FIAE 11, 12, 13, 14

Chapter 11 discussed some major grade issue that every teacher faces. It talked about giving a student a sixty versus giving them a zero because even though they’re both failings grades, but a zero is going to have the bigger impact on their overall grade. It also discussed grading for honors students, weight grades, late work, and students with special needs. These are a wide spectrum of concerns, but depending on how you choose to treat them can impact the accuracy of your grading. If you give a student with special needs an F because he did not exactly meet the standard for his grade level, that is not accurate. Giving a student at F makes it seem as though they made no progress at well when most likely that isn’t true. At this moment I’m leaning toward using a 4-point grading scale because there is less damage to the overall grade to give a student a lower grade using this scale.

Chapter 12 discussed grading scales, and it mostly focused on 100-point scales and 4-point scales. The good thing about 4-point scales is that they tend to be more consistent among multiple graders because they make “individual distortions less likely.” A couple of things that I really liked that were mentioned in this chapter were the “Logic Rule,” and the idea of not using the minus version of letter grades. I think that if you have seen a student get 4’s and 5’s consistently throughout the semester that it only makes sense to give that student an A. They clearly have done some outstanding work, and I think it makes more sense to look at the mode rather than the mean. I liked the idea of not using the minus version of letter grades because I think the author is right when he says that it’s not a motivator in anyway. Even if it’s an A- you know a kid is looking at that like they were not that far away from a B, and that is what they probably deserved. I will definitely try to look at the overall picture when deciding final grades instead of just taking the average.

Chapter 13 and 14 focused on gradebook formats, which I never saw as a huge concern until now. From chapter 13 I liked the idea of matching up the grades to the standard that students are trying to reach. If you do it this way you know exactly what students achieved and what they struggled with. From chapter 14 I was able to see the importance of letting the parents know what standards their children are trying to meet, and if their progressing as they should. Again, this is something I never thought about as a major concern, but I can definitely see how it is of importance. I think it is good that I was able to get some ideas of how I might set up my own gradebook someday.

FIAE 7, 8, 9, 10

    Chapter 7 of FIAE discusses the nature of grading and how to define it. In this chapter I agreed with the statement that teachers today are placing too much emphasis on grades today. So much so that students see getting a good grade as their only motivation to complete their school work. I also agreed that when it comes to grading each teacher brings their own life experiences into how they grade. One thing that I connected with in this chapter was when it talked about how in some classrooms meeting the standard is an A, but in others an A would be exceeding the standards. This is something that had really bugged me in school. I feel as though if a student knows the information, and shows that they know and understand it they should get an A. I will definitely encourage all my students to exceed the standards, but I’m not going to lower their grade if they don’t. 
    Chapter 8 of FIAE essentially questioned whether or not we should include criteria other than mastery in grading. The other criteria that was considered was behavior, effort, and attendances, and the general consensus was that it should not be included in grading, only in some circumstances. These circumstances only include when the said criteria applies to the standard that students are trying to achieve. In general, I really like this idea of only grading students based on mastery. I feel that it not only has opened up my imagination when it comes to grading and evaluation, but I feel that it will also make students feel incredibly comfortable in the classroom. 
    Chapter 9 of FIAE focused on things to avoid when differentiating assessment and grading. I have to admit that I find this book quite funny and amusing at times. Under the first two approaches it says teachers who deny their students the opportunity to redo or revise assignments should, essentially, reevaluate their purpose in the classroom. I think this is great, I don’t know why, but I feel that teachers often lose themselves, and their reasons for being a teacher after years of teaching. I also appreciated the statement made about feedback saying that if we want students to take our feedback seriously they need to know that they will actually have the opportunity to do something with it. How is that feedback useful to them if they can’t even do anything with it?
    Chapter 10 of FIAE talked about how you should handle letting students redo or revise work. I agreed with a lot of the idea in this chapter, but especially the idea that as long as students don’t make asking for extensions a habit, it should be an option. I also liked the idea of sitting down with a student to create a plan when they do ask for an extension, or a redo. I think it is important to develop those planning, and time management skills in students.

