FIAE+Chapter+2+Block+1

[|Synthesis FIAE C2 B1]

Chapter two of FIAE starts off with a debate on the true meaning of mastery and understanding. It is important to figure out what this means in your classroom, school, and even your district, so that teachers can be on the same page and assess students on the same grounds. Teachers need to understand that a student demonstrating mastery in a subject needs to cover a lot of ground, and show, using various tools and techniques, that they understand the concept through analytical thinking and problem solving. Mastery of subjects and its definition is a dynamic practice. Teachers, both rookie and veteran, need to adapt and explore the meaning of mastery for each class, as standards and subject areas change often. The use of curriculum guides can be important, but should be open to interpretation. Cultural differences between students from year to year may completely change how a guide should be used. I’m not sure I appreciated this chapter as much as some of the others in different books or even the first chapter. I think it is intuitive that mastery of a subject is going to change, and teachers need to be chameleons when it comes to assessment and lesson planning. As a rookie teacher, I expect to use my mentor teacher’s pace goals, and even a lot of their rubric styling. I think that departments and schools as a whole should be on the same page when it comes to differentiated instruction and assessment, so that students can in fact use each other as learning tools. As a rookie teacher, I am more likely to fall in step with the norm at the school than stand up and explain that we need definitions for mastery that are unified. This chapter talked about how to find if students are mastering your subject. By using the six facets of true understanding (explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self knowledge) it can be found if students truly understand the topic they are learning. It is also important to find out how best to assess the students depending on what they have learned, and what standard is being achieved. The chapter also touches upon the fact that it is important to determine the most important things to master, because it happens too often that teachers teach material that doesn’t have a point I felt that this chapter was important because it happened to outline one of the problems that most teachers have: how to define mastery. Although it may change from subject to subject, and unit to unit, there needs to be time where each teacher sits down and determines what it will take for each student to master each are of the unit
 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Archambault Michael ||  ||
 * Audy Melissa || The second chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal is titled “Mastery.” It goes in depth defining mastery and providing examples of mastery and non-mastery of certain subjects. It is explained that mastery is not simply knowing what is expected, yet understanding how the knowledge is applicable in everyday life, as well as fully understanding everything that goes along with the concept. An example provided shows a student who has been asked to circle all similes in a written piece, and has only circled one of two. This does not demonstrate mastery. Understanding By Design is referenced to, as the chapter states that Wiggins’ and McTighe’s “six facets of true understanding” are: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge (12). The chapter goes on the explain factors that can show signs of mastery as well as ways of determining what needs to be mastered within a class. || The difference between basic understanding and mastery is not something I had considered before. How will I determine mastery within my classroom? How will I know if students are simply lucky guessers, or memorizers who find no connection to the real world in what they have learned? The chapter has certainly given me a better idea of how to distinguish between mastery and basic understanding—yet before I begin teaching, I feel that this idea of identifying “mastery” is something I may want to research more. I can see how the six facets of understanding can really help one determine whether or not somebody has achieved the status of “mastery,” which is helpful in my understanding of the concept, yet I do not feel as if I have mastered the concept yet. ||
 * Boulter Elizabeth || This chapter discussed what mastery really was. One answer to a problem does not give you insight into a student's understanding of a topic. Mastery is much more than just circling an answer. Far too often, teachers use simple, fill in the blank, or one line answer types of assessment to check for understanding. This type of assessing does not measure the time or effort, the amount of thought, or the overall understanding achieved by the reader. McTighe and Wiggins say that students need to demonstrate proficiency in 6 areas: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. || I think this chapter is really accurate! I agree that measurement of understanding and mastery cannot be based on one answer, one test, or one presentation. Long-term assessment is needed in multiple areas. Evidence of mastery, far too often, is based on simple tests or papers while those do not actually show the effort, length of time, or thought process that goes into determining the answer. How can you tell how much a student knows and how well they can relate it to/ use it in their life by one assignment? It’s impossible. ||
 * Brown Ryanne || This chapter gave an in depth definition of what mastery is and how it is used in the classroom. Included in this chapter was the idea of the six facets of understanding from Understanding by Design. This immediately creates the idea that mastery must include a deep understanding, and not just answering simple questions. From there the author brought in the idea of testing and the proper evidence of mastery, also like chapter 5 of Understanding by Design. There are many ways for students to prove their knowledge and understanding in a subject. The more options given and ways tested, the more likely they will be able to prove the knowledge in an efficient manner. The material chosen to master is also a factor in this chapter and in the classroom. || This entire chapter was really similar to Chapter 5 in Understanding by Design, which really helped me understand the concepts. The idea of mastery seems funny to use in a classroom, because mastery in my mind always meant perfection. I never thought to expect PERFECTION from my students, but now I see that it is completely relevant to do just that. Mastering the subject being taught is just simply having a complete understanding and knowledge of the subject. Mastery is just a word with big meaning, but it is definitely something to strive towards in the classroom. ||
