Chapters 5 and 6

Chapter 5
Chapter 5 is all about curriculum and what needs to happen to make curriculum successful in differentiation. I liked a quote at the beginning " The teacher's agreement to make ties recognizes the learners need for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge. The agreement responds with a pledge to being investment, invitation, opportunity, persistence, and reflection to the time, place, and interactions that will bind together teacher and learner. It sets the tone for what is possible. The agreement is the first step, a step of immense consequence, but it is a beginning." I liked this quote because it ties everything together and reminds me of the cogs in chapter 1. The teacher has to take interest in the students needs and put forth effort. The book talked about that we as teachers need to teach the curriculum to our students, not just teach math, but teach our students math. I really liked this because I remember when I was in third grade my teacher was all about the drill and skill and i hated everything about school. I felt like he didn't care if I succeeded so why should I. But then in Fourth grade my teacher got to know me and invested her time and talents in me and I loved school that year. It just goes to show that it matters how you teach not just what you teach. There are five characteristics in the classroom that will help students learn; importance, focused, engaging, demanding, and scaffolded. I am just going to give a few highlights of each of these. Importance means that the curriculum is essential to the structure of the discipline, and it is a road map toward expertise in a discipline. Focused curriculum is whatever we do is unambiguously aligned with the articulated and essential learning goals. Whatever we do is designed to get us where we need to go. Engaging curriculum means students most often find meaning in their work, students most often find the work intriguing, and students see themselves and their world in the work. Demanding curriculum means, the work is most often a bit beyond the reach of each learner, student growth is nonnegotiable, and standards for work and behavior are high. Scaffold curriculum is the teacher teaches for success, criteria for success are clear to students, and criteria for classroom operation and students behavior are clear to students. The end of the chapter states that you can only care about a students if you understand the student. So we as teachers need to make an effort to understand our students, then we can learn to care about them.

Chapter 6
Chapter 6 gave a lot of strategies for teaching important, focused, engaging curriculum. Some of those include: focus student products around significant problems and issues, use meaningful audiences, help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the world, provide choices that ensure focus, and look for fresh ways to present and explore ideas. I liked a lot of these ideas. It gives me hope that I may in fact be able to differentiate my teaching. There are so many ways that a teacher can achieve differentiation, if you have the right tools you will succeed.