UBDDI Chapter 7

This chapter really emphasizes that it is bad to simply cover material when teaching a unit. This is why a teacher must think of essential questions when they plan out a lesson. I think this is a good organizational strategy for building a course. When you are required to think of specific questions that you would like students to answer, the course will be more organized since the main ideas are right in front of you. I think the devil's advocate follow-up strategy will be one that I use often because I have a challenging personality. I like to hear the reasoning behind the answers a person gives me. The chapter gave a little more background on the facets, which helped me to remember them all a little more clearly.

UBDDI Chapter 6

Flexibility seemed like the "big idea" of this chapter. I might have done a little better in some of my science and math classes if I had known what the teacher really wanted me to get out of each of their units. Honestly, practicum might be the only class that I have ever seen the course objective or main ideas included in the syllabus. In the chapter, it is mentioned that a teacher must plan and improvise in a differentiated classroom. This makes sense to me. It is always good to have a plan in mind, but plans sometimes must be tweaked slightly in certain situations. The little diagrams in the section about teacher flexibility may be some of the things I turn back to once I am in the classroom.

MI Chapter 5

MI theory makes it necessary for a teacher to use many different teaching techniques and strategies in the classroom. I liked that philosophers like Plato and Rousseau were mentioned because it shows that even back during their time they understood that everyone learns differently. The figure that showed the different activities, strategies, and activities a teacher can use for each intelligence caught my attention because it has some good information in it. The chapter explains how to create a MI lesson plan and goes into detail with each of the eight intelligences.

MI Chapter 6

Chapter six explains different strategies for grabbing the class's attention, transitioning, explaining class rules, forming groups, and managing behaviors. I think the chapter makes it pretty clear that a teacher should not use only one strategy and that one strategy will not work for the entire classroom. A lot of the strategies and situations described seemed like they would work for elementary or middle school only, but there are ways to tweak the idea a little bit for a high school classroom. The chapter also says that sometimes the strategy used should be one from an intelligence that is not as strongly developed in the student. For example, a student who is more intrapersonal should be introduced to some interpersonal activities. This is one of the chapters I will probably return to as I start teaching because it has a lot of great suggestions.

MI Chapter 7

As a teacher, it is our responsibility to make the classroom comfortable for our of our learners. A typical classroom may not work for all of our students. I can remember in high school hating the classrooms that did not have windows (maybe because I have a strong naturalistic intelligence?). I understand that I will not be able to simply ask the school to make the classroom have windows, but there could be other alternatives to this that I might be able to come up with. Things like the paint color and desk setup also add to the atmosphere of the classroom.

MI Chapter 13

I liked this chapter! It showed me that the MI theory is not designated to the classroom. I’m not a big fan of computers, so it helped me out to see how the MI theory could be applied to a computer. If I had had this shown to me sooner in life, maybe I would not dislike computer in the way that I do. I am NOT a logical mathematical person, so I always assumed that I would be horrible with the computer and did not try to learn how to use it. I will try to see how the multiple intelligences effect my life outside of the classroom. This makes sense, since as learners we are to be constantly learning everywhere.

FIAE Chapter 6

The author lets the reader know that it is effective to include both traditional and non-traditional questions in tests. A lot of my high school teachers actually did this. The tests I’d take would include multiple choice, true or false, short response, and essay questions. Sometimes all of these were in one test. The reason I liked multiple choice was because even if I did not know the material, I could still eliminate answers and pass the test with flying colors. This is not a good thing because there’s no way that I would retain that knowledge, because I simply guessed! Essay and short answer reponses are a good way to know what a student knows and what they do not know because the answer is not right in front of them. The little suggestions, like actually having Ts and Fs on true/false sections of a test, were helpful for me to read. I like the idea of including two special questions for students. My physics teacher would ask us on a test, “What did you study that was not on the test? Create your own question and then answer it.” This was great for me because I would study so hard using the study sheet the teacher gave us and a lot of what I had studied was not on the exam. This way, students won’t feel like they ‘wasted’ their study time.