Chapter 4: What Really Matters in Planning for Student Success

The focus of this chapter was the skills needed by a teacher in order to maximize the student’s success as a learner. There were two lines that rang true to my heart when it comes to thoughts about school and learning. The first is, “We are also teachers of human beings” (pg 39). The other is, “There is a kindergarten version and a PhD version of the big ideas of a discipline” (pg 42). The rest of the chapter was spent explaining the nine abilities a teacher should have to create a classroom that successfully differentiates instruction. But those two ideas are by far the most important to me, the students in a class are learning the beginning parts of their persona, who they will become is starting to form in our lessons. It does not matter what skill level the students are at with the content, it is up to the teacher to make sure the students are forced to think and become better learners.