Chapter 7

This chapter was about assessing and reporting student achievement. It discussed the difference in diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment. Diagnostic is assessing the knowledge of the students before the new instruction. Formative is what the students learn during the instruction. Summative is what is learned after the instruction. All three assessments are beneficial to teachers to base where the students are in reference to their learning. It also discusses different ways to assess by using rubrics, observation forms, of checklists.

Chapter 6

This chapter discusses instructional plans. A lot of this chapter was about instructional units. The part that I think was very beneficial was about how to plan and develop a unit of instruction. It walked you through steps to create one. The first step was to select a theme or topic that would be suitable. The second step was to set the goals of the unit and create an overview. Then you are to figure out the instructional objectives and the detailed instructional procedure. Lastly, the preassessment and assessment of the student learning and the material needed will need to be provided. Each step was detailed and basically walked you through everything that would be needed in that step. This will benefit me when I am a teacher because I will have a basic idea and outline of what is necessary in a Unit of instruction.

Chapter 5

This chapter discussed the benefits of team planning. I think this will be very beneficial in teaching because it allows you to hear other teachers ideas and views and add to your lessons. Another part of this chapter was about the different components of a instructional plan. These parts include the rationale component, goals and objectives, articulation component, learning activities, resource component, assessment component, and the special considerations component. The details provided about each of these parts will definitely help me when I am creating and instruction plan.

Chapter 4

This chapter is about planning and managing the classroom. It discusses how to design the physical layout of the classroom. It should be flexible so that students can accomplish tasks of different varieties. The students also need to feel welcome in the classroom and they will be treated and accepted as the individuals that they are. It also talks about getting to know your students as people. You need to learn the students names first of all and they make sure to get to know them better through sharing activities . Also, it may be beneficial to have conversations with students outside of the classroom and have conferences an interviews with the students.

Chapter 3

This chapter talks about questioning students. It really talks a lot about Higher Order Thinking questions. It says that some students may need assistance when answering these questions and that the wait time is critical. It talks about how to construct questions and how they should be planned, thoughtfully worded, and written into lesson plans. I think this is a key to being successful as a teacher in questions writing and creating. It also says to ask the question before calling on students to answer it.

Chapter 2: Professional Responsibilities of Teaching Young Adolescents

While I was reading this text, I realized that I never knew there were so many different things that could be used in the classroom while teaching. One of the things that the book mentioned were the journals or periodicals that could be used by teachers and provided a list of them. I know this will be beneficial to me in the future so that I will know what journals will help me in the classroom. Another part of the text that I found interesting was the part about the preparation for field trips. I never knew before how much preparation was needed and how many details are required to plan a trip for a class. I also liked that the book gave ideas of where to take students on field trips. Another part of the chapter that I though to be very beneficial was the part about questioning students. I thought it gave many good tips such as allowing the students time to think, listening actively when the students is speaking, and to pause while talking to allow for time for students to think.

Chapter 1:Recognizing and Understanding the Challenge

After reading this chapter, I realized I learned a large amount of information. One of the things that stood out the most to me when I was reading the text was part about teaching in a school that uses year-round education. It was interesting that they only add a a couple of weeks to the beginning of the year and couple to the end of the year. When I first heard of this and did not know what it was, I thought it was literally a school that is in session all year long. Another thing that I thought was interesting was the part about collaborative teaching. I think this could benefit teachers greatly because we would be able to hear other people's ideas and views on how we should approach certain curriculum. Looping was another thing that I had not heard of. I think the idea of one teacher for a group of students for a certain number of years is probably a good idea because of the amount of respect and comfort that would go along with it.