UbD - Chapter 4 - Teaching Students About MI Theory

After all these years, now I understand why my teachers thought it was a good idea to have those stupid bingo games on the first day of school. The scavenger hunt in chapter four seems like a good idea, but I think it’s a little too tame for the age group we’re teaching. I’d probably do something I little more wacky. I just can’t think of anything right now. As far as talking to the students about their eight intelligences, I might approach it from more of a psych way by having them do something similar to what we did in class, and I wouldn’t use it as a first day ice-breaker. Overall, I thought this chapter really missed the mark when dealing with middle and high school students, but maybe I am just getting too old.

UbD - Chapter 3 - Decribing Intelligence in Students

This chapter was interesting...in a weird way. I definitely agreed with the author when stated that looking at a student when they’re misbehaving is a good indication of their suppressed intelligence. Going along with misbehaving, I am starting to think that students don’t really misbehave, they are only expressing unused energy that could be spent actually learning in school! If you went by traditional guidelines for misbehavior, I would have detention in every one of my college classes. So, that part I really enjoyed and could relate to. On the other hand, I got a little creeped out when the author suggested taking pictures, video, and audio of the students to keep in a folder that could be used for years to come. I think it’s great that as teachers we’re keeping notes on our student’s learning styles, but I don’t think we need all that media for middle and high school students.

MI - Chapter 4 - What Really Matters in Planning for Student Success

The nine attitudes and skills from this chapter would have made an excellent addition to our good teacher lists for Beth. I liked the section about accepting responsibility for learner success. The scenario where Mrs. Pasarella spent extra time with the advanced and struggling learners felt good to me. I would say that the only problem is the students in between who could be on the edge of being a struggling learner or have the potential to be an advanced learner. Where do they fit in? Mr. Alvarez has the right idea by keeping a tally of the number of time each student speaks. Making sure everyone is speaking is a big part of having an open and supportive environment to work in.

MI - Chapter 3 - What Really Matters in Learning (Content)

This chapter tackles that never ending question of “what’s important to teach?” I had no idea that some of teaching standards were so ridiculous, such as that one about the Indus River Valley and the Huang-He of China, but if you Google it, you’ll find that a lot of teachers decided not to mess around with skipping that particular content standard. The backward-design seems to only make sense to me. I would never teach a lesson without knowing ultimately what I want my students to get from it. I can see how going about the planning backwards would be more helpful though. Those templates look eerily familiar.

MI - Chapter 2 - MI and Personal Development

I like the idea of asking the students’ help to think of strategies for including more intelligences in the classroom. I don’t find fault in any teacher who asks opinions of their students. I want to be someone who can be trusted in my classroom and also flexible enough to change plans if something comes up, like an amazing trip to a local playground or park to sit in the shade and read or write. I’m glad the author encourages teachers to continue trying to grow their own intelligences; there’s always room for improvement when it comes to educating the youth of the nation.

MI - Chapter 1 - The Foundations of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

This chapter was especially fascinating because none of these concepts are completely new to me because of my past classes at UMF and also high school. I scored highest on the intrapersonal intelligence during our class last week. That makes a lot of sense because tend to be very self sufficient when it comes to school and school work, whereas friends I know who get overwhelmed easily and take on more than they can handle in a semester. I’m not sure if I would necessarily consider this an intelligence so much as a personality trait, but I do recognize that my learning style would be different from other people’s styles based on this trait. I’m already excited to make lessons plans that are directed at each specific intelligence and to connect them together in lessons.

UbD - Chapter 2 - What Really Matters In Teaching? (The Students)

The concept I agreed with most in this chapter was the dismissal of the “take-it-or-leave-it” delivery of information. Many years ago, a student would sit quietly at their desk, the teacher would talk, the student would learn. I don’t know how they learned but supposedly they did. Nowadays, teachers need to make sure ALL of the students are learning, and if they’re not, teachers can’t just say “oh well” and move on with the rest of the class. In a way, it’s like the motto “the customer’s always right.” If students aren’t absorbing what we’re teaching, than we need to find a new way to teach them because at the end of the day, our job is to teach.

UbD - Chapter 1 - UbD and Di: An Essential Partnership

This chapter helped to explain exactly what UbD and DI are because after last classes readings, I was still a little confused. The two words that really jumped out from the beginning were instruction and curriculum. The axioms and corollaries made a lot of sense to me, especially after looking up the definition for axiom and corollary. Axiom 5 was the most interesting. I liked how Mr. Axelt provided different “routes” for the students to take based on their learning difficulty for the subject. I would definitely incorporate something like that into my classroom but make sure that every student completed the same amount of work, no matter their level of understanding.