UbDDI+Chapter+2

**Tracey Hollingsworth**

 * "What Really Matters in Teaching? … The Students."**

__Abstract:__

As the author said, “learning happens within students, not to them”. Students are the most important part of a classroom. Without students, there would be no teacher. So, shouldn’t we as teachers want every student to succeed? However, many factors play a role in the success of a student such as their lives outside of school, language and cultural barriers, and varied learning styles. As future teachers, working on student/teacher relationships, improving learning environments, and enabling the efficiency of learning should be our top priority in the classroom. A teacher must teach responsively and build curriculum based on the needs of individual students and the classroom as a whole.

__Synthesis:__

“Curriculum design becomes a process through which we plan to communicate to real human beings our belief in the power of knowledge and the potential of the individual to develop power through knowledge” (23). In other words, the main focus of this chapter is teaching responsively—that is, responding to the needs of the students. After all, they are the reason why we teach. With the inability to get through to the students, a teacher really is not a teacher. It is best to use many different methods of teaching and also provide the students with many options based on their [|learning styles] when assigning a project, reading, or doing homework. Giving students’ options on projects and in class assignments, may greatly increase the rate of understanding in the class, no matter what the subject may be. "Learning happens within students, not to them" (22). When we apply this logic to our students and how they react to our curriculum, only then will we see the results that our curriculum is capable of producing. As future teachers, working on [|student/teacher relationships], [|improving learning environments], and enabling the efficiency of learning should be our top priority in the classroom.

Rachel B.
Chapter Two: What Really Matters In Teaching? This chapter gave real life examples that showed how even when a teacher has a great curriculum planned, and she’s quite prepared for everyone to learn, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to. It showed how real life can create a situation where students may not be able to reach their full potential, and you have to try and work with and understand that. I will use the information in this chapter to remind me that each student has an individual life, where they are facing their own unique problems.

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Jen T.
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.

Rachel F.
This chapter definitely widened my eyes about a key component of teaching. I learned that the students are the most important part about teaching. With the inability to get through to the students, a teacher really is not a teacher. The four examples of students who were struggling at school for some reason was very interesting. Their teachers were very keen to their issues and immediately addressed them. In these cases, the teachers exemplified what it means to focus on the students and to create the curriculum around the students. Everything in this chapter impacted me in a way that now I want to make sure that I really get to know my students so that I have a connection with them. I did not realize how crucial it is to use differentiated instruction in the classroom. My classroom will probably be forever impacted by knowledge like this because now I know how important my students are to me. I want to be a great teacher and have students leave my course really thankful for what I have taught them. I am going to strive to be that teacher.

Jordan
Chapter 2 “What Really Matters in Teaching? (The Students) In this chapter, I learned that as a teacher, it is very important to be able to adapt the curriculum and instruction to correspond to the students knowledge, understanding, and multiple learning styles. Numerous suggestions were made to adapt effectively. I really liked the idea of giving students the opportunity to express what they had learned in ways that are helpful to them and illustrate their learning styles. I think that using “exit cards” is another great tool to use to gauge what your students are learning. Giving students options on projects and in class assignments, I think, would greatly increase the rate of understanding in the class, no matter what the subject may be.

Sara Cole
Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design: Chapter 2

This chapter served to show that no matter how hard a teacher may try with the concepts presented in the book, there are extenuation circumstances in student’s lives that may prevent the success of the methods. There are many factors that need to be taken into account when working with students. Their success is not on contingent upon a successful curriculum but personal factors and motivations. If a child has his or her heart set on failing then that is exactly what he is going to do regardless of the brilliant curriculum and attentive teacher. Teachers need to be aware of the students’ personal needs and abilities. A teacher can have developed a splendid curriculum, but if it does not reach the students because of a lack of attention to specific needs then it is a failure. I will try to vary methods of instruction giving students a chance to work in multiple venues and with different peers and tools. I will however realize that I can not guarantee the success of all students, because their success in dependent on their willingness to succeed.

Megan
Chapter 2: What Really Matters in Teaching (The Students)

I loved that this chapter reminded us that teaching is about the students and no one else. We can’t design the curriculum around what’s best/easiest for us but instead what’s best and a better way for the students to learn. We are going to have students that are so different from us and each other that there is no way we can successfully teach without DI. The chapter really reiterates what I said in my previous blog entry about being flexible. We learn things about our students as we go along and that may or may not impact what/how we are teaching them. We can’t have one solid way of teaching things. The orthodox way of teaching does not work. This is not a majority rules situation. We need to make sure that how we teach is beneficial to each individual not just the class as a whole. As teachers, we need to constantly assess our work and make sure our students are learning. If they don’t get it then we need to try again with a different approach.

