Bradley's Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment course

The meaning of a specific grade can vary from teacher to teacher. An A for one teacher could be considered a C for another. A major contributor to the drastic variations is the level of each student. From my field placement, I taught 4 CP classes, 1 CPI class, and 1 Applied class. Each class has the same objective of learning about the five themes of geography and eight components of culture, but the expectations for each class are different. The Applied class is assessed on discussions and group work because their writing and reading skills are considerably below grade level. In my classroom, the objectives for each class are the same, but the way we learn about those objectives are different. Academic success is dependent on the quality of work a student produces. Participation & effort are dependent on the student. Though integrating the two seems reasonable, doing so significantly hurts the student. Students who earn high marks in participation can salvage their...

Chapter 8 MI Students present a broad range of behaviors. From the enthusiastic star student, the withdrawn intellectual, and the creative non-complier. Managing these behaviors depends on your knowledge of the specific student. I have one student who would fall under the category of creative non-complier. He can be hyperactive and prone to bouts of verbal aggression. When he displays this behavior, he is allowed to isolate himself in one of the room’s corners and work on unfinished work. When the class is focused on a task, a one-on-one conference is typically held with him. When given a chance to vent, his aggression quickly vanishes. It ultimately comes down to how well you know your students and what will work for them. Chapter 8 UbD Grades and reports should be based on learning goals and performance standards. The book describes a set of principles that make an assessment appropriate. All assessments should be based on pre-established, clearly deline...

Activity Centers serve as excellent ways to accommodate multiple intelligences. Chapter 7 divides them into Permanent Open-Ended, Temporary Open-Ended, Permanent Topic-Specific, and Temporary Topic-Specific. A Permanent Open-Ended example would be a Book nook or mini garden. A Temporary Topic-Specific example is a Computing Center or Music Center. A Temporary Open-Ended example is Monopoly or Twister. A Permanent Topic-Specific example is “Write a poem about X.” Computer Labs, Libraries, and Music Rooms provide ways for students to accommodate their multiple intelligences in a High School Setting. Though they may be outside my classroom, I would collaborate with each location so my students have the opportunities to use each space. The typical school in the US emphasizes verbal & mathematical intelligences, because these areas are often most assessed in standardized tests. This leaves clubs not directly connected to either intelligence subject to cuts in t...

Flexibility, both in curriculum and learning environment, are essential to addressing the needs of various students. A typical secondary-education teacher will have upwards of one hundred students. Each with various readiness levels, intelligence types, and environmental background. Though daunting, the teacher can plan for various situations that may arise. Chapter six provides various examples of how to manage a differentiated classroom, student patterns, classroom elements, and other strategies the teacher may need. Overtime, the teacher will generally know whose who in readiness level, intelligence type, and environmental background.             Essential questions can be highly philosophical with no clear answer, or purely pragmatic and likely to occur in the student’s adult life. An example of this is the Geography Essential Questions. “What makes places unique & different?” makes students compare ...

The entire purpose of Multiple Intelligence in the Classroom is to integrate the eight intelligences into the classroom. This can not be done with a typical standardized test. These tests emphasize linguistic & logical/mathematical skills and typically disregard the rest. The book proposes several examples of assessing students using the multiple intelligence method. Work samples, audio files, photos, and other methods serve as ways to assess student of a given subject. Project Spectrum & Key Learning Community were some of the programs geared towards accommodating various intelligence types. The Five C’s of Portfolio Development also provides guidelines to evaluating each student’s portfolio. Celebration, Cognition, Communication, Cooperation, & Competency serve as steps to evaluating a portfolio and comparing it to a standard.               The Eight Ways Method is an interesting way of assessing vario...

Tiering assignments does not mean lowering the standard. Tiering involves phrasing a question to meet the various readiness levels of a given student or class. The lowest readiness level will typically meet the bare minimum of the standard. The book characterizes three different readiness levels. “Early Readiness Level” provides the basic requirements of the standard. “Grade Level Task” provides more than basic requirements of the standard and expectations of the grade level. “Advanced Grade Level” exceeds the needs of the standard and grade level expectations.             The Learning Contract Theory is very similar to Social Contract Theory. Social Contract Theory involves the ruled allowing their leaders to rule them. It follows the belief that the governed give their consent to be ruled. If the government abuses said power, it is the right of the governed to remove the abuser. Learning Contracts serve as a compromise ...