- Clear Learning Objectives: the topic, skill or concepts should be clearly described. I think our "Today you will learn..." statements meets this piece. However - are most teachers still doing this?
- Teaching, Modeling and Demonstrating: This is the explaining, demonstrating and instructing.
- Guided Practice: Allowing students to process and practice direct instruction. Schmoker emphasies the use of partner work and group work.
- Checks for Understanding (Formative Assessment): You must gage where students are and adjust your teaching for understanding. Schmoker reminds us that formative assessment does not need to be complicated. It can include a quick ticket out the door, hand signals or randomly calling on students. His main message here is that it needs to be FREQUENT! After reading this section on formative assessment I thought about our staff. I think a lot of teachers blame students (specifically behaviors) on their lack of understanding. If students don't "get it" it is because of THEM and not US. I don't know if you all would agree - but if you do - how can we get our staff to look at their practice instead of placing the blame?
Schmoker cites a lot of research, includes Fisher and Frey's gradual release model, showing that this is the most effective form of teaching. (I would also add closures are important.) He also cites the benefits of this form of instruction - and they are quite impressive! "...the payoff isn't in knowing these components; the payoff comes from actually doing them" (Schmoker, 60). He also mentions that a building wide lesson plan template can be helpful for the staff. Again, I think of Fisher and Frey. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this - but I think for the most part - we at least have had this goal for quite some time!
In the second half of Chapter 3 Schmoker gives suggestions for effective interactive lecture and literacy-based lessons.
Interactive Lecture:"Lecture, done wrong, is among the most boring, least effective forms of teaching. Done right, however, it is highly engaging and among the most effective ways to cover generous amounts of content" (Schmoker, 68). Schmoker suggests starting each lesson with an essential question. This is a question that takes discovery and can even be debated. This engages a student and gives them purpose for listening. Direct "lecture" should be given in small chunks. After five minutes, there should be an opportunity for guided practice and formative assessment. Again, the guided practice can be SIMPLE. I have to admit - I was pretty skeptical about this. I think it was the word - lecture. The last thing I think we want to do is encourage our teachers to talk AT our students more! But after reading- interactive lecture seems like a rapid form of the gradual release model. It is not talking at kids- but a series of minilessons.
Authentic Literacy: Schmoker suggests that there is simply not enough authentic literacy in the classroom. Although we can do "flashy" assignments - they do not have the benefits of reading, discussion and writing. As a template for teaching authentic literacy, Schmoker suggests the following:
- Teach vocabulary before starting the text.
- Establish a purpose for reading through background information, making connections and posing an essential question. Here Schmoker suggests teams coming together to form good essential questions. Is this something we can or should incorporate with the staff?
- Tell students how they will be assessed on their learning. Again- Schmoker reminds us that this does not have to be complicated!
- Model higher-order reading. Schmoker reminds us that WE are the best readers in the room and need to show the students how we do it. Modeled reading should be done twice a week in every class.I thought of using SMART board for modeled reading.
- Next, move to guided practice and formative assessment. Circulate and see what students are doing. Have students pair up and share their ideas. Call on partners to share their ideas. Also - ask students to quick-write during this time. Make sure to set time limits to give students direction.
- Independent practice and assessment is the final step I wonder if this process may be useful to the staff. I think at the middle school level - many teachers do not know how to approach reading in their content areas. And therefore- neither do our students! Ideas? And how would this work in math? (I know there is a chapter about math - but I'm still wondering!)
Debate: Schmoker encourages the use of debate to discuss text. He reminds us that it should be directly linked to the learning goal and have focus. Students also need to follow the guidelines of : Always cite textual evidence, politely disagree, be concise, stay on point and avoid using verb tics (like, ummmm).
Writing:Before students write - have them review their notes and make a quick outline. Again - this must be modeled. Exemplars are also very strong tools. Schmoker reminds us that writing can be formative and does not always have to be graded. The important thing is that they are doing it!I think this is what we tried to do with summarizing. But I think we can focus a little more now. Perhaps using the standards on page 38 like Marianne suggested."Remember that any form of writing, short or long, generates and refines thought" (Schmoker, 82).
Overall - I think this chapter is a good reminder of best practice. As a building, how do you think we're doing in this area? How can we improve?
In response to some of Becky's questions and thoughts...
