FIAE 7, 8, 9, &10

Grades are a huge issue in education that is under constant debate, and this is a lot of what these chapters were about. How to grade fairly is something that teachers have to face every day. Because every student is different, and living under a different situation, how they should be graded can be extremely varied, but the educator needs to do this while continuing to hold the entire class to the same standards. There are also huge variations in what teachers grade on; some grade more on effort, while others grade very strictly on every aspect of classroom life. There is a lot of agreement that the grading system is very flawed, as it doesn't accurately depict all that a student knows, or the person that a student is.
I know that in math, for example, I tried so, so hard and I still did terribly, I even failed algebra II because I just could not understand it. It looked terrible to my parents though, because they had a really hard time believing that I was trying if I was doing so poorly, it was my only bad class so they assumed that, if effort could get me good grades in every other class, I must not be putting effort into math. When I got to senior year and was working on making up the grade with a different teacher, I actually did really well because the teacher was amazing a differentiating the lesson to help me understand.
Anyway, grading systems should be more holistic. There was a lot of talk about grading on preparedness and attendance, and while these are important things, I think it is crazy to base student performance on that. The teenage years are really hard on kids, and whether they have a pencil or their notebook is not always their biggest life concern. I know that I never remembered anything that I was supposed to bring to class, and the teachers that were okay with that and helped me find ways to rectify whatever I'd forgotten were consistently the ones that I respected, adored, and learned from the most.
Grading is obviously important, and I'm all for a 100-point scale, I think students do need to be challenged and reminded why they're in school to some extent, but grades should absolutely never be used as something that makes a student feel less than they are, like they're stupid, or like trying is not ever going to be good enough. If grading could be in a place where they inspire students, and guide them through a beautifully whole education that really allowed them to master the information regardless of  how the attain it. There are students that may be poor test-takers, or not great at writing answers and I really do not believe that giving these students one opportunity to show me that they understand the information and giving them no chance to fix mistakes they may have made in exhibiting their knowledge, is a good way to encourage students to put in the effort to learn.

UBD Chapter 8, MI 8,11,12

These chapters, on the whole, talk a lot about you can be sure that making sure that your multiple intelligence friendly, differentiated classroom is fair for all students; that the multiple intelligences can be used to practically everything you could need help with in the classroom. The eighth chapter of UBD talks heavily about grading students, and how to best do it in the differentiated classroom. The chapter urges that you really should not grade students on pre- or formative assessments, rather just checking them for completion. The problem with grading these in the differentiated classroom is that all students learn at different speeds, and grading them all the same way is not going to make for student success. It's much better at the these early points to look for progress instead of mastery. It also talked about, just as students learn differently, they also tests differently, and giving them options for assessment can hugely effect their success in exhibiting their understanding. The MI chapters covered a range of multiple intelligence related topics. Chapter eight talked quite a lot about using the multiple intelligences to get the attention of your students. This is something that I had never really considered to be a possibility, but it totally makes sense. A student's multiple intelligence strengths tend to correspond with their interests, so of course using them to keep a class interested would be a great tactic. This is really helpful, because I do worry that I wil not be able to get and keep the attention of my class. An area also covered was how the multiple intelligences can be used in special education, the chapter provides examples for each of the multiple intelligences. These activities are at their roots, however, the same as what you would use in any classroom, as the chapter so eloquently says, "the best learning activities for special needs students are those that are most successful with all students” (p154). The book goes on into the next chapter to talk about how student's internalize information based on their multiple intelligence strengths, this can involve making up little songs or rhymes for some students, or for some others maybe visualizing the information, or repeating it aloud.

I love how these chapters make it clear that grades are just a snapshot of student ability, especially when you're grading tests, any number of factors could play into a students performance. A good student on a bad day could fail, and understanding that and being flexible enough to help remedy that is really important. I also really enjoyed that they talked even more in depth than it has before about how to use the multiple intelligence theory as a tool in your classroom. The idea of using them to get and keep the attention of students, and to keep them on task better, is something that I hadn't thought about, but I love the idea. It kind of reminds me of the MEL structure that we're learning about with Dr. Theresa, two of the important components are connections and context, which would be really important when using the MIs as a way to get and keep student attention. Basically, I know I'm not alone in just wanting to have a classroom where students feel like they can always succeed, no matter how daunting a task may seem, and the information in these chapters was really helpful as it gave further ways to create this kind of environment.

MI:5,6 / UBD/DI:6,7

Chapter five of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom focuses on utilizing your knowledge to bring as many multiple intelligences as possible into your lesson plans, as effectively as possible. Something that it definitely stressed was helping students develop all of their multiple intelligence abilities, not just there strengths. This will help them grow as learners, and switching back and forth to accommodate this will help you grow as an educator. A really good lesson that has the ability to reach any student is able to access any of the eight intelligences necessary, and allow the teacher to interchange them as needed. It also begins to talk about different ways that a teacher can create lessons and entire curriculums that will truly access and develop all of these skills. Chapter six of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom dives more deeply into planning these lessons and curriculums, giving more specific ways to incorporate all of the learning styles.
Chapter 6 of Understanding By Design and Differentiated Instruction also draws upon the theme of teaching a classroom of diversified learners. It focuses a lot on teachers being aware of and responsive to the learning needs of their students, watching their progress closely throughout the unit. Also how important it is for educators to be flexible and do whatever they can to accommodate the learning needs of the entire class. Chapter 7 talked much more in depth about the actual learning of the students. It discusses how, regardless of the diversified learning styles, each student should be focused on one connecting essential question, or "big idea." Having this really guides a student's learning regardless of how they learn. It also talks about really getting students to understand the content, this has to happen as opposed to just skimming information if you want students to actually internalize the information, rather than just testing then immediately forgetting it.
All of this information is really interesting because it gives me some really valid answers to questions that I was not aware that I had, but it also raises some anxieties. I worry about not being able to see when a student is in need academically (or otherwise, honestly), and missing my chance to really get them to understand material that may be giving them trouble, and could continue to do so in the future. The suggestions for avoiding that, particularly in Understanding By Design and Differentiated Instruction chapter seven, did help to stave off some of that worry, however. The Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom chapters were also really interesting, as it gave some great ways to incorporate all of the learning styles into the curriculum. I also loved that it talked about helping students develop their skills, instead of just helping them play to their strengths, because this is something that I would love to be able to successfully do in my classroom. All in all, I learned a lot in these chapters that I feel excited to try in my own classroom at some point to help students with any learning need to feel comfortable and confident in my classroom and with my content.

