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The Learning-Focused Connections Newsletter is a weekly link to exemplary practice and ideas that will help you as an educator to increase achievement in your classroom and school. Some weeks there will be a mix of articles in the mailer; other weeks we will follow a theme. We are all working with the same goal in mind, continuous improvement in student achievement.
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National LEARNING-FOCUSED Conference
February 2-4, 2009
Cobb Galleria Centre
Atlanta, GA
Registration Fee: $125.00 per person/day
Includes all conference materials (notebooks, flipcharts, handouts)
Registrations after November 1, 2008: $150.00 per person/day
Sessions and registration now available at www.LearningFocused.com.
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We Want You to Make "Connections"!
Subscribers, feel free to share the information, tips and strategies
that you receive in Learning-Focused Connections with your colleagues.
Administrators and coaches pass them on to the teachers in your school;
teachers, share them with your teammates and leadership team. The
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The Importance of Vocabulary Instruction in Middle and High School Mathematics
by Laurian Phillips
We know what research says about vocabulary and the gap between students from middle and upper class homes and students from poverty. In middle school and high school mathematics, however, few students have ever heard of or used most of the terms that are so unique to mathematics. Very few of them, regardless of income, have prior knowledge of these terms and concepts. This makes the need for explicit vocabulary instruction most important. Although most students come with little knowledge of vocabulary, the impact of poverty is apparent when students use language to communicate and describe characteristics of math terms. Scaffolding is important to help close the gap between these groups. Two of the resources that I found helpful as a classroom teacher were Vocabulary Instruction: A Learning Focused Model and Scaffolding Grade Level Learning.
Another unique feature of mathematics is the use of formal definitions, postulates, and Theorems that seem to be a totally different language. In my classroom we called this "Mathenese". Students are generally not taught how to read, dissect, and comprehend these definitions. Many times we simply put the definition in easy to understand terms for the students. This saves time and our intentions are good, but it does not teach students how to read and comprehend mathematics texts. This is apparent when they attend college and take their first math course.
As math teachers, we tend to be experts in our content area but know very little about vocabulary and Reading strategies. This is why we need to study and practice teaching explicit vocabulary strategies. Frayer diagrams are a perfect example to use in the math classroom. Students can give the formal definition in one box and then put the definition in their own words in the second. They can list characteristics, draw diagrams, give examples, or even relate the term to something else that helps them define understanding of the term. Some mathematical terms, especially in Geometry, do not lend themselves to non-examples. So we just "adapt, don't adopt" and use something else to help us define and understand the term, postulate, or Theorem.
All in all, it is important to remember the purpose and intent of the vocabulary strategy. It should help students comprehend, use and apply the vocabulary of mathematics. Students must be able to master the knowledge at the Acquisition Level of Learning - Level 1 before they can use the vocabulary to deepen their understanding of mathematics.
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The Coolest Test Taking Strategy Yet!
by Carol Brewer
OK, we use Lesson Essential Questions and Summarizers with each Acquisition Lesson, but have we made the connections to Test Taking Strategies? Well let's look at how to make these connections for the students, because if we do not make connections for the students, they will not make them on their own!
One suggestion is to create a,b,c,d, answers for the Lesson Essential Question. For example, the Lesson Essential Question is:
How does the reader identify the comparison between the two characters?
a. The two characters are both concerned about the results.
b. The two characters are both intelligent.
c. The two characters are both naïve about the situation.
d. The two characters are both willing to change.
Another suggestion is to make the connection from the Lesson Essential Question to the Summarizer. Many states have written response questions on their State test. Connecting the Summarizer to this writing response will strengthen this understanding, but again, teachers need to make the connection for the students, because they will not make it on their own. For example, the Lesson Essential Question is:
How does the reader identify the comparison between the two characters?
The Summarizer for the lesson is a "Ticket Out The Door". The students will write their summary of how the two characters compare.
Making connections from instruction to assessments should be made every day by the teachers for the students.
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Where Do We Go Next?
Learning-Focused instruction has been implemented in your school. The protocol for following a continuous improvement model is in place. What happens now? Consistent and Pervasive are the watch words for the building, but there are still students who are behind from years of remediation. How do we take them to grade level performance? The Learning-Focused Catching Kids Up Model will help.
Catching Kids Up with Acceleration is a school-wide model that can help students who are one to three or more grades behind in any subject area. Acceleration allows students the opportunity to build confidence in their own ability to be successful. Remediation is not eliminated, but is folded into the Catching Kids Up Model. A proper balance is struck between acceleration and remediation, the scale tipping heavily towards acceleration. As you have previously heard in Learning-Focused Workshops, "It is impossible to catch up by going backwards". Catching Kids Up with Acceleration addresses the "root cause" of many students' learning difficulties - lack of prior knowledge, vocabulary and experiences that are needed to connect to new knowledge and skills. Acceleration provides the greatest achievement gains by connecting the research on achievement and learning strategies. The Learning-Focused model for acceleration enables students to obtain strategies to organize, store and internalize new knowledge and/or skills contributing to their burgeoning success.
Scaffolding Grade Level Learning is the consummate guide to the research-based strategies most effective for at-risk learners. The Scaffolding model addresses specific strategies and activities to deal with the issues at-risk learners bring to school every day. This model provides a framework for organizing and designing instruction to achieve grade level standards by addressing:
- Student engagement issues
- Challenging content-level texts
- Deficits in vocabulary and background knowledge and the academic problems associated with retention, memory and processing discrepancies.
Teachers do not have to create multiple versions of instruction, but learn how to include strategies that offer access to grade-level standards. Scaffolding has been shown to typically provide gains of 16-25% in core content on state and nationally norm-referenced tests.
Scaffolding with Technology describes and illustrates multiple strategies that address reading, pre-writing and writing, research, math, note-taking and graphic organizers for all learners. Examples, templates and instructions are provided on how to scaffold learning with technology. Students can gain access to the curriculum through adjustable methods of engagement, leveled reading options, auditory feedback and color coding. Scaffolding with technology imporves teacher implementation of flexible strategies that increase student engagement and achievement.
Vocabulary Instruction, while a part of normal instruction in the classroom, also plays a vital role in Catching Kids Up. Learning-Focused vocabulary instruction provides a practical and sensible way to utilize multiple strategies for diverse learners while addressing state standards. Vocabulary instruction is a powerful method to address the aforementioned primary causes of the achievement gap - lack of prior knowledge, vocabulary and experience. As with other Learning-Focused solutions, the emphasis is on consistent and pervasive in a useful and easy method for teachers to incorporate into their current lessons.
Differentiated Assignments is a powerful approach to providing every student the opportunity to learn. Designed to help all students succeed in meeting standards, differentiated assignments lead to high student engagement which builds efficacy and esteem leading to a deeper understanding of the essential content and skills required by state standards. Teachers are provided with practical ways to adapt/tier assignments and activities to reach disparate student learning styles, levels of readiness and interest. Learning-Focused Differentiated Assignments furnishes teachers with the opportunity to design assignments with four models that can easily be adapted to different subjects. This is the way to differentiate without burning out!
These components combine to provide the acceleration and support that at risk learners need to build success and confidence in their ability to achieve in school. Catching Kids Up is only one piece of the Learning-Focused Balanced Achievement Model. For other solutions to bring your school into balanced achievement, visit www.LearningFocused.com.
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Past Connections Articles
Past Connections articles are available through the archive tool of this newsletter. Please click here to view the resources.
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Have an Idea for a Connections Article?
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