Week#5 Ch.5 & 6

1. In chapter 5, Tomlinson discusses 5 (five) bullet points about the differences between teaching curriculum that is important, and “covering” what she calls “scaling Everests of information [that is] not effective for our students." Choose two of the bullets to explain what they mean to you, and how they help you envision the kind of teacher you want to be.

• To that end, it is the role of educators to "uncover" what is essential to know, understand, and be able to do in the disciplines. Experts of field value such knowledge, understanding, and skill as essential to productivity in their discipline. Teachers must struggle against "coverage" and strive for "uncoverage" of meaning- distinguishing between what is essential to the discipline, what is important, and what would be nice to know if there were more time to do so. This bullet means to me that you need to be searching for what in the curriculum is essential for the students to know and be able to do well, instead of trying to fit in everything even if it's not relevant or of worth to the students. This helps me envision that it's alright for me to pick what's critical for my students to know and then forget about the other objectives unless time requires it. All of it would be the best possible way but with all that each standard requires it's not possible with the time alloted.
• The brain is inefficient at rote memorization and seeks instead to make meaning of information. If we don't make meaning of what we study, we are likely not to remember it, be able to retrieve it, or be able to use it. This bullet means to me that unless we are engaged and feel a connection to material we are being taught and how it fits into the big picture we'll forget a majority of it. This helps me envision the kind of teacher I want to be by making each lesson engaging and motivating toward each students learning level. A teacher that helps them absorb the material, find it of worth, and inspires them to keep learning.

2. From chapter 6, share 2 (two) exact quotes that are meaningful to you and explain why they matter to you.

"It is likely that we underestimate what any student can accomplish, often establishing as performance ceiling goals that ought to be planks in the floor." This quote matters to me because it saying that our goals that we set for our students should be stepping stones to reach their potential as well as stretch them to realize they are capable of doing hard things.

"The most successful students understand that their success results from their own effort. Although they will not succeed 100 percent of the time, they know that their continued effort is likely to lead to success." This matters to me because it's what I have to remind myself of each day and something we need to establish in our classrooms. Many students need to learn that success comes from them and how it is achieved. We can help in this process if we really know our students needs in more then one area. Taking risks and being able to make mistakes needs to be valued in your classroom atmosphere for students to continue to believe in themselves.