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Synthesis - Seth
Students generally don’t master a subject that is taught to them in school. They can, however, gain a general knowledge of the subject which will put them on the path to greater understanding, which is what teachers want. Having the potential to master a subject may drive a student’s ambition to learn because s/he understands the material and is excited to learn about the subject. Mastery can also be applied outside the classroom. For example a hockey player may make a variety of passes rather than just skate with the puck and shoot it on net depending on the situation at a given moment during the game. Remember: even a teacher is not a master and there are many resources you can turn to when seeking help. Colleagues, curriculum guides, textbooks and personal reflection are a few of the many resources that are available to you during your teaching career; be sure to take full advantage of them when seeking help.
 * Abstract:**

Many subjects are just too vast to “master.” In a time when history is being made every day in the Middle East future educators are drooling over the opportunity to teach about something they lived through and experienced. But that brings up the question, “What do we really need to teach our students and is this other content really necessary? And is it more important for them to ‘master’ this rather than that?” After answering those questions which will surely turn our hair gray long before it needs to be, teachers have to find a [|method] that shows the students actually [|understand] the material being taught and give examples of when the subject may show its ugly face outside the school walls.
 * Synthesis:**

Leighlan
This chapter asked some questions. How does an educator know if a child has learned? How does the educator know the child has learned enough to have “mastered” the content? It is not just a matter of when to test them; it is a matter of how to test them and what one considers adequate evidence of learning. In order to find out if students have mastered the material, one needs to know what the material is. Backwards design shows up again. Once one knows what to test, than one can figure out what evidence is needed. Once one knows what evidence to gather, then one can figure out how to gather it. Wow, the scientific method has finally been applied to teaching. This reinforces what every good science teacher has said; when faced with a question, use the scientific method! It really does apply to everything.

Brody
In the second chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, Rick Wormeli raises two of the most vital questions concerning teaching: what is mastery and how do we measure it? Wormeli goes on to say that mastery involves a substantive skillful demonstration, not a simple regurgitation of facts that will long be forgotten after a test date. In their book, Understanding by Design, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins list six facets of true understanding: Explanation, Interpretation, Application, Perspective, Empathy, and Self-Knowledge (12). This is why the Backward Design Model we learned about in class is so beneficial because it provides a framework for how to plan lessons with purpose. School shouldn’t be about “busy work” as Dr. Theresa calls it. Busy work can be “mastered” with little effort because its purpose favors staying in one’s seat and simply completing work. Busy work will have no place in my History classroom. The subject of History already has the problem of having too much information to teach in such a short amount of time. This overload will get even worse as history is unfolding every day. Thus, it’s important to have a discussion with the Social Studies department to flesh out what information should be mastered and what information should simply be introduced.

Brittany
Mastery is one of those things that can be debated until the end of the world. It seems to be different for each grade level and means different things to different people. There are things that I do not think that I have mastered yet. Of course the things that I have not yet mastered I have chosen to continue studying in college in hopes to master the subject. Perhaps that is the secret to mastering a certain subject. A student has to be so interested in a subject that they want to acquire the skills it takes to master the subject. In the end, isn’t that what we want to instill in our students? To make them want to learn should be our goal.

Seth
Mastery is a tough subject to write on. Like Wormeli says, just because a student can memorize and spell ten words correctly on a spelling test does not make the student a master. (15) And, he states that with many math problems there right and wrong answers, providing the opportunity for mastery. However, when it comes to something like history it would be very hard to master a subject that’s so vast. When I’m teaching I plan on asking a lot of open-ended questions, for example, “Which battle of the American Civil War was the most significant? Why? Be sure to provide a detailed answer.” “Mastering” a subject only creates paranoia among students. I can’t tell you how many times I saw students checking their grades //during// class while in the field at MBHS. But what is important to master? Standards. The basics. The list on page 17 lists resources we can use to help us achieve this mastery as first year and even veteran teachers. Some of these will definitely have to be implemented before returning to MBHS on the 21st.

Max
It is hard to determine mastery of students. As a teacher you know what concepts and ideas you want the students to master, but it is hard to challenge everyone in the class. I think as a math teacher it is very easy to see who understands and who doesn’t through quiz scores and the amount of work they show. If there are all the steps written out then they probably have a good understanding. With the kids who don’t understand it will be harder to find a way to get the lesson to them. I only think busy work and worksheets will only be essential when the student needs extra problems and examples. The assessment method, from prior experiences, in math classes seems to be the most popular test of mastery. I see how it works with my practicum teacher. He has let me make the grading sheet for his tests and quizzes and showed me the way he does it.

