Chapter 6: Responsive Teaching with UBD in Academically Diverse Classrooms

Teachers who wish to teach effectively must create a curriculum that built up from the most important and relevant ideas within a discipline. Students should learn the skills and knowledge the curriculum is teaching, but more importantly, students should know how to apply their knowledge and see how it is relevant to their lives. Students should know the goals of the curriculum and how they can meet them. All students should be focusing on the big ideas and how it relates to them. Just because student needs to catch up on basic skills before they can fully understand a lesson does not mean they should be left out of seeing the big picture. This means that as a teacher, I need to know what my students’ strengths and weaknesses are so that I can teach to both to ensure that I strengthen all their knowledge. My students will gain a better understanding of my subject that is applicable to their lives and presents knowledge in a clear manner that displays it’s importance.