DI/UbD Chapter Two

Team 2, Block 1

Abstract/Summary

In chapter two of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, the authors, McTighe and Tomlinson articulate the main problem in teaching specifically good curriculum without differentiation. They discuss the need to know one’s students and each of their particular quarks and learning styles in order to teach in a differentiated way and reach them all on an intellectual level. Students are not just blank slates waiting to be written on. They have, by the time they reach the schools, already developed their own learning styles. They will learn how they will learn. McTighe and Tomlinson discuss the necessity of teaching the students what they need to know and gaining their trust. They argue that many times when students perform poorly, it is not because they are academically deficient. They may have social issues in school, home, or other problems causing them to have to focus on other things. McTighe and Tomlinson provide a list of teaching patterns to relate to categories of students in order to make those students feel more comfortable and therefore perform better. In the very end of the chapter, the McTighe and Tomlinson make a stand for diversity. They discuss the fact that teachers will teach different students with different interests and different problems, and the teachers have to adjust accordingly in order to do what they are there to do-teach.

Reflection

We as a group all agreed that we took a lot from this chapter. The students are what are important. We, as educators, need to be prepared to adjust our plans for the students. We need to be goal-oriented but we must be willing to change our means of achieving our desires ends. We must be receptive and responsive to our students’ needs and difficulties. We cannot be stone cold teaching machines. We have to be people because that is who we are teaching, people, and without relationship very little can be achieved. We’ve all had a teacher or two who was that by-the-book (MLR that is) kind of teacher with the same tests and the same work every year. We, as aspiring teachers must be vigilant in our fight against the standardization of students. Students are people, individuals, and as instructors we need to know that.