B1+UbD+Chapter+1

Carinne Haigis (Abstract and Synthesis)
toc Essentially, this first chapter of __Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design__ is an explanation of the two terms referred to in the book’s title. The students of this particular block all seemed to agree with this generalization. This chapter states that while differentiated instruction focuses on the methods and tools used to instruct students, understanding by design instead emphasizes what a teacher teaches and the importance of choosing appropriate ways for the teacher to assess the material. The authors stress that understanding by design and differentiated destruction are dependent on one another and ought to be always used together in order to create an effective and informative lesson plan. These two techniques allow for the teacher to become more flexible and adaptable to the individual needs of each and every student. The block also seemed to agree that another important topic introduced in this chapter is the concept that the most significant job a teacher has is to ensure the continual growth of students. A teacher ought not to focus solely on helping those who may need extra help, but should instead seek to broaden the horizons of each and every individual in the class. Because such a wide variety of students exist, it is necessary for the teacher to become adaptable and prepared to change in order to better meet the needs of each student. According to the authors, not only should the students grow as learners, but the teacher should continually grow as well. Differentiated instruction and understanding by design, when used together, ensure that each student gains a solid foundation of the content knowledge being taught, but also that the teacher is constantly checking to see if he or she is doing everything possible to support the learning of key standards and ideas.
 * //Abstract://**

This chapter introduces several key concepts that are very important when considering how to best educate students in the classroom. One of the most significant pieces that seemed to resonate most with the readers of this class was the concept that both differentiated instruction and understanding by design require a teacher to lay a solid foundation of knowledge for the learners and to be adaptable to better meet student needs. Several ways of implementing these key concepts were suggested by the class in their individual reflections. It was suggested that meetings between teachers in different content areas would be helpful as it can help the teacher to collect data on his or her students from different perspectives and also to learn about what is going in in other areas of content. A teacher should also [|assess] his or her class through a wide variety of techniques in order to ensure that students have truly mastered the material. It is also extremely necessary for the teacher to learn from the students. Collecting data from pre-assessments helps to establish what the students already know or have misunderstandings regarding. Learning about the students themselves, how they learn best, and their [|multiple intelligences] is also a key idea that becomes important in a classroom that uses these two methods of instruction. When students feel that their needs are consistently being met, they will have an easier time focusing and applying their energy to learning the content knowledge. Both differentiated instruction and understanding by design are methods put into place to ensure that students can get the most out of their education possible and it is extremely important to use these ideas simultaneously in order to accomplish this essential goal.
 * //Synthesis://**

Paul Santamore
The main take away that I had from chapter one is that as long as the students are all continually learning, growing, and developing them in some way, you are doing your job well. As shown in axiom two on page five, it is the teacher’s job to provide the resources and opportunities necessary for students to develop. Student growth is the result that all teachers should strive for and axiom six further enforces this point. Quoting axiom 5, “Teachers should be prepared to provide opportunity and support to continually develop students’ understandings and capacity as thinkers. One of the ways that I will provide my students with an opportunity to continually develop their minds is to always attempt to create “enduring understandings.” By pushing these I will be providing my students with a solid basis of necessary knowledge while still allowing them to be different from one and other in the ways in which they acquire this knowledge. Each unit that I will construct will be shaped around these “enduring understandings”, because after all, they truly are the morsels of intelligence that I think are vital to my students’ success in the long run. Another benefit that comes from pushing the “enduring understandings” is that my students will be exposed to many other pieces of information along the way. They may be participating in activities targeted to help certain learning styles, emphasize certain techniques, or challenge them, and these are all great things in my mind.

