Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14

The thing that these chapters had in common was that they talked about assessments and how to record assignments on report cards and in a grade book.  Chapter 11 introduced the concept of recording 60s in the grade book for missing work instead of zeros which is currently the norm. The reason that we should do this as teachers is because recording zeros make grades inaccurate. The zero also distorts the final  grade since a zero is so devastating. The book as that it isn't cheating since you are still recording an F. It is also better to change it to a 60 especially if it happens only once or in the beginning of the grading period since we should be grading on a trend. This chapter also talks about grading gifted students. In this chapter I learned that the higher grade should always be recorded. A high grade should mean that they mastered the regular level and the advanced level material. If the teacher records the higher grade there should be a comment saying if this grade is for the regular level or the advanced level. If it is for the regular level then a grade for the advanced level should be left in the comment section. If a student is in an honors class then it is best for a teacher to record the grade that goes against the higher standards even if it is not the higher grade. The last thing that I learned from this chapter is about recording grades for late work. What the teacher records as the grade should depend on whether it is occasional or chronic. If a student always hands in work on time then the teacher should work with the student and let the student turn in the work without deducting points. If it is always occurring then a late penalty may be needed. However, in this case the teacher should record one grade for the mastery and another grade with the late penalties. Chapter 12 talked about the difference between the 100 - point scale and the 4.0 - scale. I learned that the smaller the scale the more alike the grade is between teachers and schools. The point values on smaller grading scales are also more directly correlated to the defined criteria and they provide better feedback. Teacher are also less likely to fudge the numbers with small grading scales. I learned that larger scales are more subjective than smaller grading scales. Chapter 13 talked about different ways to organize a grade book. One of the ways was to group assignments by standards, objectives, or benchmarks which means the teacher would have to record the grade more than once if it covered more than one standard. Another way was to list the assignments by dates which I thought would be most useful. Chapter 14 talked about report card formats. The main thing that I got out of this chapter was that the report cards should be responsive to students' experiences and they should reflect the differentiated practices that were provided by the teacher. 

Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10

These four chapters talked about grading and what should be included in final grades. The main focus of chapter 7 was grading policy. I learned that differentiated instruction directly impacts a teacher’s grading policy. I learned that because there is no common benchmarks for an A, B, C, etc. grades are not an accurate indicator of mastery. A suggestion that the book gave is to talk to colleagues and define what exactly makes an A, B, C, etc. Talking about these differences can help inform me as an educator what my colleagues think and will help a team of teachers grade so that the students’ grades are accurate indicators of mastery. Another big idea that I got out of this chapter is that grades are more accurate if they are based on points, not based on an average since averages compare students to each other. Chapter 8 talks about the reason why teachers grade. The most common reason that teachers grade is because as teachers we need to document, provide feedback and guide discussions on a regular basis in order for students to achieve in our class. The big thing that I learned about in this chapter is whether or not behavior, attendance, and participation should be included in grades. The big take away that I learned from this chapter is that these things shouldn’t be included in the final grade. Attendance should not be included because if students aren’t present but are still doing the work then they shouldn’t be penalized for not being able to make it to class. The reason that the book gave for not including behavior is because it is not an accurate indicator of mastery, which is the goal with grades. Participation should only be included in the grade is it is the skill being taught. Chapter 9 gave a list of ten things to avoid when grading. Some of these things were incorporating behavior, attendance, and participation into grades, which was talked about in chapter 8; penalizing students for multiple attempts; grading homework; extra credit and bonus points; and recording zero’s for incomplete work. I learned that these things should not be included in the final grade for the same reason: it’s not an accurate portrayal of what the student knows. Chapter 10 talks about an idea that happens every day in classrooms: makeup work. In this chapter I learned that as a teacher I should give students the change to redo work because different things are happening every day in students’ lives outside the classroom. This chapter talks about the fact that teachers should give full credit for makeups and redo’s. Since the goal is for the students to master the material, it is not fair to penalize the student for redoing the work in order to master the concepts, especially since everyone learns at a different pace.

