Chapter 7

When I was in high school, I focused on the letter grade for my work a lot. The letter itself does not tell how much understanding a student has for the material. Of course, grades are needed in our high schools, but teachers need to think of different ways to assess their students learning instead of simply putting a letter or number beside their name. It is important to give feedback frequently to students to help ensure them of their understanding and to help me as the teacher know where the student is struggling. I will also learn how to help the student sooner if I am constantly giving them feedback. Grading should also be consistent. I should not use percentages for one assignment, a 1-4 scale for another, and then a simple letter grade for another.

Chapter 11

Grading is something that teachers will more than likely always disagree on. Honestly, I have always felt that zeros should not be put into the grade book. A student may miss one little assignment and their grade will suffer greatly due to one zero. A ninety-one percent can turn into sixty-eight percent because of ONE zero! I think as a teacher I will encourage students to hand in work late and I will not advertise to students that sixties will be given rather than zeros. If students think a zero will be given if they do not do an assignment at all, they are more likely to simply hand it in late. The book points out that grading scales do not really support the learning goals that teachers have. Wormeli says that students should only be penalized for late work if it is a re-occuring issue. I strongly agree with this. I feel that every one forgets something at one time or another and that it is silly to lower a student's grade a full letter because of a mistake. However, if a student is continually turning work in late, then it is time to have a talk with the student and to lower their grade if this behavior continues after the conversation.

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.