Chapter 8: Grading and Reporting Achievement

Chapter 8 of Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction dealt with grading and reporting achievement. It is perfectly reasonable for parents to want to know how their children are doing, as much as it is important for students to receive informative and helpful feedback on their work. The chapter emphasizes that it’s important, however, not to let the grade get ahead of the assessment. The purpose of assessment is to measure a student’s achievement. While reporting and recording this has value both when examining a particular individual’s development and looking at statistics about achievement, the main value of assessment (to teachers, anyway) is to know what needs to be done better. Of course, grading is the part of assessment that teachers face the most pressure about – it is grades, after all, that determine if a student goes to college. That is why the principles of grading are so important. Grading with valid evidence on established criteria is important so students can understand the fairness of grading, rather than succumbing to suspicions of favoritism or arbitrary randomness. The warning to stay away from raw averages is also valid. The emphasis on reporting systems that support standards and differentiation is good for students because they get assessment of their achievement that suits them, rather than judging a dog by horse standards, for example.

Chapter 12: MI and Cognitive Skills

Chapter 12 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom focused on a series of topics such as memory, problem solving, Blooms levels of cognitive complexity, and other ideas. The section that stuck out most to me was the one on Christopherian Encounters – those special rare moments when you suddenly realize that something you’ve been sure about was a misconception. Those moments are rare, but I honestly believe that that is the most helpful part of learning something new. I really appreciate the value of the tables in this book, and the table on Bloom’s six levels of Educational Objectives was really helpful – it’s good to think about how you can get things to stick in students’ minds not so they can rattle them off, but so they understand them. The memory section was really good too – making sure that students can pass a test is one thing, but to make sure students fully understand and can use information is another story entirely.

Chapter 11: MI and Special Education

It was really cool to hear special needs reframed as a growth paradigm instead of a weakness. I hadn’t really thought about how intelligence difficulties besides linguistic and spatial aren’t regarded by the majority with the same severity as those two. The table 11.1, which emphasized translating the traditional views of special education to a growth paradigm, was really interesting. I particularly liked the part about maintaining the individual’s integrity. Figures 11.2 and 11.3 were really eye-catching and absolutely fascinating. The high achieving people were really amazing to think about, and the suggestions for dealing with difficulties in different fields by empowering different intelligences were really helpful. I really hope that knowing this will lead to fewer referrals to special education classrooms, because I feel that isolation, in most cases, is bad for everybody involved and self-esteem is vital.

Chapter 8: MI and Classroom Management

Chapter 8 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom discussed using the multiple intelligences as a means of managing classrooms. Many of these techniques I’ve seen used before – the summer camp I worked at made extensive use of kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal techniques for getting the attention of students. Managing individual behaviors is one of my fears, and I hadn’t thought of many of the ideas given in the chapter (Some of them would have come in very handy over the summer)! The chart that the chapter supplied was really a great summation of what the chapter was discussing. Aggressive, withdrawn, and hyperactive children have always tested me and made me doubt my ability to help them, but now that I know more than one outlet for dealing with it, I feel a lot more confident.

Chapter 5 Abstract and Synthesis

Abstract
Chapter 5 of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design focuses on considering evidence of learning in diverse classrooms. The chapter starts by pointing out three key principles of effective assessment. The first assessment principle deals with looking at assessment as a photo album, rather than a snapshot. This means that it's better to have a wide, deep assessment sample rather than a single item of assessment. It was once said that "genius relies less on flashes of brilliance than it does on just plugging away." Photo album assessment means that there is more than one form of assessment for each content standard, and they should come from different intelligence areas. The second assessment principle demands that the assessment measure be matched with the goal it is assessing. This is the traditional "apples to oranges" argument. Educational goals can be divided into declarative knowledge (facts and knowledge), procedural knowledge (skills and techniques), and dispositions (attitudes). An assessment measuring dispositions or procedural knowledge will not effectively assess a student who has been instructed with declarative knowledge only. The assessment should always align with the goal being measured. The third assessment principle (which is brought up later in the chapter) demands that the instructor should know why they are using each type of assessment in each case, be it summative, formative, or diagnostic. I found a website that further explains these types.
The chapter makes it a point to further the distinction between inauthentic work and authentic work, ensuring that assessment have a real-life sense of importance to students. The chapter also introduces the GRASPS framework for assessment tasks. This means assessment should have:

• Goal relating to the real world
  
• Role with meaning for the student
  
• Audience from the real world
  
• Situation relating to the real world
  
• Products and Performances that are student generated
  
• Standards to judge performance success (page 70)
  

The chapter then makes it clear that diagnostic assessment is important to teaching. It says that students should be given choices in parts of their assessment, and offers a Tic-Tac-Toe board allowing students a lot of choice in their assessments. The next point the chapter makes is that teachers should make timely, specific, understandable feedback that allows for adjustment. Just as important as teacher assessment is student self-assessment and reflection. Giving students metacognitive abilities helps to solidify learning. A really good website explaining the importance of self-assessment to critical thinking can be found here.