 * DePue Margaux || Chapter 2 of Fair Isn’t Always Equal deals with how to know if a student has mastered their content or not. The author defines mastery as not just knowing information but how to apply it to other situations. In order to differentiate effectively, educators must have clear objectives in their teaching. When given something as simple as a standard or benchmark, a teacher needs to think of ways to assess how a student can master that standard. Mastery is more than just regurgitating what the student has already learned. This chapter also discusses how to decide what material is important to master and what is not, which is a very difficult decision to make for many educators. The chapter makes the argument that the lesson is not important based on what you teach, but how you teach it and how you make it relevant to a student’s life. || I do believe that without clear objectives and aims in teaching, the lessons are in vain. Without a goal, there is no way to judge if a student has actually learned any ideas or not. There is one point that I do completely agree with in chapter 2 about how to assess a student on whether or not they have mastered a topic. The author states that just because a student creates a project showing that they know information about a topic does not mean that they completely comprehend the topic. There have been loads of times where I have done a project without thinking about the subject in depth and received a good grade. If I had been asked deeper questions about the topic, I would not have been able to answer them because I did not know the topic well enough, just enough to get a good grade. I will be sure to be more specific about requirements in mastering a subject in my class. ||
 * Dunne Kaisha || This chapter is much a like Chapter 5 in UbDI. It uses the 6 facets, explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge, as an example. They also use in a figure mastery vs. non-mastery like in the UbDI book when in a figure they use Inauthentic vs. Authentic work. This chapter goes over how to decide what is important and what is not in a curriculum, which is something that is a big wake up call that first year educators face. The fear of not covering enough or too little in the given period of time is a dilemma of all teachers. Anyone can memorize something if they try hard enough, but a mastery of it is if the student can break it down, relate it to something and use it with new information. || This chapter is crucial to being a teacher, because the point is to make sure that your students are aware of and understand the concepts presented in the curriculum. I am sure I will have a panic attack the first time I see my curriculum and not know how I can cram all that information into a high school history course. My mentor and I discussed this, one day in one of our mini-chats, and we got into how sometimes one must just focus on the major concepts and they don’t really have the time to go into great detail. This chapter gave me some good ideas as to finding the mastery of teaching, but not only that but the chapter also provided many ways for students to understand the concepts of mastery within their subject. ||
 * Hudson Kimberly || This chapter is about how teachers can make sure that a student has mastered a particular topic. Mastery is more than just knowing information. In order to master a subject the student has to be able to manipulate it as well as apply it. Before there is mastery, there is understanding. There are six facets of understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self knowledge. There are two different ways to obtain evidence that a student mastered a subject. One is to do multiple assessments and the second is to track progress over time. || I find it interesting that some teachers actually want students to really master a subject. For the most part, teachers I have had have only wanted me to have a deep understanding of the subject. That is somewhat close to mastering a subject, but it is not quite the same. I think that students should master those subjects that they are interested in and want to use in the future, but I do not think it’s necessary for each student to master every subject that they encounter in school. ||
 * Korn Shauna || This chapter was about the underlining part of asking a question from a certain context or without context at all. When a teacher asks a question and the student answers it it is hard to tell if the student has learned, comprehended, or mastered the question by just one answer. A student in order for a teacher to really see if they are learning needs to have more than one assessment on the subject or area they are learning about. The chapter also explained that whether or not the student is learning it not just based on grades. It is common for students especially with subjects that involve a lot of equations, names, dates, etc. to just memorize them but not actually learn anything more about them. The book explains the steps that we need to take in order to make sure that the information we are putting out there, the students are actually taking in and not just repeating it back. As a teacher you want to “Analyze, evaluate, and focus on being masterful in a subject.” (12) When analyzing you want to look over the situation and how they are using the key components of the lesson. Then you want to evaluate your findings so that you have a clear picture of what the student is doing and if something needs to be changed or worked on or if the student is getting it. The last step is to master the subject area and content for that student. Breaking down the subject for the student into pieces and then working with that student so that they understand and learn from the lesson on that piece. || I found this chapter to be especially helpful, because I have always believe that it is better to go more in depth with one topic them skim everything else. I feel that when you go into a topic in depth the students connect with it and can relate more to it. I think that also you are able to make that connection with their life in some way, because you have more time with that topic and can really think about how to make that connection with your students. I feel a lot teachers are the ones that teach problems like the ones in the beginning of the chapter and don’t make that effort to have their students learn anything. A lot of high school for me was about memorization of certain terms and if asked me today what they were about or anything on them; I could barely explain to you what they are. The other side though of this is that I had teachers who focused on us learning and therefore included us in everything and we did a bunch of different things: project, reading, notes, research, etc. on this topic. We had discussions and were even broken up in different groups to talk about the sub topics of the broken down topic from history that we already had. I think that by breaking things down and working with students not just testing them we can see as teachers what they really have learned and what is just being repeated back. ||
