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Johnny Buys
Chapter 2: Mastery Mastery of learning needs to focus on understanding goals that every student can use effectively. Wormeli explores the difficulty of defining mastery saying, “mastery is more than knowing information, of course, but it can even go beyond manipulating and applying information successfully in other situations” (11). He argues that based on cognitive research that mastery should include: access, analysis, evaluation, and creation of the subject or medium” (12). Teachers that recognize this also see the need for appropriate and convicting evidence of mastery. Wormeli endorses two types of appropriate evidence: multiple assignments and evaluation of student work’s progress (13). Clear objectives are essential if a standard of understanding is going to be created. Wormeli lists different sources to create clear objectives. This list includes:

mentor or colleague teachers, subject-specific listservs, professional organizations, curriculum guides, posted benchmarks, standards of learning, programs of study, textbook scope and sequence, other teachers’ tests and assessments, professional listservs, and personal reflection after studying the field. (17)

Teachers need to recognize the benefits of clear objectives. Clear objectives determine and focus what is necessary to creating their definition of mastery. When this mastery is established, appropriate instruction can be developed to scaffold toward those types of instruction. Teachers need to also make use of the myriad options to assist in creation of clear objectives. Teachers should not limit themselves to individual techniques, but rather use different techniques to create the optimal type of learning for every type of student learner. The objective then creates opportunity to better incorporate Differentiated Instruction within assessments.

Christina L Quach
Chapter 2 discusses mastery with its different levels and how to judge if a student has mastered something. The chapter also says that it is important to understand that there are different types of mastery, and a teacher must have a clear goal in mind to rightly judge if a student has mastered the subject. Mastery is more than being able to answer a question properly. The book suggests that the teacher continues to study documents that can show a student mastering a subject. I thought it was also important how the chapter discussed teachers constantly enlightening themselves on what can be considered mastery and talking to other teachers about what they consider mastery. The chapter also discusses how being able to recite something is not a form of mastery. In high school it seems I got away with this often because it was only important to know that information for the specific test. There was no awareness that we would ever need the information again, and what I was supposed to know was quickly forgotten. I wish that my teachers had helped me strive for mastery in Social Studies. The reason I took my first History course in college was because I was so embarrassed at how little I knew about my country. Mastery of Social Studies will be important because students will be able to pull apart situations in history and try to apply them to current problems in the country/world. Also striving for mastery in my classroom will be important because my students will have better understanding not only in my class but also probably apply it to their other classes.

Leanne Fasulo
The second chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// is about knowing if students are mastering the material or just getting by. Using one test, or a couple questions for one section of material does not justify if a student really knows the information. The student could just be good at guessing or may understand only a part of it. Students need to be consistent and have a good amount of evidence to show their mastery. To test students, teachers will need to understand what to teach students in the first place. As a first year teacher this will be difficult to do. The book gives great examples such as asking a mentor or look at the posted benchmarks. A first year teacher could also look at professional listservs or curriculum guides. This way when it comes to testing the students will have a better chance of doing well on state exams. I am sure that when I am a teacher I will have a hard time figuring out what is the most important material to teach my first year. While this chapter reiterated a lot of what has been said in this book, and in the other two books it still makes a good point. Mastery should not be determined by one test or in one format. Teachers need to understand that learning must be shown through progress and over a longer period of time. A better way to assess a student is by comparing their learning from the beginning of the year.

Kelsea Trefethen
This chapter discussed different ways to assess whether or not a student understands the content. The chapter also covered what constitutes as mastery of the material and what is just basic understanding. I feel as though examining and assessing is one of the hardest parts of teaching. Not only is it difficult to decide how to test a student’s knowledge it is even more difficult to determine whether or not their response is acceptable. I liked that the chapter gave a decent sized list of resources to use to ensure teachers are emphasizing the right material. I can only imagine how stressful it is to make sure you are teaching your students the material they will be tested on. It would be awful to think you missed something important and the students missed points for that. I really like what a supportive community the teaching world is. It is important to build networks like these so everyone can do what they can to better their teaching skills and methods. One thing I did not agree with that the book talked about was teaching scripts. While, I understand the benefit behind them I think they are too universal. I like the idea of teachers creating their own lesson ideas and directing the class themselves. I think it is important for a teacher to have as much leeway as possible with their classroom, so that they can meet the needs of their students. A script limits that freedom. As a teacher I do not think I would enjoy having a play by play of each class day. One thing I think I will like most about teaching is planning classes.

Tyler Oren
In the second chapter of //Fair isn’t Always Equal// Wormeli takes on the subject of mastery, both what is important to master, and how to measure and assess mastery. Wormeli quickly uses this chapter to outline disagreements with the traditional style of assessment that is practiced in most schools across America, and their inability to provide a complete picture of development in a student and mastery of a subject or idea. To show a clear and accurate assessment of mastery Wormeli cites Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins in the book //Understanding by Design// and the six facets of understanding that they uncover in their book. They are: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. Wormeli explains that when a student can show proficiency in these six areas around a subject, idea, or topic then they have displayed an adequate level of understanding of the content.  Wormeli also dedicates a section of the chapter to what is important to teaching to students so that they achieve mastery. Wormeli discusses content requirements for states and other regions but suggests it is best to reevaluate what is important to teach based on what the students need to learn most, he suggest reexamining lesson plans and designing them to accommodate student needs, anlong with many other helpful recommendations for resources. They include: Mentors or college professors, subject specific listservs, professional organizations, curriculum guides, standards of learning, posted benchmarks, other teachers tests and assessments, among other choices.

