Ubd/DI (Chapter 8) and MI (Chapters 8, 11, 12): Student Success

    Chapter eight of UbD/DI focused on grading and reporting achievements. Interestingly, the books suggest that the majority of assessment should not be graded. Although I love this idea, and I do agree that pre-assessments and formative assessments should never be graded. I would imagine if this were to be effective than the teacher would have to keep it completely under-wraps. I mean, in my high school experience if the students knew that something was not going to be graded then you did not do it; the student thought, “Why do something if it will not hurt me to not do it?” I guess, I am not sure how to implement non-graded assignment; I could threaten with making them graded if they did not do them, but I am pretty opposed to threats and, as aforementioned, grading pre-assessments or formative assessments. Additionally, I want to note for myself that as a teacher it is critical to explain what the grading system means and how student work is evaluated, thus making it clear what they have accomplished with each score given.

     Chapter eight of MI talked about using students’ multiple intelligences as tools to capture their attention. For perspective consider the following: a student is starting to doze off halfway through your lesson. Using your knowledge of her interests and displayed abilities you assume she has a strong musical intelligence; try playing a relevant song, or incorporating music in some way to regain her attention.

     Chapter eleven of MI really opened my mind about something: how we assess people with disabilities. For example, when we take into consideration somebody who has a disability we do not ask what they excel at, rather with what they struggle. I have had very little experience with this topic, but even I can see what a travesty this truly is; we should be working towards helping everybody learn and improve their skills regardless of disabilities or not. 

     Chapter twelve focused on student cognition and how it plays a role in the class and MI theory. While teaching, determining what students are thinking and what they are mastering is essential. By categorizing each students’ knowledge and applying it to the class it will not only make the student more likely to succeed, but it will make evaluation much more accurate. 

     Overall, these chapters talked about how student achievement is not fairly reflected in exams as an infinite amount of factors could influence student performance. Additionally, even the best students have days where they are not functioning at their peak performance. As teachers, it is not our duty to reprimand students for having emotions, but helping students work around any number of factors and providing them opportunities for success is. My dream classroom is a place where students feel at home, where they feel they have the support needed to succeed, and where their interests will be fostered and allowed to blossom; this chapter aided my understanding of how this is achieved.