UbDDI+B2+Chapter+4

Synthesis - Grace K.
The main idea of chapter 4 in __Understanding by Design__ was ensuring that students succeed, and the chapter outlined many methods and tools with which to do that. Paramount to this objective of student success is the recognition that both content and instruction are equally important in a classroom. The chapter also stressed the fact that teachers must accept responsibility for their students’ progress; when something isn’t working for a student, it is the teacher’s job to extrapolate why and to make it better. There were many suggestions made by authors Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe to help teachers cultivate a classroom of successful students, but the broad idea remained that a differentiated classroom is the most effective way to ensure that all students succeed. Some specific suggestions included the following: Be clear about learning goals and objectives; doing so will assure your students that they are working towards a worthy goal and not just doing busywork. Get to know your students and their learning styles; keeping track of what works and doesn’t work for each student will allow a teacher ample opportunity to effectively differentiate instruction. Be flexible and adaptive; an effective teacher must be willing and able to differentiate instruction when needed, even if this means deviating from a planned lesson. All of these are ways to craft a classroom environment that thrives on respect and partnership and results in successful students.
 * Abstract**:

There were several aspects of the chapter that our class focused on. Judging by class responses, most of us connected with the ideas of outlining clear goals and objectives for students, as well as accepting responsibility for our students’ progress or lack of it. The idea of keeping a notebook or other method of recording observations struck a chord with many of us as a great way to get to know our future students and their learning styles. Many of us agreed that teachers need to be adaptive and flexible in their teaching, and use a variety of methods in order to connect to all of their students.
 * Synthesis Reflection:**

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Tiarra LaPierre
A teacher must not only have compelling curriculum but be a compelling instructor. It is important for a teacher to have personal understanding and clarity when it comes to designing goals for her students or else students end up just as foggy on the subject as the teacher. The chapter provides a helpful list of attitudes and skills held by teachers that are effective in helping all learners. In order for a teacher to take responsibility for the education of her students it is important that they make an effort to get to know each student and give quality feedback on their development. There are also suggestions about how one might build awareness of what works for each student; tactics that could even be used by a teachers who believe that their classroom is too large to manage closely. A teacher must always seek to improve their own understanding of the big ideas in their curriculum and continue learning, reflecting and thinking about their pedagogy.

Grace K.
Chapter 4 outlined some effective tools and methods for teachers to use in order to make the most out of their differentiated classroom. There were several characteristics of a differentiated classroom that Tomlinson and McTighe felt important enough to include in the chapter. These included the necessity of setting clear learning goals, that teachers need to accept responsibility for all their students’ progress or lack of it, that a classroom needs to be a “community of respect,” and that teachers need to make the effort to learn about their students and adapt instruction to them (Tomlinson & McTighe 40). One tool that I found interesting was pre-assessment at the beginning of a unit. I had never considered doing this at the beginning of each unit before, but the case made by Tomlinson & McTighe convinces me that there is nothing to lose by doing this, and quite a lot to gain. I also liked the idea of a teacher keeping a notebook where he or she can record pertinent information about each student’s learning styles and what works best for that student. I think a resource like that would be very useful to refer to during a school year when planning a unit or lesson, or when having student conferences and trying to work out methods for success with a student.

Justin C.
This chapter talks about ways in which teachers can plan out their content in ways that will help their students succeed. It mentions several characteristics of teachers that have scenarios in which teachers have implemented different methods of teaching. One method that I felt was a good idea was that of Mrs. Callison. What she would do is keep a notebook of all her students and watch them during class periods by walking around the classroom. She would jot down any behaviors of students and later record them in her notebook. The text states that, “she is also continually surprised by how much of the information she would forget if it were not written down” (47-48). I feel that this comes to show that many teachers may forget about their students and how they learn and behave. Going into a middle or high school setting, it is not uncommon for a teacher to see over 100 students in a single day. Keeping track of all students without and record would be almost impossible. Keeping a notebook of all students would make qualities of them quickly accessible to the teacher and they can be better equipped to adjust their teaching style if it becomes necessary.

Danny K.
Chapter four covered planning curriculum design, instruction, and assessment for student success. One important aspect of this chapter involved keeping a balance between curriculum and instruction. Just like many things in life, if you do not keep things in balance then they will not work as affectively. Another aspect that the chapter covered was that teachers need to clearly define the objectives of assignments and units. I know in my classes in high school I could not stand assignments that I didn’t know the objectives. Without knowing the objectives it made some assignments seem like busy work. I will make sure in my classroom to clearly define the objectives of my assignments given.

Chris D.
Chapter 4 talks about maintaining a balance between curriculum and instruction. It mentions that if one is favored more than the other, then the balance is thrown off and we as teachers are unable to give the knowledge our students want and need. I also learned that it’s important to help the students who struggle with the content and give them extra chances to improve their skills so that they will soon master and understand it. To do this and identify right away the students that will need this extra work, I would give my students some form of pre-assessment, similar to the example that Tomlinson and McTighe gave with Ms. Kanefsky’s 3rd grade class, at the beginning of the year or unit to see what skills they already know, and which skills require to have more work put into them. Once I know what the limitations are for my students, I could then alter assignments for certain students to either assist the students whose mathematical knowledge has lots of gaps in it, or find different assignments for students who have already mastered the material that I wanted them to learn. I would have to make sure that I devote equal time to each group of students so that both groups feel like I’m not playing favorites.