UbD 8, MI 8, 11, 12

Chapter 8 of UbD discussed grading and reporting achievement through the lense of backward design and differentiated instruction. This chapter presented this with six basic principles, which included: grades should be based on specified learning goals, evidence used for grading should be valid, grading should not be based on norms, not everything should be graded, avoid using mean as an overall grade, and report some factors separately. I really like the idea of the reporting and grading system that supports standards and differentiation. I think it is incredibly important to grade students on what is important, and not based on if they remembered to put their name at the top of the paper. Most importantly it is important to grade them on the progress they have made because that is truly what the learning process is about.

Chapter 8 of MI covered several ways that a teacher can use MI Theory for classroom management. The point to this is that if you communicate with your students using their multiple intelligence they will be more likely to receive it better. I feel that many of these strategies are meant for a younger age group, but I would still use some of them. I would definitely use the different ways to gain students’ attention. I feel that gaining students’ attention is something that all teacher struggle with, and I think that these strategies will be very helpful to me in my future classroom.

Chapter 11 focused on MI and its potential application in special education. I agreed with the generalization made in this chapter which suggests that we think about students with special needs in terms of deficit, disorder, and disease. However, what this chapter suggests is that using MI Theory we can focus less on these students’ weaknesses, and begin to build up their strengths. This concept almost seems like a “no duh” thing to me because if a student is dyslexic and struggles with reading, putting that him/her in a series of reading workshops is mostly likely not going to help them. This is definitely something that I would use in my classroom to help a student with special needs. It just makes sense that if I am already doing this for my other students that I would also use MI Theory and differentiation for every student.

Chapter 12 talks about using MI Theory to help students’ thought process. Essentially, if you get students to work with information using different multiple intelligences they will have an easier time recalling it later. The same goes to problem solving, if you get students to using different multiple intelligences to solve a problem it may come easier to them. I really liked the idea of the “Christopherian encounters” as well. As teachers we don’t just want our students to memorize the information, we want them to dig deep, apply it, and most of all go beyond it. As a teacher I know that I will be encouraging my students to dig deeper.

MI Chapter 7, 9, 13, 14

Chapter seven of MI discussed MI Theory and its role in the classroom environment. In this chapter I learned that MI doesn’t just play a role in how you teach your students, but that it also plays a role in your classroom environment. As a teacher it matters how you speak to your students in the classroom (linguistic), how you structure your time (logical), how you arrange your furniture (spatial), the activities and materials you have in the classroom (kinesthetic), how you use noise or music in the classroom (musical), how you allow your students to interact (interpersonal), how you allow your students to reflect (intrapersonal), and how you allow students to enjoy nature (naturalist). All of these factors are important because they can change your classroom atmosphere from a comfortable and engaging one, to a uncomfortable, unaccepting, and unengaging one.

Chapter nine of MI discussed the creation of MI schools. I think it was awesome that they had a actual real world example of one of these schools. I think it’s a great idea, I like that students would have more choice in their school, which I feel will already make school more engaging for most students. One idea that both liked and saw a flaw in was the idea of having the students pick their own “pods”. I think that it is a great idea to give students that choice, however I feel that student would pick their “pods” based on where all their friends were going to be, and not based on their intelligence. Although this type of school is only present in one school in one state at the moment, I think it will probably something that I have to look out for. Maybe at some point in my teaching career I will get a chance to work in one of these schools, or even get to help create one.

Chapter 13 discussed other applications of MI Theory that haven’t already been discussed. This chapter covered computer technology, cultural diversity, and career counseling applications. It is important to use a variety of computer programs that are effective to each intelligence. It is also important to be aware of intelligences that are important to some students’ culture, be able to help them strengthen them, and then show them how their intelligences could then translate to a career.

Chapter 14 discussed Garner’s possible ninth intelligence, the existential intelligence. I can honestly say I’m not sure that I understand how this could be an intelligence. I feel that the others can be applied so easily to the everyday classroom, and it doesn’t feel that way with existential intelligence. However, I do agree what they said about this intelligence in the context of history. There are some subject in history where you just can’t get away with not getting to students to think about human existence. I think that this will get brought up in my classroom, but I don’t see it playing a huge role.

