Chapter 4 UbD

Chapter four expanded on chapter three’s idea of flexibility in the classroom.  Most of the chapter talked about dealing with differentiated classrooms and being able to teach to each student.  One key part of the chapter I found interesting was the discussion of how every subject has a “kindergarten version” and a “Ph.D. version.”  This is an interesting perspective on teaching that would encourage adapting the classroom material to the students you have in a particular class.  The book obviously does not want to say dumb a class down or smarten it up each year, but keep the material at a challenging (but not overly so) level.  The chapter brings up the critical point of having students comfortable with each other and the teacher.  It reminds me of what my geography teacher said about the beginning of class. If you speak at least once in the classroom out loud, you will be more comfortable speaking in discussion throughout the year.  A comfortable student is more likely to share his thoughts and ideas with the class and by extension would probably improve academically and socially.  One of the discussions in the chapter talks about the futility in having every student complete the same tasks with the same materials and time constraints.  At no point in my education have I ever had a test where everyone in the class completed the text at the same time.  In addition until I started college (and even after that), many of the students would place requests about time extensions or changes to what was being tested or the way we were being tested.