Carinne Haigis
I found this chapter extremely useful in helping me to reach a better understanding of differentiated instruction and understanding by design. Both of these concepts were familiar to me due to last semester’s SED 101 class, but I thought that this chapter did an excellent job of not only explaining what these techniques required, but also illustrating what these methods look like when used in the classroom. The various “Mr. Axelt” scenarios this chapter describes show a teacher who is conscious of his students needs and who uses a variety of methods to educate everyone in the class. Differentiated instruction can seem like a daunting task at first, especially when a teacher often has 18-25 students in a classroom, but this chapter shows how manageable a task it can become if the teacher makes the effort. The seventh axiom listed states that: “UbD is a way of thinking, not a program. Educators adapt its tools and materials with the goal of promoting better student understanding” (Tomlinson, McTighe 10). This shows that not all of understanding by design and differentiated instruction’s ideas and concepts are going to work for everyone. Instead, it is important to understand how these concepts work so that a teacher can apply his or her knowledge directly to the needs of the students. Each student is very different from any other, so it is important that a teacher learns about a student’s learning style (clipboard, microscope, beach ball, or puppy?) and interests early on in order to establish a program that works for everyone involved.

Chris Whitney

 * Chapter one** acknowledges how Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction are used together to create a positive way of thinking when dealing with teaching. Chapter one illustrates that a teacher is most effective only when both concepts are used in the classroom. A teacher could have a great curriculum planned, but if its not differentiated to the different type of students he/she may have, then that curriculum is wasted. In the same way a curriculum that is focused on how students learn and meets the needs of different learning styles can fail when the content and essential themes are not met. This is helpful information that will help me in the classroom because it is a reminder that there are many different factors when teaching and that adjustments need to be made because in the end the objective is to find out how students learn and the best way to help them grow as learners. I also learned how different objectives of the Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction can be met in the classroom through the different scenarios provided in chapter one. It was helpful to have the objectives of this thought process conveyed in a classroom setting and seeing how different tasks would be assigned and used by Mr. Axelt. The end of the chapter was also very interesting as it states how the teacher never stops learning, and in some ways is the same as the students they teach. Just as the model is revised time and time again to fit the students needs, the teacher must also adjust to comepltete the same objective.

Leigh W.
The first chapter in this book was talking about the two main ideas, Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction, and how they complement each other. As a teacher you need to be able to always have differentiated instruction in the back of your mind when you are thinking about what you are going to do in your classroom. This concept is something that is new to me because I was under the assumption that differentiated instruction was a separate thing all together. This chapter clarifies that Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction are just two side of the same coin, without the other one could not exist. I also really like the different scenarios that the book showed in this chapter. These scenarios made is easier for me to wrap my mind around all the behind the scenes things that need to happen in order for these lessons to reach every learner in the room. At first when I thought about these two concepts I thought you should figure them out separately and then try to plug one into the other in different aspects of the lesson. Now, after reading and understanding the chapter I feel like I understand how you are supposed to do the two together. I guess I am not a hundred percent sure that I could create a lesson plan with Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction intertwined all by myself at this moment, but I do feel confident that I am grasping the concepts and how the complement each other.

**Kellie S.**
The first chapter, “UbD and DI: An Essential Partnership”, was very helpful in explaining the connections between Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction and why they must go hand in hand in the classroom. Without implementing the concepts of UbD, an educator loses their ability to create an effective curriculum because they lack the flexibility necessary to attend to finding effective means of learning. Without Differentiated Instruction, UbD does not function properly because the educator does not change their lessons to fit the learning style of each and every student. These concepts will be crucial to my future role as an educator because without the combination of the two, it will be impossible to meet the needs of each individual student in an effective manner. In my future classroom, I will need the ability to design a curriculum which effectively teaches the concepts at hand while maintaining the flexibility necessary to adjust my lessons to the varying needs of students. For example, if I have one student who is identified as a “microscope” type of learner and another student who is identified as a “puppy” type of learner, I will need to use differentiated instruction to meet the needs of both of these learning types (so, in essence, I will need to design a lesson which allows the students to discover meanings and answers for themselves, but which also creates a safe and welcoming learning environment). I also must incorporate that differentiated instruction into a lesson using UbD, which will help me to create lessons which cause both learning types to think and learn effectively.

