UbD Chapter 2

This chapter was extremely interesting to me. It discussed what really matters (the students), personal barriers to learning, and responsive teaching. I found myself agreeing with almost all of the points that this chapter brought forth. It is essential that teachers take notice of students who are struggling and that need extra support and guidance to get passed the thing that is preventing their learning. Last semester I went through a personal barrier to my learning. I fell into a depression around the middle of the semester which was very different than my normal pattern of behavior. If my instructors had taken notice and asked me to meet with them after my first few absences and accommodated me and given me resources to get back on my feet, I don’t think my GPA would have been as affected as it was. This is why it is crucial to get to know your students and their normal patterns of behavior, so you can tell when something is off and help them through it before it gets worse. I also agree that teacher-student relationships contribute to student motivation to learn. If a student believes that the teacher values their effort and input in the classroom, they are more motivated to learn in that environment. It is also important to try to incorporate the interests of the students into the curriculum so they can relate to the lesson they are being presented. I know to keep this in the forefront of mind so I will remember this when I have my own classroom. I am also relieved to realize that individualization would be impossible, and that patterns of instruction would be more manageable, because I was starting to feel overwhelmed. I am glad that the patterns of instruction were presented in this chapter.