MI 5,6, and UbD 6,7

     Chapter six of UbD discussed responsive teaching in a differentiated classroom. I learned that students should all learn the same curriculum, they should learn that curriculum in meaningful ways, they should create meaning behind that curriculum with their teachers guidance, and they should be aware of the the learning goals. I also learned that as a teacher is is better to plan ahead and anticipate approaches that I may need to use based on student readiness. This will affect me as a teacher because it will be my job to make sure that all of my students are learning the same curriculum, all while making sure that it means something to them, and that they are aware of big picture. It will also help me tremendously if I anticipate approaches that may be needed instead of adding them in later.

     Chapter seven of UbD talks about teaching for understanding in a differentiated classroom, and ways of introducing or presenting your information. The examples included the essential questions model, and the WHERETO model. I really like the idea of the essential questions model because it sounds like it really gets your students to start “uncovering” the information themselves. You’re not just sitting up their reciting the information to you, they are actually telling you what they know about the subject already. One thing that this chapter stressed a lot that affects me as a teacher is that it is about your students, and you need to figure out how you can best get them to truly understand the information.

     MI chapter five discussed how a teacher could integrate MI Theory into their curriculum. Essentially, a teacher who integrates MI Theory into their classroom uses multiple ways of presenting information, and testing their students’ knowledge. They may shift their method for each different activity, every day, or just every lesson. The point is they are not like the traditional teacher who lectures in the front of the room. This affects me as a teacher because I need to learn to integrate MI Theory into my teaching in some way because if I don’t I am going to end up with a lot of unengaged students, who will not take in what I am teaching.

     Lastly, MI chapter 6 discussed multiple different teaching strategies for each multiple intelligence. I enjoyed many of these ideas, but two of them in particular jumped out at me, journal writing and publishing. I have repeatedly brought this up in my reflections, but for some reason the idea of having students keep journals appeals to me. I like the idea that I could not only ask them questions about what they’re learning, but also about what I could do to help them learn better. Publishing jump out at me because I thought if I used this in my classroom it would really give my students a real world context to put that information toward, which is something we’ve been talking a lot about in class lately.

FIAE Chapter 6

This chapter discussed writing good test questions for assessments. I think one of the most important points that this chapter made was that test questions are not meant to trick students. You’re not trying to see if they can pick out that small detail you messed with, you’re suppose to be checking to see if they have mastered the subject. As this chapter essentially says, you should make your assessments short, clear, and concise. Another thing that stuck out to me was the timed tests section. Assessment expert, Ken O’ Connor, says himself that “timed tests are great underminers...no one professionally would ever try to collapse their knowledge into one hour of intense performance.” I was never one to be great at timed tests, so this really hit home for me. I definitely think that it’s a good skill to be able to complete something in a timely manner, but I think timed tests take too much priority in schools. One other thing that found interesting is when the author said, “we may want to consider how we sequence test items. Some of us prefer to start with relatively easy questions early in the testing sequence.” I think that sequencing your questions is definitely important, your sequence should be clear. However, I also think that students are going to the question in whatever order they want regardless of the way you sequence it. Overall, I found this chapter very informative. I know that I will have to keep my assessments short, clear, and concise, and that I should not put too much pressure on time. The way I see it if a student needs to come back after school, or during an empty block to finish up, that’s fine with me.

FIAE Chapter 5

This chapter talked about tiering according to students’ readiness. Tiering seems very straight forward and very complex all at the same time. This concept worries me a little because I am worried about having to juggle multiple different students’ assignments at one time. I also worry about using this concept discreetly, how do you give students differing assignments without singling them out? I’m also not quite sure I understand the difference between tiering and differentiation. They seem very similar when reading about them, and I wonder what the difference between them is. Although tiering seems complex I’m sure that just like differentiated instruction, tiering sounds a lot harder in writing than it is when you’re actually doing it. I really enjoyed the different ideas that allowed students to choose their assignments. I specifically like the idea of the RAFTS and the Learning Menus. I feel that this would be a much simpler way of tiering, because the students could choose the assignment that they feel they could do the best on.  On top of that it would give students a choice in their school work, which will make them more likely to be interested in it and do well on it. As a teacher I now know that I need to tier my assignments according to my students’ readiness levels. I can do this in many ways, I could simply reword a question to be more complex, or I could provide my students with learning menus that allow them to choose a task that they feel is appropriate for them.