Chapter Three: What Really Matters in Learning? (Content)

Chapter Three of Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding acts was a great overview and manual to the Understanding by Design process. The aspects of state learning standards I think are relatively unknown to most individuals; in and of itself the career of teaching is surrounded by misconceptions. I myself was ill informed of the bureaucratic nature of standards; the more I delve into the topic the more overwhelmed I become by the complexity and serious nature of them. To add fuel to the fire these standards are ever evolving, making them difficult to stay on top of. This chapter’s blunt “you can’t please them all” attitude did seem to take the edge off a bit. I took many Advance Placement classes in high school and was always amazed at the “teach to the test” approach many of my teachers took. Key ideas or topics were overlooked due to the probability of them not being mentioned on the exam. We as students acted as guinea pigs, trained for the soul purpose of getting a high score on this one exam. I find these actions to go against every philosophy of teaching.

The information I was the most appreciative of however, was in the instruction of UbD use in conjunction with the standards. This pairing dissolves the rigidity of state dictations and allows there to be some movement, benefiting both the learner and the teacher. It also answers to the question posed in the beginning of the chapter in regards to time management and content overview.