MI Chapter 10

This chapter was another one that talked very in depth about student assessment. This one in particular put focus on testing students and measuring how they are progressing based on their earlier work, rather than by pitting them against other students. Another interesting topic it talked about was assessing different learning styles. It talks about how even if you do teach with multiple learning styles, unless you find ways to tap into these while doing assessments, you will not really know how well that differentiated instruction worked. This is why allowing students opportunities to use their strengths to show you what they know is really important. MI portfolios are another great way to monitor student growth while also helping to differentiate their instruction and assessment. As stated in an earlier posts, I really like the idea of portfolios to show student and teacher alike how that particular learner is progressing.
This is also all really important when it comes to keeping a student's interest. I, personally, enjoy writing essays, but I also like to break out and express my understanding in more creative formats when given the opportunity. I believe that students learn best when they are comfortable, and that working with their strengths will only help them grow. Giving students ways to express what they know in whatever way they feel that they can best convey that understanding, as well as letting them create something that will really hold and accelerate their interest in the context at hand, is something that I believe will play a very important role in my future classroom.

Chapter 6 FIAE

Chapter 6 focuses heavily on how to put together a test, and create the best possible questions to assess your students' understanding. It definitely emphasizes how much work goes into effective test questions, which interested me a lot, as it wasn't really a subject that I had put too much thought into. A great portion was about how to keep students on their games during tests and to kind of keep them interested, which is by changing up the types of questions you're using. They give a lot of really specific advice, but the most important was probably one of the simplest; to be clear. All I could think about were all of the times in high school when I was sitting in a test and could not understand what the teacher wanted from me as an answer. Either the question was too broad or too bizarrely stated. I was once asked the who Angela's siblings were in Frank Mccourt's Angela's Ashes, I wrote down their names and ended up losing two points for not writing which was her brother and which was her sister; which I though was pretty clear. Giving students this kind of frustration is not helpful to the learning environment, and makes them second guess their knowledge.
Making tests less terrible is really important because so many students are just terrified of tests when they really should not be. A teacher's job is not to play word games with students while assessing their understanding, or to try to trick them, and not being clear does this, whether it is intentional or not. This is definitely something that I'll strive to be aware of, as I remember being a student and feeling the pains of test anxiety that sitting down to some teachers' assessments would give me.

FIAE Chapter 5

Chapter 5 discusses tiering assessments, and the best way to do so with different types of students. This was really helpful, as it is something that I have thought about quite a lot. How does one challenge the advanced students, and the students of lower readiness alike? While also not overwhelming any of my students? Tiering is to start in a less complicated area, and gradually develop into harder work, giving student individual attention to determine at what grade level each of your students is at, and what and how you need to be teaching them in accordance with that. I found the lists on pages 60 and 61 particularly helpful, as they give examples of grade level, advanced level, and early readiness level tasks and worked through ways that students in these categories could be challenged enough to grow at that level. The chapter also discusses learning contracts, which is a vehicle for tiering assessments, which is a very student-interactive way to assess development and mastery.They involve checkpoints for task completion, and assignment dates, as well as "contractual stipulations" (61), all of which are negotiated between teacher and student.
I would definitely be interested in using tiering in the classroom, as it seems like a great way to differentiate instruction. I have always worried that I wouldn't be able to challenge students at every level, and this definitely seems like a good place to start, though I do not feel like I have enough of a grasp on exactly how to execute it to use it were I in the classroom right now. The learning contracts are also interesting, but I feel like if they weren't set up in the right way they could overwhelm and possibly disinterest students.

Chapter 4: FIAE

Portfolios are introduced in this chapter as a great way to really keep track of how all of the students in your classroom are doing with the content.  They are a very versatile way to assess student understanding yourself, and also to help students assess themselves. Having such a hands on way for students to assess mastery is no doubt a great option, especially if you want to be able to watch the progression of their mastery over time. It's also great for students to see how they have grown throughout your unit, semester, or year, depending on how you utilize portfolios. It can also make it easier for students to organize the work that they have done. Another great option is to use rubrics. The great thing about rubrics is that they set out really clear guidelines for students to meet. Using them to grade also shows students where they have done really well, and where they need to work harder to meet the standards, or come to the teacher for help or differentiated instruction. This all also enables student self-assessment, which allows students to critically look at how they are progressing, and where they can grow even more.
Anything that makes an educators can do to make instructions and expectations more clear to students is great. I really want to make students feel more comfortable and relaxed in the classroom, as unnecessary stress just deters learning. I also think it is definitely really important that students can see how they are progressing with the content you are giving them, as it can give them confidence to grow even more.