Jonathan B.
Chapter four deals with planning curriculum design, instruction, and assessment for student success. The chapter mentions that clearly defined objectives are essential for the process of differentiation. This makes a lot of sense to me; you need something solid from which to convey in a variety of ways. The topic of getting to know your students comes back up in this chapter, as it is essential for optimizing differentiation. This includes capitalizing on students' strengths and making them aware of their own weaknesses. Chapter four would impact my classroom in that I understand the importance of getting to know my students so that I can make sure that they are getting what they need. This comes down to the student being able to answer the essential questions laid out, and doing so at their maximum aptitude.

Kaitlin T.
According to Tomlinson, a “high-quality curriculum” is not the completion of the teacher’s job. A powerful curriculum is merely the beginning, leading a classroom in the right direction of countless possibilities. A teacher should plan his or her curriculum around “enduring understandings”; this will allow the students and classroom more flexibility while learning. Tomlinson reassures us, as teachers and those of us who are studying to become teachers, that “there is a kindergarten version and a Ph.D. version of the bigs ideas of the disciplines. Regardless of our subject matter, we as teachers should be able to teach to our students depending on their diverse needs as learners. Teachers need to take responsibility for their students’ learning from day one. An educator cannot simply say, “Well, I taught the material, so my students should know the material.” If students are not understanding the concepts and ideas presented in any given classroom, the teacher has not taught his or her students well enough. Chapter four discusses the importance of student observation. It will not likely be possible to observe all 150 that any given teacher may have, but it would still be beneficial to observe two or three of the more troubled students. This task will allow teachers better insight into their students that they often find the most difficult to work with. Perhaps a teacher will discover when a student is at his or her best behavior, or when he or she is the most engaged or learns most effectively.

Jen R.
Chapter four focuses around the proper designing of a curriculum. Chapter four also introduces the idea of considering a curriculum for any class as a wide varied spectrum. After reading this chapter, I have learned the strategies necessary to construct a curriculum in which the ideas of the unit are clearly illustrated. By maintaining a defined and well-rounded curriculum, you allow the content to be easily defined by the students, and therefore ensure greater student success. After building my classroom based curriculum, as a teacher, I will initially focus on identifying the students who will face difficulties and challenges with the content and give them the extra guidance needed to better understand the material.

Tyler
Creating the perfect classroom environment is not easy. One of the main reasons is that there are so few classrooms that can be used as effective models. So many classrooms are stuck in an old way of teaching. Without models, every change is a step into the unknown. As I read this, the author seems to assume that this new system is the winning system. I think it is important to take that assumption with a bit of skepticism. After all, it was once thought that standardized benchmarks and curriculum goals was a solution to an older problem. In the end it created its own problems.

Grady B.
As I was driving to school last week, I had heard a report on NPR that although students in Japan were exposed to far less content than students in American schools, their ability to learn was superior to ours. This chapter mirrors the content of that report, which stated that the truly important part of school needs to be teaching children how to learn, not simply exposing them to a large volume of content. It is indeed an unrealistic goal for a history teacher to hope to cover //all// of history; to even attempt to do so would only set one up for disappointment. I like that this chapter emphasizes the fact that you can use a relatively small piece of history and use it to reveal much more universal historical concepts, which will provoke richer learning in the future. Along the same lines as the last chapter, I took notice of the important point that there are right and wrong ways to differentiate instruction; giving more or less of a content load to a student who either does not comprehend, or has advanced comprehension of key components of the curriculum will not provide any benefit to a student. I hope to bring this knowledge into my own classroom, where I will focus on understanding, not simply knowing. ===

Dan B.
Chapter four talked about the things that teachers can do to ensure that students are successful in their classes. I thought that the most important things that a teacher could do was make sure they were clear about the curriculum that the student would be learning about, this way you can ensure that a student meets the desired goals. The teacher and the student also have to develop respect for one another, if the student respects the teacher thy will be more apt to try harder and meet the desired goals. The teacher also needs to learn how each student learns best, by doing this a teacher can teach each student effectively. The last thing that I thought was really important was the fact that a teacher need to have flexible classroom teaching routines, that way if a student does not understand a way that a teacher is teaching a lesson then the teacher could explain it to that student in a different way to make sure the student understands the material. When I am teacher I will make sure I will stress what I want the student to get out of what I am teaching. I will also develop a respectful relationship with my students, so that they will want to learn the things I am trying to each to them. I will also try to find out how each of my students learn best so that I can properly convey the material to all of them. Lastly I will have a multiple ways to teach one lesson so I can make sure everybody will understand the material at the end of a unit. I think that doing these things will help my students to succeed.

Will L.
Chapter four covers a lot of the basic stuff, in terms of being an effective and responsible teacher. The main points it discusses are everyone learns a different way, differentiated instruction is necessary, and teachers should take responsibility for their student’s learning. A couple other important factors to consider would be creating an encouraging learning environment for students and being flexible in how one teaches certain material. I found that this chapter’s information is the most practical and important when becoming a teacher. Another concept that this chapter addressed that I found important was being able to effectively communicate with students to ensure that they are learning the material as easily as one is teaching it.