Bianca Stoutamyer
Chapter one has two ideas that I vaguely understand. Understanding by design and differentiated instruction both have to deal with the student, however, UbD focuses on what we teach and what assessment evidence is needed to collect while DI focuses on the process and procedures used to teach a variety of students. By combining the two the teacher can successfully teach the curriculum to a broad range of students instead of only teaching to a minority of the students. I also liked the examples given about Mr. Axelt’s class, in the first Axiom he has instructional plans that vary in materials, time frames, groups, and modes of expression that would help to keep the student’s interested and able to communicate their knowledge gained from the lesson in Axiom 2. The Axiom’s gave me some other ideas that would be helpful in my classroom, the idea of small groups allows students the opportunity to talk freely and be able to organize ideas before doing any assessments. I also particularly liked the sentence “UbD is a way of thinking, not a program” (Page 10, Para. 2). This sentence is probably the most important to me of the entire chapter. UbD is a way to think about teaching but does not give the teachers a program from which to work. The two ideas will most likely become very influential in my future classroom in order to help me effectively teach the curriculum to all of my future students.

Allison Reynolds
This chapter for me seemed almost like common sense when working with curriculum and how it should be taught. I do like how the two ideas need each other in order to work. We as teachers have to know what we are teaching, the curriculum, and the how we are doing. Yet, as I was reading this, I felt that this is really just how I pictured I wanted my classroom to be. This idea of having a curriculum that also focused on the students was not a new concept for me. When it came to the axioms, I agreed. I still felt though these are things I knew I definitely needed and didn’t take much from them. The scenarios really helped me learn new ideas for the classroom. I took a lot of information away from the scenarios that were listed below each axiom. Reading the scenarios helped me learn some new ideas to bring the classroom. Mr. Axelt’s work for Axiom 5 had the idea for different levels or work. I love that idea of having students be responsible for what level of work they can deal with on each section, whether it was “straight ahead” or “mountainous” or “uphill”. By having the students take charge, they can work a level that can push them and feel like it is their education. It was also nice to hear that students did choose what was right for them most of the time. All in all, the axioms just reiterated what I wanted to do as a teacher for curriculum and my students and the scenarios helped me see that it is possible to work the ideas into the classroom.

Kaite Bukauskas
Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction are two logical approaches that can be utilized in planning a curriculum and teaching. Each approach focuses on various needs and elements of teaching and learning. Understanding by Design (UbD) focuses on the content to be taught and the assessment tools that will be used for evidence of that knowledge to be collected in a curriculum. The primary goal is for the learner to know and understand the content and to provide evidence of this through an assessment. Differentiated Instruction (DI) focuses on who the curriculum is teaching, where this curriculum is being taught, and how it is to be taught to students. The primary goal of DI is to ensure that teachers are consistently focusing on procedures that accommodate the various needs that will be found in a classroom filled with diverse students. An important aspect to planning a curriculum is to understand that the concepts of UbD and DI each provide crucial pieces to effective planning and teaching, therefore it is crucial that these approaches be intertwined into a partnership when conducting this planning. By combining the two approaches, teachers can help reach out to all of the students in a class to help them each obtain an opportunity for learning an effective curriculum. The text provides some examples of ways in which the approaches can both be utilized such as teachers and faculty members meeting periodically with colleagues to collaborate, providing the option of group work in a classroom, and providing various forms of assessment. As practicum students who are about to enter the classroom setting, the partnership between UbD and DI is important because it reminds us to focus both on the content and assessment of the information provided to students as well as the various needs that may be present in a classroom to allow for all students to have an opportunity to learn.

