Mike Schmoker
“The argument of this book is simple: If we choose to take
just a few well-known, straightforward actions, in every subject area, we can
make swift, dramatic improvements in schools.
Some believe we could virtually eliminate the achievement gap within a few
years.” P. 1
·
But the price for such swift improvement is
steep: Most schools would have to stop doing almost everything they now do in
the name of
school improvement.. Instead
they would have to focus only on implementing “what is essential.” Hardest of all, they would have to “ignore
the rest” (Collins, 1002, p. 91 p. 2
·
The reason schools really haven’t made
astonishing progress in thelast 30 years of “reform” is quite simple: very few
schools ever implemented “what is essential” the most powerful, simple actions
and structures that would dramatically increase the proportion of students
prepared for college or classes.” P. 2
·
What is essential? 3 things: reasonably coherent curriculum,
sound lessons (how we teach) and far more purposeful reading and writing in
every discipline or authentic literacy (integral
to both what and how we teach). P. 2
·
If we understand and embrace the concept of
simplicity, which starts with a recognition that “less is more,” then our
schools will achieve what previous generations never thought possible. P. 3
·
Look at concepts—simplicity, clarity, and
priority.
Section 1:
First Things First: What we teach, How we teach—and Literacy
3 elements:
1.
What we teach—decent, coherent curriculum with
topics and standards collectively selected by a team of teachers from the
school or district—that is actually
taught. Should contain HALF of what
is contained in our standards (Marzano, 2003).
P. 10 Allows us to teach in
depth. “Guaranteed and viable curriculum”
(Marzano, 2003, p 22) is perhaps the most significant school factor that
affedts learning. But such a curriculum
is found in very few schools. P. 10
2.
How we teach—We know how to teach that makes a
difference, but we don’t do it consistently.
This has to stop. P. 11
3.
Authentic literacy—Integral to what and how we
teach.
Literacy –still unrivaled and
under-implemented key to learning both content and thinking skills. P. 11
Emphasizing
here—the above elements will benefit immeasurable when teachers work in
teams—that is, in true “professional learning communities” where curriculum and
lessons are continuously developed, tested, and refined on the basis of
assessment results (Dufour, DuFour, Eaker&Manhy, 2006; Schomoker, 2006 in
Schmoker 2011) p. 11.
·
Content-rich curriculum, sound lessons, and
authentic literacy would wholly redefine what public schools can accomplish
with children of every socioeconomic stratum. P. 11
·
Their implementation should be the focus of
every meeting, conversation, etc. p. 11
·
Power of
simplicity—Can’t push new stuff until what we know works is implemented
with fidelity e.g. football team and hospital;;
o
Actual curriculum varies too much
o
Too few authentic literacy activities
o
Need to make sure all students are learning, not
just those who raise their hands
3 books that emphasize simplicity:
1.
Good to
Great by Jim Collins—hedgehog
2.
Knowing/Doing
Gap by Jeffrey Pfeiffer and Robert
Sutton –says leaders resist simplicity because it distracts them from seeing
when goals are accomplished. “Best practice is rarely new practice.” P. 17
3. The One Thing you need to Knowby Marcus
Buckingham—establish clarity by having ONE goal. “Clarity is antidote to anxiety.” P. 17
Leadership for Simplicity, Clarity in one school: (Adlai
Stevenson)
1.
Direct teacher to create and help each other
implement a quality, common curriculum for every course
2. Direct
teams to improve constantly –using common quarterly assessments and meeting
with administration
We need to communicate that this is what we want: What we
want from our schools is precisely what we communicate
Chapter 2
What we Teach
“Curriculum may be the simple largest factor that determines
how many students in a school will learn (Marzano, 2003) in Schmoker, p. 25
1.
Adequate amounts of essential subject area
content, concepts, and topics.
2.
Intellectual/thinking skills e.g. arguments,
problem-solving, reconciling opposing views, drawing one’s own conclusion.
3.
Authentic literacy—purposeful reading, writing
and discussion at primary modes of learning both content and thinking skills.
