focus- elevating the essentials to radically improve student learning by mike schmoker recommended...

Focus- Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning

by Mike Schmoker

Recommended Reading by Dr. Lee, Superintendent of DeKalb County School

District

Angela Wilcher- Jackson

English Language Arts Made Simple- Page 94

• . . . Every student needs to spend hundreds of hours actually reading, writing, and speaking for intellectual purposes.

• E.D. Hirsch- “literacy is the most important single goal of schooling.”

The Life-Changing Power of Broad, Abundant Reading -Page 95

• Wide, abundant reading is the surest route out of poverty.

• Reading changes everything!

• No subject is more important than reading . . . All other intellectual powers depend on it.

Reading Literature- Page 96

• Literature is not primarily about “figuring out” symbolism or figurative language or setting or mood or structure.

• Literature is primarily about us as individuals, as people seeking to understand ourselves and the world we share.

Nonfiction and Literary Nonfiction- Page 98

• Content knowledge and critical thinking are inseparable and reciprocal.

• A content –rich curriculum must include . . In-class opportunities to read and discuss newspapers and serious magazines in every subject from the earliest grades.

Newspaper and Magazines in the Classroom

• Frame current issues and events in controversy.

• Set aside one day a week to read current articles and opinion pieces in ELA, Social Studies and Science.

• If we can get students interested in the issues of their own time, they will be far more interested in issues, people and literature of the past.

Postponing Reading-and Learning- Page 103

• . . .they learn to read better by reading-

• Just reading- not by being forced to endure more reading skill drills!

50,000 Words- ASAP! Page 105

•When we unnecessarily elongate the process of “learning to read, we post pone “reading to learn”- learning itself- by years

Finland Shows the Way Page 111

• Finland achieves the highest scores in the world.

• They do not administer multiple choice tests.

• Their success is a result of how much time students spend actually reading during the school day.

David Conley’s Four Standards- Page 112

Use the following as the focus for most of the reading, writing, and speaking students do in all subjects:

1.Argument

2.Drawing Inferences and Conclusions

3.Resolving Conflicting Views and Documents

4.Problem Solving

Conley’s Suggestions for Activities done with the

Argumentative/Interpretive Genre- Page 116• Routinely employ supporting evidence

• Construct their own arguments

• Agree, Disagree . . . Critique

• Formulate a personal response to their readings.

Conley’s Categories/Genre of Recommended Study- Page 116

• Fiction (imaginative literature and poetry (40%-60%)

• Nonfiction/literary nonfiction (biographies, memoirs, true stories 40%-50%, of which 25%-40% can be self selected)

Discussion Recommendations- Page 117

• Always cite the text when making an argument

• When disagreeing with another student, briefly restate what was said, don’t interrupt, and be civil and respectful

• Be concise and stay on point.

• Avoid distracting verbal tic (overuse of “like” and “you know”).

Writing Recommendations Page 118

• Exemplar Papers for each written assignments- (Mentor texts)

• Common scoring guide

• Argumentative focus

• Papers in two drafts

• One formal writing per month each based on close reading, analysis and discussion of one or more books, poems, or articles read that month.

Monthly Writing- Page 118

• 3-5 typewritten pages in middle and high school

• Could count as the common assessment for the team.

• Compare percentages of students who succeeded on common assignments at the end of the month.

Senior Research Paper- Page 118

• 10-15 typewritten pages

• In conjunction with social studies or science

Presentations- Page 119

• All of this writing should culminate in a presentation.

• Ten minutes or longer

• One or two per semester

• Students in the audience should be active taking notes, and evaluating their peers.

Handling the Paper Load- Page 121

• Students don’t learn about the craft of writing primarily from our comments on their papers; the great majority of what they learn comes from carefully crafted lessons built around exemplars and rubrics!

Simple, Redundant Literacy- Page 126

• Teach vocabulary

• Establish purpose for reading (and hence for reading and writing)

• Teach and model how to annotate/underline. Take notes

• Discuss the work (using a rubric)

• Write the work, after reviewing and organizing the notes

• Use student and professional exemplars as teaching tools.

Handy Writing Resource- Page 126

They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Persuasive Writing by Graff and Birkenstein.

•Simple templates for setting up argumentative papers and discussions

•Helpful frames to introduce argument

•How to integrate and explain quotations and supporting material

•How to disagree with an author

Colossal Impact if every Student- Page 127

• Read, discussed and wrote about 15-20 books.

• Read and discussed and wrote about 30-40 interesting poems, newspaper or magazine/online articles and

• Wrote many short, informal, pieces and one longer, formal argumentative or interpretive paper each month