UbDDI+B2+Chapter+2

**ABSTRACT: Andrew D**
The main idea everybody took from this chapter was the students are the number 1 priority for all teachers. So many students learn in so many different ways that it is ineffective as a teacher to teach your students in one particular way, over and over again. Teachers must be flexible and teach in a [|responsive] way. The chapter defines responsive teaching as, attuned to students’ varied learning needs as to the requirements of a thoughtful and well articulated curriculum (p.18). Essentially what this means is, teachers need to adapt to the different learning styles in which students learn best. Students want teachers who provide a stable, caring, and accepting environment. Most students learn best in this type of environment. Many students will face outside factors that will affect their learning. Teachers need to be able to adapt to these factors and not give up on those students. Teachers need to find any way possible to [|motivate] their students to learn.

**SYNTHESIS: Andrew D**
Everybody in class agreed that the students are in fact the number 1 priority for teachers. Responsive teaching is the best way to teach because it allows teachers to adapt to the number of different learning styles their students have. It is the case in our class and every class, students learn best in differing ways. Everybody seemed to agree that the teacher who provides the stable, caring, and accepting environment will do best when it comes to helping all of their students learn. The term that came up a few times and in my opinion best describes how teachers can be responsive is flexibility. Flexible teachers can adapt and change their curriculum to best fit the needs of all of their students. Also, everybody is aware that in their classrooms there will be outside factors affecting students and it is the teacher’s job to do whatever it takes to motivate that person to learn regardless of what is happening outside the classroom. The positive environment teachers can give to their class is essential to be able to motivate their students to learn.

**Cam**
Chapter 2 UbD/DI As teachers it is our mission to have a well-rounded knowledge of our concentration and learning in general. The students are a teachers' number one priority because the students are the ones that make teachers better. Therefore, as soon as a teacher thinks they have found a norm for their curriculum, it quickly changes within the next year because new students are exposed to it. I was impacted by the fact that just because students do not excel particularly in areas of the classroom, does not mean that they are uneducated. I need to be responsive in that it is necessary to keep a close relationship with my students and this can be done easily by ten minutes of journaling at the end of class. By this kind of communication, teachers are able to have an idea where the student stands. This is just one of many ways to keep close tabs on students thoughts in and out of the class. This entirely impacts students because it is up to them to have the motivation to learn and understand the concepts. As a teacher, I cannot force a student to remember content. The students are the ones that initiate the thinking process. It is my job as a teacher to link students, in a learning manner, to my curriculum.

Dani
Chapter 2 of UbD/Di emphasizes on how important the students are when it comes to being an effective teacher. By reading this chapter I learned that there are sometimes outsides factors affecting a students learning and that the best way to help these students to respond to them when they seem to have a problem. By allowing them to shape the way I teach I can more effectively help them learn and hopefully get past their difficulties. This is going to be very important in my classroom because this means that my teaching will have to change with every new group of students. If all students are different than I can’t just create a curriculum and reuse it every year as is because the students will be different. They will learn differently. It is better to change it up to match the students, thus helping more of them be successful in my class.
 * UbD/DI Chapter 2:**

Ben
We are there for the students, that is why we joined the teaching force. We do not do this for money, cause there is no money in at the high school level. We do it because we get our jollies out of students getting the material and succeeding in future trials. However as teachers we should be able to acknowledge that we are also getting graded like our students. We are being graded on how much students are actually learning. We need to be conscious of the ways we teach, because those students will play a big factor in that. All students are looking for their meaning of life, their purpose, their destiny while attending school. It is up to us as teachers to help guide them along the way, not necessarily with ideas. No, we are there to give them the basic skills so they can then decide for themselves which path they want to choose. We need to make them pay attention and be engaged in the learning so they will not be at a disadvantage. Coincidentally, we have a technique that does that. Its called Meaningful Engaged Learning. MEL embraces the four necessities that teacher needs to address with their students: environment, experience, motivation, and meaning. With MEL a teacher can be seen as teaching responsively because these four areas are catalyst for students to preform well. Combinding UbD/DI with MEL makes a killer combonation that gives our future students the best chance to succeed.
 * Ubd/DI Chapter 2:**

T ed
This chapter definitely forces the focus towards the students, where it should be. The examples the chapter gave of students who have barriers that need accommodation were striking. The example of Noah, who couldn’t sit still at his desk because he was a physical learner, really stood out to me as a fidgeter myself. I remember putting a lot of effort into suppressing that motion instead of putting the effort into learning, and I’m glad people are starting to pay attention to what really matters in a classroom. The chart in the chapter shows how much variation there is in any given classroom.

**Andrew D**
The point of this chapter was to prove that students are the number one priority for all teachers. When I become a teacher I may come up with the perfect lesson plan for a particular topic. However, any student, like the ones used as examples in the chapter, could have personal issues which could alter their ability to fully learn about the topic at hand. What this means is as a teacher, I may have to go away from my original lesson plan to discover what it is I have to do to allow this student to learn affectively. When making lesson plans teachers have to realize all students learn in many different ways. So when making a lesson plan, I need to allow myself to be flexible at times so students can learn in the way that is most comfortable for them. The goal is to get the students interested in the topic and to make sure they are successful in reaching their maximum level of learning.