P. 26
Preparation for College/Work
Place —All content should prepare students and they
should be able to go to college or work no matter what they decide to do.
Need to
redirect the hundreds of hours that are spent on non-academic or weak academic
studies, p. 28
“Content
matters.” P.30
·
ED Hirsch, Willingham, Rotherham —need
rich content with discussions about conflict—“Can’t understand, evaluate ideas
in textbook, newspaper or magazine if
they contain too much unfamiliar information.” P. 31
·
Willingham—we learn and remember most when we
have time to think about and evaluate it.
Literacy as
Spine:
High level of
college-oriented levels of reading, writing, and speaking cannot be
overemphasized in K-12 education. P. 32
It is
impossible to overstate importance of literacy. P. 33
Our schools
simply don’t require students to read complicated texts to gain knowledge, p.
34.
Students need
to read textbooks—Need to read and use questions too. Need to teach students to read and question
deeply.
Need
comprehensive writing in every course. P. 36
Need to make presentations.
“If we could
institute only one change to make
students more college ready, it should be to increase the amount and quality of writing students are expected to produce.”
(2007, p. 27 Conley in Schmoker.
Need to have
COMMON ASSESSMENT results [capitals mine] p. 40
Guide to Selecting Essential Standards:
Ravitch,
Ainsworth, Reeves all say there are too many standards and they are too
complicated. They really don’t help us teach essentials—
No one really
knows how to put the standards into place. P. 41.
If we have poor curriculum materials aligned with
complicated standards, the issue of unclear instruction is compounded. P. 41.
·
Should reduce number of standards by 50% Marzano
says reduce by 2/3. Particularly in language arts
How to Select Essential Standards
·
Eliminate verbs and concentrate on nouns and
topics. Strip away non-essentials with 3
criteria:
o
Endurance –endure beyond single test
o
Leverage—link to multiple disciplines
o
Readiness for the next level—foundation for
future learning.
·
“Power” the standards.
·
Lay out standards on quarter grid and decide how
much time each will take
·
Common standards take 15-16 weeks leaving 2
weeks for favorite of teacher.
·
Then develop common lessons and
assessments—quarterly that are used to monitor learning and instruction. P.48
·
Leader’s job is to make sure that this happens.
Chapter 3
How we Teach
Linda Darling Hammond—“single most important determinant of
success for students I the knowledge and skills of that child’s teacher” )
Goldberg, 2001, p. 689) in Schmoker p. 51
Good teaching consists of using best practice lesson strategies and then practicing the art.
·
Effective lessons: clear learning objective-with
effort to provide background knowledge or create interest in the topic
·
Teaching and modeling,
·
Guided practice, checks for
understanding/formative assessment
·
Independent practice/assessment
Clear Learning Objective
·
Topic or skill, or concept selected from
agreed-upon curriculum
·
Clear, legitimate, derive from decent,
agreed-upon curriculum p. 53
Teaching/Modeling/Demonstrating
·
Explain, demonstrate, instruct
·
Simultaneous guided practice and checks for
understanding (formative)
Guided Practice:
·
Practice throughout the lesson
Checks for understanding/formative assessment
·
Crucial to success of lesson
·
Needs to be implemented with consistency
·
Increases probability of student success
If these effective practices are implemented consistently,
we would take a quantum leap toward the goal of “learning for all.” P. 55
Research on Elements of Effective Lessons:
Madeline Hunter:
·
Could be boring if formulaic
·
Effective practices—guided practice and checking
for understand occurring multiple times during the lesson
·
Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey—Checking for Understanding advocagte for “gradual release of
responsibility”—need plenty of opportunity to work in pairs and groups
Formative
assessment is key pivotal point for effective lessons
Marilyn Burns—
·
Math expert—more fail in math than any other
subject
·
Dylan Wiliam’s—if we implemented elements of
effective lesson design US would move up to top 5 in international rankings in
math. P. 58
·
Advocates checks for understand and
“think-pair’-share.” P. 59
Robert Marzano—
·
Clear learning goal
·
Chunking instruction to optimize learning.