Richie Johnson
Chapter two of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//, written by Rick Wormeli, focuses on mastery- its definition, understanding it, and its application. Wormeli explains that it is first very important for teachers to understand the concept of “mastery” as well as for schools to have a general definition of it before trying to identify mastery in students. This obviously makes a whole lot of sense- how is a teacher to assess a student if they do not know what to look for in the assessment? After grasping the concept of mastery, teachers are faced with the very difficult task of identifying it in students for each individual subject. Tests are commonly used as a means of doing so, but as the examples that Wormeli provides suggest, they are not necessarily accurate. I know that I commonly feel as though the grade I may have received on a test did not coincide with how I felt about my understanding of the matter. This sort of deal will likely continue to be a difficult one for a very long time, as it is terribly difficult for one person to really understand what another person knows and can do.

Kyle Kuvaja
The second chapter of FIAE looks at the term “mastery” in education. Wormeli tries to define what “mastery” might mean and how a teacher can recognize that a student has mastered a particular area of study. Depending on who you ask, the term mastery could mean different things. In __Understanding by Design__, McTighe and Wiggins believe that students will understand a topic when they demonstrate proficiency in the following areas, in regards to the subject: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge (12). Wormeli’s working definition is that a student will have achieved mastery in an area when they not only have a thorough understanding, but can apply their knowledge in new context. Evidence of a student mastering content will become evident when they can develop a conclusion and further elaborate as to how they arrived at that conclusion. One way Wormeli suggests that a teacher can assess these conclusions is by asking students to hand in written explanations for their work. The last important point that Wormeli brings up is: how can a teacher determine what information is important to master? He believes that in order to understand what is important, teachers must move away from isolation. Collaboration is the key to developing rich lessons and units that can encompass all learning styles. While I am not an expert in the field of chemistry, I did feel prepared to teach students enough to “get by”. This chapter made me realize that I should be making sure that I should be conscious of where I set my standards and how I can try to ensure that all of my students are taught in such a way that they can achieve mastery.

Kalib Moore
"To demonstrate sophisticated mastery, we'd like students to make an inference and elaborate on how they arrived at their conclusion in writing, orally, or some other way." (Wormeli, 15) This quote stuck out to me the most because I feel that when I think I have mastered something, I am able to recall how I got to that point and what important information was necessary to getting to that point. I found chapter 2 of FIAE to be very fresh new information on mastery. One fear that I have for my future classroom is being able to cover my entire textbook without skipping important events and facts necessary for my students to meet the standards in that subject. In the past, I have had teachers who stick to the book and want us to go through the entire book in a semester, when clearly the book is far too big to cover in just one semester. So when the time for the final exam arrives, we have made it only a portion of the way through the book and are missing the information that would have been useful at the end of the book. I hope to plan out my units in a way to present the lesson to my class and give them the most useful information to help them on their exams. By not putting as much of a heavy workload on my back, I now have more time to sit down and assess both my teaching styles and my students learning styles and can make changes accordingly.

Evgeni Bouzakine
In chapter two of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal //, the concept of mastery is introduced. It is important to understand the significance of what you are teaching. A lot of the test schools use today like multiple choice focus on data and memorization. I want student to take a test where they have to have a deep understanding of the content to pass. Sometimes it is necessary to know dates or the exact wording, like in history classes. When someone reaches a deep understanding of something, they are able to apply it to their own lives to. In geometry you could apply this to building a proper angled deck. There are many connections a student could make with work done in class to real life. The chapter also goes over ways to assess mastery. One of the best ways is to assign multiple assignments in a content area. I would track the student’s progress to see if it really is working. As a teacher I would try various activates to see what really captures the student’s attention. This chapter is challenging me to think of more different way to teach something, unlike some of my teachers in my high school.

**Cyril Lunt**
In continuing with the fine example chapter one gave us, chapter two is just as good, if not better.

Mr. Wormeli goes into mastery, or student's understanding of a question posed on a test. He gives various examples of how teachers merely infer many aspects of a student's learning by a test, and that tests alone don't show how well a student understands. Sure, the student can tell you everything you tought them, but that doesn't mean he //understands// anything about it. Mr. Wormeli uses the quote from Benjamin Franklin, "//Tim was so learned, that he could name a horse in nine Languages. So ignorant, that he bought a cow to ride on//" to prove his point.

Wormeli goes on to talk about how to tell if a student actually understands what he's being taught. He describes various ways of testing for it, such as critical analysis of a subject. If the student understands the topic, they should be able to write at some length about it in their own words, instead of just blurting out facts that they had memorized.

Brittany Blackman
Chapter two is all about how to tell if your students have mastered the content or not. They talked about how it isn’t fair to simply ask them one or two questions that simply make them recall information. They could have had a lucky guess, or didn’t fully understand it in a meaningful way. They also said that mastery is dependent on what you //want// them to master. That is why backwards planning is so important.

I thought it was interesting that they said evaluating mastery is better done written opposed to orally. They said that the student could use the tone of their voice to smooth over aspects that they don’t actually understand, and trick the teacher. I never gave that a thought. They said you couldn’t do that while writing; you can’t pretend to know something you don’t. I actually don’t agree with that statement, though. You can easily pretend you know what you’re talking about in a paper, and make it sound good. I have done it, and I know people that have done it.

I thought they made a good point when they were talking about spelling. Most people would think the only way to test whether they can spell or not is to make them spell the words. The book gives great examples of other ways you can test their understanding. For example, using the rules of spelling to spell an unknown word. I think that this can be applied to mathematics as well, because people usually think you have to make them solve a bunch of problems to prove they can solve the problems.