Chapter 7c

In my own educational career, I recall multiple choice tests not always being as accurate as the educator hoped them to be. My peers and I would find flaws in the wording or even find multiple answers that would be suitable to accurately answer the question presented. For this reason, I found this section of chapter seven, about multiple choice and its guidelines, interesting. I thought it was neat that this section gave specific ideas as to what to keep in mind when creating these types of assessments. In my own future classroom, I know that creating multiple choice has both advantages and disadvantages and I will need to be careful not to use them too often to assess my students. One advantage is that multiple choice requires students to know detailed specifics about a concept or topic in order to answer a question correctly, especially when it comes down to more than one answer being potentially correct. This could also be a disadvantage as the student may not see the minor details of two or more choices and mistake an incorrect answer for being the correct answer. Overall, it is important for educators to vary assessment in their classroom to find an accurate picture of how and what their students know and can do.

Chapter 7b

One thing I enjoyed reading about in this section of text was assessment and evaluation. It is common for educators to often mistake or confuse one for the other. This chapter makes it clear that assessment is the process of seeing how and what students are understanding and evaluation is the process of understanding what makes sense from the assessment given to students. Assessment has many purposes such as help learning, find strengths and weaknesses of students' abilities and knowledge, find how useful a specific activity, strategy, or program is to the students, to improve instruction, to aid in decision making for each student, and to provide the parents, school, district, and state with information so that all may understand where students are in the educational process. By assessing and evaluating, an educator may see that he or she needs to expand or even review a subject so the students may build upon their knowledge. In my own classroom, I plan to use assessment for these previously stated reasons as well as to help me, as the educator, understand what I need to do to help my students succeed inside and outside the classroom. I want to give my students all that I can during my time as their teacher and I believe that assessments will aid in accomplishing that goal.

Chapter 7a

Something I came to realize upon reading this section of the textbook is that an educator may assess what a student says, does, or writes. Although I have been assessed in these three ways during my own educational career, I never actually thought too much about the ways in which a teacher or professor assesses his/her students. Assessments allow educators to see whether or not a student is at the appropriate achievement level according to his/her grade. Assessments also give educators an idea on where or how to better prepare the students. 

An educator may assess a student by what is said through an explanation, oral report, and interactions with peers. An educator may assess what a student does by watching nonverbal behaviors and interactions with peers, as well. An educator may assess a student by what he/she writes through a journal entry, reading log, research paper, or daily writing activities. In my own classroom, I would like create rubrics, record observations, and compile student portfolios to assess my students then display their work. I plan to use a variety of ways to assess my own students during novice teaching, student teaching, and during my entire teaching career.

Chapter 6b

Interdisciplinary thematic units are excellent ways to incorporate multiple content areas into one cohesive learning and teaching plan. ITUs may involve one teacher, usually more common an elementary school setting, or may include two or more teachers, such as in the middle school setting where students often spend their day with multiple teachers. It is important that the ITU be of interest to the students and aim to achieve the educational goals and objectives set in place by the teacher(s), school, district, and state. ITUs may take a day, a week, or longer. While planning ITUs, it is essential that educators give each plan enough time and thought so that students are able to fully understand all concepts and information presented throughout the unit.

During my time at Bradley University, I have already created an Interdisciplinary Thematic Unit for 5th grade students. Within my unit, I developed a teaching plan in order for my students to accomplish the goals and objectives I created. I hope to receive more opportunities in my future teaching career, and especially within the middle school setting as I would ideally like to teach 6th to 8th grade, to create interdisciplinary thematic units with a team of colleagues.

Two important points I took away from this section for my future teaching career is to use the backward design and give enough time to the planning process when creating a ITU. Selecting standards, goals, and objectives first, according to the backward design, will give me a better idea of what learning strategies and activities I should incorporate for an effective unit. In order for a successful unit, I will plan well ahead of time so that I can clearly think through each step, revise and edit the unit, and allow my colleagues and other mentors to look over the unit and give critiques. I look forward to creating and further developing ITUs someday soon as my teaching career quickly approaches.

Chapter 6a

While reading this section of chapter 6, one concept that immediately captured my interest was Dr. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. There are many intelligences included in this text including bodily/kinesthetic, existentialist, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical/mathematical, musical/rhythmic, naturalist, verbal/linguistic, and visual/spatial. People learn in different ways and sometimes learn better one way over another way. One person may learn best by writing out a mathematics equation, another may learn best from using manipulatives to represent the values, and yet another may learn best from moving his or her body to see the relationships between values. I am a firm believer that students learn in different ways. Additionally, I often classify myself as possessing strong visual intelligence and mathematical intelligence as I usually understand better when concepts are presented visually on paper and using numbers or variables. I believe that an educator should vary instruction so that all students are able to learn every concept and all information presented.

In my own classroom, I plan to vary instruction as frequently as possible. I would like my students to have opportunities to do whatever it takes for them to learn a concept or idea. I would like my students to engage in discussions, move around the classroom, use manipulatives, think deeply about information, express themselves and what they learn on paper, use technology, work independently, in partner pairs, in small groups, and as a class, question frequently, find patterns in the world, talk over their thoughts, draw, create, explore, and more. As a future educator, I am always looking for new and exciting ways to present information to my students and I will continue to do so throughout my teaching career. I want my students to know that there is more than one way to learn something and that learning can be and is fun.

Chapter 5c

A classroom syllabus can be a helpful tool at any grade level. The syllabus may assist students to navigate a course, keep track of assignments, be reminded of the policies and guidelines, and more. A syllabus can also be a helpful aid to parents and guardians, who may want to be informed of what is going on in the class, especially when the student may attend four or more classes each day. Parents and guardians may want to know what is being learned in the classroom, what homework is assigned, or how their student is evaluated. A syllabus can be very helpful for older students, such as 7th and 8th grade, as they will be preparing for high school and college as these are times when teachers and professors more often use syllabi to convey crucial information.

In my own future classroom, I plan to create a syllabus for my students. In this syllabus, I would like to include my classroom goals, grading scale, attendance policy, necessary materials, and general classroom procedures. I believe it is healthy and beneficial for my students to know my expectations of them from the very beginning in order for academic success.

Chapter 5b

One of the most difficult aspects of teaching that an educator will encounter is controversy. In today's world, it is difficult to please all people. People have differing opinions, values and morals, races, religions, backgrounds, and experiences. It is key that a teacher not discuss a controversial topic unless fully aware of all the potential actions that could occur during and following the conversation. A teacher should adequately prepare for a lesson that my involve a controversial topic and be well informed by using a variety of resources. Teachers should be prepared to answer questions that may arise. Additionally, a teacher must ensure that all sides of the topic are covered so as to not be biased or lead students one way or another without fully considering all aspects. Lastly, an educator should encourage students to research, ask questions, and perhaps even interview knowledgeable people to find out more information before formulating a set opinion.

In my future middle school classroom, I hope to frequently engage my students in discussions. I plan to be sure that I am aware of all sides and information about a topic before presenting it to my students. I do not want any students feel that they are wrong in thinking a certain way or disagreeing with a peer. I do not plan to share my own personal opinion with my students unless absolutely necessary or unless each student has come to his or her own opinion or decision on the matter at hand and it is appropriate for me, as an educator, to do so. I want my classroom to be open and welcoming of all students and their ideas, opinions, thoughts, and feelings; carefully monitoring controversial topics is one way to create an accepting classroom community.