Marcy
The concept that is taken for granted when the public sees a teacher is that the teacher knows his or her content area and it is for that reason that I believe this chapter of the book spends one paragraph devoted to that subject. The rest of the chapter is concerned with knowing our students in aspects such as: family life, identity (race, religion, and parents' income), learning disabilities, and learning styles; all of which affect a student's ability to learn. All students expect and desire the same things from their teacher. They want a competent adult that provides a stable, caring, accepting environment in which they can find themselves in school individually, socially, and academically. Even though students all want the same thing, they will take different paths and need help in different ways to get there. One size does not fit all when it comes to teaching students. This affects me as a future teacher because I must learn right from the start to be a responsive teacher. This means I can and will adapt and craft curriculum, circumstance, and the environment to enable my students to have success. I need to take a proactive approach to making changes and not just let it shake out with whoever achieves success as long as someone does. The information in this chapter will affect my students by motivating them to learn. If students perceive that the teacher cares enough to show interest in their lives, to adjust the curriculum to fit their learning needs, and to help them find a personal connection to the information; they will be motivated to learn because they believe the teacher believes in them.

Jason
The biggest thing about this chapter was the fact that it forces you to remember that the students are the most important piece when teaching in concerned. We as teachers must remember that our lessons and preparation is meant in order to help our students learn more and become functioning members of society -- too often do teachers forget this and look at the job as nothing more than a paycheck. It made me stop and think "wait, all this work is meant to prepare me so that I can be the best teacher I can be". As far as the classroom is concerned, the biggest thing I learned was how it is important to get to know your students; this same sentiment was brought up in //Fires in the Bathroom.// I need to make sure that I get to know and understand my students in order to make sure my methods and curriculum fit the types of learning styles they each have.

Nicholas
**Chapter 2:** Chapter two mentions responsive teaching and why it matters. I had never really thought in great depth about how important it truly is to tailor your teaching to the needs of not just one, but all of the students within your classroom. It is important to know your students and really get a strong understanding as to how they learn and what you need to do in order to maximize their learning abilities. I now have an understanding of the importance of responsive teaching and I will be sure to work at really understanding the students that I will have in future classrooms.

Jenna
Chapter two of __Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design__ describes how important it is for educators to link the basic human needs of students and curriculum. High school students struggle with personal barriers to learning, identity crises, and learning disabilities. Therefore, students need teachers to have the skills to adapt to varying individuals. To be a successful teacher, I will have to adapt to the different learning needs and work constantly to establish positive relationships with my students. Positive relationships will be able to contribute to students’ energy for learning. However, although I will exercise differentiation, the chapter made me realize that I need to make sure that my teaching strategies will work to the benefit of many more students by using different instructions likely to serve multiple needs in one single lesson.

Lizzie
Ubd/DI Chapter 2 The most important thing this chapter had to offer was the idea that an expert teacher is not a teacher but a student as well. This teacher tries to continually seek a deeper understanding of the core of a subject and further wisdom. This chapter describes several cases in which a teacher may find him or herself stuck or frustrated by the factors that can prohibit learning. Some of these factors include a student’s personal crisis which interrupts the teachers plans, a student’s identity crisis or where personal identity becomes a barrier, a students learning has become a problem and they can not learn the same way any longer, as well as students who simply learn different then others. The important thing to remember when faced with these barriers is that optimism is crucial. If we keep trying hopefully there will be an answer out there to the problem at hand. This chapter also reveals that students can be very much alike and very different. The diversity in the classroom has become huge, making the teacher’s job of being flexible ever more important. Having a quality curriculum is essential as well as finding a link between the basic needs of the students and that curriculum. Teachers need to be responsive to their students needs, which means being in tune with their learning. The students can benefit from teachers who are attuned to their needs for multiple reasons. Important reasons to remember are attending to teacher-student relationships, attending to the learning environment, attending to a student’s background and needs outside of the class, attending to a student’s readiness, attending to a students interests, and finally attending to a student’s learning profile. After becoming a responsive teacher, they must now find ways to know their students, incorporate small group teaching into the schedule, learn to teach the high end, offer a wider variety of options, regularly use informal assessments, teach in different ways, allow different work, and use clear rubrics. All of these things contribute to the overall success of a classroom, a teacher, and more importantly the student. All of the examples within the chapter help to clarify my understanding of what it is the teacher’s job truly has become. The teacher is no longer a link between a child and some material but so much more. The teacher has taken on a role of mentor, friend, educator, inventor, and motivator. The most important thing that can come from implementing all of these techniques and strategies is that we realize learning is supposed to happen //with// the students not //to// the students. Teaching allows a connection between the teacher and the child or student, which can create more than educational learning. It can create a new experience and a life altering affect.

Andrew F.
This chapter is talking about what every educators focal point should be, and that is the students. To see them more as a individuals and human beings, and that we as teachers must be receptive to their needs. The process of Responsive teaching, it is important to make modifications to individual students, in order to establish a positive student-teacher relationship. This is not to say that an teacher must fully understand every need of every student, but teach in different ways to serve multiple needs. This chapter was helpful because it listed multiple strategies in which to better reach students despite their backgrounds, and the importance of different ways of teaching the same principles in order to create a better understanding for all students.

Lindsey
The final chapter of this book began by providing examples of students who had once performed well and suddenly encountered difficulties performing in class, thus challenging the teacher to manipulate the curriculum to the students needs. In the case of one of these students, the teacher was able to diagnose an otherwise unseen learning disability. The chapter goes on to explain the methods of teaching responsively, and ways in which teachers may do so on a daily basis.