Chapter 9: Bringing It All Together: Curriculum and Instruction THrough the Lens of UbD and DI

This chapter describes UbD and DI and how to integrate them both in the classroom. It starts by explaining what differentiated teachers do that is different in order to help their students. There is a list of nine very well explained goals for UbD and DI, and really pounds on how important it is in the classroom. There is an example of a backwards design unit plan for 5th and 6th grade nutrition, and it integrates ways to differentiate. Tomlinson and McTighe present different ways of utilizing assessment and how to adjust for specific students and every student’s learning style(s). The book covers a section on ensuring maximum student growth by understanding what the makeup of the classroom is by both content knowledge and other skill sets. The chapter outlines the pre-assessment process as well as progressing through the lesson to the final assessment. There is a list of different tasks outlined for the specific unit that encompass differentiation techniques, and is also specific to certain types of student learners. There is a list of indicators that someone would see if they were to observe a differentiated classroom and ways to see how the teacher is using backwards design. Within this list, there are things to look for within categories. The categories are “the learning environment”, “the curriculum”, “the teacher”, and “the learner”. It illustrates ways that teachers can show and use backwards design and differential instruction in the classroom. The point is to be flexible, have plans and goals, and to have a comfortable classroom environment. You have to differentiate, and treat the students like they are customers, and anything you can do for them to help them master the topic, is what is going to make you a more effective teacher.

For the most part, people felt like this chapter was redundant. There was a lot of good information in this chapter, and every one seemed to take a little bit out of it, but there was a whole lot of information that had been said several times in the book, other books and also in class. We got a lot out of the importance of flexibility, tailoring and a comfortable learning environment. Classroom environment is something that we don’t always think about, but most certainly understand the importance of. We understand differential instruction. We get the importance of backwards design. We have gotten this information, a lot and were kind of bored with it, but we thought that it was a good conclusion. You have to have a conclusion right? Most people thought that it was nice to see a complete unit in the book that mirrors the one that we have been creating in class, however, wished that they would have incorporated other subjects so that everyone can see how one looks in their concentration. If they had lessons and units in the appendix for more concentrations, that would have been really helpful.

MI: Chapter 7

Chapter 7 in MI looks at the classroom environment and how that can benefit from a MI standpoint. The classroom arrangement is also discussed in that if the classroom is cluttered transitions will not be smooth and learners with special needs will be distracted. Room clutter also will impact the way in which students can enter and leave the classroom which would add to the room traffic and confusion. The chapter goes on to discuss learning centers and how these can help to foster the multiple intelligences . The centers are not only broken out for the various intelligences they are also broken out as permanent open-ended, temporary topic-specific, temporary open-ended, and permanent topic-specific. The benefit to the permanent centers is that they will always be there to provide a place for the students to be challenged with a variety of activities. The temporary centers change frequently and offer the opportunity to challenge the various intelligences. The various learning centers would be a library area (linguistic), math lab (mathematical/logical), art area (spatial), hands-on center (bodily-kinesthetic), music lab (musical), round table for group discussions (interpersonal), loft (intrapersonal) and an animal center (naturalist). It is also important to understand that the learning centers do not necessarily have to be a part of every classroom, if there is team teaching or joining classrooms then one classroom might have one or two with others residing in the other classrooms.



This chapter was felt by many to be a very interesting chapter and gave lots of good ideas. There was concern expressed over how exactly these would fit into a high school classroom. And in doing the research many of the photos and stories were all for elementary age students. There is interesting application when it came to classroom arrangement and how much that impacts learning. Even if it is not possible to apply all of the theories to our individual classrooms the lessons can be kept in mind and see if there is a better way to work our classrooms.

Multiple Intelligences Chapter 13: Other Applications of MI Theory

Abstract: This chapter discusses the uses of the theory of multiple intelligences in computer technology, cultural diversity and career counseling. First discussed is computer technology with the multiple intelligences. Depending on what software the computer has on it all eight of the intelligences can be used at some point in time. There is a list of software that you can use that caters to all of the different intelligences. Some of them are intelligence specific and others can be catered to the different intelligences. Cultural diversity is an interesting aspect to the theory of multiple intelligences. This is because not all countries and cultures value the same intelligences. For example in Hungary all students are required to learn to read musical notation. Lastly this chapter discusses how the theory of multiple intelligences can help steer students towards a career. As students understand which intelligences they are strong with they can choose a career that would utilize those intelligences. Vocational tests are a good way to get a student started toward finding a job that suits their interests through the intelligences. For example a student who possesses a naturalist intelligence could be a marine biologist, veterinarian or zoologist. These are just some of the ways that MI theory can be applied to various aspects of students and schools.

Reflection: The overall class feeling of this chapter is that it was useful and informative as well as interesting. Many students commented on the applications of technology through the multiple intelligences. One main topic of technology that was brought up was the use of video games in the classroom. There are a lot of games that are “educational” (i.e. Brain Age) but not many are used as a tool in teaching. The thought of this is that someday in the future video games may be a viable resource to help with student learning. Also other classmates found it useful to see applications of MI to the world outside of the classroom. It is important to see these connections because everything done in the classroom is for a purpose and it is good to see how this theory can be applied outside the walls of a school. One concern of this chapter was with the authors take on using MI theory to help students pick careers. The concern with this is that some students who may have a strong grasp with certain intelligences may be more interested in doing work outside of that intelligence, which could be more exciting and rewarding for them to do. Not all aspects of career choosing should be determined by the strength of ones intelligence; personality and interests should also be taken into account when finding a career.