Chapter 4 DIUBD

Chapter 4 is an excellent chapter that puts a lot of things into perspective. It stresses the importance of the existence of a strong compelling curriculum in every classroom. The chapter explains that if students feel engaged they will be more likely to enjoy school and thirst for knowledge throughout life. The chapter also makes the very important point that as teachers we must each make a continuous effort to take responsibility for student’s learning. If a class is having trouble it can’t be entirely their fault. Teachers must constantly be looking in the mirror, because learning troubles begin with the instructor. The chapter also covered the need for teachers to get to know the ways that their students learn.
Each reader in the group took away something special from this chapter. Some took so much away that they suggested it should be required reading for all teachers. One of the sections of the chapter that impacted the group the most was the section at the very end with the three questions about our personal vision and will. This really forced us to look at our reasons for teaching.

Chapter 1 DIUBD

Chapter 1 of DIUBD covered the ideas of differentiated instruction and understanding by design. According to the book understanding by design is focused on the collection of data. Using this method, teachers can gather a wide variety of information to help them teach their students and organize it into their lesson plans based on standards of learning such as the Maine learning results. Unlike understanding by design the idea of differentiated instruction is less about the standards and more about the students. The book describes differentiated instruction as a way to address the “whom”, “where”, and “how” we teach. What it allows the teacher to do is alter their usual standard based lesson plans to adapt to the needs of individual students. What the book suggests is that teachers should use both methods in their class rooms. Thus they can create excellent lesson plans that adhere to the standards that schools must live up to, while allowing the leeway necessary to bend high standard demands so that all students can gain as much as possible from the teacher’s instruction.
While reading the chapter our group had several gut reactions. The first was that using each of these learning techniques together made far more since than using them apart. The second was that differentiated instruction was a great way to make students learn information not only for a test but to make sure that they retained the information pertaining to the standard that they were supposed to have meet. Finally we decided that there was a danger of letting students slip through the cracks if schools get stuck in the same rut of only meeting standards and not uncovering knowledge they need.

Synthesis Chapter 3 MI in the Classroom

As a group, we have written that chapter 3 basically discusses the fact that even though there are 8 intelligences, every student will have a dominant 2 0r 3 (but will also of course have the potential to develop all 8 to a functional point). The chapter stated that as a teacher, it is important for us to stretch not only our students' thinking (in order to develop their other intelligences), but also to constantly be asking more of ourselves. We thought this was especially pertinent in the areas that we are most "fluent" in -- for example, if a teacher is excellent linguistically, maybe trying to enhance his or her logistical skills would benefit the class.

The second part of the chapter that we all mentioned was the fact that the methods mentioned to discover students' intelligences were very varied. Some methods involved straight out asking the children how they learn, others were more discreet, like looking at past exam records and student report cards. Our favorite however--and this was group-wide-- was the "examining misbehavior" method. None of us had ever of thought to see what a child does when they act out as a way to help the child, but it makes perfect sense. Making that new discovery was very enriching for us.

Reflection-wise, a lot of us learned in this chapter a lot about why some of our educators did what they did. It's a pretty strange feeling that we are now learning about what we once were subjected to.

On a different note, some of us stated that taking the time to cater to each intelligence every class may be very time (and class) consuming. Also, knowing that one student may not "get" your lesson at all because it's not in their intelligence seems daunting.

Synthesized Ch. 4

Team 4(Ryan, Renee, Aaron, Mackenzie)
9/16/07
Multiple Intelligences
Chapter 4

Write a brief abstract of the chapter.
This chapter focused on teaching the MI Theory to your students. Armstrong stresses that this will help the children realize their own strengths and weaknesses and help them gain insight about why they are “good” at some things and “bad” at others. Armstrong also points out that if kids know about MI then they will be able to understand why teachers may be teaching the same subject different ways. Armstrong also gives some follow-up activities to teaching kids about MI including career days, field trips, famous biographies, and a “human intelligence hunt”. All of these activities will help provide support to your lesson about MI and show kids physical proof that all eight intelligences exist in the working world.

How did you connect to the reading and briefly reflect on your thoughts?
We felt that this chapter provided some really great information. By teaching kids about their own intelligences they can understand how they learn best and be able to tell us as teachers and their parents at home. We believe it is important to know also know how people around them work and operate so teaching the MI Theory is also good because it will teach kids how their peers learn. This is a vital life skill that the kids can also use when their in the work force. Lastly, we thought this was a way for us as teachers to show that we care and are interested in making sure they all learn the material without being “too friendly”. Many kids express the feeling that they don’t like it when teachers are “fake-friendly” and teaching MI makes us seem like we care but also like we are teachers not friends.

Reflection on Reading - DI-3

Book: Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design - Tomlinson

Chapter: 3 – What Really Matters in Learning? (Content)

Write a brief abstract of the chapter:

This chapter is all about content. Sometimes there is too much of it, and sometimes there is too little of it. State and national standards are frequently too broad or too specific, but finding a middle ground is something that is needs to happen. So this chapter explains how educators can take a standard (either too broad or specific) and shape it into a highly effective teaching tool in the classroom. It explains how the element of “the big picture” is finding its way into lessons today. Instead of your normal facts and statistics the thought is to teach students concepts that they will remember and apply in the future, and not to teach them things that they just memorize to get the grade, and then ultimately forget a few days later. This chapter does a good job explaining how to do this as well; starting with a standard, shaping it into understandings, and then developing essential questions. Using this technique gets more done in the classroom and has longer educational value in students.