Synthesis
The elements of the chapter that most people pulled out were the three assessment principles and the GRASPS framework for assessment. Everybody understood and agreed that the assessment principles would lead to better evaluation of students' understandings. It seemed to be a very common-sense sort of reading - we all agreed that a student with a certain intelligence preference would better express understanding in an assessment style tailored to that intelligence. The photo album assessment principle strongly stood out in agreement - we all noted that a single impression of a student's understanding will show less about that student than a long-term and comprehensive selection of assessment. The GRASPS framework and assessment principles will be very helpful in our classrooms in guiding our assessment decisions.

Chapter 14: MI and Existential Intelligence

I was really excited to read Chapter 14 of MI in the Classroom, because I’ve always related as an existentially involved individual since before I became heavily interested in music or literature, and have always kept existential concerns at the forefront of my thoughts. It probably didn’t hurt that my human behavior teacher in high school preemptively included this as one of Gardner’s intelligences. I’m glad that the chapter did not dismiss Existential Intelligence as ridiculous, even backing it up in fields like math and science. I really hope that study of existential intelligence develops further. To my own experience, people who identify as existentially intelligent can feel alienated by a curriculum that could seem useless not only to real life, but to something larger than life. There’s a reason many existential thinkers have pushed away from schooling, or sought to educate themselves.

Chapter 13: Other Applications of MI Theory

Chapter 13 of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom was really interesting – it applied Multiple Intelligence theory to fields that I hadn’t really considered. The cultural section really appealed to me, because I’ve always felt deprived of exposure to anything except certain European and American cultures. I do admit that I thought it was funny that Linda Ronstadt was the best Hispanic American musically intelligent person they could come up with (although I love her music). I was also really interested in the computer aspect of Multiple Intelligence Theory – I liked how the book said that computers were intelligently neutral and relied upon the software to interact with users. The career counseling part struck me well too – I feel like I never had any career counseling, but that may have been because I was so sure of what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school.

Chapter 7: MI and the Classroom Environment

Chapter seven of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom really appealed to me – I took a Human Behavior course in high school that really did a lot to clue me into the effects of a student’s immediate environment on learning, understanding, and demonstrating knowledge. The list of questions is really helpful – if the needs that applied to me were not met in a classroom, I would have a lot of difficulty concentration, and I certainly understand that other people would be just as concerned about other issues. The grid of topic-specific and open-ended for centers addressing intelligences seem like a really great idea, but in a small classroom the temporary centers may be difficult to pull off. I’d definitely run through the checklist before opening my classroom for business!

Chapter 9: Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

Chapter 9 of Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction was intended as a wrap-up of the Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction models. For me, the most helpful parts of the chapter were the ones that described the health unit according to the models. The chapter definitely made it clear that using these models is not an easy process – it takes systematic planning and dedication, but it is absolutely worth it to help the students succeed. The chapter warns against letting us cower in our comfort zones and make steps to keep learning new things. I personally am ruing the fact that it’s irresponsible of me to learn Spanish, but I recognize that it’s probably going to be important for me to make that step someday. I think I need to work more on curriculum planning, as that’s where I feel I’m having the most trouble.

Teaching in a Diverse World

The first seminar I attended on Thursday was "Debunking the Myth of Homogeneity in Maine."  It was really interesting - Dr. Achenson shared a series of quotations she has heard or read in studies, straight from the mouths of students, parents, and teachers.  During that powerpoint, she shared a collection of anecdotes about Franco-Americans, immigrants, class, and discrimination that seemed like they were taken from a collection of sources. She revealed, however, that all of the anecdotes, as varied as they were, were all from her own childhood in Maine.  I learned that what Maine lacks in racial diversity (which is becoming more prevalent), it more than makes up for in national background diversity.  I come from a French background, and I had no idea that the Maine Ku Klux Klan attacked Franco-Americans in the early 20th century.  