Courtney T.
In the previous blog I questioned where to draw the line between determining what needs a student has and just flat out labeling them. This chapter helped me to understand exactly how to avoid labeling. What I have to realize as a teacher is that every single person is different, so therefore every single student is as well. My lessons plans cannot be base around each individual student in the class. I need to determine how each student learns best and where that at when it comes to my class. As the chapter explains, it is best to use many different methods of teaching and also provide the students with many options when doing project, reading, or doing homework. To be a good teacher I shouldn't look at my class as whole but as individuals.

Karin
This chapter gave me some ideas about how to handle the great amount of diversity that I will have in my classroom. I had never before thought about how there will be a variety of different backgrounds among my students that I will have to take into consideration. There are numerous methods listed in the book that will help me with this; the students are the first priority, and the step is finding out about everything that could affect the student’s learning abilities. The information from this chapter will be crucial to my classroom in the future. One method was to have the students write about themselves in a journal to the teacher; this method provides the teacher with the necessary information, but also allows the student to still be comfortable.

Stephanie L.
The title of this chapter says it all. The students should always come first when it comes to teaching effectively. All students view education differently and are going to learn differently. The book mentioned a number of different examples of barriers that students may deal with: using bad grades as a way to bring a faded marriage back together, the fear of rejection and feeling left out which may cause a student to rethink his or her work ethic, hidden learning problems that are discovered through interaction with student, and behaving in ways that may seem strange to others, when really it is just that student’s way of learning. It is essential to remember that everybody is different and needs to be treated accordingly. Also, most students are more interested in discovering who they are and what it is that makes them different from everybody else. Their main focus may not be Shakespeare or human anatomy. In order to fully grasp the students’ attention it is important to find a way of intertwining basic human needs and what it is you are trying to convey. One major point that I took away from this chapter is the importance of treating each student as an individual. When I was in school, I enjoyed when teachers greeted me when I entered their classroom. It showed that they knew who I was and actually cared about me. Each student has different needs that need to be met and teaching with a variety of styles is one way to accomplish that. If necessary, the initial plan can change with the students. As long as each student is learning at his or her own pace, it doesn’t matter how different the end result may be than what was expected.

Jen P.
From this chapter, I learned that what I do is not about me, but about the students’ needs and learning. My fears, my anxieties, my weaknesses must be overcome for the good of my students. I also like that the chapter gives great examples of obstructions to learning with possible explanations (pp. 13 – 15). The way that the sections were written not only gives me plenty of good ideas about how to overcome student difficulties, but I can also refer to it later if I have a student with similar difficulties and come up with questions for the student to better understand what is going on.

Geoff
The main focus of this chapter is teaching responsively—that is, responding to the needs of the students. After all, they are the reason why we teach. After acknowledging the need to teach to all of the various needs and learning styles of the students, Tomlinson and McTighe offer some approaches to responsive teaching without trying to come up with different plans for every single student, which would constitute an unbearable workload for any teacher. Among these approaches are strategies that include getting to know students better, differentiating instruction, and informal assessments to track student progress and knowledge. I was particularly interested in the idea of “small-group teaching,” which allows the teacher to work with different groups at different levels and learning styles. I think that this is something that I would like to incorporate in my classroom, as this idea is conducive to multiple learning styles, and thus, multiple methods of teaching.

Stephanie P.
“What Really Matters in Teaching? (The Students)” This chapter explained the need to be aware of your students as a teacher. The teacher needs to be aware of their student’s personal lives (without getting in too deep), the student’s identity, learning disabilities, learning styles, etc. The teacher also needs to know that although they may have laid out this elaborate curriculum, things always change depending on the students you have and how they learn. From this chapter, I learned more about teaching to a diverse grouping of students and how to address that and be ready for change. There was a quote that I found very interesting: //“Curriculum design becomes a process through which we plan to communicate to real human beings our belief in the power of knowledge and the potential of the individual to develop power through knowledge”// (page 23). I found that this was true because, as a teacher, you are trying to tell your students that through knowledge, they have the power to do whatever they please. So, by teaching them what they need to know, they will be successful in the future. I will use this in my classroom and keep it in mind when I am dealing with a variety of students and trying to address their learning styles.

John T.
This chapter dealt with an issue that I have until now overlooked: The variation of students' learning styles in the classroom is bound to differ greatly. For this reason, even a top-of-the-line curriculum is going to have much less impact than intended. Teachers must learn to be creative and teach according to the responses of the students. This chapter offers a great deal of examples of ways to responsively teach, with much emphasis on teacher-student interaction and methods that make the student become actively part of the learning process. After reading this chapter it was apparent that students will have to learn on an individual scale. Like the chapter says, "Learning happens within students, not to them" (22). When we apply this logic to our students and how they react to our curriculum, only then will we see the results that our curriculum is capable of.