Chapter 7C

This portion of the chapter identified the various assessment items. The book also listed step by step how to create an assessment using the various styles. As a teacher it is important to mix up the assessments to give the students more of a variety. This way each student has a chance to have an assessment style that they will excel at over the other styles. Each student has their own strengths, so allowing different assessment styles will allow them to showcase their knowledge of the topic. I also liked the sample rubric shown in this chapter. Having a detailed rubric will help keep assessing fair.

Chapter 7B

This chapter is about assessing and reporting student achievement. This portion of the chapter discusses standardized and nonstandardized tests. I think the idea behind standardized tests is good, however standardized testing has become too powerful and influential to the basic classroom operations. With test scores reflecting how teachers perform, many teachers are now teaching for the test, instead of teaching the students in a way that they are able to remember the information later on. As a teacher, I need to find the healthy balance of teaching my students how to understand the information on these tests, but also teach my students so that they understand the subject on its own.

Another big portion was test anxiety. As a teacher I need to be able to identify when students are under a lot of pressure and help them out when they are stressing. I also need to be able to teach them different strategies that will help them overcome the test anxiety.

Chapter 7A

This chapter is about assessing and reporting student achievement. I think the checklist version of assessment is interesting. I can see how that would make grading easier as well as a self evaluation form easier. However, in figure 7.4 when the first question was, "Speak so that everyone could hear?". Instead of only yes or no, I would want more options like a rubric because the student may not be loud all of the time and more in between then the yes and no options. The checklist in figure 7.5 was more appropriate because it was a checklist of whether or not the student portrays developed skills. In that example, a student would either have it or not. So the yes or no options make more sense.

Chapter 6B

The middle portion of chapter 6 is all about writing the lesson plans. The author explains that writing lessons is a skill that takes time to develop and perfect over the years. They also stressed the importance of writing lessons down and having extra activities in mind.

As a middle school teacher, I see many benefits to having hard copies of my lesson plans. Lesson plans should have step by step procedures so you always have a guide to follow while teaching. I am in my novice teaching right now and one thing I have learned is that you have to be able to go with the flow. In one of my math lessons, I found out right before I began teaching that we had added computer lab time to practice PARCC testing. So, I had less time than what I had originally thought. When the computer lab time came, I was able to mark in my lesson plan where we stopped, so on Monday, I could pick up right where we left off.

Another thing I want to take away from this chapter is that with my first few years of teaching middle school, I will not have a good idea of how much time my lessons will take because I will not have taught them yet. By writing out a lesson plan and listing "if time remains" at the bottom with a few more activities, I won't have to worry about getting done with a lesson early and not knowing what to do.

Chapter 6A

This chapter discusses how to prepare an instructional plan. In the very beginning of this chapter, the author discusses the two instructional modes: delivery mode and access mode. I like how there was a chart that showed the strengths and weaknesses of each of these modes.

As a middle school teacher, I would want to use access mode as much as I could. I believe when students have more input to what they are learning, they will gain more because they had the choice of what they were learning about. I could see myself falling back to teaching in the delivery mode style because that is the traditional style of teaching that is more comfortable to teach from. Some positives from delivery mode are that more content is covered and the teacher has control of the content covered. Using delivery mode would allow me to plan out and have more of a schedule to the instructional plans to keep us on track for the year, however mixing in the access mode style would keep the students more engaged and interested in learning.

I want to take away from this portion of the chapter that teaching both of these modes throughout the year would make for a healthy balance for my students because there would be days that are more teacher lead with a more controlled environment, and other days that are more inquiry based for students to explore what they want to. I do not think it is a good thing to teach 100 percent in either one of the styles over the other one. All students learn differently, and having a diverse teaching style and classroom will allow for more success for all of the students.

Chapter 5C

This part of the chapter discussed the different taxonomies and how to develop a class syllabus. The taxonomy I can relate to most is Bloom's. Whenever I have to write a lesson plan I always have my Bloom's Taxonomy sheet out with the different levels and different verbs that correspond with the levels. This way when I go to write the objectives and procedures, I can make sure my students are getting a variety of levels within the lesson. Now students aren't only completing the lower levels of thinking, but they are also having to think at a higher level to complete the lesson and assessment.

I believe having a thorough syllabus is critical for any class. In my middle school classroom, I want to make sure I cover all of the class procedures, class description, supplies needed, our goals, objectives, grade scale, and assessments. This way the students know what is expected of them right at the beginning of the school year. If students are ever absent, they should know what the procedure is to getting the work by looking at the class syllabus. I will have my syllabus printed on a colored paper so that it is something the students will easily be able to find within their binder.

Chapter 5B

Chapter 5B goes into how to choose the different types of curriculum. It also discusses how most subject areas will contain potential controversial topics. I definitely agree with that. If I ever come up to a topic that I want to teach but think of possible issues that may come up, I would want to speak with the other teachers teaching the same class and with the administrators to come up with a plan. I believe that as long as you have solid communication when coming up with what curriculum to teach, the outcomes will be better if a problem were to arise. This way a committee of educators have already met to discuss the potential problems prior to teaching the unit. Then the committee could speak with the parents and students and whoever is concerned with the curriculum. If the committee of teachers and administrators thinks my curriculum choice is too risky, then I would have to choose a different topic to teach. This will definitely come up at some point when I teach middle school. I would want to be proactive and have a plan in place if a concern about the content and curriculum were to ever come up.