Chapter 8: A Safe and Healthy School Environment

This chapter focuses on creating a safe and healthy environment in your school. One important thing that the chapter talked about was that by having good school/classroom rules. While we always think of rules as a way to make our lives easier, they also act as a way to make students feel safe and secure in the classroom. I had never thought of it that way before. The chapter continues to talk about how creating a safe environment in the classroom is by making students of other races feel comfortable. It talks about the issue that we only teach about other races once a month, or when there is a holiday. As a future social studies educator, I am going to make sure that other races are talked about, and that they are not made as a special case. That it is just part of the history, especially since they are a very special part of history. Health and physical education is talked about in this chapter as well. Having gym in schools has proven to show that students do better academically. They also are more apt to stay away from drugs and alcohol when they know how it affects their bodies. All in all promoting a safe and healthy environment in the school is a very important thing that needs to be done more often.

Chapter 4: Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learing

This chapter really focused on differentiated instruction in the classroom. It talked about the WHERE (WHERETOS in Practicum). One thing that I really pulled from this chapter however, was when it talked about tracking in the schools. In our education classes we have been talking about tracking and discussing why it is not a good thing to have in the classroom anymore. However, this chapter was the first time I have seen in writing about why it is not a good concept to have in the schools anymore. The line “schools are not factories” is so true. When we do tracking in the schools chances are social status is going to determine where you are placed in class level. While tracking may be easy for the teachers, it is not beneficial to the students. When you have students of all levels in the same class, then those who are advanced will become better students, and those who are lower levels will be able to improve as students and not be stuck at the lower level they would have been forever had there been tracking. The rest of the chapter continues to talk about how to teach to the whole classroom, a lot of which we have heard about during practicum. However, it was nice review to have.

Becoming a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching

This was a really great presentation. I like how you guys had the classroom set up like a casino with the lights, music, tablecloths, lounge area, and food. This definitely changed the mood of the room, and really got you to want to know what this book was all about. Eric, your section at the lounge was really cool. I liked doing the quote part, and talking about the arrangement and moods of rooms. Something that we talk about in class a lot, but it was cool to see it actually put to good use. Susanna, your game was awesome, (even though Dr. Grace beat me), I liked getting the horseshoes and reading all of those facts about the brain. A lot of these things really related to the part of my book that I read. Josh, thanks for teaching me how to play blackjack! I like how you related three different assessment levels to the blackjack game. It really gave us a visual to link this to. Lyzz, that big game of memory with the facts was really cool. If we hadn't run out of time, I'm sure we would have been able to tell in our group who had a good spatial memory. All in all this presentation was awesome, and I really liked how you guys made the feel of the book really come alive.

Chapter 8: Effective Assessment

This chapter is about effective assessment in the classroom. “Jay McTighe says that assessment should promote learning, not just measure it” (p 89). The chapter then proceeds to talk about different ways to assess students effectively. One of the things that Wormeli talks about is making your goals for the unit clear. He talks about how he sometimes gives his students the test to the unit before beginning the unit. Therefore they know what they’re going to be getting at the end of the unit, and there will be no surprises for them. Making sure that the assessments that the students receive are rigorous and motivating is another key part of effective assessments. However, this type of assessment shouldn’t be tied down to just tests. This is where other forms of activities and assessments come into play. Group projects, or individual projects are a good ways to effectively assess students, without giving tests. Overall this chapter has really good ideas on how to properly assess students without always giving them tests.

Chapter 7: Differentiated Instruction – Fitting the Lesson to the Learner

This chapter on differentiated instruction is a lot different than all of the other books and chapters that I have read on differentiated instruction. Right off the bat in this chapter it talks about why differentiated instruction is useful. However, Wormeli is blunt and to the point saying “teachers looking for the one right way to differentiate instruction will be disappointed. It doesn’t exist” (p 69). This can be perceived in two ways, one as a way of discourage, or as a way to use it as an opportunity to try and make their form of differentiated instruction as best as they can. I like how the book is split up between features of differentiated instruction, and characteristics of successful teachers of differentiated instruction. I liked how Wormeli says “Differentiated instruction means we match the challenge to the student, finding varied ways to help each child stretch intellectually” (p 71). This is one of the best definitions of differentiated instruction that I have heard. It really states it clearly. The list of characteristics on successful teachers of differentiated instruction I thought was very helpful. I will use this as a list for myself when I am in the classroom, because this list has some key points that are really important.

Chapter 6: Accountability for High Standards

This chapter had three major categories. Holding students accountable, holding ourselves as educators responsible and responding to standards. There are many tips on how to hold students accountable for their work. Some things that I thought were really good was stating to the classroom that their work is going to be on display for the school. This makes the students take pride in their work, because they know that others are going to see the work that they produce. Another suggestion that I thought was really good for holding students accountable was not offering extra credit for students. Instead, if they want to better a project, or paper, they can take the time to correct the things that they were docked points on. Wormeli said that his students eventually just gave 100% on their papers and projects the first time around, so they didn’t even need to fix anything and they had good grades. Holding ourselves as educators accountable is something that shouldn’t be a problem, but as he states, and as we saw in “Waiting for Superman”, many teachers just place blame on all of the things working against them, and stop teaching the way that they should. So Wormeli suggest that we need to become better teachers despite this, and really teach the students well. His view on standards is very positive. I really like how he states “I’m waiting for the moment when all the countries of the world can find common ground through intellectual achievement”. In order for this to happen we do need to have standards, and instead of looking down on them, we need to respond to them in a positive light.

Chapter 3 Brain Research Applied to Middle School

This chapter of Meet in the Middle really connects to my groups book talk book of A Whole New Mind. It has a lot to do with the brain, and how we can format it to get it’s best memorization. Memory is a coherent process, and an easy tool that can be used in the classroom. In this chapter Wormeli gives some good ways to help students remember things from class discussion. He talks about a triad response, where you call on one person, and then you ask another to give a response to their classmates answer, and then a third classmate is able to respond, and the original student is able to have the last word on what was said based off his response. This causes students to not just shut off their brains when someone else in their class is responding, so they have to listen in case they might be asked to respond to their classmates answer or input. Wormeli continues that we remember things by a process called chunking. This is something I have already heard of, I believe it was in practicum. He also says a good way to get students to remember something is to add emotions to it. He says that “students respond well to emotional cues and retain information as a result”. The one thing that I found very interesting about this chapter was how important staying hydrated is for the brain and learning. It makes sense, but at the same time it’s not something that you think about.