ReplyDeleteFormative assessment - I think you are so right that teachers often place blame. I also think that they make excuses for why some students never get it and they just move on. Page 57 - Schmoker says that the brief periods of form. assess. and checking for under. must be cyclical and "must occur multiple times during the lesson until the greatest number of students has learned the material." We all know this doesn't happen. In my opinion, this takes planning beyond what we normally see in a middle school classroom. The teacher needs to be prepared for these times and have multiple opportunities in mind. Am I being unrealistic??
I also made note of Fisher and Frey as a way of lesson organization. As I said in response to the previous reading, this needs to be monitored. We can't expect anything to happen unless it is monitored. Part of the planning we need to do??
Interactive Lecture - totally thought - wow this will be hard for a lot of teachers - but again it is all about planning. I know I hate to sit and listen to people talk and talk... but then again, too much partner or group time means the students are off task. "...small steps...There should be four to five cycles in any class period" (p. 66).
I also think the idea of IPI that Marianne brought up was hit on page 67. However, our focus is not really student engagement. If we want to remain narrow, do we use this? It is useful, but are we going to far away from our goals? We really should be looking at our use of FF model, checking for understanding, etc.?
Math Ind. Practice - I can actually see ind. practice happening more easily with math. Reading, for example, is so concept based. It is hard to find the perfect texts with the perfect stopping points based on what the focus is (like inferencing). With math, it usually builds upon previous learning and gradually gets more difficult. I think the hardest part with math is requiring authentic reading. I think it will be most beneficial as we saw with Lindsey and writing in math, but a more difficult to implement in math. She really showed us it is possible.
A few more things that we need to see more of and to kind of go along with Becky's last questions: setting time limits to monitor those short chunks of time (I think the use of a timer is KEY!), teachers circulating and not sitting (unless it is monitored, it doesn't happen), and students reviewing their writing (this is something we saw a struggle with; but as with the writing of summaries, I think if it is expected more and more, it will come). These three things are so necessary... I hope more teachers find a way to do them.
Hope you all are having fun in the sun. :) Stay cool...it's a scorcher today.
After reading Rachel's comments, I had some very similar thoughts. I thought this chapter was refreshing because we are already doing a lot of what he discusses.
ReplyDeleteFisher and Frey-It seems like some teachers really took this lesson template and went with it. However, I am not sure all teachers have adopted this model. I am a huge proponent of this model. It makes your planning easier and it ensures that you are giving students time to digest your lesson and opportunities to discuss and collaborate with their peers. It also requires you to plan for a formative assessment (closure) after each lesson. I completely agree with Rachel that this has to be monitored if we want it done right. It is easy to start off strong, but then fall back into your old routines of teacher directed teaching.
How can we ensure teachers see this model as a positive way of doing things?
Formative Assessment-I think data teams are going to help ensure that teachers are consistently using formative assessment in their classrooms. With our frequent looks at data, it will become easier to see who is actually embracing this, and who is doing it just for the meeting. Data doesn't lie, and I think we may have to have some hard conversations with teachers if they are not using this as a tool for THEIR teaching. Page 61 states, "Lessons that include effective use of formative assessment and checks for understanding would add between 6 and 9 months of additional learning growth per year." It makes me excited to think where we can take our school in the next years with the knowledge we now have!
In the authentic literacy section, Becky talked about setting a purpose for reading. I think this is one of the most important tools teachers can use when reading to the class. Kids NEED TO KNOW what they are supposed to be listening for and/or what you want from them. If you want them to focus on the text, tell them what you want: vocabulary, comprehension, sequence of events, etc. Kids love when you read to them, and it would be interesting to see how many of our teachers read to students on a regular basis?
Hope you all have power after that storm last night!
I thought this chapter really touched on some great basic information. I think this simplified approach that Schmoker takes would make many of our teachers feel at ease if they were to read! It was interesting to read about the use of lecture and smalls steps when dealing with mathmatics. I would like to use more of my time in class with interactive lectures breaking down the steps of a math problem and then discussing the steps aloud as a class then "summarizing" through writing.
ReplyDeleteAll teachers use some type of formative assessment, however it needs to take place multiple times throughout a class period to get a true understanding of "Does everyone get it" I would like to familiarize myself with the clickers more to add to the exit slips, tickets, white boards, thumbs up/down etc. Formative assessments must drive teacher instruction!
I thought the comment about teachers sitting at their desks was interesting. Maybe this could be our first focus to IPI walk-throughs at the beginning of the year and discuss the importance of "working the room"
Hope all is well with everyone, see ya next week at the DR Douglas Reeves Conference!