 * LaRose Rebecca ||  ||
 * Murphy Amber || This chapter helps to explain that because a child can answer properly on a test doesn’t mean that they have necessarily mastered the skills. There are two different ways to obtain information to determine if a student has mastered materials. These two ways include a number of different assignments and tracking the progress of a few important works over time. Having simply one test allows the students to memorize for this one test and forget the material after. This just shows the child’s ability to memorize not the ability to master certain skills. It is crucial for teachers to be clear on the important points in class so the students can determine the material which needs to be mastered. || I believe that it is very important to have different methods of assessing your students. When a student can demonstrate more then one way of knowing the information it means that they have a true understanding of the information. Sometimes I believe that it is challenging for teachers to determine if the material is mastered or if the material was memorized and I believe that because of this it is important to continue brining prior knowledge into the classroom. ||
 * Nieuwkerk Hannah || Mastery can be explained by the six facets of true understanding; if a student can explain, interpret apply, and have perspective, empathy, and self knowledge about a subject, then he/she has mastered that subject. There are two ways to track mastery, one way is to assign multiple assignments and the other way is to track the progressive of a couple important assignments of a period of time. It is important to give assignments that match the kind of information that is being taught for the full understanding. And finally, as a teacher, it is difficult to determine what is important to master; but there are many resources such as asking fellow teachers, books, programs of study, professional organizations, etc. It is something that is going to take time and effort; it won’t happen overnight. || I liked how the six facets came back in this book, it really reinforces the fact that it is important to know and mastery is very important. I liked the example with the spelling words because it is obvious that just by knowing how to spell the words does not display mastery. When I was in 6th grade, my teacher would have us use the words in a sentence, as easy as that. She said that if we knew how to use the words in a sentence then that was great because then we could use the words outside the classroom, too. She was the only teacher I said like that for spelling, but I remember more words from that class than all my other classes combined, and that really is mastery. I wish there were more teachers like that now. ||
 * Scheffler Erich || This chapter was all about mastery of subject material. In the beginning of the chapter, Rick Wormeli talks about how Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins defined mastery with six facets, and then made his own definition based on those facets. The chapter then discussed how we as teachers can see when a student has mastered a subject. The chapter concludes with a section on how teachers can figure out what is important information to master and what is not. The author says that there are many resources a teacher can use when deciding which information a student should master, and veteran teachers often have trouble with this, as well as rookie teachers. || I thought this chapter was very helpful. It’s very to see if a student has mastered a subject, because tests and homework do not always reflect a student’s true knowledge, because there may be other factors affecting students, like test anxiety, that affect the scores. But it was nice to read about how I can see if students truly know the subject material. ||
 * Simoneau Andrea || This chapter addresses the concept of mastery. How do you know a student has mastered a concept? Is a one-time assessment a valid way of doing this? The book cites the six facets of understanding. When a student can demonstrate the content in all six of those facets, they have truly mastered the content. To achieve mastery, teachers must probe into the "how" and "why" questions. One difficult task facing teachers is to determine what is important for mastery, and the book provides a list of resources that will help to that end. || I was glad to see the list of resources that will help a teacher decide what is important for mastery, and was also glad to see that the book pointed out that it is equally important for veteran teachers to do this as it is for new teachers. The most disturbing quote I found was on p18: "Some districts provide scripts for teachers to follow: 'On day one fo week five, all students in this grade level in this subject will be on page 71. To start this lesson, say the following:..." Forget that. No way. I do not ever want to find myself working in a district that supports such mindlessness, No Child Left Behind be damned. Im glad i know now to watch out for that. ||
 * Stevens Newcomb || Mastery is a difficult concept to master: there are so many variables that come into play when evaluating a student. Taking just one quiz or test is not accurate for mastery; this can however inform a teacher what skills the student has. A series of tests is not proof of mastery either for it is a repetition of tests that are shallow indicators. The best course of action is to deepen the tests in order to gain an insight of what a student actually knows and how they apply knowledge. If a student can not only solve problems, but know why and how the solution works, then the student has shown mastery of a concept. The key to finding out if a student has achieved mastery is asking deep questions that proves the student truly knows the answer. || When I was in school, I knew many students that could recite a list of facts and not know how to actually use them: these were the kids that got A’s. I was one that wanted to know why and if I did not know why, I saw no point in learning the material. There must be a deeper meaning to something if it is taught; otherwise, the lesson was a waste of time. What separates the good teachers from the bad teachers is that the good ones have a point to their lesson. As I have seen from my experience in the field, if a student does not see the point, they will shut down and not pay attention. ||