are ahead should receive work that extends on the knowledge they already know just as the ones that are behind. But still my problem with grouping students based on what they know on a given topic still bothers me. I know it is to benefit them so they can be assigned work to further their understanding but I still feel like it is labeling them or at least the students will look at it like that. The ones that are ahead may notice that the group of kids further behind aren’t doing more difficult assignments like them and that could cause a problem. It makes sense to me to determine where students are and base their work upon that but students may see it differently because middle school and high school can be vicious places.

UbD: Chapter 3

Chapter 3 brought up the fact that there is going to be a lot of material to cover and it is important to determine what is going to be covered and to what extent. I know that is something that I am going to have to deal with myself as a teacher. Also the whole idea of creating a course backwards I find to be a great idea and would like to use the concept when creating my own courses. It is important to think of what you want your students to know at the end of the class and go from there. As a teacher I am going to have to think about what my students will know in reading and writing at the end of the year. Also the chapter explained how important it is to stick to same criteria for every student, but the way they show their knowledge of the criteria can be in different ways. I want to offer my students different options such as posters and essays to show present their ideas on a topic because all students learn differently.

MI: Chapter 4

This chapter really opened my eyes as to how easy the multiple intelligences can be introduced to students at any level. I like the idea of when introducing the concept make sure to describe it in a way that all students realize that they have all the multiple intelligences so they don’t try to focus on one specific one. The big concept is to want them to explore all intelligences. I really liked all the activities that chapter provided to explain MI Theory but the one I liked the most was the biography portion. As an English teacher I think that could easily fit in to my class. It would be interesting to have the students pick a famous person that represents a specific intelligence and relate the famous person to themselves, I may be able to learn a lot about a student in that way.

MI: Chapter 3

This chapter did a great job at explaining exactly how a teacher can discover how each individual student learns best. I really liked in the beginning of the chapter how it suggested paying attention to how a student may misbehave in a class to understand how they learn. I never thought of using the way a student may misbehave to my benefit, but I think it is a really great idea. Also all the other ways the chapter suggested as using to decipher a childs multiple intelligences I found to be very interesting because the teachers themselves have to use their own multiple intelligences to pick up on the kids multiple intelligence. One way was to take a photo of the student when they do something good, which is visual, and others were to talk to the parents or students themselves which is social. I plan on keeping these methods in mind when in my own classroom because I know they will be very helpful in discovering all my students different learning styles such as trying to design my course material around each individual multiple intelligence and taking note as to which students do best in each one.

UbD: Chapter 2

In the previous blog I questioned where to draw the line between determining what needs a student has and just flat out labeling them. This chapter helped me to understand exactly how to avoid labeling. What I have to realize as a teacher is that every single person is different, so therefore every single student is as well. My lessons plans cannot be base around each individual student in the class. I need to determine how each student learns best and where that at when it comes to my class. As the chapter explains, it is best to use many different methods of teaching and also provide the students with many options when doing project, reading, or doing homework. To be a good teacher I shouldn't look at my class as whole but as individuals.

UbD: Chapter 1

This chapter presented the fact that the students within a classroom may vary greatly when it comes to their learning capabilities and where they are at in the course. For me this was very interesting because normally, or at least where I went to high school, the advanced kids would sign up for advanced classes and the kids that may be a little behind would have a certain class and then everyone else in between would too. In all the scenarios presented in this chapter the teacher had every kind of student imaginable in one classroom and had to adjust to each and every need where different homework assignments and ways of presenting ideas were needed. I feel that adjusting to every students needs may be very challenging, for the plain fact that grouping kids of the same level together may cause issues. I want to know where the line is drawn between adjusting to a students needs and simply labeling them because of their capabilities because it can be a touchy subject.

MI: Chapter 2

This chapter brought up a fear of mine while becoming a teacher. I am an English major and reading and writing is what I do best. My weak spot is with logic and math. it never interested me so therefore my intelligence in it never ripened. I do not want my weakness in this area to affect my teaching in any way though, and I fear that it may become an obstacle. As a teacher I feel like I should be able to help or at least guide my students with anything in my subject area or others. I do not want to be the teacher watching over study time and have a student come up to me and ask for help on a math problem and have to tell them that I don’t know how to do it. Even though math is not my content area I still feel like I should have a good understanding of it if I am going to be any kind of teacher.

MI: Chapter 1

We have already been discussing the multiple intelligences within class already and what exactly each one stands for which this chapter has provided, but the chapter also introduced new ideas about MI that I did not know. First of all was the simple fact that Multiple Intelligences is basically the arch enemy of the “IQ”. It is interesting that Multiple Intelligences was basically a counter argument to the IQ. This simple fact is important to know because it is clear that there are many different kinds of intelligences because every person has their strengths and weaknesses and just because they may be weak in a certain area does not make them stupid in any way. Students strengths and weaknesses should be analyzed by the teacher so that the teacher can work around their certain strengths or multiple intelligences so that the students most effective way of learning can be applied in the classroom.