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.