The other conference I attended was "Growing Up Poor," with Elyse Pratt-Ronco.  This was a powerpoint presentation describing Maine rural families living below the poverty line, and explained the Bronfenbrenner systems model, a series of systems spreading out from the individual. This model is supposed to help people empathize with other people who are, essentially, living in a different reality due to personal and social differences.  She worked with Upward Bound students by giving each student a camera and asking them to take photos resembling family, friends, school, home, and other aspects of their lives.  This helped her get a personal feel for what it's like to grow up in rural poverty, where urban poverty has a great deal of research devoted to it.

Chapter 6: MI and Teaching Strategies

Chapter Six of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom was immensely helpful. I’ve been having trouble wrapping my head around how some of the intelligences could be addressed in an English classroom. The trouble spots for me have mostly been Naturalist intelligence, logical intelligence, body intelligence, and spatial intelligence. This chapter was full of really great ideas, and it was good to read the context that the strategies could be used in as well. For naturalist, I really like the idea of going on a nature walk – that could be good for a day of writer’s workshop. Classroom theater would be really good for discussing a play. Idea sketching out a plot line would be really good in my classroom for spatial, and I was really surprised that I’ve always left out the organization and logic aspect of logical intelligence, focusing instead on math and science. Logical organization would be my best bet for that intelligence in my classroom.

Chapter 5: MI and Curriculum Development

Chapter Five of the Multiple Intelligences book was about the role of Multiple Intelligence theory in developing our curriculums. The long lists of ideas for teaching to different intelligences was really helpful – that would be a good few pages to have an extra copy of, maybe to keep somewhere. I may have trouble coming up for ideas for some of the other intelligences I don’t really relate to, like naturalist or spatial, so it’s good to have a laundry list of ideas that can be elaborated on. I think this chapter will be very important when I’m teaching a classroom. I’m starting to realize the importance of having a professional library. The idea of making an eight-branch graphic organizer is also really helpful to me.

Chapter 7: Teaching for Understanding

The highlight of Chapter Seven of UbD/DI was the explanation of WHERETO. The WHERETO framework has seven sections with a few questions to consider for each one. The first focuses on what is being taught, why it’s worth knowing, and what evidence will show the learning. The second focuses on hooking and holding the learners’ attention. The third aims at equipping students to master standards and making learning experiences to help develop and deepen understanding. The fourth encourages learners to rethink, revise, and refine their ideas throughout their lives. The fifth point urges student self-evaluation. The sixth focuses on tailoring activities and instruction to differentiated learners. The last aspect of WHERETO is organization, or the order in which teachers address parts of instruction. The other part of the chapter that really struck me well was the rejection of the “ladder” metaphor for education.

Chapter Six: Responsive Teaching with UbD

Chapter Six of UbD/DI was mostly a series of tables offering instructional and management strategies. Mortimer Adler’s division of the teacher’s three key instructional roles (direct instructor, facilitator, and coach) makes a lot of sense, and the table that offers the students counterroles to each of the teacher’s roles. Since we’re doing all of this Stage 1 and Stage 2 stuff, I thought it was a really interesting idea to share the information on our sheets with the students – after all, making education a series of surprises for students doesn’t seem to make that much sense now that I think about it. The idea of flexibly using classroom elements as a way to address student needs was interesting too, especially on the topic of space. I was really struck with the efficiency of clustering learning needs together and addressing them as groups. It looks like a lot of work, but using these elements in my classroom will be really helpful.

Chapter 6: Creating Good Test Questions

Chapter Six of Fair Isn’t Always Equal was about designing tests and test questions that will most reflect students’ learning. It’s very refreshing to read that teachers are now keeping an active eye out for confusing negatives or “trick” questions. If I had read that as a student, I wouldn’t have believed it – it seemed like those things were the only prerequisites for a test. Everything in this chapter sounded great for my class – I’m glad there’s so much innovation in crafting test questions. I’ve often found myself stuck coming up with ideas for what I will write for tests (when I have a class).
The section that I’ve seen the most in classes, and that I most anticipate, was putting fun into test questions. Especially painful puns are my specialty, and that’s going to make these tests easier for both me and the students (I hope!).