Chapter 8 UbD and Chapters 8, 11, 12 MI

Chapter 8 in UbD talks about grading and report cards. In this chapter I learned that the primary goal of grading is to give students and parents feedback to support the learning process and to encourage learner success. One way to make grading better is to have descriptions in qualities in student work for each symbol on the grading scale. I also learned that teachers need to eliminate factors that interfere with a student’s ability to show what they learned. The chapter suggests not to grade on a curve and to not score all (or even most) assessments. I learned that it is not a fair to grade formative assessments since their purpose is mainly for feedback. This means that the only assessments that should be graded are summative assessments. The book highly suggested using reporting systems instead of report cards. These systems would give more information than just an A in math C in English etc. The thing that will impact me the most is that the chapter said teachers can even do this when a district uses report cards by having an attachment put into the report card that gives more in depth information about how a student is doing in the course. This chapter can relate to chapter 8 in MI because the MI chapter talks about elements of order in the classroom. Giving reports on how the students are behaving and working in the class can be part of a report system. Reporting how students are behaving can be assessed using MI theory. Chapter 8 (MI) talks about using MI theory to get students attention, to make students aware of transitions, for communicating class rules, and for forming groups. I learned that MI theory can also be used for students with behavior problems. In the case of behavior problems, a teacher can help using the student’s strongest developed MI or the student’s underdeveloped MI. Chapter 11 and 12 talk more about other uses for MI theory. I learned that MI theory can apply to memory. Students that are considered to have poor memories really only have poor memory in one or two MIs. Chapter 11 talks all about how MI theory can be applied to special education. When MI is applied, special education can work better with regular education. Instead of teachers seeing students weaknesses (their learning disability), teachers can instead look at the student’s MIs and see their MI strengths. 

Chapter 7, 9, 13, 14

The seemingly obvious similarities between all these chapters is the fact that they all talk about multiple intelligences and how to use MI theory in the classroom. Chapter 7 talked a lot about classroom environment and the way that a teacher can set up their classroom. The biggest suggestion that this chapter stated was to break the classroom into four different parts. These parts would allow a teacher to organize the classroom in a way where there was certain areas of the classroom designated to each one of the multiple intelligences. The first area that the chapter talked about was the permanent open-ended activity center. In this area there were suggestions for each intelligence. The next activity center is the temporary topic-specific activity center. This area changes frequently and is geared towards a specific theme or subject. The third area that is in the classroom is the permanent topic-specific activity centers. In this activity center, each center exists year-round and has material and resources that never change. Part of this center is revolving explorations that change with monthly components or weekly topics. The last activity center is the temporary open-ended activity center. This center is supposed to be set up and taken down easily. I am not sure how any of this will impact my classroom. Most of the suggestions that it gave were elementary. I could see having the four activity centers in an elementary school classroom since the students stay with the same teacher and in the same room most of the day. For a middle or high school classroom, I find this to be impossible. Teachers often change rooms during the day and students are in different classrooms all day. If teachers are lucky enough to have one classroom to call home for the day, they are often teaching multiple different subjects under one content area. I also thought that it would be difficult to fit all these things in a classroom. My big question with this is if these are the four sections in the classroom, where is the section where the teacher teaches the content? Chapter 9 gave specifics for what should be inside a MI classroom and even a MI school. The information in this chapter will impact how I teach because I will try to teach in a way that involves all eight intelligences. Chapter 13 talked about how MI can be used in places other than traditional classrooms. I learned that MI can be used in computer technology, cultural diversity and career counseling. Chapter 14 talked about a possible ninth intelligence called existential intelligence.

Chapter 5,6 MI and 6,7 UbD

The main idea that I got out of all these chapters was how to teach. The two MI chapters talked about how to teach in a way that incorporates all the multiple intelligences. In chapter 5 of MI I learned about how much classroom time is typically spent on teachers talking at students, such as giving directions and lecturing. This chapter also had a big emphasize on hands-on learning, self-reflection, and pictures/video clips being incorporated into lessons. Chapter 6 in MI will have a big impact on me when I am teaching in the classroom and when I am planning out my lessons. Chapter 6 gave 5 examples of teaching strategies for each multiply intelligence. Some of the ideas for each intelligence could work for more than one MI. These are the strategies that will have the biggest impact on me when I am teaching and planning lessons since they will help me reach more students. Some of the strategies I think will work for multiple MIs are journal writing, classifications, Socratic questioning, color cues, hands-on thinking, mood music, personal connections, and window learning. One of the main things that I got out of UbD chapter 6 was that students should always see the immediate connection. I feel like a lot of students ask the question “when will this be useful in real life?” and most of the time there is no answer or the answer applies to something that is so far in the future that the teacher basically said nothing. The idea that students should see the immediate connection to their lives or their futures will change the way that students view the material that the teacher is presenting. This idea will impact the way that I answer that question. I will try to answer that question when planning my lessons and I will try to make sure that I can answer that question with an answer that will immediately connect to my students’ lives not just an answer that will apply 5-10 years down the road. The biggest idea that I got out of chapter 7 of UbD was WHERETO. I learned what each letter means and how it will affect the next stage of making lesson plans and creating a unit. 

