Chapter 8: FIAE

Chapter eight discusses whether teachers should incorporate behavior, attendance, and effort into the students final grade. Overall, Wormeli was against using any of them as part of assessing a student. The argument was that often times these serve to discourage students when they are penalized, and often there are factors or reasons behind why they have not been in class, have behavioral problems, or are missing assignments. I like how Wormeli states that often students missing assignments aren't because they just decided not to do it, but teachers treat them as if that is the case. There have been past experiences in school were I had extenuating circumstances and could not complete an assignment on time, but teachers punished me as if I just decided I did not care or just blew it off. In the case of some teachers, it feels as though they do not treat students as human beings who have a life outside of school with other priorities and problems. Taking time to understand students instead of reducing there final grade for not being in class is important as a teacher.

Chapter 7: FIAE

In this chapter, Wormeli discusses how to give grades meaning. It is argued that letter and number grades in many systems do not accurately describe mastery, and that too much emphasis is put on grades. There were two major points in this chapter that I found particularly interesting. The first in the results of a test that Wormeli quoted, that was taken of A and B students at an impoverished school. It turns out that they tested the same as C and D students at an affluent school. These schools are help to the same state learning standards so why is this? Wormeli claims that it could be because the teachers of the impoverished school have lower expectations. This is unacceptable, it discriminates upon students based on their socioeconomic status. This is no basis for lowering the level of education that is available to students. Another problem described by Wormeli is the idea of a "passing grade". If a student gets by with a D, the lowest grade they need to move on the the next level, then the student does not have mastery of the content. That is the flaw with the system, when we allow students who have not built the skills set forth in the course, to leave without meeting the standards.

Chapter 12: MI

Chapter 12 discussed the ever popular method of students memorizing knowledge so that they can get a good grade on a test, and then forget it after because they don't think they will ever need that information again. As a teacher, MI states that we are responsible for helping students retain what they learn. The chapter explains that memory is intelligent specific. I believe this is true because some students memorize knowledge by putting it to a beat or making rhymes, others like myself benefit by relating the content to real life. If you can find the strengths of your students, than you have to tools to help them retain the knowledge that is being fed to them. Another method of helping students retain knowledge that works with MI is getting students to think and allowing them to come to a conclusion themselves. I can recall many experiences were a teacher made me think and find the answer myself, a method that I think worked very well for me and gave me greater appreciation for the material. The content or ideas that I understood on my own I never forgot, and my self-esteem was boosted along with my ability to think.

Chapter 11: MI

Multiple Intelligence's are found in every human being, including those with special needs. While they may experience difficulty in many areas, they also have a strength that can be related to a multiple intelligence. The example given by Armstrong in chapter 11 is that autistic kids, while having difficulty in interpersonal intelligence, are amazing interpersonal learners and may have an amazing aptitude for music, art, or mathematics. This is why as a teacher, it is important to find the strengths within all of your students. MI insists that this needs to be done at the instructional level and also at the assessment level. Those students will be motivated to learn and gain a higher self esteem. I read that in Europe, an autistic child walks around looking at buildings or famous pieces of art, and with only walking by them, can recreate them in amazing detail and ability. Helping students find what they are good at, will help them succeed in your classroom and later in life.

Chapter 8: MI

Chapter eight discuses many ways to manage your classroom. There are many little things a teacher can do that are meant to get the classes attention at the beginning of each lesson. This chapter gives some great examples of how to do this effectively, and how to use methods that involve one or more multiple intelligences. These are meant to be used during transitions that occur before instruction or when the class gets in to small groups, and before activities. Things such as turning the lights off when students get too loud or having some your own sort of thing to do to quiet a class down is helpful. In my experience it takes much more than words to get the full attention of a group of students.

Chapter 8: UbD/DI

This chapter discusses the problem of grading for the rule book, and the idea of assigning a meaningless letter or number to a student at the end of the year to put on a report card and show to their parents. Often times too much emphasis is placed on making a letter or number grade, and not enough on creating learning and understanding. A student can memorize information just to get a good grade, without really absorbing the material. This method of grading does not really motivate student to understand or achieve mastery in the content. The chapter asks teachers to give grades based on clear goals and performance standards. This way the student needs to understand the content and goals, and the grade becomes almost explained instead of just being assigned. This way, a teacher can use grades to motivate students to understand the content, instead of discouraging them so that all that is focused on is a meaningless letter or number.

Chapter 14:MI

This chapter focuses on the potential ninth intelligence, Existential. The first part of the chapter covers how the intelligence mostly fits the criteria the other intelligences fit into, but it seems to be hard to fully chart aspects of the intelligence or find a way to evaluate students work as existential work. However, the book reminds us that it's important to keep this intelligence in mind, despite certain difficulties. The book gives suggestions on how teachers can incorporate existential intelligence in the classroom.