Chapter 5: Tiering Assessments

Chapter 5 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal was all about tiering, which is the technique of building platforms around the on-grade level to accommodate early readiness students and advanced readiness students. I feel like this is one of the parts of education that was either overlooked as a student, or went unused in my schools. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the students in our class said that they were bored in classes in high school to the point of hurting our learning.
I really appreciate the Tic-Tac-Toe boards, partially because of novelty (this is my first introduction to this assessment style), and partially because I love how much choice it endows students with. Students get to choose 3 ways to best express their knowledge and understanding, rather than force themselves into a hole through which they won’t fit.
The taxonomy of creativity also really connected with me – I can’t wait to incorporate those elements into my lessons. Like the chapter concluded, it seems like tiering needs practice, but I can’t wait until I am an expert at it.

Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

Chapter four of Fair Isn’t Always Equal looked at three assessment types. I’ve been in classrooms that used all of these types. My high school English classes in particular used all three types of assessment at the same time. Portfolios are a good type of assessment to look at the span of an entire year – I remember choosing documents in different learning areas of my English class and explaining why I chose those items for my portfolio. I remember picking out well-done items for my portfolio and feeling really proud of myself when I was finished – that is a feeling I’d like to be present in my classroom.
Rubrics were the most common assessment style used in my schooling. They’re good for traditional school products like essays or projects because they lay out the guidelines clearly, and the student can see exactly what needs to be done to demonstrate knowledge, skill, and understanding. I liked examples 4.2 and 4.3 because they spent the most time discussing what the standard of excellence looks like, making it easier to aim for excellence instead of shooting for mediocrity.
I really like the student self-assessment type. It’s good to get students thinking about their own work. All of the techniques the book proposed sound good to use in my own classroom.

Chapter 10: MI and Assessment

The chapter on Multiple Intelligences and Assessment had a great many suggestions for assessing students. The chapter started off with a good laundry list of observational assessment that we can use. Observational assessment is good because it’s almost always authentic. Observation forces the assessor to look at students’ abilities and works, strengthening impressions of multiple intelligences. One idea that I was somewhat surprised with but really liked was informally administering a standardized test. In addition to relaxing students and keeping them from freaking out (which is a normal response to standardized tests), the test would give students the chance to see what standardized tests look like. Familiarity with standardized tests could help prepare them for taking high-risk tests like the SAT (assuming, probably rightfully, that College Board doesn’t make sweeping changes recognizing the validity of Multiple Intelligence Theory). On that note, the large tables comparing Standardized Testing to Authentic Assessment made the distinction even clearer than it has ever been.
The section on assessing in eight ways, suggesting for each intelligence various ways to let students show their knowledge about specific topics. I really liked the large eight-by-eight grid showing assessment contexts for assessment by activity. If I can overlap certain activities, it will certainly help my own classroom. The MI Portfolio will also be really useful, providing I can use it correctly. I think I should be able to.

Chapter 3: Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom

This chapter repeated a lot of what we’ve already read in other books. I take this as emphasis of the chapter’s importance rather than needless repetition. Everything from avoiding fluff to furthering differentiated instruction to keeping one’s eye on the essential goals was reiterated in my mind as I read this chapter. The bulk of material in this chapter, which for the most part was reiterating differently things we’ve already read about, was summed up excellently toward the end. The “good assessment” bullet list would be a great thing to scan down when testing out an assessment strategy for the first time in a classroom, especially if I’m nervous about it.

Chapter 2: Mastery

Chapter Two and its focus on mastery of subject was immensely helpful to me. I have always thought about the ambiguity of exactly where a student was supposed to be in understanding of subjects by the time a unit was over. The definitions that the chapter compiled were helpful, but I can see this as something I need to define for myself in my school. My high school always had some infatuation with students reaching mastery, but I’m not certain the teachers ever discussed the definition of mastery in the teachers’ lounge. Again, the table on page 13 was invaluable for me to see examples of mastery.

Chapter 1: The Differentiated Instruction Mind-set: Rationale and Definition

Chapter one explained the differentiated instruction mindset, which focuses on fairness in instruction and assessment for students. The example of the two kids sitting at the back of a class, one with glasses and one without, was very well-crafted. I hadn’t heard it before. I like how the book, which I assume will focus on assessment, referred to Differentiated Instruction as a mindset, implying its value could exceed instruction. As we’ve pointed out in other readings, the Differentiated Instruction mindset is one that I wholeheartedly agree with and plan on using in my own classroom eventually.

Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

This chapter was packed with great things to keep in mind. The one that really popped out at me was GRASPS, mostly because I’ve heard the term before but never had it explained to me. All of these mnemonic devices in our books are going to be very helpful. Also very helpful to me were all the tables, like the one comparing authentic and inauthentic work. The 3 assessment principles will be used in my classroom – they make sense, but I hadn’t exactly thought of them or put them into words yet.