Simplicity, Clarity, and Priority

Simplicity, Clarity, and Priority

Chapter 1 begins to lay the foundation of the book  Focus to help schools create a climate and culture conducive to implementing changes that will result in increased student achievement.  Simplicity is the answer for any organization wanting to make improvements according to Schmoker.  The chapter addresses many of the reasons schools today fail to make significant student achievement gains in the public schools.  Basically, schools are trying to do too much and much too quickly. 

Schmoker talks about “first things first”.  All schools, according to Schmoker, should focus on three elements with “simplicity and diligence” until they are implemented and understood by everyone in every subject area.  The first thing that schools must focus on is “what we teach”.  Curriculum should be clearly defined, coherent, and topics and concepts that are actually taught.  The second area that schools need to pay attention to is “how we teach’.  This is simply teaching with sound pedagogy that teachers have known for centuries.  Incorporating some of these basic aspects of good teaching  will  increase student learning.  The last aspect that schools must address before doing any other initiatives is “authentic literacy”.  Authentic literacy must be incorporated into every subject area.  According to Schmoker, “authentic literacy is the spine that holds everything together”.  We must have our students engaged in meaningful reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing activities. 

Simplicity is the key to any school wanting to make significant changes.  Schmoker parallels it to a football team who does not have the basic skills of blocking and tackling but the coach decides to implement a new offensive system that is very complex.  In reality what the players need are an understanding of the basic skills necessary to play the game.  Our schools are trying to do the same without some fundamental understandings and skills of basic teaching and learning. 

3 Elements

I agree with the first chapters message:
 What and How we teach, along with Authentic Literacy,  if taught reasonably well, will ensure our children are prepared.    Keep it simple, keep it clear and cut through the clutter is the message of this chapter. Keeping our focus on this as we teach and in our team meetings will benefit us as teachers, and our students.   We need to help each other understand what this means.
So I kept this post simple and clear....or tried to.

Less is More

Laurie and I were just in two math workshops at LFCC which reinforced the need to clarify and prioritize skills and content.  The current emphasis seems to be the process goals from the state, and the notion of "less is more" while making connections.   In other words, choose wisely.  Less homework, less problems given to prove basic mastery, and more problem solving or projects that involve flexible thinking and multiple strategies to arrive at a solution. It was recommended to choose word problems that allow curriculum to be spiraled and embedded within other skills rather than being isolated.  Students are then doing problem solving that mirrors real life and are getting repeated exposure to skills and content.  The instructor had us work on one scenario that took his students 4 days to solve, but it had about 4 or 5 skills that were covered.  I think our school is moving in the right direction with number talks and conceptual math learning with multiple step problem solving.

We're blogging again! I hope you'll join in and share your ideas.  I'll get things started with a few thoughts about Chapter 1 -

Focus by Mike Schmoker: Chapter 1

The Importance of Simplicity, Clarity and Priority

 

 

“We accomplish more when we focus on less (p. 17).” It’s a simple statement that we need to consider as teachers!  At a time when ideas, approaches, resources, theories, and strategies are abundant, it’s easy to lose focus. Many times, you’ve heard me say, "make sure you know why you’re doing what you’re doing in the classroom."  Are you doing the same old worksheet because you always have or will it really move students along and get the results you want? Are students “practicing math facts” on laptops because they need the practice or is it an easy time filler? Are you doing that elaborate writing activity with your class because they will master the concept of author’s “voice” or because it looked really cool on Pinterest? 

Everything we do instructionally will get some results with our students.  Even “the same old worksheet” will get some result.  But will it get the result we want? Is it the best way to move students to mastery of a concept?  Do we know what mastery looks like and how to measure it?

At a time when information is at our fingertips and innovations in education are plentiful, how do we sort through it all and focus on what works? If you haven’t read the football team analogy and hospital example (p.12) that Schmoker presents, they will make you think.  We need a clear focus to our instruction, effective lessons/planning and meaningful opportunities for reading and writing each day. How can we bring focus to our team meetings and PLC time to address these key areas? Stephanie