Ashton Carmichael
Understanding by Design focuses more heavily on the curriculum, while Differentiated Instruction focuses more heavily on effective learning. It makes sense that these two ideas would be combined because we need to think of the learning differences and the while planning a curriculum. As teachers, we need to think of how, where, who, and what all at once. The book states that a quality classroom is the result of both quality instruction and curriculum. I believe that the students will adapt to flexibility, but we need to work with their needs too. This stems from the idea that education is for the students and not because of the students. When our curriculum and lesson plans match up to the different learning styles of the students, the students will be more apt to focus on the material because it is tailored to how they will understand and interpret it. I want to work with other teachers to develop my lessons and curriculum, as mentioned in Axiom Six. However, I want to branch out of just the English department and into other departments. I think that, especially in my content area, I will be able to work well with the Social Studies department to develop strong lessons that work off each other. For example, teaching a novel that either came out in the time period, or was based on the time period that is being taught in the History class. By doing this, students will be able to get a better grasp of the context the author was writing in, and how this effects the plot and development of the novel.

Megan Hoffman
Chapter one of this book introduces the idea of two key concepts in teaching. Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design. It also discusses the necessity to combine these concepts in the classroom. Differentiated instruction focuses on how we convey messages to different types of learners by addressing their individual needs. Understanding by Design is what we teach and how we determine sufficient evidence for learning of the skill we are teaching. The author sums it up in a single statement “Quality classrooms evolve around powerful knowledge that works for each student. That is, they require quality curriculum and quality instruction” (Tomlinson & McTighe, page 3). This chapter really helped my understanding of these two models, from the titles it is hard to guess what they are but the description really made things clear. The idea of Differentiated Instruction really resonates with me because I am strongly against standardized testing in schools. Every child is different and it is impossible to expect each child to respond the same way on a test. The understanding by design is important too because teaching style is so important to a student’s understanding. You can meet the needs of every individual, but if you don’t have the right teaching methods the lesson will be a flop.

Jason B
Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction are powerful when they are combined in a classroom setting. One example of combining Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction is how teachers should include all students in their assignments. This means that teachers need to have a plan for those in the class who are advanced students and they need to have a plan for those in the class who are struggling students. This way, everyone in the class can be learning. I also learned that one way to discover when students are at different levels of understanding the course material is by giving the students a test of the material in the beginning. This way, the teacher can examine any gaps in the classroom so that he or she knows if they should use small groups in their classroom or not. This will impact my classroom because by assessing my students in the beginning, I will find out if what I am going to be teaching has already been taught to my students. For example, if I find out that the majority of my class has already mastered the review section of my course, then I will not need to spend nearly as much time reviewing. This allows me to pick up at where my students are at rather than just assuming what they know and picking up wherever I want to. This also works in the other direction as well. If I notice that my students are behind where I wanted to get started, then I will need to adjust my plans accordingly.

Mel Christensen
The set of seven axioms and their corollaries concerning the complimentary use of Understanding by Design and Differentiated Instruction helped me to see how a teacher can manage the learning of many students at different levels of understanding. Differentiated Instruction can seem intimidating because it seems as though it could become chaotic quickly if not done well. Some of the scenarios in this chapter illustrated simple ways that differentiation can be implemented in the classroom, such as providing a range of resources categorized as “straight ahead,” “uphill,” and “mountainous” (Tomlinson and McTighe, 9). As someone who is just beginning to work with the concept of Differentiated Instruction another concern is how students would feel about working at different levels within one class. I think creative labeling such as “mountainous” for more challenging activities or readings is a great idea because it is not directly labeled as “advanced.” Offering the same range of materials to students with clear information about the level of challenge involved also helps to remove any awkwardness between students about what level of understanding they may be at because they are all given the opportunity to choose what they want to work with. I realize now that an important factor to learning to differentiate a curriculum well is to be very focused in determining what areas of understanding the students need to master and to use that focus as the springboard for Differentiated Instruction. I am very excited to learn to think within the framework of Understanding by Design while working on curriculum because it seems like a very logical way of making sure students achieve the understanding needed to fulfill standards and be prepared for standardized testing while still being creative with the teaching of the material.