·
Checking for understanding between goals
Impact of Effective Lessons:
·
Effects of formative assessment on learning are
“among the largest ever reported” (p. 2
my emphasis Schmoker, p. 60
·
Technology has limited impact on student
learning so far.
·
Important facts p. 61
Is it too much to
suggest that we declare a temporary moratorium on all new initiatives until
this game-changing lesson structure is fully understood and consistently
implemented by professional educators in any given school—perhaps in all
schools? Pp. 63
Should employ common template throughout school and district
to increase student performance
2 Templates:
1.
Interactive lecture and direct teaching
·
If done correctly, lecture can be highly
engaging and effective
·
Needs to be interactive
·
Use clickers, lecture for a while, let students
interact, check for understanding
·
Lecture—begin with “hook—interesting questions,
students have chance to respond, interact in pairs, teacher do random check for
understanding
·
Use small steps –“periodic thinking
reviews”—think-pair-share, notes, reflection,
·
Information should be “chunks”
·
Teachers
should talk “no more than five minutes.” P. 72 before students have
opportunities to interact and think, p. 72
·
Every few minutes should let students process by
:a. reviewing notes and adding new
insights or connections, b. summarizing last learning, c. pairing up to compare
or contrast notes and perceptions.
·
Failure to give students these opportunities is
what makes most lectures boring and ineffective. P. 72
·
Checking for Understanding and Engagement:
stopping points allow teaching to formatively monitor and assess learning (and
on-task behavior) by calling on random students and walking around the room.
·
If this seems slow, it can account for as much
as “400 percent speed of learning differences and an additional six to nine
months of learning growth per year (Wiliam, 2007, p. 186 in Schmoker, p.
73).
2.
Template for Authentic Literacy
·
Always teach any vocabulary that impedes
understanding
·
Establish purpose for reading.—question, prompt,
--
·
Quality and availability of good questions is
essential to engagement and interest as students read, discuss, and write. P.
78
·
Must teach students explicitly to do active
reading. P. 79
·
Modeling Higher-Order Reading—Model how you
read, and analyze
·
Model underlining, and annotating.
·
Whole Class Discussion and Debate—83% said they
enjoyed this. 1. Citing text, 2, disagree civilly, 3, be
concise and be on point, 4, avoid verbal tics such as “like” or “you know”
·
Fishbowl discussions could example
·
Student writing has a lot of effect, especially
if they have exemplars to follow.
“The Madeline Hunter Model ” --modified
What
is the lesson objective? Learning
Targets
(What
will the students learn and/or demonstrate?)
Anticipatory
Set (What
question/”hook” will get students engaged in upcoming learning?
Formative Assessment: What
will you use to judge what your students already know so that you can target
instruction accordingly?
Standards
addressed and expectations of students:
What
standards preceded your grade level?
What standard must you address?
What standards come after you? In
other words, what are you building upon, what are you teaching, and what are
you preparing students for?
Teaching/Instructional
Process:
(Input,
modeling, and checking for understanding
How will you differentiate based on your formative assessment? What differing activities will you provide?
)
Guided
practice and monitoring:
(Monitor
orally individually or together; monitor via written language or via a task
performance; monitor via group sampling or visual answers, e.g., “thumbs” --
you monitor to know if students are learning and lesson objectives are being
met. How will you reteach if students
have not mastered the learning target? )
Assessment: How will you assess whether or not students have
mastered the content?
Reteaching: (How will you reteach if students have not mastered
the concepts? How will you extend
activities for those who already know?
This could include Independent Practice:(This
can be a question or problem for students to ponder on their own or in small
groups or pairs. The aim is to reinforce and extend the learning beyond the
lesson and ideally into real world settings.
Reassessing: How
will you reassess the new learning?
Section II
Curriculum,
Instruction, and Literacy in the Content Areas
English Language Arts Made Simple
“English/l.a. , more than any other discipline, has lost its
way. It is in desperate need of
clarity.” P. 93
·
Advocates for very simple model of both what and
how we teach l.1. p. 94
·
E.D. Hirsch says that “literacy is the most
important single goal of schooling” p.