How did you connect to the reading? And briefly reflect on your thoughts.

As a team we really looked at this chapter and recognized it for its educational value. Some of us actually recognize the design from our own classrooms in high school, and for some of us it is a new concept altogether. We all like it for different reasons. Some of us like it because it helps fulfill state education requirements. Some like it because it is an easier way to express content, and others like it because it is highly effective in the classroom and makes lasting impressions on a student’s educational intellect. Collectively we agree that this design is a very large asset to the educational field. It makes developing content easier, and it is more effective, what’s not to love?

Reflection on Reading - DI-2

Book: Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design - Tomlinson

Chapter: 2 – What Really Matters In Teaching? (The Students)

Write a brief abstract of the chapter:

This chapter was about students and their individual differences. These differences could be intellectual, emotional, and physical. They could be a learning impediment, a situation at home, or a physical disability. It explained how we as educators need to recognize these differences in the classroom and use differentiated instruction to work around them to get to the student in question. It is about being sensitive to the fact that in the classroom there are no cookie-cutter-students; they are all different and when their teacher recognizes that they work more effectively in class. It explains that using responsive teaching opens up windows of opportunity in your classroom.

How did you connect to the reading? And briefly reflect on your thoughts.

We liked the chapter. We agree in the fact that teachers need to be there for their students in every academic way they can. We like the concept of responsive teaching and understand how it shows sensitivity to the differences of our students. But we didn’t realize how much students needed/wanted of educators. We as teachers need to get close enough to be easy to talk to, but have enough distance so that we don’t invade their personal space. We need to be there for our students, but the balance in-between is something we are noticing more and more. We noticed that this chapter suggested teaching to students’ strongest intelligence and evaluating them frequently. Taking such a large role in the lives of our students has gotten us excited to get into the field! The last thing we noticed was how this chapter emphasized the fact that learning happens within the student, not to the student. We as educators have to help our students want to learn the material, not expect them to learn it. All in all we really liked this chapter. It reminded us that we have to be there for our all of our students while expecting great things from them.

Synthesized Ch. 2

Ryan Nickerson
9/13/07
Multiple Intelligences
Chapter 2

Write a brief abstract of the chapter.
This chapter was really broken down into two sections. The first part discussed discovering your own intelligences as a teacher. This will help you understand yourself and how you learned best as a child. Also it will help you realize you need to teach to the other types of intelligences in your classroom. You may have one or two kids in your class that are the same as you were as a kid and you’ll be more apt to teach the way you liked to learn best. This chapter reminds you to teach to all intelligences, and by discovering your own you’ll be able to do that well. The second part of the chapter talked about past experiences in peoples’ lives that may have influenced them to fall into the intelligences they do. These were referred to as crystallizing and paralyzing experiences. Crystallizing experiences are often positive experiences that may have turned a person on to a certain intelligence while paralyzing experiences are often events that may have discouraged that person to dislike certain things about an intelligence. By knowing about your students experiences you may be able to help them realize these factors from their past and may be able to help them get past paralyzing experiences. It may also help you personally to understand why you learn a certain way.

How did you connect to the reading and briefly reflect on your thoughts?
We all thought this chapter was especially helpful to us as teachers. By giving us ways to identify different intelligences in the classroom (including our own) and then also giving us ways to obtain help/insight about our students’ intelligences was beneficial. Also, we all thought it was interesting how at such a young age kids can be “turned off” and “turned on” to certain intelligences. We all agreed that it is also our responsibility to teach to all intelligences and to help kids become interested in new intelligences.

Mackenzie Jones // Team 4
9/11/07
Dr. Grace Ward
EDU 221

Chapter Synthesis for MI Chapter 1

As a group we all basically stated that the first chapter in Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom described the actual eight intelligences that Howard Gardener is given credit to having developed. We also all agreed that the chapter identified and described what made each intelligence a “true” – or scientifically sound intelligence. The main components that made them hold up were that a) it has been proven that living “prodigies” have existed in all of these 8 areas of the brain, and that b) certain brain damaging conditions can limit cognition in one or more these areas (in isolation).

We then also talked about the fact that the first chapter discussed each intelligence to the point that we all feel comfortable with discussing them and observing children with them.

We all felt relatively good about teaching with the Multiple Intelligences theory. Some of the “plusses” we stated were that we could all categorize ourselves into these sections, so it makes us more easily accessible to our students, multiple intelligence theory allows us to reach many more kids than in traditional teaching atmospheres, and thirdly, that the research put into the MI theory shows that the field of education is still ever-evolving. Furthermore, MI theory states that some intelligences can be interwoven, which gives us as educators opportunity to make one student’s love of a certain subject carry on to our own classrooms, depending on how successfully we craft our lessons. The reading also opened up our eyes, as one of our members stated that before this reading, he had always thought of intelligence as just one thing. He now understands, however, that breaking it up into sections makes much more sense and describes humans more accurately.

Some of the downsides that some of our group saw to teaching to Multiple Intelligences were the fact that it makes our job much harder as educators (trying to form a curriculum to serve eight potentially different intelligences is a lot harder than planning for one), and that keeping students engaged, even after the plan is made, is eight times as difficult.

Overall, I got a very positive sense from our group’s reaction. We feel that there are many strengths in teaching a variety of students, and that the downsides are very easily managed when proper teaching techniques are used. I also got the impression that our group had a pretty firm foundation and understanding of the MI theory before we began the reading. I believe this contributed to not only our understandings of the material, but also our viewpoints on teaching in general.