Chapter 6

This chapter mainly talked about tests and what makes up a good test. I learned about mixing traditional and non-traditional questions in a test and about mixing forced choice and constructed response questions in a test. I learned what is considered traditional and not traditional. Traditional questions tend to be true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, definitions, essays, and short answers. Non-traditional questions tend to be questions that incorporate analogies, drawings, diagrams, demonstrations/performances, more than one topic, and brainstorming. I learned the difference between forced choice and constructed response questions. Forced choice questions are questions and prompts that require students to choose from the responses provided by the teacher. Constructed response questions are questions or prompts for which students must generate the information themselves and apply it in the manner requested by the teacher. Some key points that the chapter pointed out about tests were the less students have to guess, the more they can achieve; and students appreciate meaty tasks more than drudgery tasks. Some tips that the chapter gave teachers were to give smaller more frequent tests, to list the standards at the top of the test, and to arrange challenge level of the problems either by starting easy and getting progressively harder or to mix the level throughout the test. The tips and suggestions that this chapter gave will impact me when making lesson plans and when creating tests. Knowing what makes a good test will help me evaluate tests that I will create and see if I have incorporated the things that make a good test into my tests. 

Chapter 5

The big idea in this chapter is tiering. For the purpose of the book and the chapter the author states that tiering emphasizes the adjustments teachers make in assessment according to students’ readiness levels. In this chapter I learned that it is important to start tiering by expecting every student to demonstrate full proficiency with the standard this way the minimum expectation is the standard or the benchmark performance. I also learned that it is helpful to list every skill or bit of information a student must use in order to meet the need of the task or assignment successfully. As teachers we can do this since most of the material we teach has subsets of skills and content that we can break down for students. This chapter talked about learning contracts and why they were beneficial for some students to have. I learned that they allow students to work at their own pace and that they are teacher and student designed tasks that fulfill the expectations of the unit. I also learned that checkpoints are listed on most contracts. The checkpoint listed help the teacher assess student progress and possibly change the instruction as a result and they keep students dedicated to the tasks and learning. Other things can be helpful when tiering are tic-tac-toe boards, cubing, summarization pyramid. Two other important ideas in this chapter which majorly impacted me were Frank William’s Taxonomy of Creativity and RAFT(S). Using tiering when making my lesson plans will be helpful down the road when I need it instead of having to go back and incorporate them into my lessons and assessments later.  

Chapter 4

This chapter outlines three important choices for assessments. The chapter starts by talking about the benefits of portfolios. One of the benefits that the book highlights is the fact that teachers can collect work and examine it over time which means that teachers don’t have to make as many inferences about a student’s mastery based on single samplings. Another important thing that I learned about portfolios is that they are a wonderful mirror for students to see their own development and take charge of their learning. The biggest benefit that portfolios have is that they promote the ideals of differentiated classes. The next choice the book highlighted was rubrics. I learned that they can be difficult to make and that there are many things that need to be considered when creating rubrics such as what the task requires, what consists as proficiency in the task, and whether the criteria is clear for the person who is performing the task. The chapter also tells the reader how to create a rubric. This will have a big impact on me in this class. Since we will eventually have to create rubrics, the tips that this chapter gives will help me create one. The last thing that the chapter talks about is self- assessment. This is extremely important because it provides feedback and helps the student and the teacher set individual goals. Knowing that these three methods of assessment work well in a differentiated classroom will impact me when I am creating lesson plans and making sure that my class is a differentiated classroom. 

Chapter 10

This chapter talked about assessment and the MI theory of assessment. I learned that the MI theory of assessment is close to the perspective of a growing number of educators who have argued that authentic measures of assessment probe students’ understandings of material more thoroughly than multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank tests. One of the reoccurring things I noticed in this chapter was the importance of authentic assessment. The book states that authentic measures allow students to show what they learned in context- meaning that they are showing what they learned in the same environment they learned it in. I also learned that MI theory supports the belief that students should be able to show competence in subject, skill, context area, or domain in any one of a variety of ways. The biggest thing that I got out of the chapter that will greatly impact my classroom and my lesson plans is that any subject can be assessed in at least eight ways. MI theory talks about teaching in eight ways but it also believes that a teacher should be able to assess students in eight ways. There is a need to provide students with assessment experiences that include access to a variety of methods of presentation and means of expression. The fact that as teachers we need to be thinking of assessing students that satisfy each of the eight intelligences will impact the way I design my lessons and the way that I design my assessments, whether they be formative or summative.