Turning Points Chapter 4

Abstract:
This chapter discussed the importance of instruction in the successful education of our youth: it covered things that did not work well for kids such as tracking and things that did such as differentiated classrooms. It also talked about the importance of reading in Middle Grades; students are expected to be fluent readers by the time they reach 6th grade. Unfortunately, they often need help in this endeavor from their teachers. The chapter discussed three types of instruction: Authentic, Differentiated and the WHERE method. We have used the WHERE method and Differentiated the most: WHERE is an organization technique based on transition and information while Differentiated is about knowing each student is different and using that knowledge to plan lessons with different types of strategies and giving students many choices for them to choose. Authentic Instruction is based on knowledge, inquiry and value beyond school. Some hints for organizing instruction are: knowing your students, centering the classroom around them, giving them control and choice, and connecting the content areas.

Reflection
We have read many of these ideas before, so it didn't really introduce anything new. Most interesting to Erin was the tracking, because although she realizes that tracking is utilized by many High Schools, she had never actually considered it being used in Middle Schools. It may be helpful for the Teachers to have different levels of ability, but it is damaging to the students. Teachers should embrace the diversity and use their students' differences instead as a helping tool to get additional learning across. Alyssa also was caught in this discussion: her ideas were that many minority students get left behind due to tracking because they are more likely to be in lower tracks than higher ones. Students in a lower track have a poorer self-image of herself than other students because they get an education of less quality and hence although tracking looks like a good deal on the surface, it is actually detrimental to our students. Alyson was drawn to the idea that drill-and-kill and traditional strategies just don't work anymore, so it is important that the teachers of tomorrow learn to engage their students and try new things, like the differentiated instruction which isn't only more engaging for students, but also because it is relevant and connected to the student's life. Michael's reflection was about the same as all of the above, but he also spent time talking about the "Focus on Reading" at the end of the chapter. He didn't feel that it flowed well with the rest of the chapter, and seemed more like it was just tacked on than the others. Still, reading is a very important part of all the classes in school and does need to be mentioned as important. Also, he was glad they talked about technology in this chapter and how important it is to the curriculum; technology can be a great form of differentiated instruction and can be sued as a tool to get to students that seem to be left out of regular teaching methods, and so the technology portion of the chapter was connected to the rest of it. It was also the Reading section that seemed out of place; everything else was cohesive and understandable. C'est fini.