I agree with what everyone has said so far. We are implementing a lot of Schmoker's ideas. I think we need to emphasize the fact that formative assessment needs to be done multiple times throughout a lesson. Also, the lesson needs to be broken into small chunks with opportunity to practice after instruction. I thought the point Schmoker made about circulating is important. You can't monitor learning if you are sitting at your desk or standing at the front or back of the room. When I saw the term interactive lecture I thought it was going to go against what we have implemented. However, the exact opposite is true. I believe that it can easily be implemented in a classroom. We may have to show teachers how this is done. I'm still trying to figure out how authentic literacy can fit in with math. I know it can be done but I'm just haven't figured it out yet. I'm interested to see what the chapter about math has to say. Another important point I took away from this chapter is that we need to model, model, and model writing. We need to start building a library of exemplars. I'm excited to be back in the classroom to try some of these ideas!
ReplyDeleteObjectives: I think a lot of teachers post them, but it doesn’t seem like many teachers are discussing them. However, maybe kids are reading them anyway. I still think they need to be addressed at the beginning and sometime during the lesson. It should fit with the formative assessment pretty easily.
ReplyDeleteFormative Assessment: It makes a lot of sense to formatively assess throughout the lesson, I think teachers will need to SEE examples of this. Maybe a video of one of our teachers doing it or a role play during a staff meeting.
Interactive lectures: If they are interactive enough, I don’t see it being a far stretch from what a lot of teachers are already doing. It seems to me that most teachers (and I am mostly just speaking for the 6th grade team) kind of do this. Some lecture more than others, but I think this strategy would be pretty easy for them to do.
Writing: I love the idea of students reviewing there notes before writing. It gives them a reason to take notes and helps them think about the lesson. We definitely need to use more exemplars when we write in class.
Planning: Maybe a Wednesday could be used to help teachers take a lesson they already have and use some of the strategies or lesson organizations we have talked about.
I really enjoyed this chapter. I do think that we are making the steps to get on track and improve student learning, but I do think there is more we can do.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I believe is holding back our students (and our teachers) is the lack of modeling. It is essential for students to know what is expected of them as well as to have an example in front of them to critique. I feel that a lot of teachers have made great strides in using modeling in their classrooms, but we still need more teachers on board.
I think that in general there are a lot of people who hate writing because of poor experiences with it (papers dripping in red ink, entire paragraphs being crossed out, etc...). Even offers to have exemplar papers or paragraphs created for them have been turned down. Their confidence in their own writing needs to be strengthened. I think that highlighting their attempts at meetings (good or great) could help, or by quietly letting them know they did well (this could be done by admin, Rachel, and 10-5 teachers).
We also need to have some models created for teachers to use. If they don't feel comfortable creating them, then they can start off by using these. Maybe some day if I get my coaching position back, I could whip up a few batches... :)
What if we strongly encouraged (?) teachers to give proof of their modeling in data teams? The only caution I would have would be making sure that extra care be taken with those teachers who struggle with their writing confidence.
I loved the quote Schmoker used to open up his section on authentic literacy. "Think of literacy as a spine; it holds everything together...all core content teachers have a responsibility to teach literacy." This is so true. Content areas are extremely important because they teach literacy IN USE. But students need reminders of the concepts and guided practice to make it work. I think our staff is realizing this, which brings me to another of Schmoker's great quotes from this section: "intensive amounts of reading and writing are the soul of learning." Reading and writing (and discussion) need to happen more and more in our classrooms. We need more opportunities for students to foster a love of reading and writing, and put it to use. This will give them the "education that prepares them for college, career, and citizenship."
"Nothing enhances the power of a writing lesson like an actual example." (p. 87)
We have made some gains building wide in how we teach and we even have some master teachers in this area, but we lack consistent daily teaching that follows our suggested Fisher and Frey model building wide. Most teachers tried the model, but looked at it as an activity not as daily lesson design. When we show the research on checks for understanding and provide modeling of the gradual release lesson plan with checks for understanding incorporated throughout, then we can provide individual teacher feedback on implementation. Having writing as a part of a lot of the formative assessments...but modeling quick writes and other short pieces would be helpful, too. We will still need to fight the battle that not all writing needs to be graded! Students want feedback, but some teachers believe they only do their best work for grades.
ReplyDelete