Chapter+1.+UbD+and+DI,+An+Essential+Partnership

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1. **After reading the preface and Chapter 1, what logic do you find for joining Understanding by Design and Differentiation? In what ways do these arguments make sense for your school?**

Discussion:

Alright. I have less than a month left of summer so I decided to start reading. I have NO idea if I am doing this right so if this is right; please someone, respond so I know if I should continue to write in this space. Thanks Bonnie

I found the concept intriguing. I've really struggled to connect kids with what I know about Algebra II

The logic for joining the two ways of thinking comes from the way they fit the need for student learning. UbD looks at what we teach and Di addresses the whom, where and how. One of the terms that stood out to me was "enduring understanding". That's what we want for all CG students Gin Niehage (Sorry, Lori, Somehow I typed over part of your note. My bad!)

"discussion"....where does it show up? Are we supposed to type our ideas here? Thanks, Lori

Yeah, just go ahead and type right here. That way as this page grows we can respond not only to the questions, but also to other's ideas. The "discussion" feature is more for side comments and diversions. Dave

Ok, so I had a boring Memorial Day and read some of the book. I think it is going to be a good guideline. The axioms make sense. I noticed the emphasis on the presence of specialists to assist in the differentiation of instruction. I, for one, would greatly benefit from the expertise of someone who specializes in learning disabilities and can be a bridge between the classroom teacher and the resource room. Just a thought. Also, I liked the two distinguishing characteristics of professionals: 1) know what is current in your field and 2) client (student) centered. Well, that is just my two cents. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend :) Lori

Lori, Unfortunately, I don't think we will have access to many "specialist" to help us in the differentiation of instruction. But I do think that by sharing and observing each other teach....bouncing ideas of one another we can really make use of the upcoming collaboration days. The key is to help each other in non-judemental environments to help our students. Hey, sorry I'm late to the discussion....been a little busy. Jack

Chapter 1 did a great job of explaining UbD and DI in terms that I could understand. I appreciated the scenarios that went with each axiom. Each axiom does make sense, like Lori stated. It is very important that we allow students the opportunties to apply their knowlege in different ways. Our students are coming to us with different backgrounds, family structures, interest levels, and ability levels. This does make teaching challenging, but if we are to be successful we need to do what is necessary to help each individual student. The chapter scenarios showed how important it is to really get to know and understand your students. I know for me that I don't always stop and really listen to the kids like I need to. I look forward to reading chapter 3 to learn more about the backward design as mentioned in axiom three. I hope I made some sense :) Amy

I think this approach makes a lot of sense for our district. UbD will help our teachers link standards to larger ideas and understandings. With the use of Essential Questions students will hopefully find more relevance in what they are learning. Remember, the whole point is provide students with a deeper understanding....not neccessarily be able to memorize answers better. Learning for understanding is about plugging content into a student's social experiences and making it relevant to them....without that we are left with memorization and probably for only the short-term....it may help us with assessments.....but does not help us develop critical-thinkers. DI, to me, has been around a long time. I remember going to workshops on Multiple Intellegience Theory over 15 years ago and creating units to those intellengiences. In that theory you taught the same thing to all the kids.... sometimes 7 different ways. I see DI in two different ways. Content readiness of the student and the student's "learning style"...both are obvisouly important. I think DI starts to take different forms as you move up from Pre-K to high school. Jack

I think that the whole idea is fine but I want more information on how to do it. Julie

I think UBD and DI sound like it may be what we have been looking for in our district. I want to read more to know the "nuts and bolts" behind their ideas. The logic behind them seems "common sense" but I am more interested in the "how to" in the real classroom. This is the answer I am striving for. Bonnie

I also want to know how to apply this information in the classroom. I want to know how others plan to incorporate this into the classroom. Amy

2. **The axioms in this chapter reveal beliefs that guided development of Understanding by Design. The corollaries following each axiom reveal beliefs that guided development of Differentiated Instruction.** > **a. Look at each set of axioms and corollaries and discuss what would happen if educators focused their practice on the axioms without the associated corollaries or on the corollaries without the preceding axiom? Do you see either omission happening in classroom practice in your school or district? Do you see practice which sometimes disregards elements of both axioms and corollaries in a set? What are likely outcomes of the omissions? How would the scenarios differ if the teachers in them disregarded the axioms, corollaries, or both?** > The most interesting thing to me was the part about struggling learners not needing to master the basics before they can engage in critical thinking about the topic or concept. This has been the excuse of many teachers as to why they are not doing more progressive things in the classroom because kids have not mastered the basics yet. > The Axioms are the curriculum but without the adjustments (corollaries) for varying student needs the curriculum doesn't quite make the connection. > Jack > In my teaching I am probably more apt to ignore the corollaries concerning variance in student ability. It is, however as important as presenting quality curriculum. I was also interested in the idea that the struggling learner need not master the basics before they can engage in thinking. It does make sense though that mastery and understanding come through, not after, meaningful interaction with ideas. > Gin I feel like most teachers probably already realize how these two things are tied together. We read a book (about poverty) during the school year which dealt with how students come to school with differing backgrounds. I totally agreed with attending to teacher-student relationships and believe that this will contribute to the students' energy for learning. Julie

I have to agree with you Jack about that comment found in Corollary #5 about struggling learners. I found that interesting. I also think State Assessments, hinder many teachers in applying the Corollaries. For example, corollary #3 discusses focusing on the truly essential knowledge. I see teachers not sure what that is anymore with all the outcomes they have to cover. It is stressful for them to make the decision what is essential and what can be limited. It seems to me they feel it is all essential because of State Assessments and because of feeling every student needs to "master" all the outcomes. I think it would be helpful to re-examine all outcomes and provide some guidelines about how a teacher can either expand or narrow the focus of each outcome. Interpretation of what is being expected can cause a major hangup in learning process.

I would like to add to what Lori was saying regarding the need for a specialist. I think often our "bag of tricks" is very limited in terms of knowing what to do with some of our kids. I especially thought this after I read the scenario after axiom #6 when they referred to their repertoire of strategies. Teachers need ideas and strategies they can implement when working with a student who doesn't learn in the traditional ways. (memorization) How do we build and add to our list of strategies and then how can we get teachers to implement these these nontraditional and alternative methods? Bonnie

I also have to agree with Jack about our struggling students and critical thinking (corollaries to Axiom 5). We did a lot of small group work in science this past school year. Each group consisted of a variety of learners with differing levels of understanding and thinking. It was fascinating to listen to them discuss a topic. The kids with higher level thinking may have spoken first, but it wasn't long until everyone was sharing. It was great to see the struggling student give his reasoning why a certain tool would work better in the experiment. He may not have known all the basics, but he was able to contribute to the success of his group. Amy

> Discussion: > b. **What other axioms or corollaries would you propose for the list offered in Chapter 1?** > > Discussion:

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