Kim
In this chapter, I learned about the definition of mastery, examples evidencing mastery, and different ways students can show mastery of a skill or concept. Many of the ways teachers test for that mastery are not indicative of the student’s mastery level but their ability to complete a task. Teachers need to find methods of testing students that will show whether the students understand the skill or concept and not just find ways to test them over the material. This will help me to find ways to assess my students and to make sure that they are showing mastery of the content. Simply asking students to answer a problem or circle a literary device does not show that the student has mastered the skill. Also, determining what is important for students to master plays a role in how the students provide evidence of their mastery. The assessment method must be fitting and appropriate for the content, otherwise it is an unnecessary assessment. I will keep this in mind when I plan units and assessments for my students and make sure that they are able to prove mastery of the content.

Jen
Mastery is one of the most essential aspects of school because students need to actually retain the information and I could relate to the fact that new teachers may have difficulty figuring out what's essential for their students to learn. How much do you as a new teacher stick to the curriculum if you really feel that something is really important that is not a priority for the school board? These are all issues that need to be addressed and that we will be presented with in our career that are of significant importance. After reading this chapter I really began to think about the education system in today's society and how teachers really need to focus on having students actually "master" more of the information. This chapter really emphasized a point that I have made many times when I was in high school, which is that I am very good at memorizing the material but not so good at "mastering" it. At least that's what I thought at the time but I found since I've been in Practicum that I am able to master the information if it is provided in a way that fits my particular learning style, (i.e. repetition of the information.) Learning all of this and reading all of this has really given me a different perspective and allowed me to understand that connecting with each student and finding a way to determine if each student really has a handle on the content is essential.

Lily
Mastery is a hard thing to gage for many students because all students understand and learn differently but what we as the teacher can do to help is encouraging students to dive into the projects that they are working on and not just giving them step by step procedures that they can do to finish a problem. A great example of this is in figure 2.1 with a student playing basketball, the player has to use a variety of different passes though out the game depending on the flow and changes of the game, if they were to just use a bounce pass the whole time it would soon stop working. Mastery is not being able to repeat what the teacher is saying or memorize what the notes said, it is being able to use what was learned and to explain it and make it flexible with future experiences. I think that we are gaining these skills now in our classes and will be better able to have our students concur mastery more often.

Casey
Mastery is not exactly what most people may think it is. For example, a student may think that they have “mastered” the Spanish language because they got an A in the highest level Spanish class in their high school. Although the real test to see whether or not you have mastered the language would be using it in a Spanish speaking country when you needed something, like having to ask where the bathroom is. Mastery is being able to use what you have learned in the future in a completely different setting. Another example, similar to Wormeli’s, would be if you memorized a list of vocabulary words and their definitions and aced the test that week, and thought that you mastered it. Mastering these vocabulary words would be being able to use these words in a future essay or just in dialogue with a friend. I think that it is important to focus on testing your students to make sure that they are not just temporarily memorizing information. It is important to make sure that your students are retaining information that they can use in a different setting.

**Mike**
I understand what Mastery is, but how many students in reality master what they have learned? A student can study the night before a test just to receive a great test exam, but will that student be able to retain that information in the future? If you can apply what you have learned in the classroom no matter the subject into the real world for the rest of the life then you have truly mastered what has been taught to you. In my concentration of health, my goal is to teach students any life skills whether it has to do with nutrition, exercise, managing stress, etc., and hopefully applying what I have taught to them in their real life. I believe that as educators, we need to make sure that we are not teaching as if we are blabbering out whatever is coming out of our mouths just to get it out. Instead, what we need to do is teach in a way that students will always remember what they have just learned by us setting an example of being meaningful and passionate educators.

Jasmyn
“Mastery” is a term that means different things to different people, some believe that when you have receive an A in a course, in college, you have mastered the subject, while others believe that it takes more than 15 weeks to master any subject, it may take years of practice. //Wormeli// explains that a student who gets a 100 on a spelling test of ten words does not make them a master speller. I think that anyone can agree that we can gage “acceptable evidence of mastery” through assessments and presentation, as long as, those assessing or in the audience have enough background in the subject to understand the subject.

Kaitlyn Bartlett
In chapter 2 of FIAE, the author talks about how to understand if a student really masters the content or not. I agree that standardized tests do not tell whether a student has mastered the content or not. I liked the example of longitude/ latitude to help clarify if a student will be a master of the content. This will affect my teaching because I will try to use different ways of wording questions to check to see if I’m doing my job as an educator. I understand that everyone will not be a master of all subject areas, but with this knowledge about different techniques, I will do my best to equip my students.