94
·
It begins with reading.
Wide abundant reading is the surest route out of poverty and
the limitations that impose themselves on the less literate. Reading
changes everything. “ 95
·
There are no shortcuts.
·
Literature is not primarily about “figuring out”
symbolism or figurative language or setting or mood or structure.” P. 967 It is about people seeking to understand
ourselves and the world we share.” Unfortunately, fiction is too often taught
as though it is an abstract game or code. “ p. 96
·
Lit. allows us to reflect, recognize subtle
ideas and forces operating in our own lives, and thus to shape them. P. 97
·
Lit, art, and poetry enlarge us and refine our
values and sensibilities. P. 97
·
Nonfiction and Literary Nonfiction—Willingham
found that content knowledge and critical thinking are inseparable and
reciprocal.
·
Newspapers and magazines in the Classroom—we
should redouble our efforts to integrate current readings into the curriculum
p. 99. Current events animate student
interest in literature, politics, and history
“Controversy of the week.” P. 100
Kids enjoy controversy
Trouble with Skills and Standards
·
Schmoker would argue that many, if not most, of
the current language arts standards are not literacy standards at all; they are
pseudo-standards that divert precious time and attention from the most simple,
authentic kinds of literacy activities.
Skills Kill: The Elementary Years
·
State standards and popular basal programs have
rendered reading into finer and more inane subskills
Effective instruction—whole-class with minimal time spent in
ability groups. This means all students are learning almost all of the time. P. 103
2nd—students
in effective classrooms, never, ever engage in cut, color, or paste activities
that now occupy the majority of early grade reading programs.
3rd—excellent teachers implement elements of good
lessons with checks for understanding throughout.
Classrooms that work Where Time is Sacred
·
High performing teachers never waste a minute of
class time.
·
Aren’t distracted by skills worksheets and
coloring.
50,000 Words ASAP
·
Students aren’t truly mature readers until they
can read and recognize about 50,000 words .
They have to have enormous unprecedented amount of reading material.
·
By 2nd or 3rd grade
virtually every student could be reading 15-20 chapter books per year, some
self-selected. Much would be for
pleasure.
Readicide: When Pseudo-Standards Kill Authentic Literacy
·
Students should spend a minimum of 60 minutes
per day reading, and 40 minutes per day writing.
National Standards
·
Willingham—says we try to teach to the
standards. We learn to read by reading a
lot for meaning, not by being taught reading skills.
·
Diane Ravitch—No state should adopt these
standards until they have been pilot-tested and refined for a period of years.
P. 111
Finland
·
Instructional technology has played no role in
their success.
Radically Reconceiving Standards in Language Arts
·
We should:
specify number of common books and readings per course
·
Purposes for teaching common readings
·
Number and length of papers we assign, with
common scoring criteria p.112
Standards that Count:
·
Reading:
reading would be in the argumentative/interpretive mode requiring
response to readings
·
Recommend 15-20 books, multiple poems and short
storied, 30-40 newspaper/magazine readings
·
Divided among—fiction—40-60%,
nonfiction/literary nonfiction—40-50% of which 25-40 % is self-selected.
Discussion:
·
Critical companion to reading.
·
At least 3 discussions a week about reading.
·
Always cite text when making argument
·
Be concise and stay on point
·
Avoid distracting verbal tics.
Handling Paper Load:
·
Teach students to grade each other by rubric.
·
Don’t have to grade everything
Power Standards in English
·
Simple curriculum mainly of established number
of same carefully selected books
·
Writing every week
·
Discussion/
Simple Redundant Literacy
·
For every assignment that starts with reading we
should
o
Teach vocabulary
o
Establish purpose for reading (and hence for
talking and writing)
o
Teach and
model how to annotate/underline/take notes
o
Discuss
the work (using a rubric like the one described above)
o
Write about the work, after reviewing and
organizing annotation, underlinings, or notes
o
Use student and professional exemplars as
teaching tools.
Brief Note on Textbooks:
·
Shanahan—students are not taught how to read
textbooks and they must be.
·
Each subject area has its own specific demands.
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